Marco Polo Cruise Ship Review

Our Marco Polo Cruise ship review will show you all around the lounges and bars, food and dining options, deck areas and a selection of cabins. We have also included video tours which we hope you will find useful. We spent 3 nights on the Cruise and Maritime Marco Polo Cruise Ship on the Festive Dublin Cruise. With only 800 passengers and is not too big so we got to know it pretty well in the short time we were on board.

Marco Polo Cruise Ship Review – Food and Dining

Breakfast can be enjoyed from 0630-1000 in the Marco’s Bistro or the Waldorf restaurant but we found that the same food was available. The buffet featured all the usual fare you would expect, an english style breakfast, bacon, hash browns, beans, mushrooms, sausages, and there was also an egg station cooking omelettes and fried eggs to order. Fresh fruit, cereals and pastries were also available. All the food was a of very good standard, our only minor criticism would be that the sausages could of done with a extra five minutes in the pan, as we do prefer ours well done! There was also a self service juice, coffee and tea station.

We also chose Marco’s Bistro for 2 out of our 3 lunches and again a good selection of food was available. Soups and salads, fresh crusty bread and a choice of four or five mains dishes, our favourite being an excellent lamb curry. Just outside Marco’s is the pool deck where you can enjoy your meal outdoors, there was also a hot dog and burger station out here too. We had a pretty wet and cold cruise to Dublin so unfortunately this wasn’t an option for us.

For dinner we chose the Waldorf Restaurant which had waiter service and we must say the service we received from Nixen was first class. There are two sittings first one at 1745 and second at 2000. Each evening featured five courses, with eight people in our party we pretty much sampled everything on offer and there were no complaints. Everything was to a very high standard, a varied menu which was all served piping hot, and it was really good to see that CMV still perform the classic baked Alaska parade.

There is not a midnight buffet on the Marco Polo Cruise Ship, however they do bring trays of food around each venue between 11 and 11.30 pm offering a small selection of finger food. There is also the option of a Indian fusion menu but this does come with a premium of £14.95 as this was only a 3 night cruise we did not try this option.

Our video shows you all the food and dining options on board too.

Marco Polo Cruise Ship Review – Bars, Lounges and Entertainment

There are various bars and lounges on board the Marco Polo Cruise Ship all offering a different experience.

The Marco Polo Lounge

The main theatre is the Marco Polo Lounge on deck 8 Magellan Deck. There were two shows a night at 1900 and 2100 featuring the Marco Polo show team the first one being a selection of songs and dance routines from the various shows that can be sampled on CMV cruises. To be honest we felt this show was a bit disjointed, however the lounge itself was spacious with plenty of seating and lots of bar staff waiting to take your order.

The Captains Club

The Captains club seem to be the place to meet no matter what time of day, with morning and afternoon quizzes to keep your brain ticking over and lots of comfortable seats we really liked it here. This is a nice quiet place in the afternoon with a classical pianist adding to the relaxing atmosphere, we experienced excellent service and sampled some delicious speciality coffees and cocktails. To give you an idea of the bar prices we paid £2.80 bottle of corona 330mls and Grolsch, house white wine was £5.60, cocktails were £4.95 and a gin and Tonic £4.50.

Palm Garden

If you carry on towards the back of the ship your next stop is the Palm Garden. With seating for about twenty people it seemed a popular place to so sit and play board games or cards while enjoying the sea views on offer. We enjoyed a fun afternoon here with our friends.

Columbus Lounge

Your next stop is the Columbus lounge, a lovely little lounge that has a nautical theme. Seating around twenty, it has a stunning antique looking globe of the world and a ships wheel. Very popular and as its right in the middle of the ship it was also the best place to sit when the sea was a bit choppy.

Scott’s Bar

In the day Scott’s Bar was very quiet and the bar was not open but a great place to sit and read. However at night this is where the parties happen.

Scott’s Bar was usually our last port of call in the evening with the talented Marco polo duo and the ten o’clock quiz followed by a cabaret set from the excellent Marco Polo singers. We had a great laugh in here but there did seem to be a serious lack of bar staff in here on the first two nights but they did seem to address this problem by the last night. We can only imagine how much fun Scotts Bar must be on warm weather cruises as there is a large deck and seating area with excellent sea views.

Come and have a walk around of all the bars and lounges in our video here

Marco Polo Cruise Ship Review – Pool, Decks and Promenade

The outside deck areas on the Marco polo have a nice old school feel to them with classic wooden decking, with a large seating area surrounding a small pool situated just outside Marcos bistro and one deck up is another large seating area where you can also watch the world go by. The aft decks are fabulous for sail aways too.

At the front of the ship there is a large area for sun lovers where you can just relax without the noise of the swimming pool plus another small area where you can relax in one of the three Jacuzzi’s. It is quite difficult to give a true reflection of the outside decks as we cruised to Ireland in late December but it looked as though there would be plenty of space for you to enjoy yourself on a warm weather cruise.

Marco Polo Cruise Ship Review – Cabins

We were travelling in a group and staying in a variety of different category cabins so it was interesting to see the differences.

Our cabin 623 was a superior outside twin on Amunsden Deck 9, with an obstructed view. The obstruction was a pile of deck chairs and a stair case but it was so handy for walking onto the promenade deck, and if you have read any of our other cruise ship reviews you will know how much we love a promenade deck, so we were really pleased with the position of our cabin.

The cabin itself was a good size with two single beds and a pull down bunk bed. Due to a fixed set of drawers between the beds making it in to a double was not a option, bad for Carole ( no cuddles) good for Paul (no elbows in the side for snoring)! There was a triple wardrobe and a dressing table plus an extra set of drawers at the end of one of the bed, so plenty of storage, There was also tea and coffee making facilities to the side of the dressing table. Strangely the floor in our room had a slope in it but we soon got use to it.

There was quite a big step going into the bathroom which was a trip hazard and would be difficult to navigate if you had any mobility problems. The bathroom was a good size with a large shower with a shower curtain for privacy, shampoo and shower gel was provided. There was ample storage around the wash basin area and was very well lit so good for shaving and applying make up, a hair dryer was also provided. We were very happy with our cabin for the 3 nights we were cruising.

We videoed our cabin and the three other cabins that we had access to due to our friends and also a very kind cabin stewardess who gave us access to a Deluxe Ocean View on deck 11. You can watch them all here.

This video is our cabin – Superior Twin Outside cabin 623.

Our niece and nephew in law stayed in a standard inside cabin.

Our friends were in a standard outside cabin.

Here is a tour of a Deluxe Ocean View Cabin on the Navigator deck.

Our Verdict of the Marco Polo Cruise Ship

We really enjoyed our time on the Marco Polo Cruise Ship. The ship is a classic old style with beautiful teak decks and is now 53 years old. We loved the traditional style and the open decks. If you are looking for a cruising experience with modern conveniences, full of glitz and glamour then the Marco Polo Cruise Ship is probably not the ship for you. However, if you are after a good old school cruising experience on a ship that’s full of character we would highly recommend the Cruise and Maritime Marco Polo Cruise Ship.

Related Reading –

Our first CMV Marco Polo Experience – 3 day cruise to Dublin

We have cruised 20 times now and have lots more information on our Cruising Pages so please do check them out!

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