My date with Marco!

Now I know what you’re all thinking! No it wasn’t with Marco Pierre White the great chef.  No this is my date with the Cruise & Maritime ship the Marco Polo.  Now I have never been on a Cruise & Maritime ship, having only really been on P&O and MSC previously, so I was looking forward to this.

With me living in Swansea and the visit only in Bristol before the ship sails around the British Isles, it was an opportunity not to be missed only being “down the road”.  I left the house at 8am (better than 6am to get to Southampton), and luckily traffic was relatively quiet for the time of day.  I got to Bristol in plenty of time, and we had time to chat and meet other travel agents etc.  We were then taken on board the ship, given our visitor badges, and started off our morning in Scott’s bar for tea and coffee.

After a quick run down of what was going on for the day, it was off to view the cabins and I have to be honest, I was pleasantly surprised.  The differences between the different cabins were minimal, and even the lowest grade of inside cabin were spacious.  We then got to view the Mandarin Suite, which, I was blown away with, plenty of room and believe me, if I had the money to book I would.  After our tour of the cabins, it was on to the other facilities on-board the Marco Polo.  We got to see the Gym, the Spa facilities and the pool area (bit breezy but nice on a warm day).

Then it was on to the theatre, chill out area (Palm Garden if you want to hide away from the world), Livingston Lounge as well was a quiet place to get away.  If you like the hustle and bustle of people then Columbus Lounge, Captain’s Club and Marco Polo Lounge are the places to be.  When it come to the Theatre, don’t worry that you will miss a show, as Cruise & Maritime operate 2 set dining times, the shows are performed twice in the evening, so both dining sittings get an opportunity to watch the shows.

After the tour then it was on to lunch, and normally in the main dining restaurants, you tend to find the portions relatively small.  But woah was I shocked at the size of my meal!I went for the Spring Roll to start, then the soup, then the Beef Tornado for main, no dessert for me (trying to watch my figure ha ha).  So after all the lunch was done, it was time to disembark, as the Marco Polo was leaving that day to sail around the British Isles.

If you get the chance to try out Cruise & Maritime, love smaller ships, and just in general the attentiveness of staff, then you will not be disappointed with Marco Polo.  If I hadn’t already booked my cruises for the next 2 years, I would seriously consider sailing on her.