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 ...
This was our first Fred Olsen cruise and we were looking forward to being on what was the third cruise on the new to Fred Olsen ship Borealis, previously Holland America Rotterdam, age around 25 years.
Originally scheduled to visit Scotland , itinerary was changed to the Scilly Isles and Portsmouth setting off from Liverpool. Embarkation was from the Liverpool ACC centre where Covid testing ...
The new embarkation system due to COVID worked well (as described on the Liverpool Cruise terminal Website) and we moved on to the ship in about an hour. Perhaps too quickly as I timed our wait after the covid test was performed until we were sent to the shuttle coaches and it was exactly 20 minutes, rather than the 30 minutes normally advised by the NHS to get an accurate result for the lateral ...
Borealis is a nice ship, and some areas have clearly been refurbished in few months that Fred Olsen have owned it. Our Ocean view room on deck 2 was clean, and the carpet was new.
The shower flooded onto the floor every time we used it, so we created a dam with a spare towel to keep the water in. It didn't cause a particular problem for us, but we felt for the lady who had to service the room ...
We chose this cruise as it fitted in with my husbands shifts and as it was close to my 60th birthday.
We did not enjoy the "fine dining" experience but that was personal choice. We preferred the flexibility of eating in the Palms Cafe. When we originally booked we requested 2nd sitting but were allocated 1st which was too early for us. Sadly on the occasions we did eat breakfast and lunch in ...
A good cruise and I was really looking forward to it, but was affected by the dreaded cruise cough. I believe this was due to the air conditioning being too high. In the evening before going into the Neptune Lounge I and many others had to put a scarf and cardigan on. I did mention this to customer services but did not get any feedback. If anybody has any hints on how to avoid this would be good ...
rewards for oceans members appalling compared to previously: no fred olsen pens [surely this is a free advert when cruisers leave them around or lend them , miserable selection snacks as only reward for diamond oceans members [one between two!!]. guest entertainers very poor. tap dancers may be talented but who want to have to endure two shows of them. comedian OK but other musicians no one wants ...