Tuesday 22 December 2015

Marco Polo visit 18 December 2015


My friend and I booked an overnight “Festive Event” on Marco Polo At Avonmouth last weekend. As a keen ship historian I had wanted to see the ship and since she is mainly based at Tilbury – a pig to get to from my home in the West Country – this was the perfect opportunity of looking over her and taking lots of photos!

Marco Polo is 50 years old this year. She was built in 1965 as a Russian liner on the Montreal-Leningrad route and named the Aleksandr Pushkin. After a long and chequered history she is now operated by Cruise & Maritime Voyages. Now – readers of my blog will know I have not had a lot of success with CMV cruises and something (occasionally a lot) has gone wrong. So would this visit restore my faith in them?

We had an embarkation time of 18:00hrs but as I wanted to arrive in daylight, we parked the car outside the terminal at 16:30hrs. This late embarkation was a disappointment as it was going to leave little time I felt to thoroughly look over the ship. I had hoped/expected one nearer 16:00hrs!  Bristol Cruise Terminal is basic but adequate and there was plenty of seating for us to wait – which we had to do until check-in opened at 17:30hrs. Not a problem as this was our choice.

Uhmm - a sign of things to come??

 
We were asked to complete the health declaration and given our cruise cards. These were then activated at check-in proper when we registered a payment card, once our group was called forward. Next was the usual security – Caryll was asked to open her bag for a random check while my knee set off the alarms and I had to be wiped over with a hand scanner! After that it was a very short walk across to the ship, which we could see from our seats!
 
 
Up a small gangway and at the top, once our cards were scanned, stewards were waiting to take everyone to their cabin and help with hand luggage.

Being an old ship, traditionally built with steel plates welded to a metal frame, there were lots of high thresholds to step over on the way to our cabin; four in fact - at every watertight partition. We were on Deck 5, Baltic deck, cabin 268. The cabin was spacious with lots of good storage – 12 drawers, three wardrobes, safe and pull-out tables at the top of every chest of drawers. There was a chair and old-style 14” TV. The beds were very comfortable with memory foam mattresses. The bathroom was OK, with a little storage, water-flushing toilet (not suction) and open shower with curtain. Unfortunately the shower head was very scaled up and cold water dribbled from it when showering. There were bath and hand towels and a bath mat carefully folded into the usual CMV boat-shape! But no face flannels. I was a little concerned over the antiquated life jackets, but that didn't matter on this occasion!




Once we dumped our overnight bags, we set off to the bar to get our included welcome drinks – champagne, orange juice or rum punch.  I picked up a rum punch while Caryll had champagne, but I think they forgot to put any rum in it so switched to champagne myself. All the drinks were out on a table to help yourself. Our initial thoughts were very positive. I am a fan of older ships with character and Marco Polo had character in spades.  


 

 
Most of the public rooms are on Deck 8 and we worked our way along after our drinks, taking photos etc. Like most ships of her age, or in fact until the modern apartment barge style, she has public rooms with windows and views to the ocean both sides. I love  being able to sit and sip a cocktail and look out. Most new ships have staterooms with balconies all along the exterior with public rooms in the middle and thence no sea view!

By now it was time to change for dinner and our first major issue. All our pre-visit paperwork had said that dinner was at 20:15hrs. However, the deck plan and programme in the cabin said it was at 19:30. When we booked this event, there was an option to either come for the dinner only or stay on overnight. I am guessing those that didn’t have a cabin allocation for overnight didn’t realise the change of timings over dinner. (We were later told that due to the reduced number of guests they were able to switch from 2 sittings to 1).

So after going back to the cabin and changing we went to the Waldorf restaurant for 19:25. We were shown to table 18 – a circular table for 8. All the tables were very close together and when the restaurant was full the noise levels were very high. All along the outside of the room under the windows were tables for four with banquette seating at right-angles to the wall. The rest were a mixture although I didn't spot any tables for two.

 

Once seated we perused our menus, which were already on the table, and were given water and a small glass of wine – red or white as we chose. This was topped up a little once – and only once. When more was requested by one couple later it was refused and they had to buy a small carafe.  Soon four others joined us and then we waited, and waited and waited! The last two arrived at 20:15hrs as on the original paperwork! So 45 mins sitting doing nothing – time we would have appreciated to use exploring the ship!  It would have so easy to have made a public announcement that dinner was now being served!!

As soon as the final two arrived the waiter arrived to take our orders. I chose the Antipasto, Caesar Salad, Turkey Roast and Baked Alaska. The antipasto was tasteless apart from the slice of pastrami – perhaps I should have had the grilled seafood and crabmeat salad or mini steak & kidney pie, although Caryll had the latter and commented that a pie should have pastry not mashed potato on top! The Caesar salad was delicious. The turkey came in large slabs with chunks of swede, courgette and potato – OK, but not really my idea of a festive turkey dinner. One other lady on our table did complain about the lack of sprouts. Once everyone in the restaurant had finished their main course we had the Baked Alaska parade. I love Baked Alaska but this tiny slice had too much dry sponge and very little icecream. Coffee was next but by now we were so late we were going to miss the show if we didn’t skip coffee.
 
 

The show lounge is up one deck. The seating is a mixture of banquette seating and swivel chairs. The show was Abba – dancing OK, the two professional ballroom/Latin dancers very good indeed, and the singers very mixed - just my opinion of course. The whole show was somewhat spoiled by a party of drunken youngsters talking among themselves very loudly one row back!! That of course is the risk of events such as this.


After the show we wandered around some more. Down on deck 4 there was a very good indication of the age and traditional build of this ship as, standing at one end of the accommodation corridor, you  couldn’t see the other end due to the sway or sheer as the floor level went down and then up again at the other end.

 

There was a small group singing in the Captain’s Lounge after dinner and a party up in Scott’s nightclub, which was where we headed. There we met up with another member of the Ocean Liner Society and his partner.  The room was nice with access out on to the tiered stern decks, but the noise levels precluded conversation so we went back down to the main bar and lounge for a cold drink. Thee, waitresses were coming round with late-night canapés/snacks such as mini samosas and spring rolls. After chatting with other visitors, it was 01:30hrs so time for bed as we had to vacate the cabin by 08:00hrs. This was when I discovered the air-con didn’t appear to be working and, despite turning it to the lowest setting, I was too hot to sleep much that night.

 

We rose at 07:30hrs and re-packed as everything had to be removed from the cabin by 08:00hrs. Cases could be left (unattended) in the Marco Polo lounge, but we decided to keep ours with us and use the Marco Polo Bistro (buffet) for breakfast. This offered a small selection of food including fruit, croissants, pastries, toast, full-English ingredients as well as cold meats and fish. A drink dispenser contained orange juice or fruit punch. Coffee was available from the usual machinery.  I chose some melon and a croissant – once again on CMV I found the croissant far too salty to eat – so headed back for a fried egg, bacon and sausage, all of which were fine.


We had to go to reception since, despite registering two separate credit cards on check-in, only one statement had been pushed under our door in the small hours. After a last look round, including the top decks, we disembarked onto the dockside and out through the terminal. A last hiccup – the dock gate was closed so we couldn’t exit the docks the same way we came in so had to turn around, along with the cars behind me, and drive what seemed like miles through the docks to get back onto the motorway.
 
 

So, in conclusion, whilst I am attracted to the vessels, CMV organisation leaves a lot to be desired and it would have to be a very good offer/itinerary to tempt me to sail with them again. Every cruise I have done on CMV had been dogged by issues from delayed departures, arrivals etc to late changes in itinerary unrelated to weather conditions. On the other hand CMV regard themselves as a 3* cruise line (Marco Polo is 2*+ in the Berlitz Guide) so you do get what you pay for!!
More photos here: https://picasaweb.google.com/114801993219771801790/MarcoPoloCMV18122015?authuser=0&feat=directlink

Tuesday 1 December 2015

Arcadia cruise to Adriatic 2015 - Part 9


Thursday 1 October - at sea

Weather 3/8 cloud, northerly Force 4, 24°C

Quiet day on deck sunbathing and reading. In the evening after dinner - we finally won the syndicate quiz yay!i
 


 

Friday 2 October - at sea

Weather 4/8 cloud, westerly Force 6, 25°C

Woke to a cloudy sky. Succumbed to a freshly baked waffle for brekkie and then went to the solos meet for coffee. By then the sky had cleared and I spent the day out on deck. Lunchtime was a deck barbeque and then I moved to the Aquarius deck to sunbathe- with my feet in the pool - heaven. I went to the Individual quiz before changing for our last-but-one formal night. We came third in the quiz after dinner.
 

 

Saturday 3 October - at sea

Weather 6/8 cloud, south-westerly, 23°C

It was cloudy most of day, although still warm. Sat on prom deck watching for dolphins. There was a small pod playing and leaping in our wake. Had a quick light lunch and then went back to the promenade deck for the afternoon.

 
Sunday 4 October – Gibraltar

Weather 5/8 cloud, light airs, 22°C

 
Our final port on this cruise and an early alarm as Caryll was on an early tour. I got up about 8.15 after she had left and grabbed a quick breakfast out on deck, just the sun was rising over the Rock.

Gathering my stuff I set off to walk into the centre of Gibraltar. It was not too bad although it seemed a very long way.



Once I reached Main Street I started looking in the shops. Funny - I had never noticed before just how many jewellery shops there were here!! I bought a pair of coral and silver earrings and then spotted some Morganite. I have loved Morganite since I first saw it in the shops on board Aurora back in 2004. It is not very common any more, although Arcadia had three pieces, but as the stones were surrounded by diamonds they were very expensive and not that wearable. In this shop was a beautiful plain emerald-cut ring in rose gold. As it needed to be resized I had time to kill so carried on my walk to the end of the street.







Went back to collect ring and then headed back towards the ship. It was by then very hot but muggy too. It took me around half an hour and as I arrived back there was a huge long queue to board.

It appeared one of the scanners had broken down. Caryll arrived back just as I was sitting in a state of collapse on my bed! After a brief clean up we had a brie and cranberry baguette and I went to prom deck on dolphin watch while Caryll went to the sail away. Saw a couple of pods and a lone dolphin but not the numbers I expected. The water was glassy calm and the fishing fleet were out in force.
 
 
 

Before leaving the captain warned of a rough night once we reached the Atlantic so I washed my hair before dinner ready for tomorrow's final formal night and Peninsular Club party. Had a cocktail before dinner then went to the Art Gallery but all the Rebecca Lardner paintings I saw when going ashore had disappeared. Caryll is a big fan and I wanted her to see them, We had to settle for a free glass of champagne then dinner. Went to bed as very tired.

 
Monday 5 October - at sea

Weather overcast, south by west Force 7, 21.5°C

As the captain had warned, it got bumpy overnight but not overly so. We got up very late and went straight to solos. Caryll then went to play quoits and I had a late breakfast. Then sat out prom deck writing this. It was by no means cold and the long rolling swell was quite soothing.
 

We met up for lunch, then went to cabin to do nails and read. the sun made an appearance so I sat on the stern deck for an hour or two until it clouded over again. We know we are homeward bound now! 

Got ready for the b/w night and Peninsular party round Neptune pool. The champagne and canapés were free-flowing. Dinner and quiz

 
Tuesday 6 October – at sea

Packing day! OK, I know it doesn't take all day to pack, but the last sea day always feels bitty and disjointed to me. Collected my duty-free order, checked our statements and generally got ready to return to real life!
Passenger choir performance
 

 

Wednesday 7 October – Southampton

We berthed early. Our alarm went off at 7am and we dressed and went to the Belvedere for breakfast. We were supposed to assemble in the Ocean Room if we were listed for assistance and this is where disembarkation fell apart somewhat. We were told there was an hour delay due to problems with the air-bridge. Eventually I decided I could manage without the wheelchair and we were directed to the crew gangway which was less steep and took us straight into the luggage hall. We collected our luggage and had half an hour to wait for our taxi.  

Back at Caryll's, I was just getting sorted in my car when she suddenly realised that she had left behind her red cabin case! A phone call to the terminal sorted it and she was able to go and collect it an hour or so later. Got home about 3pm after a leisurely drive and having to stop three times to stretch my leg.

 

Total distance travelled: 5275 nautical miles.