Magellan Review

3.5 / 5.0
0 reviews

Poor ship, but a great itinerary cut short

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Magellan
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capmat
6-10 Cruises • Age 50s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
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Dining
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Entertainment
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Sail Date: Mar 2020

We chose this cruise for Iceland, and the Scottish islands. Overall, the itinerary was great, and from this perspective we loved the cruise. The weather was definitely against us, though, and some extremely rough days at sea meant we didn't leave the cabin much - not necessarily a bad thing in light of virus concerns. However, there are many reasons we wouldn't sail on this ship again and the cabins were one of them: of the three cabins in our group, all had problems, and two of them were significant enough to interfere with getting a good night's sleep. The ship made gestures of dealing with them, but told us in the end it is an old ship and the noise issues are to be expected. Sound-proofing is terrible - whatever they are watching on the TV in the next cabin, so are you effectively. It's a shame, as the cabins are actually quite cosy looking. As note in other reviews, embarking and disembarking was a bit chaotic. In Rotterdam there was only a steep set of steps to get on and off the ship, which meant we queued for over an hour to get off as many elderly passengers had to be helped down the steps individually.

Dinning is another reason not to go with this ship again: towards the end of the trip there were a couple of outbursts in the buffet from passengers sick to death of the same old food being put out each time. The restaurants were better, but not by much. Food was a major disappointment. It smacked of cost cutting. What was served wasn't bad, just unimaginative and a bit basic. Caviar was on the menu one evening - but just three tiny eggs, more for decoration. Blink and you'd miss it on the plate. The menu often looked promising, but what was served in front of you just didn't live up to the hype.

Entertainment was hit and miss; this is an area of personal taste, so hard to assess. Certainly not very imaginative or engaging, but it killed 45 minutes. The talks were terrible - the speakers just gave a power point presentation and read their notes aloud.

Cabin Review

Initially cosy looking, and the beds were super-comfortable, but sound-proofing was a major issue, as was noise in general - lots of creaking and groaning furniture, noisy AC, odd banging noises from somewhere outside the shell of the cabin. A major reason for not going with this ship again, as two out of the three cabins booked in this group were a problem. The odds feel too high that if we went again with this ship then you'd end up with a duff cabin. 6055 was actually the least problematic of the three cabins booked. 6051 and 7062 were terrible.

Port Reviews

London (Greenwich, Tower Bridge, Tilbury)

Limited facilities but fine for the purpose of getting you on/off the ship.

Rotterdam

Lovely tour guide, really friendly. Tour of the city and harbour cruise. Nice!

Lerwick (Shetland Islands)

Went with the option from the tourist office: lovely old man drove us around, but the tour was like being shown around by your grandad. You can imagine... hilarious in hindsight, frustrating in the moment. Not many options for independent travel: most people went with the ship, then walking tours (the tourist information had lots of information for that), and then local taxis charged 50 quid an hour to take you (up to 6 people I believe) where ever you wanted to go. We paid 35 quid per person, and certainly got to see some places you couldn't see on a big tour bus.

Torshavn (Faroe Islands)

We arrived on a Saturday, and by the time we had gotten off the boat the shops had all pretty much closed (at 2pm, so be warned!). The tourist information had some options for local companies if you wanted to wing it; we didn't book anything and rather glad of that, as it was hissing rain. Torshavn is very small, very pretty (even in the rain) and you can easily walk to where ever you want to get. The central tourist information centre was particularly good.

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