Western Caribbean Balmoral Western Caribbean Cruise Reviews

For the Mardi Gras Celebrations in New Orleans - which were tremendous. The voyage started 7-8 hours late, this did not really affect us. Many passengers travelled down by pre-arranged coach from Scotland, Wales & North of England and these passengers were held for 7 hours or so at Southampton departures terminal as the coaches would not/could not change their schedules. Very few disabled ...

We choose this cruise for the Mardi Gras, which was both the highpoint and low point. We made the mistake of booking via Fred for the masquerade ball, very expensive and very poor, probably the worst value for money I have ever spent. The following day, fat Tuesday was free and probably one of the best day we have had abroad. We did have poor weather and we missed 4 stops, there was also ...

This was a really disappointing cruise. From a 7 hour delay in departure, 4 missed ports, 3 Captains and an ignominious homecoming with one of the lifeboats strapped to the bow deck like a bathtime duck, this was definitely not Fred Olsen’s finest hour. Storms in the North Sea resulted in the ship docking very late at Southampton with many passengers having several hours wait in the ...

If you've never heard of Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, it's probably because it is not usually marketed to the American megaship cruising market. It is a very British cruising experience, similar to P&O Cruises (or so I've heard), but on smaller ships. The Balmoral is Fred Olsen's newest and largest ship. When I sailed in spring 2008, it had been refurbished only months before. Previously, it had ...

As on all previous reviews Immigration at Miami airport was chaos,once cleared you have to then reclaim your bags and transport them to the bus yourselves,which some of Fred Olsens older cruisers struggled with. Embarkation on to the ship was OK and we where shown to our Cabin 1021.We where on Highland deck in a full suite, large and clean, the bathroom is a little tired looking but fine,ladies ...

My Wife & I , both OAP's, and Cruise enthusiasts, have last week returned from our first ever `Fred Olsen Cruise' experience, aboard the newly converted and extended ship MS `Balmoral' and feel that we should express our extreme dissatisfaction, unhappiness and total disappointment that this three weeks `Back- to Back' Cruise to the Caribbean & Central America's has been for both us, and so many ...

We had a good Thomson flight from Gatwick to Miami but after 10 hrs the hard seats were uncomfortable. Immigration at Miami was an experience to say the least and we will never fly there again. Our cabin smelt of rancid fried fish oil. Great! Also there was a huge black crack across the wash basin. We had written confirmation of queen set up for beds when in fact they were unmovable singles. When ...