Join us as we embark on our first ever cruise! We are bound to make loads of newbie mistakes as we join the Marella Explorer for a 3 night UK staycation cruise to Dover and Portland from Southampton.
We booked parking with ABPorts and have to say, it was super efficient, unloaded the luggage, handed it to the coach driver and we were off! Every coach was limited to 20 passengers following new restrictions so there was plenty of space on board.
The new Marella check in procedure was also a breeze, a long(ish) queue to get to the check in desk, while staff checked our documents and then we were off. Once we were through, it was a quick check in before we headed to the Marella Explorer.
Again, this was our first ever cruise, we were greeted by some very professional smiling faces and headed up to our cabin to unpack and watch the safety video on our in-cabin TV before visiting out muster station.
We popped into Latitude53 for our dinner, which was questionable, but again, we couldn’t fault the staff, and the view was incredible too!