Marella Expands Drinks Range with 18 Non-Alcoholic Options

Posted on 11 August, 2026 by Spacejunkie2

Marella Expands Drinks Range with 18 Non-Alcoholic Options

Marella Cruises has announced that it is offering 18 new alcohol-free cocktails, six 0 percent ABV spirits, four 0 percent wines, as well as non-alcoholic beer and cider alternatives.

Luke Saunders, food and drink development manager at Marella Cruises, said: “We are pleased to be expanding our non-alcoholic drinks menus onboard across our ships.”

“After listening to customer feedback and reviewing the gaps in our menu, we want to enhance a customer’s experience onboard and cater to those who would prefer a non-alcoholic alternative,” added Saunders.

“We are looking forward to our new and returning customers trying out 0 percent cocktails for when they are next onboard.”

From August 2026, all guests sailing on Marella Cruises will be able to enjoy an expanded range of non-alcoholic drinks as part of the line’s All-Inclusive offering, the company said, while guests upgrading to Premium All-Inclusive will also have access to a selection of 0 percent ABV spirits and alcohol-free cocktails.

The expanded range includes 0 percent red, white, rosé and sparkling wine, Heineken 0 percent and Somersby 0 percent cider, Marella said in a press release.

The company will also introduce gluten-free Estrella beer to its All-Inclusive drinks offering.

Customers on the Premium All Inclusive package can enjoy six 0 percent ABV spirits, including Lyre’s:

London Dry Gin
American Malt Bourbon
White Cane Rum
Agave Blanco Tequila, and
Coffee Originale and Lyre’s Italian Spritz.

The expanded range also includes 18 crafted alcohol-free cocktails, including:

“Grapefruit Refresher” — includes Lyre’s London Dry with pink grapefruit and soda
“Nojito” — Lyre’s White Cane with mint, lime and soda
“Summer Sour” — includes Lyre’s London Dry with lemon, soda, mint and basil, and
“Gentle Fashioned” — Lyre’s American Malt with bitters and orange peel.

The enhanced non-alcoholic drinks will be a part of the offering onboard all Marella’s ships available across the fleet from August 2026.

Marella Sending Discovery 2 to Med and Canaries for Winter 2024-25

Posted on 24 May, 2024 by Spacejunkie2

Starting November 7, Marella Cruises will homeport the Marella Discovery 2 in Malaga, Spain for a series of winter sailings before heading to Tenerife and Gran Canaria in December 2024.

The ship was previously slated to sail in Asia.

These itineraries go on sale on May 23.

Chris Hackney, managing director of Cruise for TUI UK & I said: “We are delighted to offer these itineraries out of two of our well-established homeports for this winter. We know guests love the beautiful Canaries and Madeira and as Marella Cruises is part of TUI, we can offer incredible experiences ashore with our destination teams as well as a great onboard experience too. All of these itineraries offer cruise and stay options too, with great flying options across various UK airports.”

“We do appreciate how disappointing it was to those customers who were impacted by the cancellation of our Asia program on Marella Discovery 2, but we are confident with the breadth of the program we have to offer something different to our customers.”

From Malaga, Spain, Marella will offer two itineraries:

Spanish Flavours, departing from November 7, 2024, with visits to Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona, Valencia, Cartegena, Gibraltar and porting in Malaga.
Sights and Delights, departing from November 14, 2024, visiting Malaga, Lisbon, Portugal, Cadiz, Casablanca, Cartagena, Motril and Malaga, Spain.

From Tenerife, the Marella Discovery 2 will also offer two new itineraries:

Winter Escape, departing November 28, 2024, with visits to Malaga, Gibraltar, Cadiz, Gran Canaria and Tenerife.
Sail into Spring, departing on March 24, 2025, visiting Gran Canaria, Tenerife, Cartagena, Malta and Limassol, Cyprus.

German Market Growth to be Driven by TUI

Posted on 2 May, 2023 by Spacejunkie2

Mein Schiff 3 photo credit Spacejunkie2 (flickr)

The cruise brands catering to the national German market have an estimated capacity of 2.1 million passengers (double occupancy) in 2023, forecast to grow to 2.5 million by 2020, according to the 2023 Cruise Industry News Annual Report.

The growth will mainly be driven by TUI Cruises which will launch three new ships over the time period, boosting its annual passenger capacity from approximately 600,000 to nearly 1 million.

TUI is focused on the German premium market along with Phoenix Reisen and Plantours. In the luxury segment are Hapag-Lloyd and Sea Cloud.

AIDA is the largest national brand today with an estimated annual passenger capacity of about 1.4 million, but has no new builds on order, and barring any further retirements of ships, will maintain its position, dominating the contemporary market segment.

These brands offer a German-language products. In addition, other European brands also market in Germany, including MSC and Costa, as well as North America-based brands.

Germany is the single largest national cruise market in Europe.