Today we have a sea day, while sailing from Southampton to Pauillac which is a small wine village on the west shore of the river Gironde, at the edge of the Medoc, a French wine region in the Bordeaux area. There is a weather front coming over and that gave us this morning gale force winds of up to 35-45 knots and combined wind and swell of about 3 meters. Which is high enough to make the ms Borealis move about somewhat. (The S and R class are not affected by any sea movement up to 2 meters but when it goes higher the ships get slowly affected). We were slightly affected this morning and the ship had put out the sea sickness bags in the staircases. Weather improved rapidly after lunch time with the depression moving away and the sun came out and visibility got better very quickly.
The Fred Olsen Fleet. BS = Borealis, BT = Bolette, BL = Balmoral
While sailing south we are hugging the french shore line around the coast of Normandy and Britanny and although following the shipping lanes (a sort of highways at seas) we were close enough to the french shore to be able to use our mobile phone with land coverage. If you are not careful, the moment the ship is more than 3 Nautical Miles from shore, it goes to Martime Coverage and that can be quite costly. So it is important that have you phone on airplane mode when not seeing any coastline around you while at sea, even when you have global roaming. We did not see much of the French coast but that was mainly due to the Frontal Weather system which brought rain with it as well.
Cruise schedule for 8 days. Soutahmpton – Pauillac, La Pallice, St. Malo, Cherbourg, Southampton.
This cruise we are going to Pauillac where we stay from 07.00 hrs in the morning to 18.45 hrs the next evening, giving the guests an ample chance to take one of the wine tours. Then it is a short hop to La Pallice (For La Rochelle) were we are from 07.00 to 20.00 hrs. Then we have a sea day, followed by a full day call at Saint Malo. That is a tender port with the ship anchoring in the estuary. The next day is a full day call at Cherbourg and from there is goes back to Southampton. We have now observed that the ship is not completely full and that might be the reason that we have new joining cast and singers on board with support staff; and a whole technical team for renewing the lighting in the show lounge. I estimate that about 50 cabins have been handed over for that operation. Most of the entertainers have taken the chance to have their nearest family on board, who are present in full force wherever these new singers are performing. Fred Olsen seems to have taken on a new Entertainment Company, to train these people but we have not found out yet what that exactly entails.
The “Fresco” on the aft Navigation deck with the pizza place.
So what has Fred Olsen done with the ship during the most recent upgrade? They have finally (re) opened the pizza place which HAL had on the aft navigation deck. Insiders might remember that HAL had the brain wave to remove the aft -outdoor- pool on both the Rotterdam and the Veendam so it could add more cabins. The pool area was then reduced to a wading pool. This no doubt increased revenue for the ship but the operational results where not that great. The wading pool never worked as most of the guests were not able to “step/climb” over the rim of the pool and there was nowhere to store your personal stuff, so when sitting on a stretcher in the wading pool, guests blocked a second sunlounger away from the pool for their towels and bags. Then common sense prevailed and none of the other ships underwent this treatment. But the remodeling did give the chance to make a bigger outside serving bar on the starboard side and to install a pizza kitchen / outlet on the portside. When the ship was handed over to Fred Olsen in 2020, the status of the pizza ovens was considered to be in a too bad a condition to re-open when sailing started again in 2022. So the place stayed closed until further notice. In the last dry dock in Autumn 2025, the area was completely renewed and is now in full swing again. Holland America prepared full size pizza’s there (handed out in a pizza box) but here it is slice only, but freshly made and of excellent quality. For the rest they also do other small bites such as cheese and ham croissants etc.etc.
The next thing is that they have remodeled is the library by removing the easy chairs and putting more regular tables and chairs in so there is more seating for the Cafe. The Barista counter of HAL is still there, but Fred has gone one step further and have changed it into a complete cafe same as on their other ships. You can still sit there and read a book but instead of reclining (and falling asleep) you sit now straight up to read your book or magazine.
The Crowsnest / Observatory which under HAL had declined to an “indepth” shore excurions study place, which never really worked that well as all the machinery broke down very rapidly, has now been fully restored to a day and evening lounge. The bandstand is back and all evening there is entertainment. Hurrah.
I believe on other HAL ships where the crowsnest was also converted to an EXC indepth shored and port immersion area, this is also rolled back somewhat to what the Crowsnest used to be, with a new dedicated library on one of the lower decks.
Here on board, the repeat guests are a bit confused by all the happenings going on. With the showlounge been refitted during day time, the lectures are now in the Auditorium (ex Cinema/ kitchen) but as this place can only take 299 guests, they have to repeat the lecture in the afternoon. That is not always appreciated as a lot of guests want to take a nap in the afternoon. The average age of our guests is the same as with HAL and then you need to re-charge your batteries for to be ready for the hard work of eating again in the evening. As nearly all the guests are British it means that nearly everybody wants to be out and about for cocktails in the evening, both for 1st and 2nd. sitting. So they need some downtime. The music venue times are adapted to this, with the entertainers taking a break while first sitting goes to dinner (18.00 hrs) and 2nd sitting is still trying to fit in their cruise clothes from last time. Then 2nd sitting cocktails start at 1900 hrs., dinner at 20.00 hrs.and the show at 22.00 hrs. Then between 23.00 hrs. and 24.00 hrs. there is music in the Observatory, the Night Club, the Ocean Bar and the the Morning Light Pub (ex HAL casino area)
The new singers “warming up” the captains party
Tonight was formal night with the Captains welcome on board party, which is still done in the respectable way as HAL used to do until about 2010 -2012. With a Receiving line with all of those who were going to be introduced (and yes with 10 white uniforms in a row, it feels abit like running the gauntlet), free drinks (wine, beer ,G&T, champagne), nibbles (canape’s and hot appetizers) followed by a speech from the Captain.
Captain Stefan Ravneng
We observed this Captain for the first time on the ms Balmoral when he was rather new in function and his speech and presence on stage was quite awkward. But by now, he felt more comfortable, made some jokes and his speech was running smoothly. Fred has the routine that the staff officers introduce themselves and that is great fun to see. With the staff captain being the easiest with handling the microphone, the Chief Engineer having the shortest speech of all (name and where he is from only) and the Cruise Director the longest. Then the champagne toast, followed by the announcement to get out of the lounge, to make room for the 2nd show. That results then in an enmasse march through the ship to the diningroom. They where well prepared as somehow they had managed to clear first sitting out completely by 19.45 so they could handle this 2nd sitting invasion.
We decided not to go to the show, I do not particularly enjoy comedians but to go to a concert of the strings. (see yesterdays blog) For those who sailed with Holland America longtime in the past, we then had the Rosario Strings from the Philipinnes on all the ships, one extended family, that never used sheet music but still could play anything. We have them now here on all of the ships of Fred Olsen. Tonight they had a sort of easy listening concert in the Ocean Bar, partly classical, partly crooner songs, and yes no sheet music or tablet in sight and yes they played everything by heart and to a very high standard.
The 2 male singers of the Singers group on board.
This was followed by a Country and Western hour, performed by the new singers and again, with all the family in attendance. I always have reservations about seeing english people in cowboy outfits, but they sang the songs with a nice american accent. Near the end they decided to do a line dance and then it was time to leave. There is only so much one can take, when a large number of octogenarians, fuelled by aa ample amount of (free) alchohol decide that they were 25 again. Free alchohol comes from the fact that the booze during the captains party was free and also the house wine and beer in the diningroom.
Tomorrow we are in Pauillac. We are suppoed to dock in foggy conditions at about 06.45 and then it should warm and sunny for the rest of the day, with temperatures around 21oC or 70o Fahrenheit.
An attempt at an American Line dance, on a moving ship.
Dem gesamten Schiffsteam rund um Kapitän Dariel Valdes und Kreuzfahrtdirektor Joe Liemberger war es eine große Freude, Sie an Bord zu umsorgen und mit Ihnen gemeinsam schönste Reiseziele erleben zu dürfen.
Dem gesamten Phoenix-Team an Bord wie an Land wäre es eine große Freude, Sie recht bald wieder mit einer neuen Reise begeistern zu dürfen. Seien Sie stets an Bord von MS Amera oder einem der anderen Schiffe von Phoenix Reisen auf das Herzlichste willkommen!
