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 ...
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 chose this cruise for the itinerary, since we were visiting Amsterdam, Hamburg and Antwerp with an overnight in each base, so we were able to spend a lot of time ashore, including in the evenings. Amsterdam was particularly good regards this as we were there for the evening of St. Patrick's day, which seems a strange mix, but the vibe was even better than we have experienced in Amsterdam ...
This was our 26th cruise, 13th on Fred Olsen. While the cruise was ok, Olsen is not as good as it was before change of management. The outstanding feature is the crew. They are the very best of any cruise line we have been on. Efficient, friendly, helpful and always smiling. Many of them remeber us. The food was ok, The View self service restaurant is far better than the formal dining room, where ...
We travelled on Bolette's second voyage in the summer and were so impressed that we booked on board for this one. A voyage to the Canaries is always one of our favourites as it is around two weeks and is usually a sunshine cruise at whatever time of year.
Check in at Dover was simple and we were pleased to find that the 'probes' used in the Covid test were much more comfortable to use than the ...
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 ...
My wife and I started cruising over 20 years ago and our favourite line was Fred Olsen. No longer. Since Fred jr. took over, cruise prices doubled; there is far better value elsewhere. It cost us £56 on this cruise for the Maitre D' to tap a few keys on his computer to alter our dining time ( I have medical issues and cannot dine late ) A one litre bottle of water in the cabin costs a ridiculous ...
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 ...