Fred Olsen's Boudicca

[Lynda and David]

Lochs of Scotland cruise (D1714) on Fred Olsen’s Boudicca - 5th-13th July 2017

Apologies for the late posting of this report and the fact that it is so long, I never intended for it to be so long but it’s my first attempt at writing a cruise report and I didn’t want to leave anything out. Hope it makes sense. I promised CaroleF that I would let you know what we thought of Fred Olsen and Boudicca.

The first couple of days on board we weren’t sure whether we liked Fred Olsen but I think that was because Boudicca is the smallest ocean ship we have cruised on (we have been on a river cruise with 140 people on board but that is a totally different experience) by the end of the cruise we were talking about booking another Fred Olsen cruise and look forward to trying the other ships. We’re so used to sailing with P&O on ships with 2,000 plus passengers that we just needed to get into a different mindset for Fred Olsen.

Part 1 - Parking in Liverpool and the Liverpool Cruise Terminal

This was our first cruise sailing out of Liverpool.

We drove to Liverpool and had booked car parking with CPS who instructed us to meet them at the multi-storey car park next to the Liverpool Exhibition Centre and ECHO Arena. We were met at the barrier to the car park by a member of CPS staff who directed us to drive up to Level 6 where there were more CPS staff waiting to greet us and take our cases from our car, the cases were loaded into vans and taken to the Cruise Terminal. We kept our car keys with us. We were a little nervous about leaving our car in a multi-storey car park as it is not as secure as the area used by CPS at Southampton but there is little choice of parking in Liverpool, if we had driven up the day before and stayed in a hotel, we suspect that the car would still have been stored in one of the many multi-storey car parks in the area. We were directed to take the lifts down to Level 1 where a bus was waiting for us. There were already a few people on board the bus so it wasn’t long before we set off to the Terminal.

The Cruise Terminal at Liverpool is tiny compared to the Southampton Terminals. Since returning from our cruise I’ve heard via the FO Facebook page that there are plans to rebuild and expand the Terminal and make easier access to the quayside, it’s just a case of deciding who is going to pay for this work.

We were given a flexible check-in time of 1-3.30pm and arrived at the Terminal about 2pm. One difference between FO and P&O is that the buffet doesn’t open until 6.30pm on the first evening although afternoon tea is served from 3pm. There is also the Bookmark Café on Deck 7 by the side of the Library selling coffee, tea and cakes; they also have a chocolate bar with lovely handmade Belgian chocolates. This is open on embarkation through to midnight.

The Terminal was very busy with people in a long queue waiting for check-in and others sitting waiting to be called to join the check-in queue. Luckily for us because we were booked in a suite we had priority check-in and only had to wait a couple of minutes. At check-in, instead of having our photos taken our passports were scanned and those photos used for our cruise card, we registered a credit card to pay for our on-board purchases. Nothing was mentioned about being charged 1.5% for using a credit card to pay for our on-board spend. I’ve since checked our final statement and this confirms that we weren’t charged for using our credit card.

The route from the Terminal to the ship is not the best, as we walked out the door we were directed through a tunnel which has a steep slope to it and you are told to hold on to the side rail so that you don’t slip. It’s not so bad going down but coming back up after the cruise it was a killer. We did notice when we disembarked that there were some small coaches waiting on the quayside and if you were prepared to wait in the queue it was possible to get a lift back up to the terminal building. Hopefully when they do rebuild the Terminal they will put in air bridges for easier access to and from the ships.

Part 2 – Fred Olsen’s Boudicca

Boudicca carries 880 passengers and came into service in 1973. We noticed that there are a team of staff constantly painting and cleaning the outside of the ship. Although the ship is older than those we are used to she is well looked after and spotlessly clean. The other thing we noticed was that when the ship was sailing slower during the day it has a bad judder/vibration which is really annoying if you come back on board after a day out and decide to have a nap, the vibration wakes you up as soon as the ship leaves port. On this cruise we travelled quite slowly when we were sailing through the lochs. We didn’t notice the vibration at night due to the fact that they upped the speed to make sure we were at our next destination on time.

One evening the sea was a bit bumpy and we noticed the movement more. The ship is fully stabilised but they don’t work as well as other ships we have been on. The Captain constantly told us to hold onto hand rails when we were not in port during his daily announcements.

The crew on Boudicca are lovely, you get the feeling that they genuinely love their job. They are so polite and caring and take special care of the older passengers, if they have the time they love to stop and chat. By day two we noticed if we went into a bar or restaurant the crew had remembered our names.

We entered the ship on deck 3 midships where there are two lifts (there are more lifts forward and aft). As there were several people already waiting for the lifts we decided to walk up to deck 8 which gave us a first glimpse of the ship and I have to say the stairs on Boudicca are not as steep as some of those on the P&O ships, we were only slightly out of breath when we got up to deck 8 each carrying a heavy bag. Boudicca’s stairs go up to deck 9 on the inside of the ship so we found it easier to walk up and down when moving around the ship as the lifts are small and there seemed to be more passengers using wheelchairs, push-along trolleys and walking sticks on this cruise. We only used the lifts once, they are smaller than P&O’s

Cabins

I can only talk about our choice of cabin but we did manage to catch a glimpse of the balcony cabins on Deck 7, and other suites on Deck 9, I will come back to those.

We were directed to our suite (8037) by one of the Stewardesses (there are only Stewardesses on this ship no men) and I have to say we were disappointed with it. We definitely wouldn’t book this particular cabin again but there are more suites on deck 9 and if booking a suite on Boudicca would go for one of those. I’ll try not to go into too much detail apart from saying the cabin is a large square badly designed room, in need of a refurbishment. There is an alcove in one corner which contains two single beds with a very small space between them, this alcove has a curtain across it. The balcony doors are rusted on the inside, the curtains, carpets and bedcovers although spotlessly clean, are very old fashioned. The lighting in this suite is really bad and every day when trying to put my makeup on I was moving from mirror to mirror just to be able to get enough light to see what I was doing. Another time I will definitely take a small foldaway mirror with me in case other cabins are badly lit like this one. The bed is placed so close to the balcony door that a bedside cabinet could not be fitted in besides it and if you want to go out onto the balcony you have to squeeze between the end of the sofa and the bed and be really careful not to knock your legs on the metal framework.

The balcony contained 3 old chairs and 2 mismatched tables. The front of the balcony is open and as the Promenade Deck is one below on Deck 7 you cannot sit and relax in privacy because anyone walking on the Promenade Deck can see you. There is an overhang from Deck 9 above which restricts the amount of sun you get on the balcony.

The shower room is tiny (think Oceana outside or balcony cabin shower room and make it smaller then you have an idea how small I am talking about) not at all suitable for a cabin charged at suite prices. It contains a small shower with the dreaded wraparound shower curtain which does not fit fully and means the floor gets wet when showering. The sink has one shelf above it for storage and we finished up storing the majority of our toiletries in one of the cabin cupboards. The shower has containers attached to the wall with shampoo and shower gel in them, there are two more containers with hand wash gel and hand lotion by the sink. The toiletries are by Cole and Lewis. If you want a bar of soap, hair conditioner, shower cap, shoe cleaning kit, vanity set etc. you have to ask your Stewardess for them.

The suite did have a fridge/minibar and we were given a kettle, cups and tea/coffee/milk sachets to make hot drinks but no biscuits. I have heard that only suites get fridges and kettles.

Our suite came with a Suite Dreams package, which consists of dressing gown and slippers for our use during the cruise, daily supply of bottled water, a bottle of Cava on arrival, flower arrangement on arrival (2 Chrysanthemums), fruit bowl (refilled when we ate any of the fruit) and daily canapés which were awful and after 3 days of us not eating them room service stopped providing them to us. Out of all the food on board the canapes were the worse, we walked through deck 9 one afternoon and noticed that a number of the suites up there had put their canapes back outside their doors so we weren’t the only ones not eating them.

We have filled in the end of cruise questionnaire and complained about our suite and was sent a second questionnaire asking for more information on the suite. I don’t think anything can be done with it at the moment that will have to wait until the ship is refurbished but I do think it should be the lowest priced suite on Boudicca to take into account its faults. Maybe it could be classed as a large family balcony cabin rather than a suite.

We originally tried to book a balcony cabin but they were sold out by the time we booked. If booking a balcony cabin on Boudicca choose carefully. Personally I would book one on Deck 8 although some of these have an obstructed view. The ones on Deck 7 have their balconies by the side of the Prominade deck and if you don’t mind people talking to you whilst sitting out there they are perfect but if you like some privacy I wouldn’t advise them. These cabins look as though they originally were outside cabins but have been changed by adding balcony doors and a balcony, the balconies are raised about 6 inches above the promenade deck. At night we like to do a couple of laps round the promenade deck after dinner and as it was getting dark by that time we could see into some of the cabins. They look very nice just a little on the small side. The balcony cabin below our suite is (7045) and is classed as a disabled balcony, that has a double sized balcony and the cabin itself is larger to accommodate a wheelchair. (I know this because there was a young lady in a very large wheelchair in that cabin on this cruise.)

Muster (on FO called Guests’ Safety Drill)

We were assigned to attend Muster in the Library/Bookmark Café area. We were checked off a list on entrance to the drill and if you don’t attend you are made to go to another drill later on in the day. On FO you are told NOT to take your lifejackets to the safety drill. We thought this is a more efficient way of managing the drill because once it is over everyone just went their own ways and the area cleared quickly, it avoids the need to go back the cabin to put lifejackets away, everyone just went back to enjoying themselves.

Norovirus

We were constantly being told to wash our hands for 20 seconds in hot soapy water and to use the hand sanitizer when offered it. When going down to dinner on the first few evenings the hand rails were squirted with antibacterial spray which wasn’t very nice if you put your hands in it and whilst waiting to get into the restaurant one of the staff would come along and make you take a squirt of the hand sanitizer. We were advised to use the toilets in our cabins rather than the public toilets and personally I much prefer to do this whenever we are on board a ship. I assume that because of the constant reminders they must have real problems with Norovirus.

Food

Firstly, I have to say the food on FO when you can get it is delicious. The evening meals are of a higher quality than any we have had on P&O over the last two or three years. However, unlike other cruise lines we have been on FO does not have food available all day apart from room service, this is where we were not happy. Not because we constantly stuff our faces when we are on board a ship, we don’t, but because we like to be able to choose when we want something to eat during the day, after all we are on holiday. For instance, on our second day we docked in Tarbert at 12.30 and because we had been down to the restaurant for breakfast and unusually for us had cereals and Eggs Benedict we didn’t feel like eating before we got off the ship. We went for a walk round Tarbert and got back on the ship about 4.30pm and as we weren’t eating until 8.30pm we thought we’d grab a snack from the buffet. What we didn’t know was between 4.30 and 6.30pm there isn’t anywhere open to eat, not even to grab a sandwich or yogurt and fruit which personally we feel is really bad and where we were let down by FO. Room service is available but our feeling is that if we choose to order room service then we don’t mind doing that and tipping the steward but what we don’t like is to be put in a position where we have to order room service and still tip. It might sound silly to some people but that is how we feel.

On this occasion we did order room service but when I phoned to order they had run out of some of what we wanted because of the high volume of room service orders being taken at that time. Surely that gives an indication that there is a need for the buffet to be open late afternoon, and certainly to coincide with the return of people on excursions.

I don’t know how other FO ships operate but on Boudicca between Breakfast and Lunch (10am-12), Lunch and Afternoon Tea(2.30-3.30pm) and Afternoon Tea and Dinner (4.30-6.15pm) the only way to obtain something to eat is order room service. There is a late-night buffet available between 11pm-midnight but given the ship was like a ghost ship after 10.30pm I can’t see it was popular and we certainly didn’t feel like eating again at 11pm when we had only finished dinner at 9.45pm.

Hot drinks are available all day in the Iceni Room on Deck 6, but really this is to make up for the fact that most cabins do not have facilities to make hot drinks, only Suites have tea and coffee making facilities. The Bookmark Café on Deck 7 is open every day from 7am through to midnight but you have to buy these drinks.

One good thing about this ship is that all restaurants/cafes are close to each other on Deck 6.

Breakfast was generally available 7-9am in the main restaurants on Port days or 8-10am in the Secret Garden Café. We only went down for breakfast on the first morning – why – because it was complete and utter chaos. You are told to either go to the restaurant you are allocated to for your evening meal or the buffet (the Secret Garden Café) but there is always a queue for Breakfast for the buffet.

There are three restaurants on board Boudicca for dining, The Four Seasons, The Tintagel and The Heligan, we were allocated a table for 2 in the Four Seasons Restaurant so that is where we went on the first morning for breakfast. You are given the next available table as Breakfast is open seating and someone comes to you to give you tea or coffee then you are told to “go into that room” to help yourselves from the buffet. “That room” is a circular room which has doors leading off it from our restaurant and another from the other two restaurants and the kitchen and it is a complete shambles. The poor restaurant and kitchen staff try to keep the food coming but people just grab food as soon as it appears, they act like they haven’t seen food for a week. This sounds like I’m exaggerating but I’m not. One older “gentleman” stood in front of me and shouted at the top of his voice whilst banging his walking stick on the floor “I’ve been waiting for ten minutes for fried eggs, where are they?”

Every other morning, we ordered Continental Breakfast from room service for a more civilised start to the day. But once again this is not perfect as Breakfast is only available for delivery until 10am. When we are on holiday we like to have a little lie in if we are not booked on an excursion then have a leisurely late breakfast when the ship is a bit quieter. We tried ordering breakfast to be delivered close to 10am but that was ignored and delivered around 9.15, a couple of times waking us up.

Lunch is served in the three main restaurants between 12 and 2pm and the Secret Garden Café 12.30-2.30pm. We only ate lunch once, on the final sea day and the food was very good. You are given a choice of starter, main and dessert and there is also a salad bar in “that room”. We went down about 1pm and were quickly given a table for 2 and ordered just a main course and a glass of wine each and were in and out within half an hour all very efficient.

Dinner – the Secret Garden Café is open from 6.30-9pm each evening if you don’t want to sit in the main restaurant and eat a full meal or if you don’t want to dress up on formal nights. First sitting in the main restaurants is 6.15pm and second sitting 8.30pm. Every evening there was a choice of starter, soup, main, dessert and cheeseboard, all delicious. There is also the usual Chicken, Fish and Steak available if you want something plainer. Every evening we ordered ice-cream for dessert as they make a daily “special” ice-cream, I’m not a massive fan of ice-cream so for me to order it every evening it was good. Our waiters were very good they always took the time to explain the menu.

There is also an area called The Grill for speciality dining. This is outside aft Deck 6 and we never saw it open, probably because it would have been too cold of an evening sailing in Scotland.

Drinks

Part of our cruise deal included the All-Inclusive Drinks Package. The first evening at dinner we asked to order a bottle of one of the white wines from the package and our wine waiter told us not to do this as we would have to pay 50% of the price if we ordered a bottle, he said he would just keep topping up our glasses with the same wine so that we didn’t get a bill at the end of the night. True to his word as soon as our glasses were empty he came over and topped us up. David usually ordered a Courvoisier brandy to go with his coffee which we paid £4.35 for a double, it costs £4.35 a shot but we got 50% discount because of our drinks package. There is a standard brandy on the drinks package.

I have been told that the All-Inclusive Drinks Package costs £15 per person per night if you book it in advance of the cruise and £25 per person per night if you book on board. If like us you order wine with dinner, a brandy with coffee then have a drink before and after dinner it really is worth paying for this Package. As an example the All-Inclusive wine is charged at £17 per bottle if you are paying for your drinks as you go. The package also includes Vodka, Gin, White Rum, Whisky, Irish Cream, daily cocktails and a selection of soft drinks and still or sparkling water.

The drinks package includes a choice of 4 white, 4 red, 2 Rose wines and a Cava, all drinkable and a selection of branded beers in bottles, cans or on draught available from the bars and restaurants. I have a copy of the list of drinks available if anyone wants to know more. The beers are:

Newcastle Brown Ale, Heineken, Strongbow Cider, Stella Artois all on draught, only in the bars. Somersby, Spitfire, Carlsberg, Carlsberg 0.0% non-alcoholic, Heineken in bottles and cans available in the bars and restaurants.

The restaurants have a decent selection of wines available and we could have ordered from this list and paid just 50% of the price. The same goes for branded spirits, beers and soft drinks available in the bars.

One thing we did like was that unlike Celebrity where if you are a couple you have to hand over both cards when ordering drinks, FO only ask for one of the cards and you can order a couple of rounds at the same time.

Our only gripe was that the Marquee Bar outside on Deck 9 is only open in good weather on sea days. That bar was the only one with a specialist Gin Menu (we’re both into our Gins at the moment) and not available anywhere else on the ship. It would have been nice for the Gin Menu to be available in one of the inside bars. I have mentioned this on the questionnaire and suggested that the Observatory would be the perfect bar to keep the Gin Menu.

At a couple of ports David bought a local gin and a whisky. When we got back on the ship they were taken off us and we were given a receipt. On the last day which was a sea day they were brought to our cabin by security and handed over personally and they took the receipt off us as proof that they were delivered back to us.

Gratuities

Gratuities were included as part of our cruise deal. Gratuities are charged at £4 per person per day. The way I understand it is that you can go to reception and cancel or alter the amount you wish to pay, you can also pick up brown envelopes to hand extra to staff.

Smoking

Smoking is allowed on all cabin balconies apart from those on Deck 7. There is also an area aft on deck 8 allocated as a smoking area.

Wifi prices

30 minutes - £13.00
120 minutes - £41.00
5 Day continuous unlimited - £48.00
7 Day continuous unlimited - £60.00

I did purchase the 30 minutes package as we needed to keep in touch with our estate agent and solicitor. I took our small laptop with me, something I don’t usually do as I try to avoid using computers onboard ship. I found it very easy to set up an account; I found the speed of the service to be more than adequate for what I needed to do.

Entertainment, Bars, Casino/Gaming Tables and Card Room

At the end of this report I’ll type up a quick day by day schedule of entertainment and the daily itinerary. On this cruise we didn’t go to see any of the shows in the Neptune Lounge of an evening. We’ve been told that the Boudicca entertainment team although very small are very talented and everyone who went along to see the shows enjoyed them.

The Lido Lounge tended to start the evening with a singing duo then have a quiz then a piano player, some taped music to dance to, sometimes karaoke then some more music, the entertainment changed every half an hour or so. This lounge tended to be popular with the smokers on board as they only had to nip out the back door and up stairs to the smoking area.

The Conservatory (similar to the Crowes Nest on P&O) was the place to go for a quiet drink and listen to a piano player. Some afternoons they held wine and cheese tasting sessions (free I think) as well as a special afternoon tea charged at £7.95

The Morning Light Pub is close to the Neptune Lounge, we only used it once late at night. Don’t know why it’s called a pub as not a proper pub just a small bar with comfy seats.

The Marquee Bar (my favourite bar) is outside on Deck 9 aft, only open twice on our cruise but it’s a lovely place to sit in comfortable seats in the sun with a cocktail and read a book.

The Casino is literally a small area on Deck 7 with two tables, we never saw it open. However the card room just off the Casino was very popular day and night. There were a lot of very serious Bridge players on our cruise.

Spa, gym and swimming pools

Unfortunately I never got the time to book an appointment in the Spa, this cruise had a pretty full on itinerary, the same goes for the gym.

There is one main swimming pool, one plunge pool, two Jacuzzis and one SwimEx pool, I would have liked to try the SwimEx pool but the weather was too cold.

Shops

There is a small cubby-hole type shop selling toiletries and sweets, a perfumery which although small had a decent selection of makeup, face cleansers and moisturisers and aftershave and perfume and a small shop selling essential items of clothing. These are on Deck 5. The Reception, Shore Tours Office, Future Cruise Sales and the Photo Shop were close by here as well. For some reason some of the older passengers liked to sit in this area, I don’t know why as it has no windows.

To be continued …

[cruisin_duo]

Thank you for your report. Looking forward to the next part.

[qbman1]

Very comprehensive, interesting and helpful, Lynda. Thanks for taking the time and trouble

Looking forward to the next instalment

[david63]

A good review - can't wait for the rest of it.

Not sure that it would entice me to cruise on Boudicca though.

the multi-storey car park next to the Liverpool Exhibition Centre and ECHO Arena

That has to be one of the worst car parks that I have ever used - if you time it wrong you can be over an hour just getting out of that car park!!

[qbman1]

Liverpool is certainly a great city to visit on a cruise ship but I am really not sure the set up is yet anywhere near good enough for cruise departures. It's bad enough lugging a day's shopping through the terminal and up those slopes so I dread to think what it must be like for embarking passengers !

[barney]

Excellent review !

Looking forward to the rest of it.

[Gill W]

I'm really enjoying your report. I'm on Balmoral next March. It'll be my first time on Fred, so it's very helpful to know how they do things

[Manoverboard]

Superb, it's like being there with you.

Roll on part 2

[qbman1]

I know - it was so well described, I was afraid to get too close in case I caught noro !!

[Jan Rosser]

Thanks for posting your report - interesting read especially as it is on a cruise line I haven't been on - looking forward to the next episode

[Happydays]

Enjoyed your report looking forward to the next instalment

[oldbluefox]

Thanks for your very honest and helpful report. We have been sewriously thinking about a Fred cruise, largely because they use ports from up north. Having got accustomed to departures from Southampton your experience of cruising out of Liverpool was interesting.

[CaroleF]

Thank you Lynda for taking time to post, looking forward to the second part. I did type this yesterday but it must have disappeared into the ether so will try again. Your suite really sounds as if it needs not to be classed as a suite if you know what I mean. I know the suites on Fred don't match up to P&O but even so. We had a Suite on Black Watch when we did a 3 night cruise one December back in 2010. It was whatever the top grade of suite is. It was huge, with a very large sitting area and then a sort of archway through to the bedroom, which again was large with so many wardrobes along one wall I doubt if I could have filled them on a 14 night cruise. It was fine, looked as if it needed refurbishing but was nice to have the room. Also had decanters of whisky, brandy and sherry - long gone now I'm afraid.
Our Balcony Suite on Braemar which we have again next week, from memory - it was 2003 - was a square room with King size bed, bedside tables each side then with a chair and then a settee under the window which looked out onto the balcony, the door was at the end of the settee. Then there was a unit on the wall opposite the bed which was where the tea making equipment and tv were and the fridge was underneath. There was also a coffee table, and I think another chair. I think the bathroom only had a shower, can't really remember. I'm sure I will find it very small after being used to mini suites on P&O.
The one thing that did surprise me about what you found was the canapes. Previously we've always said that they were 100% better than P&O - I remember huge prawns and smoked salmon on canapes. However, from what you've said maybe that's one of the cut backs along with the decanters. We'll see what Braemar has to offer. The weather forecast around Scotland doesn't look too bad for next week, if it's dry then anything else will be a bonus.

Carole

[Mervyn and Trish]

I've had mixed feelings about Fred over the years but reading this excellent and comprehensive report has convinced me it's a no from us. We're late risers on holiday and the idea that we have to be up, ready and out and about before 10 if we want breakfast is a show stopper, along with the rest of the limited meal times. We like to be able to eat when we're ready with our only fixed point being dinner.

[Manoverboard]

Itinerary drives our choice rather than a breakfast .... so, unlike Merv, we would be very happy to cruise with Fred.

ps ... Fred's food is a whole lot better than P&O's

[Mervyn and Trish]

Itinerary drives our choice rather than a breakfast .... so, unlike Merv, we would be very happy to cruise with Fred.

ps ... Fred's food is a whole lot better than P&O's

But not if you can't get it!

[Lynda and David]

Thank you Lynda for taking time to post, looking forward to the second part. I did type this yesterday but it must have disappeared into the ether so will try again. Your suite really sounds as if it needs not to be classed as a suite if you know what I mean. I know the suites on Fred don't match up to P&O but even so. We had a Suite on Black Watch when we did a 3 night cruise one December back in 2010. It was whatever the top grade of suite is. It was huge, with a very large sitting area and then a sort of archway through to the bedroom, which again was large with so many wardrobes along one wall I doubt if I could have filled them on a 14 night cruise. It was fine, looked as if it needed refurbishing but was nice to have the room. Also had decanters of whisky, brandy and sherry - long gone now I'm afraid.
Our Balcony Suite on Braemar which we have again next week, from memory - it was 2003 - was a square room with King size bed, bedside tables each side then with a chair and then a settee under the window which looked out onto the balcony, the door was at the end of the settee. Then there was a unit on the wall opposite the bed which was where the tea making equipment and tv were and the fridge was underneath. There was also a coffee table, and I think another chair. I think the bathroom only had a shower, can't really remember. I'm sure I will find it very small after being used to mini suites on P&O.
The one thing that did surprise me about what you found was the canapes. Previously we've always said that they were 100% better than P&O - I remember huge prawns and smoked salmon on canapes. However, from what you've said maybe that's one of the cut backs along with the decanters. We'll see what Braemar has to offer. The weather forecast around Scotland doesn't look too bad for next week, if it's dry then anything else will be a bonus.

Carole

Hi Carole, apologies for not replying sooner, I hope you're having a lovely time on Braemar, I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on her, and how different she is to Boudicca.

Lynda x

[Lynda and David]

Hello everyone, I can only apologise for not posting the rest of my report, I'll do that next weekend as we're off to Blackpool for the night today then are driving up to Scotland tomorrow until Saturday.

Best wishes

Lynda x

[cruisin_duo]

Have a nice time. Look forward to reading your report when you next have time to post.