Last time we went on a Fred Olsen cruise I said never again; if Olsen could charge for the air we breathed he would. But I succumbed. When we booked again we were offerd a drinks package at £25 or £29 a night (can't remember which) which seemed very expensive. During the criuse we learnt that late bookers had been offere free drinks packages. The moral is don't book early with Olsen.
On ...
We stayed in the Travelodge, Cobalt Business Park before our embarkation from Newcastle, which was a fairly new hotel. It was really good with the room, hotel and staff being excellent, so I would definitely recommend that as somewhere to stay pre-cruise. We stayed three nights, taking the opportunity to go on a boat ride to The Farne Isles one day with Serenity, which again I would recommend as ...
My wife and I enjoy cruising on small ships and wanted to see Iceland, this is as honest an appraisal as I can give on the whole Fred Olsen experience.
Cabin.
We had a premier suite which was perfect.
Staff.
Absolutely fine with one or two exceptions.
Mask etiquette
Some clown thought it was a good idea to let people sit in crowded restaurants without masks and dance in large ...
we arrived today for our cruise on the Borealis, albeit it should have been the Blackwatch. The cruise has been booked for other 2 years and the only reason we booked it was that we had cruised on the Balmoral the sister ship to the Blackwatch and the balcony suite was exceptional, our friends had also cruised on the Blackwatch and they assured me the balcony suite on there was equally as good. ...
Wanting to celebrate Christmas and New Year away from the doom laden 2021, our plans had to be changed due to the uncertainty of travel to the U.S. A lucky chance took us to this cruise which included the Canary Islands for Christmas and to the fabulous firework display in Madeira for New Year.
We have travelled with Fred only once before and found the whole experience comfortable and ...
Fred Olsen’s Bolette; veranda cabin; mid Oct 21. Dover to Barcelona.
Boarding was smooth with a flow test simple & organised.
Always plenty to do on a Fred ship though for some reason they always started one or two minutes before the appointed time. The evening entertainment was a bit average.
Food was generally good and we often plumped for the pool café (whatever it’s called) for ...
This would have been an awkward cruise anyway - with reduced passenger numbers due to covid precautions and with half of the original destinations - most of those on the strength of which we'd originally booked this holiday - cancelled, plus an unfortunate breakdown and delay at Belfast further complicating schedules. What turned awkwardness into, at times, full-throated disaster was the ship's ...
We had an amazing cruise with Fred Olsen family. The staff were very attentive and the service was excellent. The bathroom areas were kept immaculately clean. The ship only had 60% occupancy due to COVID-19 so it was more quiet than usual. There were plenty of activities which were I think were designed for the older cruise-goer. There were no children on board. We were in a basic cabin on the ...
Like many others aboard, we were just happy to get back to sea after the lockdowns and eager to sample one of the new Fred ships. We were quite influenced by the stimulating social media presence that the company had achieved during the pandemic - sad though it may sound, the quizzes was one of the highlights of our week!
We had travelled on P&O's Iona's maiden voyage a few days earlier which ...
We have completed this second cruise on Borealis, so am writing this with some further thoughts. The embarkation was a bad experience since the arrival place had been changed from the exhibition centre to an entrance between the Arena and the Convention centre, but we were not told in advance. We embarked on a day when there were some extremely heavy showers, but needed to leave our hotel during ...