The Real Value of a Marella Cruise

This is a sponsored post for Marella Cruises.

Finding a great deal on a cruise isn’t always easy, because cruises are not all the same.

Cruise lines offer completely different experiences, and even within a cruise line you’ll get a different vibe depending on which ship you choose. So you need to do some planning to really compare what you’re getting.

Marella’s cruises aren’t like most other cruise lines, because fares are much more inclusive. So while a Marella cruise might appear to be more expensive than some other similar cruise lines, it’s a completely different story when you actually break down what you’d have to pay extra for with those other lines.

In this guide, I’ll explain the real value of a Marella cruise, by breaking down the typical costs of what you’d have to pay if you cruised with another cruise line. By the end, you’ll realise just how good a Marella cruise fare really is.

What does Marella include?

Let’s take a look at everything you get with Marella:

The ‘basics’ – accommodation and food

Your Marella cruise fare will include your accommodation and your food. In this respect, Marella is exactly the same as other cruise lines – you’ll choose what level of stateroom you want to enjoy, and that’s all covered by the fare for that room.

You’ll get to eat for free in the main dining room, the buffet, and a selection of other complimentary restaurants, but there are others where you’ll need to pay extra. Every cruise line has these speciality restaurants, so that’s not unusual.

When it comes to accommodation and food, Marella’s fares are the same as other cruise lines.

Flights and transfers

There are no Marella cruises that depart from the UK, and that’s by design. Instead of spending the first part of your cruise on sea days until you reach the main destination, with Marella you’re straight into the heart of your chosen region, spending more time in port than you would with a cruise from the UK.

And Marella’s cruises all include flights in the price you pay. Not just basic budget flights either – you’ll either fly with TUI, the parent company of Marella, or on a similar standard airline as arranged by them.

And it’s not just your flights, as you’ll also get your overseas transfers taken care of too. Basically, just get yourself to your airport in the UK (with a wide range of options available) and TUI/Marella will then look after you until you’re on the ship, and then throughout your cruise and right up to you arriving back in your local airport again.

So, what value does this offer?

That’ll depend on your specific cruise, where you’re sailing from etc.

Average flights to Palma, where many of Marella’s cruises depart from for Europe, will cost between £60 and £150 each way. You could maybe find a deal but not necessarily at a time that would be convenient for meeting your ship.

And then you’d have to factor in transfers too – a taxi or a coach from the airport to the port where your ship is waiting.

For a Europe cruise, it’d be fare to assume that your Marella cruise would likely include at least £200 of value from flights and transfers both ways – potentially much more.

Tips

Marella Cruises doesn’t charge guests a daily gratuity fee, like so many other cruise lines do.

To be fair, there are a couple of other cruise lines that also don’t charge gratuities, so when comparing prices you’ll need to check. But many of the bigger cruise lines will charge around £14 per person, per day when converted from dollars.

For a one-week cruise, that’s another £100 of value that Marella is giving you included in your fare. Not bad.

Drinks

Here’s the big one – drinks. On a typical cruise, you won’t get many drinks included – typically tea, coffee and juice at breakfast and that’s it. If you want soft drinks or alcohol, you’ll either need to pay for your drinks individually or buy a drinks package.

Not so with Marella. All Marella cruises include a wide range of drinks as standard, including alcohol. You don’t get everything – you can choose to upgrade to a premium package for around £12 per day if you want to go completely all-inclusive – but there are plenty of wines, beers and cocktails included in the standard fare.

Other British cruise lines can charge as much as £45 per person, per day for their basic alcohol-inclusive drinks package that would be the equivalent of Marella’s included drinks.

Over a week, that’s huge – £315 of value per person!

Summary

When you add up the value of everything that’s included in a Marella cruise, you really start to see just how fantastic these prices are.

For a typical week, you could save:

• Flights and transfers – £200pp
• Tips – £100pp
• Drinks – £315pp

That’s over £600 per person saved! If you’re comparing a European cruise with a rival cruise line to a Marella one, and it’s only £200-300 cheaper than the Marella fare, remember how much more it will actually cost when you factor in everything else!

Definitely check out the amazing Marella deals, especially when there are last minute sailings with huge price drops. When you don’t have to pay anything extra, you’ll realise just how good these cruise prices are.

Related Posts

• 6 Reasons Marella Cruises Are Great For First-Time Cruisers
• Marella Drinks Package Guide
• Marella Cruise Ships Compared