Marella Explorer 2, Thomson Cruises

Benn on this ship 9th if December till 24 December staff in the squid bar excellent Cooper George and rodan was very good service always smiling and helping customers the entertainment round the pool is very poor and the night timeventertainment terrible . Service excellent in the bars Gregg makes fabulous cocktails and nothing too much to ask from him . The smoking area on deck 12 is a joke it doesn't open till 10 am .The snack shack isn't has good has the discovery ship no fish and chips or chicken wings . The staff make this ship happy enjoyed the experience but still needs more atmosphere through the day and night

Good holiday in the main. Food - not good in the buffet restaurant. Left for a long period of time and the food was not very warm and dried up. Also felt afternoon tea sandwiches were lacking in filling. The 47 restaurants on the other hand were very good, food always nicely presented and of good quality, as was the Italian. Service in these restaurants was excellent, all the staff were very helpful, professional and could not do enough for us. I feel the speciality dining restaurants were overpriced. Bars - the bars were great. Our favourite was bar 11. Lovely comfortable bar to have a drink. The bartenders in here were lovely, especially Ronnell, Eduardo and Alex Antic, who was new to the ship but proved to be a great asset. Our junior suite stewardess Francisbelle and her assistant, Sacha, were great. Anything we needed they could help us with. The cabin was well looked after, kept clean and tidy. The junior suite was very comfortable. The only thing was we had sunbeds on our balcony which we never got the sun on as we were travelling the wrong way. Not the ships fault though. Entertainment was good, but some of the shows were a bit cheesy. The brought on acts were good though including Sam Bailey, who was a great entertainer. We found the main pool area too loud and a little like Butlins. Also there were not enough seats at the bar on deck 10. We would have liked to sit and read there but the seats were very sparing and I am sure there was room for more. The bartenders at this bar were great. We sunbathed on deck 4 which was much more quiet. I think the nightly film by the pool was a waste of time. Not many people watched the films, some of which were very dated ie Flashdance!! However I feel this area could have been better utilised for nighttime shows. Overall the service and the cleanliness could not be faulted, however I realise that a relocation cruise was the wrong option for us. Many thanks to all the staff.