Balmoral Reviews

Relaxing

Food are generally great. A few rare occasions are a bit too sweet or salty for us but taste and amount are good. Buffet got a little bit repetitive in the end but lots of offer in between. Waiter services at Ballindalloch restaurant is super and impeccable. Nathaniel and Jhon's services are very good and very thoughtful with patience and offer great welcoming to customers. Entertainment on board is good and quite a lot to offer, especially the music ones with power of trio and the folk songs at morning point pub at 7th floor, plus those ones at Neptune lounge were fantastic. Itinerary I think Tromsø may actually worth a longer stop compared to Alta and has more to offer compared to Alta, also bigger city and seems more a hotspot for northern lights compared to Alta. But whenever we got a chance to visit the cities, we enjoyed the time as well off ship with excursions. Only complian is we got cancelled for a couple for trips e.g. whale excursions and fishing at Molde We will consider Fred Olson in future for cruise holiday.

The crew make Fred Olsen cruises marvellous. Our first time and it certainly won’t be last. Food was very good, service exceptional. A very happy ship !

Lovely ship cruising to Norway, the staff on this cruise were amazing and nothing was too much trouble. The food was second to none, from breakfast buffet to 5 course a la carte I couldn't fault any of it. This is a lovely old traditional decor ship and has some lovely art pieces throughout. Cabins are comfortable and adequate for the trip, we had an inside cabin, however my personal preference would be to have a balcony so you can appreciate the scenery as you sail the Northern and Norwegian seas. A very wide range of entertainment one of our favourites being the crews performance, it takes guts to face people who's rooms you've been cleaning for a week. And some of the performers from the crew should look into being on the entertainment team full time. Quiz, bingo, cards, shuffleboard dominoes, silent disco, ballroom dancing the list goes on and on. I believe they thought of something for all tastes and even all ages. Highly recommend and will be looking at sailing with Fred Olsen hopefully sometime in the very near future.

The ship was a good size and did not feel crowded. There were only just over 900 passengers on board. It was easier to embark and disembark. We had a suite, which was lovely. As part of the ‘suite dreams’ package we enjoyed the daily canapes delivered to our room, fruit basket and flowers plus a bottle of Cava. The service was excellent and the food was delicious. We enjoyed having a set dining table, which we did not have to share, but also liked the additional restaurants that you could use on the top deck plus the choice of a buffet restaurant if you wanted a more low key meal. The excursions were good though some were expensive for what they offered and we would have liked some more active choices of excursions and on board activities, as they were aimed at a more sedate level of activity. The best part was seeing the Northern lights over Alta and Thomso, so it was truly a Northern Lights cruise.

In terms of the cruise itself, it was a pretty slick operation, borading was easy and well taken care of, accomodation was fine and food and service was good. Only saw the Northern lights once (whilst the ship was at sea) - the entire point of visting Alta was to be as northerly as possible to give best opportuniy to see the lights - they didn't appear (that's nobody's fault) but without them Alta is deathly boring

very efficient service from all at Fred Olsen, you'll certainly not starve on one of their ships. Good destinations and choice of excursions, maybe would have preferred a little longer at each port but overall very satisfied

We had a lovely cruise on the Balmoral with Fred. Olsen. It was great, friendly and helpful staff to show us the way on our first cruise. We had a balcony junior suite at the rear of the ship ,the cabin was great roomy plenty of storage, kettle for tea stocks regularly topped up. Food was good, plenty of choice. Would definitely book again for a different destination. Overall a great experience.

We had an absolutely fabulous 5 star experience and would love to go cruising again.

Very good service