Fred Olsen, Boudicca

This was my first cruise with my wife and my parents. Albeit my wife and I are in our early fifties, out of the 800 or more passengers onboard we were among the youngest 10%. Even my parents who are in their seventies noted that there were an unusually high number of old people, zimmerframes, wlaking sticks and wheelchairs on board.

The entertainment and the entertainment venues were abysmal. The Gym and Gym programme was laughable. The Spa was expensive and no effort was made to provide a relaxing atmosphere.

The food was acceptable however dining times were to regimented. The price of drinks were reasonable. Novovirus struck towards the end of the cruise.

As a smoker I was only allowed to smoke in one small area on the outside deck, this was frustrating especially when it was cold.

The Casino facilities consisted of one blackjack and one roulette table and the opening hours were governed by the Filipino Croupiers..I rectified this by complaining.

I could go on however I think you get the gist regarding my views on this cruise . Regular cruisers had many of the same views and as such I may cruise again however not with Fred Olsen.

On a final note, hardly any effort was made to make this special for the festive season....disappointing

At around 28000tons the Boudicca is a small cruise liner with about 850 passengers carried. The passenger list was 99% British and quite a mixed bunch though most seemed to be over 65.

The entertainment was varied and there was lots of it provided by a very talented and industrious team though their dirctor had a bit too much of the primary school teacher or care home matron style about her for my taste. I would have liked there to have been a disco but guess it would not have been well patronised. The Dance tuition team were very good though.

The main theatre could not hold half the passengers in any comfort and less than half the seats gave a good view of the stage which was a shame considering the good quality of the stage shows.

The cabin that we had was fitted out to a reasonable standard though some items really needed attention and it was not overly clean (under the bath was an agricultural scene). My big moan here though was the light outside the cabin window and the woefully inadequate curtains that just directed the light onto my pillow no matter what I did. Other small things like linen not turning up were annoying.

The bar service through the ship was very good with pricing kept reasonable. A big plus I thought.

The food was generally good though sometimes it seems that quality had been sacrificed for cost. Again the restaurant did not always seem as clean as it should be especially the carpet.

When the gastro-enteritis or whatever the belly bug was started to appear on a significant scale visible precautions came into effect with much emphasis on hand cleansing at entries to all areas. Pools were shut and the upper deck cafe too. I still saw some passengers exit the loos without washing their hands though! Thought I was lucky to just go down with a cold on the cruise but a day after returning home the belly bug struck me down too. Fred Olsen did not seem interested in recording my case or even noting which cabin I was in. This was our first Fred Olsen cruise and probably our last too.