Magellan Review

3.5 / 5.0
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Some Good and Bad Points

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Magellan
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Llanfairpg
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jul 2019

Embarkation

Firstly if we ever take a cruise from Liverpool when we live near Portsmouth departing at start of school holidays, shoot us!

The car drop off was easy, but we were early and it was going to get much busier, without a lot of space to operate in. Parking the car meant following a black minibus for about 1 mile along the main dock road, with lots of traffic lights. This was asking for trouble and sure enough being third in line, at the back meant I had to stop at lights when the others had made it through. Fortunately the driver was very observant and kind, so found somewhere to stop and wait. The trip back was uneventful and the service was excellent.

Cabin Review

Cabin 9

Cabin (6167)

The cabin is reasonably sized for an older ship. Pretty clean and tidy, with a few signs of wear, but nothing too bad. No places to put large cases for a 12 night cruise (won't fit under beds). had to stick out of the way best we could. The cabin could do with more drawers.

The outside window is good sized and easy to see out of. Though it rattles at times when moving.

The double bed is 2 single beds out together, which again is different to other ships.

The aircon is above the beds and fairly noisy. Worked out how to turn it off at night, which reduced some noise. The walls are very thin and can clearly hear the tv in the cabin next door (e.g. the safety announcement from their tv) and talking, which is not good. The engine noise and general vibrations are bad (especially when manoeuvring), though there are much worse rooms! Our problem is we specifically/repeatedly asked for a quiet cabin and were assured this cabin was quiet. It is not and the various vibrations and engine/propeller noise keeps us awake through the night! So much for a quiet cabin.

We asked to be moved and reception did explain as the ship is full, one other cabin was available from the second night, but it was on the port side about 3 cabins up from where we were, so exactly the same. A carpenter was sent to look at some of the vibrations and fixed one, but there were others he could do nothing about, never mind the engine noise.

The light switches are loose and there is half a ton of dust on the bedside lamp bulb.

Jelli (a very nice receptionist) contacted us on the ninth day and said cabin 4045 had become free and would we want to use it for sleeping. This cabin is way quieter than 6167 (apart from the neighbours tv) so we slept in there for 2 nights and got a decent amount of sleep.

I downloaded a noise measuring app onto my smart phone. The ambient noise in 6167 was 47Db, with the air con on it was 55Db, when the ship was manoeuvring it reached 67Db (recorded this twice at 01:00 and 05:00 in the morning). Cabin 4045 has an ambient noise level of 35Db and has never reached anywhere near 50Db when measured so far (even with next doors tv on :-)).

Port Reviews

Dublin

Bus dropped us too far away from central Dublin to get to the walking tour we'd booked. It took us 40 minutes to get from drop off to the Spire!

Lerwick (Shetland Islands)

Shetland is a wonderful island group, with plenty to see and do on the main island. Strongly recommend a local guide. Ours was brilliant (Grant). We didn't realise how big the islands were. Puffins and seals were amazing to see, St Ninians beach is our idea of heaven and we'll be back.

Bergen

Bergen was very wet in the morning and dry in the afternoon. It is a nice place for a potter

Olden

Olden was great going to the Birksdal glacier, with the ride most of the way up (Troll car). The last bit we had to walk was hard, but we'll worth it.

Eidfjord

Eidfjord is pretty but unless on an excursion very little to do (our excursion was cancelled). We went on the road train which took up an hour, from then on there is little else.

Stavanger

Stavanger is very pretty, but got filled up very quickly with 3 cruise ships, glad we wandered early.

Kirkwall

Orkney is much more commercialised than Shetland, and though there are some excellent sites, there are some that are expensive (Scara Brae). It is a lovely place and the views would have been good without the most and rain.

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