Boudicca Review
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We joined the ship in Liverpool which is very convenient for us as we live locally, so as we only needed luggage for one week, we were able to get the bus into Liverpool. Apart from the proximity of the port we always like to sail from Liverpool as the terminal is in the city centre so there is no need to sit and wait for embarkation. As usual we went over fairly early in the afternoon, dropped off our cases and checked in and asked about what time we would be able to board the ship. Then we went off into the town to buy some bottled water for the cruise and have a stroll around. On our return we were able to go straight on board and our cases were ready waiting for us.
This cruise was around Ireland and had four ports, with two days in Dublin, so there was just one sea day, which was good from our perspective. We had an outside cabin on deck four which I will review below, though I must say here that we had a lot of problems with the air conditioning which was not able to make the temperature any lower than 23C at a minimum and was frequently higher than that even when turned down to the lowest temperature setting. It was also very noisy. We complained, but they could not improve the situation, so we decided to cope with it as the ship was fairly full and there were no other problems with the cabin and it was well placed. We have found that there have been problems with inefficient air conditioning on our last three Fred cruises. Our cabin stewardess was excellent (cabin 4044)
The ship was in fairly decent condition for it’s age, but we do not like some aspects of the design, particularly the position of the pool deck, as it was necessary to go through the Neptune lounge to get there and If something was happening in the Neptune the only access to the rest of the ship was via the deck above or below. There was also no outside bar on pool deck, so bar service could be slow. Also the Secret Garden self service restaurant is not big enough for the number of passengers. This is important as the only alternative for dinner was a set early or late sitting and also they closed the main restaurants for breakfast at 9.30am some days, leaving a queue outside The Secret Garden, even coming up to its closing time of 10.00am.
Cabin Review
Port Reviews
Liverpool
An excellent embarkation port - please see comments at begining of main review.
Cobh (Cork)
We took the train to Cork. The journey was quick and picturesque with a regular train service from very near the cruise port. There was a short walk into Cork from the station and we had a pleasant walk around Cork. We have been to Cobh on a previous occasion and know that is also a very nice quieter town with scenic views.
Belfast
Having looked up details of Belfast before we went, we had pre booked a time slot in the Crumlin Road Goal which we found interesting. We also went into the City Hall, where we had a free tour from a member of staff. There was a collection box for contributions, which we were happy to provide as it was a really good tour in an impressive building. We also had a drink in the Crown Liquor Bar, which is an historic building owned by The Nation Trust and run by Nicholsons.
Dublin
We have been here three times previously and had two days in port on this occasion. We bought tickets online, prior to our visit for the Green HOHO bus routes. There were two routes and the tickets covered two days on both routes and also entry to the Little Museum of Dublin, which was very good. We got off the bus at times as we wished, visiting the Museum of Modern Arts that was in an impressive old building and taking the chance to see more of various locations in the city.
It was a bank holiday weekend in Ireland when we were there and everywhere was much busier that we have experienced before, even in the summer. We had planned to stay in the city for the Saturday night, but as everywhere was so packed and there were a number of large groups of people around (lots of stag parties etc.), we decided to return to the ship for late dinner.
We had complementary shuttle bus tickets Fred The cruise company as we were booked on freedom fare. The shuttle busses out were fine, but we had to wait almost 45 minutes for the return shuttle in both Dublin and Belfast as that was the frequency of the busses in the late afternoon, yet we had not been given any details of the times of the busses. I think that was very bad of Fred to run such a poor service and not even give out a timetable.