Fabulous holiday – I travelled with my daughter and son in law.
We joined the ship in Barbados, and visited Antigua, St Maarten, Tortola, St Kitts and Guadeloupe.
We did a couple of Tui excursions – Death in Paradise tour in Guadeloupe and the rain forest hike in St Kitts.
We did our own thing on the other islands.
I expected all of the islands to be the same, but they weren’t.
Some of the beaches were absolutely stunning.
I had a balcony cabin and although it was quite small there was plenty of storage space and everything functioned as it should.
Special thanks to Liza, Ariel and Ivan who kept the cabin spotless – I loved the towel ‘animals’ and the chocolates on the pillows.
The food on the ship was OK – not as good as Voyager in my opinion.
We paid for two speciality meals – Surf and Turf and Kora La and both were just OK.
We also ate in the main dining room a couple of times and waited ages to be seated and to be served.
To be honest, I found the best food was actually in the Islands buffet.
I enjoyed the Atrium Bar – it was decorated beautifully for Christmas, but it was always busy in there and we struggled to get a seat most nights.
We went to a couple of shows which were OK – the Abba night was the best – but again that’s just my opinion.
Special thanks also to Ubaidulla – one of the guys working in the shops.
I had purchased a necklace from Duty Free on the flight over, and when I tried it on, it wasn’t long enough.
I mentioned this to Ubaidulla when I was browsing the jewellery on the ship and he lengthened it for me, adding a couple of centimetre chain at the back, and he refused to take any payment.
Thank you – excellent customer service.
The only negative we had was the excursion on St Kitts.
During the return journey, the bus driver braked suddenly and harshly, causing me to be thrown from my seat.
As a result, I sustained injuries to my knees and chest.
Immediately upon returning, I reported the incident to TUI staff, who completed the relevant paperwork and handed me a copy of the Accident/Report form.
I declined the offer of a hospital visit as I didn’t want to leave the ship – I had less than 48 hours remaining of my holiday.
I also discovered that several other people had complained about the same trip – apparently the bus driver was using his phone whilst he was driving.
Despite a month now having passed since the incident, my right knee is still a little tender, although the visible cuts have now healed.
The incident did cause me some discomfort, and did affect the last couple of days of my holiday.
Given the circumstances, I did expect that Tui would have at least offered to refund me the cost of the excursion as I do not believe it met the expected standards of safety and customer care, however no offer has been received.
That said, it hasn’t put me off cruising and I hope to cruise again this year.
Whether that will be with Tui or not remains to be seen.
I have now cruised on two Marella ships.
In comparison to Voyager, I think Voyager is the best for food, bars and entertainment, but I loved the Caribbean and will definitely visit again one day.
