Balmoral Review

4.5 / 5.0
242 reviews

Not for the young at heart

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Balmoral
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brobanje47
2-5 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Nov 2013

Went with Fred Olson's Balmoral in November 2013 and was very disappointed - not with the Caribbean but with the ship itself. We were allocated 2nd seating for evening meal and as my husband has IBS it was too late to eat, when we asked to change to 1st sitting we could only if we paid £4 per night WHY!!!!

Overall the food was good - but beware of themed nights - Chinese, indian or thai - if you plan to use Palms buffet restaurant as there is no alternative if you don't like that particular theme. The daytime activities weren't particulary exciting - lectures on wildlife, royalty through the ages, plenty of bridge !!!! Line/sequence dancing classes also craft and painting classes. Nightime entertainment was pretty mediocre too. There were a couple of quizzes during the day but the entertainment crew just raced through them as if they were on a strict time-table even when they were late in starting - this also applied to the bingo. We found that although we're both in our 60s nothing was very stimulating - Fred Olson must think that 60yr olds are all past having fun of any sort.

Overall as far as sea days were concerned they were boring !!!! We have done other cruises and understand that maintainence is a continual occurrence - however on Balmoral the crew actually did structural work during the day putting 3 new sets of doors in on the Marquee deck (11 where the swimming pool and sunbeds were), this lasted at least a fortnight.

Cabin Review

Cabin aft on deck E and was quite spacious as it was for 3 people but there was constant noise from the engine room which was especially bad when coming into a port and docking which could be quite early. The vibration was awful. Avoid if at all possible unless you are a sound sleeper!!!!!!

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