TUI Cruises
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A complete let down
After a lovely Augean cruise on Explorer last year, we were so looking forward to our trip to Jamaica, Cuba, Cayman and Mexico this year on Explorer 2. From the start of our holiday, we were bitterly disappointed. The ship was tired - stained carpets, damaged furniture and badly designed. The only bar outside was small, poorly stocked lukewarm drinks and right next to the pool which was always packed. There were no bars to sit quietly with a cocktail in the Carribean sunshine - one of the things we were really looking forward to do. Plenty of bars inside though! Throughout the cruise there was an offensive smell of sewage on some of the decks both inside and out and then, whether connected or not, there was a noravirus outbreak which meant the pools were closed and the self service restaurant had to be manned by the crew. This caused unrest and concern and completely spoiled the rest of the holiday. To top off our already awful experience, our flight home was delayed by 18 hours. Whilst it’s understandable that sometimes these situations are unavoidable, we were given no information until late at night as to when our flight would be the next day. We had vacated our cabins at 8am and our luggage was in the terminal which meant we were left on the ship in the extreme heat until 430pm with no access to our luggage and therefore no way of changing our clothes. When we finally disembarked, it was a complete shambles - queues to leave the terminal queues to board coaches to take us to hotels, and on finally reaching the hotel, another queue for an hour to check in. Throughout this whole dreadful experience there was absolutely no Tui representation. In fact we learned that the Tui rep at the hotel had left for home just prior to our arrival. In the morning it was the same again - queues to board the coaches to go to the airport - again not a Tui rep in sight!!! Holidays are meant to be an opportunity to rest and recharge your batteries for the rest of the year. My partner and I have been exhausted and very unwell since returning home. Quite honestly, it’s very unlikely that we will ever book another Marella cruise with Tui. It was a waste of our hard earned money and a traumatic experience that we could have done without!!