Unfortunately Magellan isn’t much better than Marco Polo. The seating on Deck 10 around the pool resembled a works cafeteria and was very uncomfortable. The food… I’ll pass on because where do I start. There is no heating in the cabins which was awful considering we sailed out of Tilbury in the sea of winter.
Now smokers beware every time the ship bunkers they stop smoking on the open decks but bunkering can take 8 hours and they won’t tell us in advance. I have travelled on nearly every ship that leaves Southampton and there is no one else that imposes that including Fred Olsen whose ships are no bigger than Magellan.
They will only let you buy cigarettes in their shop but you can’t have them until the last night of the cruise. My friends and I booked the world cruise for 5 January 2017 and have just read in the booklet “please note that any alcohol and cigarettes purchased ashore will be kept in a safe lock up and returned to you on the night prior to your fine destination”. In other words you can only buy from their bars for the duration of 4 months. The fact they don’t have your brand is tough luck and of course they ran out of the more popular brands in February.
I rang today to be told it is down to the customs officials in other countries… what a croc of … they only have a problem if you bring cigarettes or contraband ashore, not if you bring them onto a ship that is in fact cruising in international waters. Cruise & Maritime are holding you to ransom over having to make your purchases on board at their inflated prices.
If you are thinking of travelling on Cruise & Maritime I urge you to reconsider. They are dangling 2 for 1 deals which look very appealing but the Amazon cruise was full of pax who, having bought the drinks package, were determined to get their monies worth and were roaring drunk every night. One particular alcoholic actually bent over their chair, was sick all over the floor, and promptly stayed where he was and carried on drinking!!! A majority of those on deck were Irish and we were subjected to Irish shanty singalong nearly every night. It’s all very well dropping prices but then you cannot control the calibre of guest that comes on. It was like a booze cruise… but for 6 weeks!
Also there are no fridges in the cabin. I only drink soda and I couldn’t get a cold drink until the bars opened at 9.00am. They wanted to put my medication in their fridge which meant if you needed them in the night you had to get up, get dressed, and go to reception.
We were hoping for good things in the rift in December but find the only difference is to Scotts Bar which is being changed into a themed British style pub called Scott’s Tavern & Nightclub. We were promised a launderette but this is now not happening. Instead C&M have offered us a free fortnightly ‘laundry bag’ but that is only for people on the whole world cruise sector.
The ports of Oranjestad, Aruba and Acapulco Mexico have been shortened. Our stop in Rarotonga has been canceled. Our stop at Jakarta has been cancelled and because they have changed the Suez transit times we now lose our stop at Piraeus. I don’t want an extended two day stop in Safaga which is only beneficial to their tours office selling spaces to Jerusalem and Bethlehem. I chose this cruise because of the port stops.
Because we are at sea for 4 months it doesn’t give the cruise line a right to hold us ransom over everything they want to enforce. They are emptying the pools at every port stop, once again this is the only cruise line that does this. If you want to stay on board you can’t swim!! On the Amazon transit we were without the pool for 8 days, that in temperatures unto 105 degrees.
I don’t want to go on this cruise but I wasn’t allowed to cancel without huge canx charges and the point is that some of this information has only just been released. i.e we knew about visas to India and Australia but now have just been told that we need them in Indonesia, Vietnam, Maldives, Oman, Egypt, and Jordan and although they are done for you on the ship there are a load more fees to pay, monies we didn’t know about in advance.
The only thing worth the money was the entertainment staff who worked themselves to the bone (they didn’t have a choice). We had the Nora virus onboard (which has happened on every C&M ship I’ve ever been on and the Ents team had to do deep clean duty. They had to be up and cleaning at 7.00am even though some hadn’t finished work until 1.00am.
Anyone who has mobility issues take heed if you haven’t book a adapted cabin you cannot bring a scooter or any mobility aid on board. If you turn up at Tilbury with one you will be denied boarding.
Cruise & Maritime have gone a step too far. I thought I was booking an exotic holiday not a stay in a detention camp. They seem to have forgotten that the British still have freedom of speech and freedom of
