Pompeyboy Posted June 24, 2008 #1 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Hi Having just returned from a pleasant 11 nights on board the Balmoral I thought I would write a little report. Overall the ship has been refitted to a high standard with some nice area's to sit and relax. I do agree with other previous posts that the layout of the Morning Light pub is strange and most of the time we just walked through it. I will admit that another FO cruise is not for us being in our mid 40's with the entertainment geared more to the older generation, although we did enjoy the Balmoral show company and the bingo! We had a superior suite on board within the original section, and had been informed by FO 6 weeks prior to departure that we would have 2 fixed single beds and not the double requested. We did however improvise and used the sofa which converted to a double. The mattress was a bit hard but at least you could watch the telly in bed. The cabin overall was very nice with plenty of storage. My only real disappointment was the lack of choices and variety of food in the evenings and because I am gluten free the lack of mid morning and mid afternoon snacks. The Balmoral is a nice ship to cruise on with a very entertaining captain. Pompeyboy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie1961 Posted June 24, 2008 #2 Share Posted June 24, 2008 Hi Yes we quite liked the ship and thought the staff very friendly and helpful, agree on the Morning Light pub too, not a lot of atmosphere. We had a few problems too. Like yourself were informed at the last minute that the bed configuration wasn't what we had requested. Also thought that the beds seemed to slope ever so slightly and agree they were very firm. We only managed to get an hour in St Marks Square in Venice. We chose this cruise because Venice was on the itinerary, so were very disappointed about that. :( It took an hour off the ship at Gibraltar, leaving us with just 3 hours to go on a tour and do some shopping. We were told that we could now leave the ship and via what deck, then we all just stood queueing in the corridors! :confused: We can always visit Gib again another day though, just pleased to have seen the apes :) On the day of disembarkation it seemed that the people with the longest onward journey were the last passengers to be allowed off the ship. Our coach finally left for Manchester Airport at 11am and we had all kinds of problems on the way. We were told when we booked not bother asking for the coach to drop off inbetween Dover and Manchester airport as they wouldn't be doing because it would be unfair to all the other passengers. Good point so we didn't, however a few others did and were allowed to get off the coach just 10 minutes away from where we live in Cheshire, we had to carry on for another 30 minutes to the airport. In the end our journey home took almost 7 hours and ended with the majority of people on our coach vowing never to travel with Fred Olsen again. Which is a pity as the onward travel was only arranged by them, albeit for a sum of £52 each. I don't think that we will use Fred Olsen again for a while yet either. We didn't mind being some of the youngest onboard, 40s and we met some lovely people but we have decided that we wont be sailing out of Dover again, its much too stressful :D :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pompeyboy Posted June 24, 2008 Author #3 Share Posted June 24, 2008 I agree the organisation on the port days and disembarkation left a lot to be desired and could have been handled better.:( I will be sticking to Southampton in the future as its only 1/2 an hour down the road.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsTW Posted June 25, 2008 #4 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Looking forward to Balmoral in August and Yippee!!!..... I'm sailing from Dover...just half an hour from me..... much easier than Southampton! It's good to see more cruiselines beginning to use the port! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anorak33 Posted June 25, 2008 #5 Share Posted June 25, 2008 Looking forward to Balmoral in August and Yippee!!!..... I'm sailing from Dover...just half an hour from me..... much easier than Southampton! It's good to see more cruiselines beginning to use the port! Costs me £100 or so for parking at Southampton and a 3 hour drive, and we live only 30 minutes or so from Dover (Margate) so no parking fees at all, just get dropped off,its great It all comes down to location, location, location! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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