Having cruised before with several different cruise lines we had never sailed before with Fred Olsen and this was a last minute booking at a unbelievable price reduction which we couldn't refuse. I must admit though that we did check the reviews on here before booking and found that the ship had some of the best. Fred Olsen seems to have a loyal following of British passengers much older than other ships we had been on and many were booking up for next years cruises while on board. We only found two other couples on board that had not sailed with Fred before, that must tell you something. We are in out late sixties but felt quite young compared to most of the passengers, my wife said there was enough walking sticks on board to build an ark. The passengers in general were the friendliest that we have sailed with, the crew too could not be faulted in any department. Entertainment was pretty good and Ronnie the cruise director was better than any we have had on previous cruises.

Our cabin was a standard inside, adequate, clean but nothing special, we never spend much time in there anyway apart from sleeping. The towels and bed linen were changed regularly but were not the high quality we were used to on some of the bigger ships.

The food was excellent both in the main restaurant and in the buffet, I did hear one passenger say that it was repetitive but you cant please every one, in 28 days we had a completely different menu every day. The late night buffet and the Gala buffet seem to have had their day as you could count the number of people using them on one hand. The Gala midnight buffet was magnificent but I counted only 15 passengers actually sitting down eating anything. What a waste of so much food - what is the point? Read more