Historic Castles & Highland Games, Braemar Sept. 2017

[CaroleF]

I apologise if this is rather a long account but as most of our cruises have been with P&O I can’t help comparing the cruise lines.

Braemar was our first cruise ship back in 2003, a fly cruise to the Caribbean. Since then we’ve only been on one other Fred Olsen Cruise, 3 nights on Black Watch in December 2010. Since then apart from one cruise on Queen Elizabeth all our cruises have been with P&O, so I was interested to see what we’d think of Fred Olsen after all this time. We had booked this 10 night cruise as we wanted a break in September and it looked an interesting itinerary going right round the North of Scotland, Southampton to Southampton, calling in at Belfast on the way back.

We had booked the same cabin we had back in 2003, a Balcony Suite on Deck 7 – there are some cabins on Deck 8 but most of the suites are on Deck 7. There are some De-luxe Balcony cabins on Deck 8. I knew from our first cruise that the Balcony Suite is fairly small compared to any mini suites on P&O, let alone suites. From memory I thought they were not that much bigger than say a balcony cabin on Oceana. One booking perk we received was the All Inclusive Drinks Package. At the moment Fred Olsen are charging £15 per person per night for this. If someone doesn’t book this in advance of the cruise and wants to book it on board it goes up to £25 per person per night and both people in a cabin have to purchase it.
We had been given a flexible embarkation time – 1.30pm – 3.30pm. We had booked parking with ABP which is more or less the same as CPS. We were not given any On Board Credit but the Inclusive Drinks package added up to quite a saving.

We arrived at the port about 1.10 and ABP was very efficient and we handed over the car and went into the QEII Terminal. Since our last visit here it has all be renovated and looks very new. We went straight to check in, no waiting. After that we went up to the Departure Lounge where tea, coffee etc. was available. We had been told that boarding would commence at 2pm but in the event Suite passengers were called at 1.30pm. It didn’t take long to get on board and as passengers were being boarded by Decks it was easy for the staff to direct you to your cabin. The lifts are very small on Braemar, aft and forward, no midship lifts, the ship isn’t big enough. Our cases were already outside our cabin.

The cabin was a little larger than I remembered, but it had been completely refurbished, the blue and gold had given way to a rusty orange and green. As you enter the shower room is on the right, very small, shower curtain. Towels are provided as is shower gel and hand wash, no soap. Then the cabin opens out, the wardrobes are on the left, one hanging wardrobe and one shelves with a safe in which opens with a key. There was a king size bed with two single duvets. On the right at the foot of the bed is a until which contains the fridge (only suites and de-luxe balcony cabins have these), there is the coffee/tea making stuff, no biscuits. TV, flat screen but small is on the surface of the unit and then there’s a mirror over the space that can be used as a dressing table with three small drawers to one side.

Beyond the bed is a coffee table and a largish two seater settee, plus a club chair and there’s another chair by the dressing table area. Above the settee is the window and door leading out to the balcony which is a reasonable size with a table and two chairs plus one lounger, not big enough for two. In addition there was a bottle of sparkling wine in an ice bucket with two glasses, a conical vase with two large white chrysanths with some attractive pebbles in the bottom. There was a basket of fruit which was refilled daily if we requirted. There was also binoculars, two umbrellas and a large atlas. Our Stewardess appeared and introduced herself. In the fridge is the mini bar which we didn’t really want apart from the fact that you can’t take any alcohol on board with you so we wouldn’t be putting any into the fridge.

To be Continued.

[GillD46]

An interesting start as I know very little about FO.

Looking forwrad to more.

[Gill W]

We are on Balmoral in March, so will be very interested in your views on Fred in general