Marco Polo Review
Interesting Marco Polo Iceland cruise with some Fawlty Towers effects
Rating by category
Additional details
Friends alerted us to an attractive last minute offer for a cruise around Iceland on CMV's Marco Polo. None of us had ever cruised with Cruise & Maritime Voyages before, it's not a cruise line we ever seriously looked at, but with an interesting destination and a low price, we were interested. The date was perfect, and Iceland had been on my wish list of destinations for a long time. So my wife and I booked a Standard Plus outside cabin, and our friends a Superior.
Cardiff doesn't have a cruise terminal to speak of, the marquee didn't make a great first impression, but it was handy to have the car right out in front. Getting out of the port on the ship is an experience, there's a lock, and even with a ship of this modest size it's a tight fit.
The Marco Polo is over 50 years old, and we knew from the beginning that it can't be compared with modern ships. There is an upside to it, of course, because the design of the ship has a certain nostalgic charm. Add the fact that it only takes about 800 passengers, and you will understand that on this ship you won't get lost in the crowds. It's not massive, and there is no cold or minimalist modern design (except in some abstract art on walls here and there).
Cabin Review
Our cabin had a reasonable size - contrary to, to our surprise, our friends' superior cabin, which was not only smaller in size but also had a lot less wardrobe and drawer space - but then they had a tea tray... (on which the electric kettle exploded on the day of disembarkation, ouch!). We missed the kingsize bed we usually have, two singles with a chest of drawers in between isn't very romantic, but that of course wasn't a big thing to get over. Good and comfortable beds, by the way, with good pillows. Everything nice and clean. Three wardrobes, two chests of drawers, a chair. And of course a bathroom - pretty much the configuration and size we're used to, just finished with poor materials and workmanship (the floor tiles looked to have been done by an amateur, especially near the door, and the doors underneath the wash basin were of such poor material that I wouldn't even use it in our shed) - but, again, perfectly practical, and normally usable. And as for the top of the vanity, well, I don't really need marble.
Port Reviews
Reykjavik
Good choice of stops, lots of them, and enough time at each.