Just got back from a cruise with a new to me cruise company(TUI) and decided to write a little hot off the presses report. Mostly everyone cruises in the Persian Gulf with MSC Opera or MSC World Europa. For me this is not the best option, because I have been to Dubai and Abu Dhabi by land before. And I have already been on 5 cruises with MSC.
This cruise was on sale for €449/week in a cabin with balcony. Who understands pricing – for TUI this is an unprecedented price, especially for a cabin with balcony (64 euros/day). Inside cabins in general cost from 299.
TUI cruises include tips, any alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks in the bars and very good quality food. I grabbed the cruise almost without thinking. In the end, this price lasted only 2 days and only increased further.
Even the simple route with only 3 cities: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha did not embarrass me. But the liner stayed in each port for 2 days (and in Dubai all 4 days if you count embarkation/disembarkation days). As I have already mentioned, the itinerary was not a priority for me.
Cabin
I bought a cabin with a balcony, it was garanteed (you can’t choose a specific one). Before the start of the cruise I was assigned a specific cabin on deck 11, the topmost living deck.
The cabins on the Mein Schiff liners are spacious, both on the balconies and inside.
I have only one complaint about the bathroom (and in general about the whole cabin) – the sink is narrow and it is not very comfortable to wash myself. Otherwise there is nothing to complain about – design, ergonomics – in my opinion everything is excellent.
Lots of storage space, two different wardrobes. The first one is on the side of the bed (the photo shows only the visible part of it):
And the second, on the side of the entrance to the bathroom. It has a safe, bathrobes and slippers. The bathrobes are comfortable (different sizes for M and W). The slippers were of good quality, labelled Mein Schiff, and did not fall apart during the week. I understand that slippers are a standard option for all TUI cabins.
There is a coffee maker in the cabin. And it is very cool, every morning I enjoyed freshly brewed coffee on the balcony.
There are 2 capsules per day for free (just for the morning). If you need more, they are in this black box, but for a fee. The steward refills new capsules during cleaning.
Bottled water is chargeable, as on other liners. If I’m not mistaken – 3.1 euros per bottle. But with drinking water there is a mega solution that I have not seen with any other cruise company.
On each residential floor in the area of the lifts there are dispensers with drinking water. Costa, MSC – can you really do that?) Don’t be petty, just give people free and unlimited drinking water a stone’s throw from their cabins!
Meals
After checking in, the first thing we did, of course, was to go to the buffet!
Let me remind you that all drinks are included and there are taps for pouring wine/beer in the buffet. So we decided to celebrate the check-in with a glass of wine.
They say that TUI’s food has deteriorated over the years and “it used to be better”). If this is the deteriorated version, I find it hard to imagine what it used to be. In my first visit, I put together a plate of snacks for wine, which is now problematic to find under the sanctions. Prosciutto, sausages, different types of cheese and fish.
It is worth noting that it does not change much from day to day. For example, at breakfast nothing changes at all (although this is the case with all CCs). But also at lunch/dinner they change few dishes, only the main (hot) ones. The cuisine has a bias towards what Germans are used to. All sorts of potato and pasta salads – if you don’t eat that, the choice is somewhat limited.
Only one person who has been on TUI I’ve seen said they didn’t like the food. I assume that it was for this reason – just the cuisine was not suitable. The cruise was long and apparently even the things I liked got boring. That’s quite possible. But to seriously say that the food is bad at a cruise company where the buffet serves roast piglets and passion fruit – well, such a thing.
In any case, the buffet assortment is such that anyone can find something to their liking. You can, for example, make your own Wok – pick up raw ingredients (prawns, meat, vegetables, noodles/rice) in the right proportions and with the right sauces and you will be cooked immediately. Here for example is my first (and not very successful) attempt to make WOK with shrimp and glass noodles. The subsequent ones were better)
That said, when it comes to different snacks – cheeses, cuts, fish, etc. – TUI is the best among all the cruise companies I have been on. This is how the cheese distribution looks like (see , it didn’t fit here for some reason). And this is on a normal day. On one of the cruise days there was a specialised cheese buffet, so there was 3 times more cheese.
Where to eat besides the buffet
The main buffet on Mein Schiff 6 is alone. But at the stern it flows seamlessly into the free Gosh restaurant with outdoor terrace. This is an establishment specialising in fish/seafood. You can order from the menu, or you can pick up seafood from a buffet-style spread. Which is what I used to do in the evenings and dine al fresco overlooking Dubai/Doha/Abu Dhabi
Alcohol
Alcoholic beverages are included in the price of the cruise. I have already shown what is included in the buffet, and the bars offer a huge number of cocktails, spirits. If you are interested, browse through the menu . What is included is marked with a signature inklusive.
The queue for the bar:
TUI doesn’t leave one working bartender for the whole crowd, as it happens somewhere in the buffet on Costa, where there are always queues. It’s like if you don’t have time, it’s your problem. Their logic is simple, more standing time means less eating (drinking). I judge it by the last cruise on Venezia, where the liner was not even half full, but the queues were still huge (and half of the food outlets were simply closed).
No, here they have time to serve everyone to the maximum, predicting peak hours. There were no queues at the buffets at all. Although, no, I remembered that for bean coffee in the morning I had to stand in a queue of 2-3 people. It’s just that the machine is slow.
The fun on the liner starts at breakfast in the buffet, where Prosecco is poured for everyone in the morning.
But, with such a provocative holiday style, I didn’t see drunk or inadequate people once during the whole cruise.
Interior of Mein Schiff 6
At the end I will add just photos of the liner, which were not included in other sections. There is a lot more to tell, but I have spent half a day on this report and I can’t cover everything.
My conclusions
You should sail with TUI if you need comfort and a large set of included services: bathrobes and coffee machine in the cabin, delicious food, drinks at any time and in any quantity.
If you are interested only in the itinerary, at the lowest price, and you consider the liner only as transport – TUI is not for you. Their cruises are not cheap. Before the pandemic, anything under 100 euros a night was considered good value. And that’s for the inside! After the pandemic there were many opportunities to cruise for cheap and one of them I took advantage of. But now there are fewer and fewer low prices and soon they will disappear altogether. I would go back to TUI for up to 100 euros/night (especially with a balcony, of course) – it is definitely worth the money.
I don’t recommend TUI for the first cruise – you just won’t understand anything in German, you need experience of other cruises. I don’t recommend for those who are interested in entertainment, on TUI as well as on AIDA – shows are rare and often in German.
I recommend it to those who can entertain themselves. To whom comfort is important – without loud and noisy passengers, queues for food and extorting money for every sneeze.
