Excellent Experience

Great cruise round Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Excellent service in everything. They especially look after solo travelers well. Excellent food. Only suggestion I have for improvement is to allow waiting list people in to first sitting if , after two or three nights original bookers have not shown up. There were a lot of empty places in first sitting and people couldn’t get allocated to it. Most trips were well organized except the hugely expensive (£200) outing to the Sky Lagoon. It would have been much better to do it independently. (Others did organize it themselves) The guide told us nothing about Iceland and seemed more interested in the fact that we were travelling on to Faroe Islands. But when we reached Sky Lagoon the Seven Step Ritual was a dream. There were about three quizzes a day and generally well attended- get there early if you want to be sure of a place. The gym sessions were good and not over subscribed.

First time with Fred Olsen and won't be the last.

First time with Fred Olsen after many cruises, mostly with P&O. I would put Fred Olsen at least as good as P&O and maybe jusy a bit better even. Attention to detail I think gives Fred Olsen the edge. Chose Fred Olsen because I wanted to sail from Liverpool. Embarkation and disembarkation so easy and quick. Cabin very comfortable with loads of storage space. I has cabin which I think was adjacent to an area with lots of maintenence going on. Check the deck plans when choosing your cabin. Shower very impressive, double size with solid panel and curtain. Good pressure. Dining excellent as you would expect. Only criticism is about the dress code on formal nights, very lax with open necked shirts and no jacket. Entertainment was very good, talented ship theatre company and very good guest performers. When cruising with my late wife we tended just to wander round the port area with a tourist map and maybe jump on the 'Hop on hop off' tourist bus. On this cruise I decided to go on the organised excursions and was glad I did. The amount of detail the guides give you is worth the cost and you have the security of knowing the ship won't leave without you.

A lovely cruse round Roman Spain

It seems we were pretty lucky going across the Bay of Biscay - other ships on the same night had real problems. Perhaps our ‘luck’ was the result of the excellent stabilisers on Bollette. There were a lot of lectures which would appeal to passengers selecting a Cruise round Roman Spain. It was also useful that you could watch them live or recorded in your cabin. We stopped at some lovely places, and it was easy to get to the town. The daily quizzes were good but always full. The Neptune lounge is well designed so you have a good view from just about anywhere. However, I found the cruise shows frankly disappointing though that’s perhaps a matter of taste (though I did speak to others who had left the show early). The food and service were both excellent. The free classes offered in the gym were really good. They were oversubscribed initially but very few people signed up later in the cruise. The swimming pool near the spa was good but rather awkward to get into, even for someone who’s fairly fit.

A great 'Fleet in Funchal' cruise on Bolette

Occasions when all the Fred Olsen ships gather in one port are few and far between. We missed Bergen and Cadiz but were determined to do this one. Of course it was originally billed as 'Four Freds in Funchal' but the sale of Braemar has reduced the fleet to three. In fact the weather and various other unfortunate happenings meant that we on Bolette were the only ones who had a cruise that went to plan but, in the event, all three ships were in Funchal for the get-together and we all enjoyed a great day of fun and frolics. Bolette's itinerary took us to the South and East of Spain after a stop in La Coruna and, after a moderately bumpy ride for a couple of days after leaving Southampton, it was blue skies and pleasant warmth nearly all the way until we neared the UK again. For various reasons we wanted a sedentary, relaxing holiday so we weren't very adventurous in terms of going ashore and taking excursions but the ship's entertainment and some excellent travelling companions kept us occupied to the extent that we wished to be. We had some good guest speakers and shows - the resident performers were excellent and, as is usual on Fred ships, ran the quizzes in a competent and amusing way. In fact the quizzes were a sell-out on almost every occasion which meant that getting in was sometimes challenging! We had been to most of the ports a few times before over the years although Tarragona and Malaga were new to us. The accessibility of the towns/cities varied dramatically. La Coruna, Cadiz and Cartegena were only a few steps off the ship but shuttle bus journeys of between 30 and 45 minutes were required elsewhere. It's apparent that the ports we visited are generally expanding to accept more cruise traffic and that the berths are therefore inevitably further out of town. Yes, Fred's smaller ships get into smaller ports but, in bigger ports, we have found that it's the big ships that inevitably get the better berths. As always on Fred ships, the crews are exceptional. The Filipinos in particular love service and older people(!) and, although it's apparent that many other nationalities are represented these days, the on-board atmosphere has changed little. The passengers (including us!) are getting older and more frail but generally everyone was well behaved and were very matey and hospitable. The crew show on the penultimate evening was fabulous and quite emotional. Only Saga can match it. The 'Fleet in Funchal' event was very well organised. Being given free drinks vouchers to imbibe on other ships was a nice touch and it was great to meet up with a couple of crew member friends from past cruises on Balmoral as well as to have a good look at Borealis which we had not yet been aboard. She and Bolette are almost identical but it apparent that both ships are inheriting the eclectic artwork common to all Fred ships. We lamented the continuing erosion of the original stylish Holland America décor the two ships had in their early days in the fleet but that's only a matter of taste and we imagined the décor would inevitably change with the new ownership. Some things don't change - we had our cabin in mid-2021 and the clock still showed ten past ten! The afternoon fun and games on the pier n Funchal was great fun and we were lucky to win a pen or two. The sailaway was most impressive and the aerial drone footage (included on the DVD) showed impeccable formation keeping both during the short but spectacular fireworks display and on our dispersal was most impressive. So we were very pleased to have enjoyed both a very good cruise and the opportunity to be part of an impressive and entertaining event, which is almost unique to Fred we'd imagine.