I Took The Cheapest All Inclusive Cruise (On an Old Ship)

I’m currently onboard an all-inclusive weekend cruise on one of the oldest and smallest cruise ships around. The ship I’m sailing on started her life with Celebrity Cruises and now is a completely adult-only ship where everything, including alcohol, is included.

Being adult-only was one of the things that first attracted me to this cruise. I wanted to cruise with my friend and because of her work, we had to stick to the school holidays. When I saw this short 4-night cruise sailing from Spain advertised from £600 ($740) I thought this would be the perfect time to give it a go. In reality, as with most cruises, I did end up paying more than that.

Wondering what a themed cruise would be like? Here's my 90s cruise:

I knew that this cruise might turn into a bit of a booze cruise given the unlimited alcohol, I wasn’t sure if 4 days would be long enough, and as this would be my friend's first cruise as an adult, I hoped that my choice wouldn’t let her down. Some of the reviews made it sound awful as they always do.

We flew to Palma in Majorca to board the ship and all of our transfers and flights were included with the cruise fare. As soon as we got off the plane we were met by the Marella representative and put on our coach, it was very easy and our suitcases were taken from the bus to the ship for us. We boarded the ship at 8pm which wasn’t ideal as it did feel like we were missing that first day but because the flights came with the cruise there wasn’t much that we could do about that. I did meet people on the ship who had been onboard since 2pm which I’m very envious about but we were just very excited to get onboard by this point.

The ship that we were boarding was Marella Explorer 2, she started her life as the Celebrity Century way back in 1995 and she’s less than half the size of the current biggest cruise ship in the world. There aren’t many cruise ships this old still sailing so I was interested to see if she would feel her age. I’d booked a quirky cabin too which you don’t find on modern cruise ships.

When we walked into the ship we decided to head straight up the stairs to find our cabin. The main thing on our minds at this point was food because we’d been travelling since lunchtime but we wanted to drop off our bags first. It certainly was strange having our first look at the ship in the dark but each bar that we passed was decorated in a completely different theme to the last, which I really liked. I don’t have a great sense of direction and I need things to have very obvious themes so I know what they are, for example, if you said you’d meet me in the golf bar on this ship, there would be no confusion.

Heading up to the buffet, I was impressed with the layout and the design. The buffet actually goes all the way around the back of the ship and it was here that we got our first glimpse of the included drinks.

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[EmmaCruises]

Wondering what a themed cruise would be like? Here's my 90s cruise:

[CruiseDude]

Emma, thank you for being one of the very few Youtubers creating original content instead of recycling 25 things to buy on Amazon before your cruise, or sensationalized bad things happening to cruisers.

[sallym]

My husband and I had our honeymoon on this ship. We both work in education so adult only was a real bonus for us. Had a great time sailing around Italy and Croatia.

[da__lang]

I love the idea of an adult-only cruise that includes all food and alcohol with no set dining times. I'm going to take special note of this one.

[jamescraighead]

I like that Emma does cruises that are accessible to the every day person. Not “I go in the worlds most expensive cruise”. Thank you Emma, love your channel!

[jonjimihendrix]

“I don’t want to win the game I am playing because that would involve public recognition” might be the most British thing I’ve ever heard. Thanks Emma! This ship reminds me of Norwegian’s Jewel class.

[tenminutetravelbreak]

You are probably the best, most real-deal, authentic and value-adding travel channel out there. Seriously, you put in the miles and you show it all. I feel as if I took a 3 credit semester course each time I consume one of these cruise reviews. And I also love me some mini-golf.

[randi_godspeed]

Emma, I find you to be an excellent guide. Your speech is descriptive in a brisk manner. You also have a lovely voice. Hope you can find a position that enables you to continue cruising in the manner you wish to become accustomed to. God’s blessings

[zammich]

It's REALLY impressive the amount of work you put into actually DOING these cruises, clearly and beautifully filming what we want to see and what you want to show off, and editing it all into a video that gives plenty of all-inclusive information that helps us both understand each ship/company's offerings and an understanding of your own perspective and preferences.

They're informative for people looking to GO on a cruise soon, while also entertaining for those of us who don't but are curious.

[HEDGE]

We went on Celebrity Century when it was one of the older ships in Celebrity’s fleet. It’s a small but very well designed ship and we really loved it. I am thrilled to see her again; thank you!

[HoJSimpson]

When you said that older ships seem to have more outdoor space per person it really clicked with me.
All the new ships seem to sacrifice communal spaces for these up charge higher tier amenities. It's kinda sad to see that trend. I mean Norwegian has a literal ship in the ship as it's top tier.

So the experience for the non premium cruiser gets actually worse.

[prudencepineapple]

Butlins! I remember Hi-de-Hi! (1980-?). What flummoxes me most is the lack of a proper 'Promenade' deck, not high up that wraps around an entire ship. Older ships have them, and it's those ships I had the most fun on. And the fact that the number of passengers are low is a bonus. I detest the 'block of floating apartments' of mega ships.

[MarkBittner]

Celebrity Century was the first cruise I ever went on in 1996 as a 6-year-old. Crazy to see it's still kicking as a Marella cruise!

[danielintheantipodes]

I am glad you had a lovely time. If I ever go on a cruise, the most important thing I have learnt from YouTube cruise channels is to be cautious about my cabin location to avoid noise! Thank you for the video!

[RobertColfack]

For an older cruise ship it looked like it was well maintained like you said it was too short of a cruise only 4 days isn't long enough to enjoy yourself... Another fantastic tour and as always you look marvelous Emma...

[Jack_The_Ripper_Here]

I worked on a cruise ship, a large one, Royal Caribbean . I always found it weird how passengers have no idea how big the ship is bellow the deck where all the staff members live. It's almost as big as the rest of the ship where all the passengers sleep and eat. We had our own restaurant, our own bars, rooms, showers and more.

[Bill_N_ATX]

I remember the Century from a couple of cruises we took on the ship. They were one of the reasons I’ve always thought highly of Celebrity cruises. It was a good ship then and I’m glad the old girl is still sailing. Usually, if a company is willing to keep the maintenance up to date, these ships last until a change in the Safety of Life At Seas (SOLAS) regulations that demand major, expensive improvements. Since she still has classic shaft propellers and not Azipods, her life span can be extended a little longer.

[ashleighelizabeth]

I sailed on her twice when she was still with Celebrity near the turn of the 21st Century and I have to tell you that based on your video she has been beautiful maintained. I found her beautiful then and she appears to have aged like a very fine wine.

I went on my very first cruise back in 1985 with my family and the first two ships I went on were less than a quarter of the size of this ship so I've never understood the modern cruise travelers that refer to ships this size as tiny. In my experience she is more than large enough and in fact she has far more public space available to a passenger than a ship like Queen Elizabeth or SS France from the golden age of ocean liners. It seems like modern cruisers have become obsessed with size whether they think a ship this size is too small or they are convinced that the largest ships are too big.

[billthompson]

Thank you so much for posting this. Polite, yet honest, I love your way of describing the ‘events’. And your videos are simply fun to watch.

[CariHere]

My mum recognizes some of the spaces on the ship from over 20 years ago 🤭

She's surprised they were able to renovate it to this level