Marella Cruises: Ships, Prices & Deals

Who Marella suits

Marella Cruises is TUI's cruise line for the British market. If you have booked a TUI beach holiday, the formula will feel familiar: you fly from a UK airport, a transfer takes you to the ship, and drinks and tips are already paid for. Most sailings last a week, which makes a Marella cruise easy to compare with a week in a hotel.

The line used to be called Thomson Cruises, and it is run by TUI UK from Luton. Onboard, everything is pitched at British guests, from prices in pounds to entertainment written for a UK audience.

The ships are mid-sized and older. All five were built in the second half of the nineties for Royal Caribbean and Celebrity, and each carries fewer than 2,000 passengers. That suits people who find the newest mega-ships too busy, and it means fewer water slides and headline attractions.

Marella is a good fit if you want:

• a one-week fly-cruise with no long drive to Southampton
• a fare where drinks and gratuities are already settled
• a ship small enough to learn in a day
• an adults-only option, on Marella Explorer 2

It suits you less if you want long voyages from a UK port, a large choice of cabin categories, or the latest ship design.

Marella ships: the five-ship fleet

The fleet table above shows size, age and live position for each ship. Here is what sets each one apart.

The three Century-class ships and the two Vision-class ships feel different on board. The Vision-class pair have lots of glass, including glass-walled lounges and atriums. The Century-class ships are a little larger by tonnage.

Where Marella sails from and to

Marella does not sail from UK ports in our data. Every sailing starts at a holiday airport city, which is why the line sells flights with the cruise. The regions table above groups them by where the ship starts: the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands and the Caribbean.

The Canary Islands are the biggest single theme. Funchal in Madeira is the most frequent port of call in our data with 52 calls, followed by Arrecife on Lanzarote with 44, Santa Cruz de La Palma with 29 and Puerto del Rosario on Fuerteventura with 26. In the Mediterranean, Barcelona, Civitavecchia for Rome, Ajaccio, Livorno, Kotor and Gibraltar all appear often.

From Barbados and La Romana, the Caribbean weeks call at islands such as Antigua (St. John's), St Kitts (Basseterre) and Tortola (Road Town).

Almost every Marella cruise is seven nights: 169 of the 179 sailings we track. There are a handful of 4- and 5-night trips and a few longer sailings of 8 to 16 nights. If you want a long cruise, Marella is not the line for it.

What is included on Marella and what costs extra

Marella's main selling point is the all-inclusive fare. Drinks and tips are in the price on every sailing, not as an optional upgrade.

Because tips and drinks are already paid, your onboard bill is mostly down to what you choose: excursions, a speciality dinner or a spa session.

Tip: If you drink little, a line with a lower base fare and pay-as-you-go drinks may work out cheaper. If you drink a few glasses a day, the inclusive fare usually pays for itself, so add up what you would spend before deciding.

How expensive is Marella?

Across 179 sailings over the next 12 months, the median Marella fare in our data is €230 per person per night. The cheapest fare we hold is €805 per person.

Watch out: Our Marella prices are euro conversions of pound fares captured from the UK booking site, and Marella mainly sells fly-cruise packages, so a fare can include flights and transfers. Compare like for like: set a Marella price against another line's cruise fare plus a flight.

Cheapest months

The price-by-month chart above shows a clear pattern. Autumn and winter are cheaper, and summer is the most expensive time to sail.

October probably looks cheapest partly because sailings leaving within weeks tend to be discounted. September, at the other end, is the most expensive month in our data.

By ship and cabin

Marella Explorer (€196) and Marella Discovery 2 (€197) have the lowest median fares per night. Marella Voyager (€249) and the adults-only Marella Explorer 2 (€241) are the most expensive, with Marella Discovery in between at €230.

By cabin type, our medians are €233 per night for an inside cabin, €180 for oceanview and €311 for a suite. Oceanview coming out below inside is not a pricing rule. Not every sailing shows every cabin type, so these medians come from different sets of sailings. Check the price-by-cabin table above and compare cabins on the same sailing.

Cheapest Marella sailings right now

The €805 Corfu fare is about £688 in the original currency. All prices are the cheapest cabin, per person, captured on the date shown on the page.

Marella vs P&O Cruises for a British cruiser

P&O Cruises is the other big British-focused line, and the two work in very different ways.

On paper P&O costs about half as much per night. That gap shrinks once you remember that a Marella fare often includes return flights, all your drinks and gratuities. On P&O, drinks are an add-on package, and if you join a ship abroad you pay for the flight on top.

The ships are a bigger difference. P&O's newest ships carry more than three times as many passengers as any Marella ship, with more restaurants and venues to match. P&O also sails mainly from Southampton, with many 14-night voyages, while Marella is almost entirely one-week fly-cruises. Choose Marella for a simple, all-inclusive week in the sun. Choose P&O if you want to sail from the UK or take a longer trip.

How to catch Marella price drops

Marella fares are package prices, and they move with flight and cabin demand. Prices often fall on sailings with unsold cabins in the weeks before departure, as the low October median suggests. They can also fall during TUI's sales.

Our tools help you watch for drops:

• the Marella deals feed lists the latest reductions
• the Marella fleet tracker shows where each of the five ships is now
• find a cruise filters every sailing by ship, departure port, month and price
• a price alert from the plans page watches the sailing you pick and emails you when the cheapest fare falls

Plans start at $0.99 a month. Every sailing page shows 30 days of price history for free, Basic shows 90 days, and Pro shows 12 months, which lets you see whether a fare is really low for that ship and month.

If you have already booked and the price drops before your balance is due, ask TUI or your travel agent whether the new price can be applied to your booking.