5 Things I Love About Marella Cruises (Inclusions, Entertainment, Drinks and More)

I’ve cruised with the British cruise line Marella 4 times on a variety of different itineraries.

If you are considering a Marella cruise, the below are points that I think are worth considering when comparing them to other cruise lines:

Marella’s Theatre Entertainment is my Favourite

I have cruised with every big American cruise line and despite that Marella, a relatively small British line still have my favourite theatre shows.

On a lot of the big cruise lines, they have one or two signature shows that are shown multiple nights of the cruise. This isn’t how it works on a Marella cruise.

The longest Marella cruise I’ve taken was 14 nights and during that cruise, the theatre show put on a different show every single day.

There were no repeats and I loved my daily routine of having dinner and going to the theatre.

I know entertainment is very subjective, but I love musicals, and shows with lots of colours and costumes and that is exactly what Marella’s shows are like.

All theatre shows are included in the cruise fare.

Marella do Themed Cruises – I’ve Been on Two!

I have taken two themed cruises with Marella and they were both so much fun.

The theme was 90s and the theme affected everything including:

• The guest acts
• The dress codes (we dressed as 90s musicians and celebrities)
• The ships decor

The themed cruises that I took were both 3 days long and the schedules were so busy that we could have stayed on the ship the entire time and not been bored for a second.

All the activities were related to the theme and it was really nice to be in such a relaxed environment.

Themed cruises are usually more expensive than regular cruises due to the demand but the prices were very fair, starting at around £500 per person based on two sharing for the three-night cruise.

The cruise gave me a great opportunity to introduce my friends to cruising. I bought 5 first time cruisers with me and they all had a fantastic time!

Drinks Also Included on Marella Cruises and They Are SO Easy to Get

When you walk into the theatre on a Marella cruise there will be a table set up with drinks. Beers, cocktails, and soft drinks, are all included on Marella cruises.

There is an upgrade package that you can buy that gives you access to more drinks, but the standard drinks are perfectly fine for me.

When you are sat by the pool they will come around with a trolley and hand out drinks too.

Everybody on the cruise has drinks included as standard, there is no way to buy a Marella cruise without the drinks, so they don’t ever have to check your cruise card, and there’s no signing for drinks or anything like that!

The above drink is called electric lemonade and it’s one of my favourites.

I will say the included cocktails aren’t very strong usually, and the included soda is often bad quality fountain soda, but still, when it is included I don’t mind so much. I’ll just have two cocktails!

Gratuities are also included on Marella which is great.

Food is included to and below are photos of what I ate on my last Marella cruise:

Marella Cruises Food – PHOTOS, Menus and Honest Review

Marella’s Ships are Mid Sized

Marella haven’t built any of their own ships, they were all bought from other cruise lines.

The majority of their ships were made in the 1990s and how around 2000 passengers which is my personal favourite size of cruise ship.

The ships are large enough that they have multiple pools, big theatres and lots of restaurants/bars but you don’t feel as though you have to walk a long way to get to things.

I also love the decor of the Marella ships, it is always bright and fun. I don’t get the impression that Marella take themselves too seriously, and I love that. It’s a holiday, it’s for fun!

Marella Explorer 2 is Adult Only

I spent a week onboard the adult-only Marella Explorer 2 and had a brilliant time.

It’s quite rare for a cruise line to have an adult-only ship in the fleet. Usually, a cruise line is either exclusively adult-only (like Virgin Voyages) or they are not adult-only.

The adult-only ship means that people who don’t want to cruise with too many kids don’t have to avoid the school holidays completely.

Marella have a £300 discount running at the moment for next year and theres no minimum spend, check them out: Marella Discount. (Affiliate link).