wildrover59

My wife and I sailed on the Balmoral Old England to New England Cruise in April/May this year. Three days before sailing we received a letter asking us to arrive an hour later for embarkation as they had an outbreak of Norovirus on the previous cruise and wanted to deep clean the ship (not sure what they could achieve in an hour!). The restrictions mentioned in the above post were in place from the second we got on the ship. In this case it is apparent that the norovirus was on the ship prior to embarkation. We received a minimal amount of compensation for inconvenience. Ironically for us, it was not the norovirus restrictions that has put us of sailing with Fred Olsen again! What has put us off is the mediocre food and entertainment that does not compare well with other lines that we have sailed with. Everything onboard appeared to be aimed at serving the elderly. Choices of dessert often included jelly and rice pudding. The quality of food presented was inconsistent and ranged from good to inedible. If my wife and I ordered the same meal it more often than not looked completely when it arrived. This was also quite an expensive cruise which didn't give value for money.