Ship Marella Explorer
08/03/2026 to 15/03/2026 – Taste of the Tropics
15/03/2026 – 22/03/2026 – Paradise Islands
How Marella arrange their cruises is to have several week long itineraries, each starting on a Sunday for the Marella Explorer. This gives holiday makers the opportunity to link two cruises or mix a cruise with a stay.
This was our first Caribbean cruise. We are not sun worshippers, as most of the activity was round the pool and the focus of most trips was a beach. We therefore ended up taking trips at most islands to the interior, where there were wonderful rainforests, waterfalls, and a few hills.
I have never seen so many Sunrises and Sunsets on a holiday. They were at about 06:00 and 18:00 throughout the cruise.
I was impressed with the embarkation process. The TUI flights were staggered and arrived roughly an hour apart. We were met by buses on the tarmac at Barbados airport. These ferried us to the ship. We queued to show our passports to a crew member who gave out cruise cards, then registered a credit card, then we got on the ship. Quick wash and got changed into clothes from the hand luggage, and into a bar. An hour or so later we went back to the cabin and our cases were outside the door.
The first day of the cruise was at sea, but had some nice views when we went past the Pictons at St Lucia
10/03/2026 Guadeloupe
We booked at tour to the botanic gardens and Deshaies. The botanic gardens were pleasant, some good set pieces, a lot of colour.
The stars were the parrots and flamingos
Deshaies claim to fame is it is where Death in Paradise is filmed,
Thought the tour was overlong with too little content. Guadeloupe is a province of France and has similar rights to the French mainland. The wages are higher and there were a lot of cars,
11/03/2026 – St Lucia
We booked the Ultimate Land and Sea tour. There were three buses on the tour, each with their own guide which travelled at their own pace.
The major attractions were all in the Soufrière area which was around 90 minutes drive. To break up the travel there were a few roadside stops for views (and shopping).
Before 30 minutes on a beach – again lined with stalls. But with a great vioew of Frigatebirds.
When we reached the Soufrière the Pictons dominated the scenery.
We also got a great feel about how mauntainous the area was.
Then it was on to the botanic gardens, which felt well structured with wilder forest areas and then more colourful displays.
It made good use of the stream running through and the Diamond Waterfall
Then it was onto the “volcano”. This was more a vent than a huge volcano. We went on a tour with a guide who worked at the site, who was brilliant. He didn’t dumb things down, he gave a talk that didn’t skip the science.
Then onto a good buffet lunch and a tour of an old plantation and a tour from a guide who worked there.
Then it was to the coast. The three buses met up here and we had roughly two hours on the boat, that hugged the coast back to the cruise ship. With around a 30 minute break for a swim then the obligatory rum punch.
St Lucia somehow managed to keep a balance between tourists and nature. There were some very busy areas, but there was a lot of glorious unspoiled nature.
This turned out to be one of the best excursions from the cruise. There was a fair length of time on the coach, but this was broken up by several stops at locations with good viewpoints. They supported local traders as the early stops all had local craft traders and/or food and drink. There was a variety of destinations, the beach, the plantation, volcano and gardens, a boat trip and chance to see the island from the sea and go for a swim. On the way back into port the size difference between our ship and Arviva was evident.
12/03/2026 – Grenada
The harbour is in the middle of the main town. Which was not the most developed place I had seen.
This was a long drive, through a lot of very ramshackle villages, and wild forest. There was some new development funded by Chinese money.
The Chocolate Factory was wonderful, it felt like a bygone age, with old machines (that did the job), old buildings which were a little rough round the edges, and fabulous old drying racks. One of the top 10 chocolates in the world is made here.
The chocolate was stunning as was the view from the factory
Then it was a slight detour on the way back to the Concord Falls. They were nice single drop falls but the guy leaping from the top for tips made them a lot more interesting. It was around 30m drop,
The guide did sell the way of life – you could live for $200 a month, you can pick fruit from any tree for your own use (but six months in jail if you sell it). Upto 30g of marijuana was personal use, and everyone could grow 5 plants in their garden, there were 29 different rums and a brewery.
We had more of a walk round the town later in the day
It was the only time we saw a sunsets glow on a town on the cruise
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