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Ocean Liner History and Stories from the Sea, Past and Present. With an In Depth focus on Holland America Line

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2026 August 19 Southampton, England. Review & Verdict.

August 22, 2026 / / 18 Comments

So we drove home from Southampton and after a 5 hour drive we made it back to the end of the world, Cromer on the Norfolk coast.

Here my review of the cruise and my verdict.  Let me first  emphasize again that what follows is my VERY PERSONAL  view of  the cruise.

Partly born from what I have learned and experienced  in the last 42 years at sea and by being involved in the progress of the cruise industry and partly of what my personal preferences  are. And then there is of course a certain amount of knowledge in understanding of how it all works behind the scenes. Plus I am learning a lot now we are hopping from cruise company, to cruise company.

Did Lesley & I enjoy this cruise ? Very much. Would we hesitate to come back? Not at all. Will we come back? May by in 2028 after we have finished the list with”to do” ships and “to do” cruise company’s not yet tried. But the captain announced that P&O will invest in the good ship “Aurora” for the next 10 years, so that is hopeful.

P&O is a cruise company who hovers somewhere between 4 and 5 star. Five star for the  shows, speciality restaurants and service in the bars; Four Star for the “too fast” service in the dining room and the quality of the food. (The food is not bad at all, it just lacks that little extra that comes with a less rushed service)

The Glare: for those who do not know what this is, it is my way of testing the friendliness of the officers and crew.  What I do, when I walk by an member of the ships complement I will look the person straight in the eyes  and expect acknowledgement.

This cruise it came to 70%.   All crewmembers were friendly when talking to them during service but quite a few ignord the guests when not on the job.  E.G:  shopstaff will smile and talke when behind the counter but totally ignore you when walking through the ship.  Biggest disappointment was, when we went to  a captains party and lots of officers were lined up, but they were more interested in talking to each other than saying Hello  to the guests coming in. (only the cruise staff, used to doing doors, made an effort). During the party, they hovered around, but almost none of them made the effort to go around the tables for a quick chat. I only saw the captain doing that and one Jr. hotel officer.

So verdict: All house keeping, 100%, all the GPA toilets and on ship duties 100%.   Bar staff 90%. (100% on the job, not always when meeting in the corridors). Hotel officers varied greatly 60%.  Deck officers passing by (5x), one acknowledgment. Engineers passing by (3x), no acknowledgement. Sailors , only the two who make an attempt to paint our balcony and recognized me, because I waved to them in the cabin.

Let’s starts with all the positives:

1.If you like an older ship, with a very British atmosphere, this is a great ship. It has plenty of bars and nice lounges for whiling the day away and to have cocktails. Just avoid going to the dining room on the first night. Manic pace, including a long waiting line and once in we were out within the hour.

2.This is a very good world cruise ship. Again due to the ships lay-out and the more laid back and “gentlemen like” ambiance.

3.Very good tender service in Leknes. If P&O wants to pay for having soo many crew involved, that is up to them, but it did ran very smoothly, and I like the announcements given with the counts of how many guests are ashore, so the guests waiting understood that is was going smoothly. 1100+ guests between 08.15 and 11.00 hrs. for a 4 tender distance run is not bad at all.

4.The speciality restaurants are very good. With tasty food and unhurried service. Well worth the surcharge.

5.The Cast Shows were the best I have ever seen. Certainly on all the cruises we have done in the last 2 years. Princess Cruises came close but the current cast is very, very good.

6.A very personable captain with very good microphone and communication skills. He reminded me of myself with having the guests listen without curling their toes.

7.No announcements in the cabins (Saga & Fred Olsen please take note) unless really necessary.  Only for explaining the tender service and disembarkation procedure.

8.Various brands of Ale/Craft beer in the various lounges. Neck-Oil in the Crowsnest, Jolly Olly in the Glass house, Sam Johnson in Carmens, Ghost ship in the pub Champions. Very, very nice.

9.P&O still has formal nights, we had 3 this cruise and a bit of style is something we very much like. Officers & Crew were quite good in keeping the dressed and not-dressed groups apart, except on the last formal, when there was a glass of free wine to get from the bars. Still people seem to be on their best behavior when dressed up, so for the ms Aurora (she is different to the rest of the fleet anyway) keep it up.

10. Classical duo in the Play House. They were very good, but as the Playhouse was full for each performance, disappointed guests were forced to walk out again; it would have been nice if the recitals would have been screened on the Cabin TV’s.

Things that I would consider improvements to the product:

1.Directly for P&O office and NOT directly  for the ship:  Could you please issue a clear listing of the regular duties of the Butler in the Suites on the ships? Add it to the paperwork in the cabin?

1a. What is on the website is not correct as it states, among other things, a butler can help with packing and unpacking. Luggage arrives at the suites around 13.00 hrs. The butler only shows up at the cabins around 16.00 hrs. There are only 2 butlers on the Aurora and they cannot help with 14 cabins. So they are not doing it anymore but it is still on the website.

1b.. In the latest brochure for 2028 page 20: What is an optional butler? You either have a butler or you do not have one. If I buy a new car, I can decide for an optional sun roof, against extra costs. If that is what optional means, then I would have to pay extra to get the butler going. Or is it that the ship decides whether the butler is optional and we might have it or might not have one during the cruise?

1c. On board nobody could tell me what the exact duties of a Butler were. The standard (middle management) answer was, he can do all sorts, just ask and he will do it. But that is not fair, because one cabin might ask for something so far out and monopolize his time (and that was the case the cruise before us, and other cabins suffered). Then the work might carry over into their personal time and with 10 hrs,  a day available  according to MLC 2005, that day is already pretty full.

So I think that it would greatly beneficiary  for the service to the suite cabins, if the guests knew what the butler exactly could mean for them. Cunard can do it, MSC Yacht club can do it, so it cannot be that difficult.

2. On board discount due to Repeater status in the Peninsular Club. It is very nice to get 5%, 10% or 15% discount for your loyalty to P&O, very good and very nice.

BUT it is very NASTY that  that loyalty discount only kicks in after you have depleted your On Board Credit. That credit is a cruise arrangement for booking, so it is VERY NASTY that you penalize loyal guests for a extra arrangement  they got when booking a cruise.

On Board Credit is not always available and only offered to get the (early) bookings. So P&O is really saying, that On Board Credit does not really belong to you “in being your own money”. For us it is not about the money we save, as it is not that much;  It is the principle that a company’s Sales System,  that it gives something extra to “rope you in”, once they got you, they do not want to recognize it as part of the cruise contract.

3. Dining room service, too fast. This is going “to eat” not going  “for dinner”. It did not stop us from enjoying our time in the dining room, but it is a bit much, when one waiter takes away the empty soup cup and the other waiter slides the next course on the table at the same time. Stay away from the first night in the dining room, it is chaos with long liens in front of the door, before it opens. P&O is aware of this, and thus offers a FREE bottle of wine, if you go to a Speciality restaurant the first evening. We were more interested to see how it all run, so we observed the process.

4. Hot water out of a coffee kettle.  I drink green tea, so every night the dining room waiter pored hot water for my green tea and then it tasted like coffee (or close to it). On the 3rd night we realized that the  teapot he used, after going through the dishwash, was stored somewhere and then the next day taken from the hook/shelf and then randomly used for coffee or hot water.

Our waiter solved it on day 4, by managing ” to find” a  brand new kettle and guard it with his life against other waiters (who also wanted a new shiny kettle)  and supervisors (who did not understand where such a brand new shiny kettle came from and wanted it back) But for the remaining 8 nights, our whole section had hot water that tasted like hot water. So P&O / Aurora can you find a way to separate hot water kettles from being used for other purposes? It will take some leadership from middle management but it could be done. Also Most company’s use different model kettles for hot water and coffee to avoid this problem. A coffee pot looks like a coffee pot and a hot water kettle looks like a hot water kettle, so easy to recognize and easy to keep apart.

5. TV programming.  This is to a certain extent very shameful. If as  a P&O guest you come from the newer ships, you will not be impressed. The company put new T.V’s in the cabins but did not update the software.  There was no TV program in the cabin when we arrived but the butler found one but they seemed to have been very scarce. When Lesley checked it all, a number of the programs did not run in synch with the times listed. Nor were the channels numbered, named but that did work either.   We had every day to flip through all the channels to find the lectures (first sea day lectures, only appeared on day 3). Lectures  on the 2nd sea day appeared the next day. Lectures on the last sea day, never showed. Can you not do direct streaming and recording ?  There is no digital movie library that you can choose from and that is now standard on 5 star ships. Maybe all the money is spent on the shows but for the longer cruises, this is now standard to have certainly on 5 star ships. There are DVD’s in the library (not manned) but no DVD player in the cabins, so that does not work either. Hopefully somebody in the P&O office will bring Aurora into the modern day.

So as said we really enjoyed the cruise, The few niggles did not deter us but they could have been avoided.

Note: I know that a number of officers on board have followed by blog this cruise. Thank you for doing so, much appreciated. I also hope that you will read this last one. And please pass my observations on to the office. Those who make the decisions are often “layered” away from a direct connection to the “work floor” as every company has a middle group of managers who have no interest in listening to observations that do not fit in their personal” vision”.  So keep pushing.

To all my readers as usual, thank you very much for reading my blog, There are 2900 direct recipients and quite a few more who get  the blog “passed on”  (last year the Google pings reached close to 10,000 on some occasions).  I hope that I have not bored you with my observations and sometimes “ravings and rantings”.  I try to make it as interesting as possible.

Note : My website will go off line for a while, as more and more coding mistakes and software hiccups  are creeping in. Hence the site is going into dry dock and a qualified designer will give it a face lift.

I will be back on 14 October with our next cruise  on the Regent Seven Seas  Voyager as we have not tried that company yet.

Thank you and “smooth seas and following winds” wherever your own travels might take you.

Captain Albert.

2026 August 18; At sea sailing towards Southampton, England.

August 19, 2026 / / 3 Comments

An Electronic chart overview of our whole voyage. These screen shots come from the Navigation channel which has kept me up to date the whole cruise, Although not as good as the real thing, it is good enough to get a good overview.

Today is our 2nd sea day. We have now left the Norwegian Sea behind and have entered the North Sea. By 08.30  the ship joined the Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) off the port of Hull and we will remain sailing in these “highways” at sea until we arrive at the Southampton Pilot Station. Even when sailing through the Straits of Dover, we will be in the Traffic separation zones.  The English channel was one of the first area’s where a TSS was implemented as it is one of the busiest channels in the world. It is and also one of the most chaotic ones, as apart from the North – South  traffic and vice versa, there is also the cross channel traffic, the fishermen and a lot of coastal traffic that stays away from the TSS, but can still come very close.

Entering the TSS on the English side near  Hull.

When looking at the more detailed chart, it looks like it has contracted a bout of measles. The purple lines are Traffic  Separation Schemes, with one on the English side (dark purple). then one in the middle which is especially for the deep drafted tankers,  some of them with a draft so deep that they would run aground if sailing in one of the others. And then there is the 3rd one, which follows the Dutch Coast and is primarily meant to keep the traffic to the Dutch, German and Baltic ports away from the rest of the North Sea.  The blue dimples are depth marks , with water depths less than the standard chart reference which is normally 10 meters.  Most of the time these bumps are wrecks of ships, airplanes  and materials dumped during a long forgotten past. It is not advised to drop the anchor here as it might hit something and blow itself up. Or when retrieving an anchor having a complete 2nd world war lorry hanging on one of the flukes. (That happened to me once, when I was ordered to anchor off the Thames pilot station). Then the sea bed is full of purple wriggly lines, which are communication cables, anchor chains from oil rigs and pipe lines often inter connected between oil wells, still in use, but where the oil rig above water has already been removed.

This 3rd screen shot is what the navigator will have on his screen. Here we see the Aurora approaching the TSS with the intention to join. The Rules say, that when you are going to join a TSS, you should approach it under the smallest possible angle. So that other ships are not confused about your intentions and the Rules of the Road are simple to apply. When crossing, it should be done under a 90o angle or as close as possible to it.

The routes of the TSS, and there where the TSS turns direction are normally marked by a buoy. All ships now have Electronic Charts which come up on the radar screen, so the radar picture (that picks up most of the traffic) shows these buoys on the screen but a secondary confirmation of your position, by looking out of the window is always handy. Last week one of the Saga cruise ships reported that Russia had disturbed their GPS satellite signal so much that they could not enter their scheduled port and had to go to another one. Most ships do not have plan alternative B anymore = paper charts= and rely on a plan B which consists out of an Electronic back up with independent power of the same equipment. When you have such an electronic back up system, paper charts are not required anymore. That is fine during a black out , but not when Putin starts playing around.  If there is an (up-to-date) paper chart on board, then you could resurrect old time navigation again by looking out of the window and taking bearings of land marks and even buoys if necessary.  During the Koeweiti war when Allied forces removed Saddam from power, the President of the United States almost decided to stop the GPS system (which is a USA system) as the Iraqi tanks all had GPS as well for their desert navigation. However when it was realised that the Allied Forces would have been up the creek as well, using the same system, the plan was abandoned.   The Russians have their own GLONASS system and Europe is working on their own Galilei system. All to bring redundancy and to stop one world power from flipping the Big Black Switch.

I did not need GPS to find meyway around the ship today but it would be nice to have a gadget to help with packing. Apart from 4 bottles of Gin (savings, over £100,–) we have not bought very much but for some reason it is always harder to get the clothes back into the suitcase, than you put them in at home. I wonder if there is somewhere a professor out there who has a developed after much testing (packing suitcases) a convincing theory for this.  Without GPS we walked the ship as it is always interesting to see what the guests get up to on the last day. The pub “champions” was well filled with lonely men, most likely turfed out of the cabin by the good wives who were packing.  The Curzon theatre was full for the two lectures, one about the big freeze of 1947 and one about how Viking and Nautical Words have seeped into the English Language.  Most interesting was the shops, who were doing a roaring trade. Since the invention of “On Board Credit”, the shops in general have seen an upswing in sales on the last sea day, compared to the times before.

The Sindhu lunch menu. We found it money well spent.

We had booked lunch in the Sindhu, the Indian restaurant which is also the breakfast place for the suites. We had done a dinner years and years ago on the ms Arcadia of P&O. We had looked at the menu and it did not seemed to have changed very much. But as we were still interested we decided to go for lunch. That costs £ 11.90 a person and brings three courses.  They serve Kingfisher beer, the 650 cc Premium version, so I was directly in heaven.

The ms Arcadia is the 5th. Vista class ship that was pushed over when building, by Carnival from the “Holland America Brand” to the “P&O Brand”. At the ship yard the hull was much modified and then Holland America incorporated those changes in the ms Eurodam and ms Nieuw Amsterdam, being the Signature Class.

Traditional Goan Beef Vindaloo dish. Simple in setup but extremely tasty.

The space of serving, although the food still comes very fast out of the kitchen, is somewhat slower than in the dining rooms and also the waiters have the time for a little chat.  The taste was excellent but they had tuned down the “heat” somewhat as there will be many guests visiting who are not familiar with the dishes. The average British person is very familiar with ordering an Indian Take-away, but the restaurants have little “red pepper” markings next to the the dish, but otherwise they tend to play it safe. so my “Beef Vindaloo” was not as hot as I was expecting it to be, but if the spices are right, it will taste very good, and indeed it did.

And then there was the rest of the afternoon, my struggling to get 3 suitcases packed with aim of getting them packed in the same way as they came to the ship. Should make it easier to get everything back in the correct ward robe when we get home.   We received our “landing papers” and that gave some confusion again as it did not state that we could have Breakfast in our suite restaurant, the Sindhu, only that we could wait there 30 minutes before disembarking (08.10). However our butler confirmed that breakfast would be served. Why not just list all the venues? At 5 pm. the Cruise Director came into the cabin via the P.A over ride to explain the disembarkation process and also forgot to mention that the Lido was open for Breakfast and not only the dining room.

Accumulated pop-up cards in the cabin. It took me two days to realize what was different to this cabin compared to others. It was the number of pop- up notification cards everywhere. No fixed signs, no stickers.  Bathrobes for use, hours forward / back. Flushing the toilet. Don’t take the Bose speaker home and also not the Handwash bottle in the toilet. We later also go a hard copy bill statement, instead on an electronic copy mailed to our Email account,

On other company’s many of these cards have been replaced by fixed signs so the amount of paper used is reduced. P&O, at least on the Aurora has not gotten there yet. Also as the T.V system is very antiquated.  (There is no TV movie library either only 2 streaming channels with movies, but they are not in synch with the TV program and they often do not run on time)  BUT: the captain announced that P&O will start investing in the Aurora so it will be ready for the next 10 years. And that is good news. This is a very nice ship, and excellent for longer cruises. so an update of the T.V system, a spruce up of the public areas (I hope they do not decide on a complete revamp, as that takes some of the ambiance of the public rooms away) would all do the ship very good.

And finally now I have to reveal the real reason  why we are on board.

  • We were asked by Gemma, Lesley’s Chiropodist to take a cruise on the ms Aurora to meet her favourite Cruise Director who had promised her an Aurora-teddy bear.  How could we refuse, any excuse to make a cruise, is a good excuse. Hello Gemma, we have the bear , we are going home tomorrow and you will your teddy bear at your next appointment.

Gemma’s Teddy Bear.

After final cocktails in the Crowsnest and dinner in the dining room it was also time to go to and see the final show. Another performance by the ships cast, the Headliners called “Applause”. This time a compilation of the best known and most successful songs from Broadway and West End musicals.

The Headliners in “Applause”.

This was another very good show and they received a standing ovation at the end. This was their most  high powered & fast costume changing show of all, so quite rightly most of the audience stood up. (Some were beyond getting up, due to age) Maybe also partly as there only had been regular applause during the previous shows.  This is cruise number 5 this year and although the cast of the ms Sky Princess was very good as well, this was the best we have seen this year. The number of shows they can do (eight of them) and also the quality and high octane performance of the group was extraordinary. COMPLIMENTS,

Tomorrow morning the ship will at the Southampton pilot station at 03.00 hrs. and should be docked by 05.30. Then self disembark will start at 06.30 followed by us at 08.30 hrs. If all goes well, we should be home around 17.00 hrs. tomorrow.

As is normal routine, then the day after tomorrow my final blog will be posted: Review and Verdict with the total overview of the cruise.

Weather for tomorrow: Overcast with 22oC, so it should be good driving weather.

.

2026 August 12, At Sea sailing towards Leknes, Lofoten.

August 13, 2026 / / 2 Comments

Today we had a quiet day at sea. The wind came down to a force 3 and the seas although still confused (swell and waves from various directions) also got less and less.  While the good ship ms Aurora sped almost due north with a warp speed of 13 knots. The captain made an announcement advising that the Medivac had taken longer as expected as at the last minute there was no suitable local boat available to transfer the patient and thus he had decided to go back to the dock and do the transfer over the gangway. He did not advise if the patient was doing well, or not, so we are all keeping our fingers crossed.

The whole ship is buzzing about the eclipse, we all got sunglasses last night in the cabin and today’s lectures were about planets, stars and related. We have found the old lectures on the TV in the mean time, it took a while for them to get posted but when flipping through all the programs on the TV we found them this morning. It is not advertised in the TV program for the cabin but later on we also found a note on the display outside the Show lounge, the Curzon theatre. That gave the chance to look at a lecture giving at the beginning of the cruise about the Vikings.  Their  voyages around Western Europe, to Iceland, Greenland, Nova Scotia and also their presence in what is now Russia. Tsar Ivan the Terrible was from Viking stock.

What I did not know that their influence even stretched into modern computer days.  What we now know as Blue Tooth, was taken from a Viking name. Harald BlueTooth. The symbol for a Blue tooth connection are the two first letters of his name in Rune, put together……………….. so that was my cultural contribution to the blog for this cruise.

The well known photo wall from days gone by. Now only in use for Stock photos (5 for £ 50,–) Ordering is done at the other side by means of 2 kiosk consoles (similar as in use at  MacDonalds

I have posted photos of most of the public rooms on board but there are a few more. The photo shop, which harks back to the old days with a wall of printed photos, although that is now only in use for stock photos. 2 digital displays have been installed and with typing in your cabin number your photos come up. There no medallion as with Princess that activates when you get close, so I assume that the photographer notes your cabin number when taking a picture so you can type in your cabin number. We are not completely sure as we have not seen any photographer since we came on board. The other night, there was one in the dining room, coming closer and closer towards our table, and then something went wrong with the camera and the photographer disappeared, never to be seen again.

The Art Gallery on Board. Located in a corridor so you cannot miss it.

Another concessionaire outlet on board is the Art Center. Here on board, same as with Cunard, we have Clarendon Fine Art.  Contrary to what is the norm on the American based ships who have Park West from Miami, Clarendon works less with an auction formula but much more in direct retailing. So the art on display has prices for direct purchase. And some very nice paintings and statues as well. Buy them and you can directly walk off the ship with them. How that works with customs, I do not know, as everything over £ 139,– needs to be declared as import. But guests were buying so it must work.

We are in the cabin

We are out of the cabin

A gadget I really like and apart from Cunard I have not seen any other company doing it, is magnetic door signs. One sign with 2 sides. The advantage is that it does not blow off the door handle when compared to the paper versions that most ships still  have. Especially if they are printed differently on each side. Pick one up from the deck and you do not know which side was on display. Here somebody has to forcefully peel the sing off and then turn the sign around. On Cunard I saw a few children doing  that but the ms Aurora is an adult only ship, so it does not have that problem. Taking about Adult Only cruises on P&O. They have two adult only ships, the Aurora and the Arcadia. However lately they have been designating some cruises as Adult Only and some not, so you have to be careful when booking otherwise you end up on a cruise you might not like.

The Golden Cockerel

With an explanation for the historically less inclined.

Another unusual thing on board is that the Aurora is the holder of the “Golden Cockerel”. This is the internal Blue Riband of P&O Lines and Cruises and dates back into the grey mists of time, when the company had regular liner services to the Far East and Down Under. Then the ships tried to stay on schedule and also tried to improve their schedule. I do not know how far this tradition goes back, but I know that the trophy was given to the ss Oriana of 1960, and then went to the ss Canberra.

 

As the Aurora has a service speed of 24 knots and has sailed with a maximum sustained speed of 25.4 knots she is the fastest ship in the Fleet. 25 knots is already quite high but on trials she reached 29 knots. Hence she got the Golden Cockerel which is now displayed in a corner of the  foyer/square near Guest Services.

One of  my loyal readers asked what, to me, is the difference is between sailing in Alaska and sailing in the Fjords. Let’s start with the similarities. Both areas have a lot of green trees and land, and grey rock mountains. Both areas you can only get into when under pilotage. Both areas have indignous peoples. Indian Tribes in Alaska, Viking descendants in the Fjords.  Both areas are not a great place to be in, in the winter with (horizontal) rain, snow and storms. Both areas have  good viewings of the Aurora Borealis. (The best one I ever saw was in Juneau with purple “wheels” flashing over Mount Roberts.

“Pulpit” Rock in Norway. You can park a ship almost at the bottom of the face (other side of the photo) and look straight up.

The difference is mostly in the height of the mountains and how close they come to the waters edge and very often they are still very steep.  In the Norwegian fjords, (Geirangerfjord, Sondefjord) you can sail within touching distance (*) of the fjord wall and still have 300 feet of water under the keel or more. In Alaska the mountains are more curved and they curve upwards further away from the water. Hence there are normally wide beaches with low foliage near the water line (Great for Bear watching). Even in Grenville Passage and Johnson Return channel which are the narrowest passages in B.C. Inside Passage the mountain faces are not rising straight out of the water. What comes closest is maybe Seymour Narrows, where you go through “the hole” at Maud Island. That is steep near the water line but not very high.

The 750 meter gap in Seymour Narrows. Not so high but still impressive as the gap is quite narrow.

As a result I do not have a real preference. You can get with the ship close to a glacier, in Alaska, to see calving and a lot of  wildlife, but in Norway you can sit under a rock wall and have to put your head in your neck to see the top.  For sailing there is not much difference as the pilots are required to do all the work. For the guests the good thing this, that all of the Norwegian fjords have  5 & 4G phone coverage everywhere, which in Alaska you have to be close to a town.

A Hurtigruten Cruise ship going through a tight opening. Where is the Broomstick ????

(*) A little anecdote told to me by a Norwegian pilot when I went into the Fjords with the Veendam in 2007. A lot of the pilots employed come from the coastal Mail boats, the Hurtigruten and they sailed almost without supervision through the fjords on their watches as it was daily routine. Not as we have on the cruise ships where either the Captain or the Staff Captain is on the bridge when sailing inside. So through the years (this goes back a long, long time) they devised a game  called “broom stick sailing”. Each ship  had a standard length broomstick on the bridge wing. When coming close to a cliff rock in a fjord, the flat bristle bit was pushed against the bridge wing rim so that the stick part was sticking out. Most likely 5 feet or so. The idea was that you then sailed that close that the broom stick-stick hit the cliff rock but not the ship. This pilot claimed that this went on for a long , long time, until AIS was fitted on the ships and the people in the office could see where the ships were at all times.  I did not directly believe it but the harbour master in Bergen confirmed that this was indeed happening and it did not always work well.

Guests on board have the chance to sign up for a visit behind the scenes, as you now can do on nearly every company. You have to pay for it but here with P&O the price is a reasonable £ 85,– for the whole tour; as there are company’s out there who now charge $ 179,–

 

The Classical Duo, the Meridians, Flute and Piano.

Lesley went to see an interview with the whole cast, on the stage in the show lounge, while I took the chance to take photos of the art in the 3 staircases. There is a pattern to the consistent style of paintings hanging on the wall and I will come back about that later. Then we re-united in The Playhouse to listen to the 2nd recital of this cruise by “The Meridian Duette” with Dream Like music by Debussy, Faure, Albeniz and De Falla. The set was called Moonlight & Fire to warm the guests up for the Solar Eclipse. And they were very good again. There was even a classical piece influenced by  Scott Joplin (The Entertainer) I never knew that there was “cross -contamination” also from the light arts to the serious stuff.  The Playhouse/Movie Theatre was packed again, and I expect that when the 3rd recital is coming it will be standing room only.

A very clever way of looking at the eclipse without  having to look into the sun. Just use a reverse pair of binoculars. (Photo courtesy Ruud van Deventer, son of old HAL captain H.L van Deventer)

That warmed us up for the Solar Eclipse, but there was n’t one, at least not on board the ms Aurora. Had it been perfect sunny weather where we were, we would have seen a 1/3 eclipse or so but it was completely overcast. People in middle Europe and Spain had a perfect and even good friends of mine in Holland, far north from the centre of the eclipse could observe at least a very good partial curve. But how hard the guests standing on the outside decks did wish for it, The skies remained overcast. Luckily there are plenty bars on board to get over the disappointment.

The stage setting for the show “Up all night” which center’s around people falling in love and getting engaged in a pub. I could not get a photo of the cast performing as there was that nasty announcement again of “no recording”.

It was 2nd formal night this evening, we have 3 this cruise, and we were able to combine cocktails again with a show in Carmen’s. This time a small Cast Show. It was the full cast complement but on a dance floor about half the floor size of the show lounge.  This was a show set in a Pub having the good English name of the “Cat and Fiddle”. It was very good, we are now becoming used to the very high standards on this ship where entertainment is concerned, but they could have named this the “musical chair show” as I have never see a cast moving soo many chairs, soo many times as part of the show routine.

Tomorrow we are in Leknes, capital of the Lofoten Islands. We are too big to dock in downtown so the ship has to anchor and use the ships tenders. With an official arrival time of 08.00 hrs. I expect that the ship will be at anchor around 07.00 hrs. to lower the 4 tenders and set up the platforms.  The distance from the anchorage to the shore is a 4 tender distance as we sailors call it (one ashore, one at the gangway and 2 sailing opposite) and that should give a smooth operation. As we are in a suite, we have priority tickets so we do not need to get a tender ticket in the lounge.  We are getting up somewhat earlier tomorrow as we want to try the Suite Breakfast in the Sindhu Restaurant. We have not done that yet, as it closes either at 0900 hrs. or 09.30 hrs. and then we are only just waking up. So we will make the effort; one has to experience everything, at least once in a lifetime………….. If it is good, we will do it again.

Weather tomorrow, looks mainly overcast, dry and with a chance of sun breaking through. Temperatures  around 13oC / 53oF and a gentle breeze blowing. England will be facing another blistering hot day, so it looks like that we choose the right period to go away.

 

2026 July 14; Skjolden, Norway.

July 15, 2026 / / 1 Comment

The ms Sky Princess towering over the small dock of Skjolden.

After sailing in for about 5 hours, to the end of Sognefjord, the Sky Princess docked at Skjolden.  A new pier was constructed here a few years ago and since then the big ships have started to call as well. When going ashore, we saw several First Call plaques in the Security Gate souvenir office. The ms Prinsendam from 2011 (when I was on leave), and then the Delfts Blue plates from the Koningsdam, Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam (VII). The dock has been constructed just wide enough for any length cruise ship to be able to put two gangways ashore. Bow and Stern are sticking out and long mooring ropes go to bollards at the edge of the Fjord.   The town is about a 15 minute walk from the ship, which has about 250 or so inhabitants. Downtown is made up of a small Supermarket, the Skjolden Hotel and the Skjolden community center which is made up of a tourist shop, the tourist office,  a small museum,  a community hall and an indoor swimming pool. The latter being used by only 2 people when we were there.

The metropolis of Skjolden with most of the 250 peoples houses in the photo. The first row at the water, just above the curve in the road are Air bnb’s mainly occupied by the Dutch and the Belgians.

Skjolden calls itself “The Gateway to the Norwegian National Parks”, so this is primarily a shore excursion stop for the ship. With full day tours but also a 1 hour shuttle service to the nearest glacier. But a very large majority of the guests opted to march into town and in the case of our Japanese Groups on board, who once again were leading the invasion, to march straight through it as they did not realise that there was not really a downtown.  But the seemed to be impressed by the local bus top, as several took photos when having a seat inside. The route from the ship to the town, led along a number of holiday homes, which were occupied/rented by the Dutch and the Belgians, followed by the option to row in a real Viking boat, do some real Viking Axe throwing or go on a RIB speed boat adventure along the fjord. For the latter one everybody suited up in Survival Suits which for today was a bit over the top as the water was as flat as a mirror.

This is downtown Skjolden with the prominent hotel and visitor center to the left. Not visible but of equal importance the local Co-op shop.

Skjolden is famous for its Cinnamon buns. Sold in the port office and also along the walking road in the two restaurants. The man in the port office said that he baked each day, when there was a big ship in, 540 of them and he normally sold them all. Where the precise number of 540 came from, remained unclear, but maybe that was the maximum capacity of his oven. Interesting to see was also that the souvenir shops were manned by first time immigrants as the lady in port office shop did not look at all like a tall Norwegian Hilde but much more like a seductive Shehezarade.

Norwegians from around Skjolden,from around the turn of the century leaning against their home. Only  one looks like a Viking, the rest could have been from anywhere.

While in the little museum, looking at a wall of old photos which showed farmers living in small wooden farms, I suddenly realised that our (movie) perception of tall blonde Vikings was not exactly correct. Most of the farmers in the photos where not towering Vikings with blond hair and blue eyes, but of small and slender size and had black hair and brown eyes. Even the local family who operated the Co-op store in “downtown” were black haired.  Maybe the Viking imported a lot of Dark haired maidens from their raiding adventures down south, than they are given credit for. No doubt one day a scientist will do a large scale DNA test in the fjords and then find out that the Romans made it up to Skjolden as well.

The local Viking Boat, where against payment, you could row yourself (with 12 others) around the fjord.

So we marched to town and marched back again. We could not get lost as 2000+ of our guests were strung out along the same path as well. The bike rental man did a roaring trade. When we went towards town there were about a 100 bikes waiting, when we came back 1 hour later, they were all gone. He even rented out the option of having a baby box on wheels to be towed behind the bike. This is a safe area to bike as you only come across a few coaches on the road and some locals and tourists, so even if you bike on the wrong side of the road, the other road users are expecting it.

Back on board, we had to face the challenge of where to have lunch as we had not eaten for at least 3 hours and that is a dangerous situation for a cruise ship guest.

Pizza Alfredo. According to the Internet experts, Princess has the best pizza’s on the high seas. I am not an expert but they were very good and very fresh.

Flash back to yesterday. Yesterday with the whole ship ashore we went to Alfredo’s which is a  pizzeria on Deck 7 in the Atrium. Capacity is about a 100 guests but there were only 6 of us, the rest was ashore in Bergen. So good service and with the pizza’s freshly made and not on the conveyor belt system that is needed to keep up with a full house. Even the pizza chef was Italian (or at least he said so) so what else can you ask for ? With our on Board Princess Premium package drinks we can have included drinks up to $ 20,– a glass (with a maximum of 15 drinks a day) so we settled on a Merillo California Pinot Noir, or almost a Pinot Noir as it was slightly blended. It had to stand in for the Bet Gloss a real Pinot Noir, which was out of stock. Some Italian pizzeria’s are embarrassed to serve Hawaiian Pizza but not here, so I was a happy camper to  be able to order a Pizza Hawaiian. And it was excellent. Back to today.

So now today we decided to get some nibbles from our Concierge Lounge as we were not in the mood for a full sit down lunch. But the amount of nibbles and salads available is more then enough to consider it a full lunch. According to our lovely waitress Irma who had the lunch shift, there were never many people there on short cruises and in port, but during a crossing the Lounge was very well frequented.

The buffet in the Concierge Lounge with waitress Irma.

The problem with a buffet like this, even when small, but without anybody else milling around you end up going back a few times, so you still end up with a full meal. Especially if the breaded chicken sandwiches are so very good.  Plus free drinks and impeccable service one can easily while away the hours.

Her Ladyship taking full advantage of what was on offer.

What was missing on the buffet, a nice piece of cake (there were small chocolate cupcakes but not the bigger stuff) So an expedition to the “International Cafe” had to be made. Where they serve Pound Cake in three different versions.  Coffee is $ 5,— but included in our package.

The “International Cafe” on Deck 5.  This is a very quiet moment with only 3 customers inline for coffee. On a sea day I counted 5 waiters serving coffee and 4 bakers serving and re-supplying the sandwiches, cakes and buns.

Today the ship was much busier as the non-tour guests completed their visit to the metropolis of Skjolden in the same time frame as we did and then ran back to secure a stretcher in the sun.  The “World Fresh Market Place” (Lido) was busy and so was the “Salty Dog Grill”. This is the Hamburger Bar. We have not tried it yet but the portions looked very large. But we managed to get an soft ice cream as the crowd with “little Johnny’s” had mainly been replaced with a queue of old “Johnny’s but still eating soft ice.

Then it was back to investigate the ship.

…….to investigate the photo shop if our formal photos were in. You can check them all on the App and then download them, but Lesley has now made it a habit of checking them on the big screen, deleting the bad ones (the photographers post all of what they took) and then later download the good ones. On the big screen you can also mark those you really like and order hard copy’s. We are entitled to 3 hard copy’s with our package and we will make a selection on the one by last day. Unfortunately, for me, the ships photos are not included.

As we were curious, whether the Concierge Lounge was used in the evening for cocktails, we decided to go in at 17.30 hrs. when the free drinks started. and indeed about 10 people where there and a piano player, using the piano in the Wedding chapel, with the doors open towards the lounge.  Then we had a reservation for the general (one of 3) restaurant Cielo at 18.50 hrs. This one is located at the stern of the ship on deck 6. Making a reservation is necessary because of the vast numbers of guests on board. Even with reservations a line had built up.  Following the flow during dinner, it is better to go around 1930 hrs, when it became quieter. But then there is the chance you are late for the Show, which starts at 21.30 hrs. and the theatre doors close promptly.

The aft part of the Cielo Restaurant near the stern of the ship. We had the table for two on the left. For the rest we were surrounded by single ladies.

This was the first main dining room dinner that we did and it was sort of indifferent. The food was good but not special, the service was ok, but not very personable. Again due to time constraints as the staff is friendly enough. But in this case it served us well as we made it to the Theatre just after 9 pm. when the doors opened. And thus we could pick at seat that was up to satisfaction of my Lord & Master.

5 skies show, with the damsel in distress projected in the middle.

Tonight’s show was 5-skies. Something totally different than we have ever seen before. It was basically a computer program based show. The hero gamer had to complete five levels of the 5-skies game, to save a damsel in distress (A digital damsel). So the stage was  very futuristic in setup but the show was extremely good again. We got the show with an un-expected cameo by the captain, as he announced that the ship was gearing up for a medical evacuation. With the order for everybody to stay away from the balconies and no flash camera’s.  Normally  you do not have to announce this in the show theatre but there is always the chance that an important officer or team member is in the show and this is the best way to get them out. The ships crew has either walkie – talkies or beeper but have not progressed yet to beeper phones as I saw the hotel manager, during the day, constantly hunting for a phone each time his beeper went off.  I was impressed that when the captain made the announcement the whole  show stopped and then continued again as if nothing had happened. All music and lights just came back, the cast continued their routine without a glitch. I wonder if that was a built-in routine or the stage crew had been rehearsing it. When the all clear was given after the show by captain again, the same happened in the Atrium, Stop – announcement – Start and no hiccup. Very impressed.

During the medivac the ship was still in the outer reaches of the Sogne Fjord so it did not have to deviate to meet an helicopter somewhere. There would have been an helicopter station nearby as the pilots use helicopters all the time during inclement weather.

Tomorrow we are in Olden, which is located at the edge of the Fajeidtfjorden, which is a branch of the Innvikfjorden which is an inner arm of the Nordfjord system. That means another early morning for the captain for a sail in unless he delegates to the Staff Captain which under BRM navigation rules is nowadays allowed. Weather tomorrow, another sunny day with temperatures in the low 20oC / 68oC. The predicted 29oC/80oF heatwave is petering out quickly so we are having the most perfect cruise weather you can think of.

 

Day 08, 22 April 2026, Southampton, Final Verdict

April 29, 2026 / / 8 Comments

The good ship Borealis safely docked at 05.15 hrs. in the morning, to be in time to get the longshoremen on board for the luggage offloading. They almost managed that on the time that Fred Olsen had planned, so it was only with a small delay that the Self-Disembark could leave followed by the color coded tags. And we were off by 08.15 hrs.  The only hurdle was for the early disembarkers; that it was Self Disembark on the paperwork but the Cruise Director called it “Priority Disembark” so half the people who were waiting  for the announcement “Self Disembark” were, understandably confused and did not directly leave.

We were not confused but then we had our regular lable sequence. By 08.45 we were back at the Hotel to collect the car and shortly after we were on the road.

So what is the final verdict for this cruise. We sailed with this ship before and then we had the Penthouse (1 of the 4 on board). Based on that experience, the only thing that was less than before was the stewardess cabin service. For the rest the product is very consistent and for 4 Star very good.

The”glare” test that I do on every ship was high with a “97%”. Some ships make the 100% (Azamara) some go well below (Cunard).

So there are the Pro’s and Con’s of this cruise.

Pros:
1. Nice spacious ship, the space ratio is close to 40 for an HAL – R class ship (1304 pax) and with about 1040 guests on board, there was even more space to walk around and find a seat in the public spaces.
2. Very friendly crew. The “Glare” applied gave a score of 97%, with only one hotel officer, one hotel crew, one deck sailor and one engineer failing to smile and be friendly.
3. Drinks included during lunch and dinner.
4. Dining room open every day, also in port.
5. Proper Captains welcome, and farewell party with drinks and appetizers.
6. “Repeater party” with drinks, appetizers, speech by the Captain. This cruise there were 741 repeat guests on board (or 71% of the total on board) with the majority having done around 100 days. The top scorers this cruise were a couple with 1200+ days.
7. Restoration of the Pizzeria on Deck 9.

Cons:
1. Operational let down with the shuttle service “to nowhere” in the port of La Pallice, while the company website advised that there would a free shuttle to the center of the nearest town, if the distance to the town is more than a mile. So no compliance by shipboard with company cruise contract.
2. Changing formal from the 2nd seaday to the next port day, against the promise on the website which is part of the cruise contract Only mentioning “Operational Reasons” is not the way to treat the guests who pay your salary. So no compliance with company rules and no explanation.
3. The degradation of the atmosphere of the Colours and Taste restaurant where table cloths have disappeared and people walking by can now do “window shopping” as the large windows into the corridor have no curtains. It reminded me of facilities available in a certain part of Amsterdam, except here you can see “guests in their natural environment eating”.  However the Hotel Director said that more paintings and curtains were coming in next dry dock, sometime in 2027. Why that has to be done in dry dock I do not know, as it is a job well within the capabilities of the ships carpenters. But then every company has it own routines.
4. Lectures were not posted on the TV. We found several from the cruise before (only to be removed 2 days into the cruise) but none of this cruise. And this cruise it was even more important than normal as with the work going on in the show lounge, the lectures were moved to the Auditorium (movie theatre) which seats on 299 instead of the 752 of the show lounge. Somehow ships staff was not aware of the guiding principle of “Leadership is the Management of change”.
5. Free Laundry or reduced laundry price vouchers. We did not get them. When enquiring at the Front Desk it turned out that a “voucher” is not a voucher as in paper voucher but an automatically applied discount by the Laundry Master when sending down the laundry. For the penthouses, it is free laundry, for the big suites, 10%. Why do we need the confusion as this can be so easily explained beforehand.
6. No meet and greet from cabin stewardess on arrival. When we finally met her 3 days later, the excuse was that WE were not there, when she came to our cabin. Correct she came to our cabin at 19.00  hrs. and that was cocktail time. But we were in the cabin all afternoon unpacking, and that is when meet-and-greet normally takes place. Previous visit, when we had one of the 4 penthouses and the time when we were on one of the lower decks, the stewardess was also waiting for our arrival (and as a – penthouse- bonus even the chief house keeper popped up). We also found many mistakes of incomplete cabin service this cruise so not impressed. There was something missing every day.
7. 2nd formal evening moved to a port day, for no apparent reason, except “operational reasons” cited by the ship. The Fred Olsen website states that it should have been on the 2nd sea day but the ship moved it to the next port day which was a tender port with a late departure. During the HD’s table, we asked the Asst HD and he claimed that this “had always been planned this way”. Very strange because:

a. The Fred website listed differently.

b. Guest Services Desk and Dining room knew that it had been changed recently, although they were not told why.

Can somebody teach this AHD and the rest of the ships staff that honesty and transparency works better than obfuscation ?

Fred Olsen Cruises is a typical British Product (which includes Ireland in this case) and thus one sees very few non British, unless attached to a British person like me to my British wife. Would it be a good product for North Americans:, yes  but it helps if you like Great Britain, like to dress up, like cocktail time, and are aware what “bangers and mash” is.

Our next cruise is at the end of May 2026, and will be a 5 day investigation of the MSC Virtuosa. We do not like big and noisy ships but they have the “Yacht Club” cabins with its own bar and dining room, where you can retreat to when the rest of the ship becomes too much. We have never done an MSC cruise but as the ship leaves from Southampton,  why not ???

Dear Readers, hopefully you will joins us again, even if my observations are not always “politically correct”.

 

A final nice touch, as least for shippy people. Fred Olsen ships always had a bronze bow figure. If a ship left the company, then the figure was taken off and stored in the garden of the Olsen house on the Oslofjord until it was needed again. With the Borealis and Bolette it does not look good to put one on the bow, so they have one on the Aft Lido Deck. I still have to find out from which ship this one once came.

 

Day 06, 20 April 2026; St.Malo, France.

April 21, 2026 / / 0 Comments

The Old town of St Malo, it looks old but it is mainly rebuilt with new stone after WWII.

The good ship Borealis arrived this morning around 08.00 at the anchorage. This is a more peculiar anchorage as the ship “anchors” on a mooring buoy forward and a mooring buoy aft, by bringing out mooring ropes. Due to the tide which runs between 4 and 5 meters (12 and 15 feet) the ship has to anchor in a sort of under water bath tub to keep enough water under the keel to remain afloat during low water. The ship cannot anchor mid stream as the current there too strong and also the river too deep to bring out an anchor safely. Then also it would swing around on the tide every 6 hours and that it can only do that here by going one way around (towards the town) because if it would swing the other way, it would run aground on the flats. Thus the ship sits at this special anchor location and then tenders sail across the river to the other side where the local port is. The local port is made up of floating pontoons so the boats go up and down with the tide and do not have to adjust their mooring ropes all the time.

The ms Borealis at anchor at St. Malo. This photo was taken from the fish-landing place.

We were given one spot to dock, at the dock of the local pilot boat, and as the ship operated with 4 tenders (1 ashore, 1 at the gangway, 1 going out, 1 coming back) a good routine was kept during the day. I do not think that the captain was aware (he has never been here before) that the bringing out the mooring ropes (4 forward and 4 aft) takes a considerable amount of time, so tender service started a bit on the late side but by 11 am, when we were called for our tender ticket, the schedule was back on track again and it was open tenders by 11.45 am.

The aft mooring buoy with line tender. This boat takes the mooring lines from the ship. one by one, put the eye of the rope on the hook and then the ships winches pull all 4 ropes tight. Same process at the bow Very effective but it takes time.

Thus at 11 am we took the tender over to the pilot dock and from there we were guided through the Ferry terminal into to the ferry carpark and from there we could walk to the old city. The city was old before 1945 but was then extensivly bombed and fought over during the invasion of Normandy.  But after the war, the whole town was rebuilt stone by stone and now most of it, is completely back to what it looked like before the war. It is a well loved tourist spot, not only for the cruise ships, but also for the French themselves. So it is in a way a real tourist trap but a very charming one. The main streets, those who run from Gate to Gate, are given over to shops on the ground floor with apartments above. Living inside the “Muros” as it is called, is norwal way of town life; with normal houses and apartments, some even with parking. The Real Estate prices are not cheap, being around euros 325K for a 2 bed, one bathroom, without parking. And no lifts for the upper floors.

The main street of St. Malo. the street curves upwards as it is all on a hill with the church on top. This street has a very nice mix of restaurants, tourist shops, regular shops and a small super market. Upper levels are Apartments.

Inside, along the South wall, a whole street is given over to restaurants, many of them fish restaurants as local fishermen bring every morning the fresh catch of the night before. This happens right at the West Gate and then little vans take the fish and other seafood to the customers. Unfortunatelly we could not see what was going on in the local market “Les Halles” which are open for business every morning from 0800 to 1230 except on Monday. But there were sufficient shops around who sold all the local provincial specialities to make up for it.

The “Bol Breton” for drinking coffee and choclate the French way.

So we walked around in the sunshine and in the town nicely out of the wind, and supported the local economy with a few purchases. One of the local products is the “Bol Breton” a coffee / soup pot with 2 clips to hold it at each side. This small pot is used for drinking coffee or chocolate. They sell them in 2 sizes, with the smaller one for the children. The attraction here is is that you can get them with your name on it. So most shops have a whole wall with racks full of pots with the most common and some uncommon names. So we found an Albert and a Leslie (not the completely correct spelling, as the female way is Lesley with the y at the end) and bought 2. And we were far from the only ones. They were about 11 euro’s each and a lot of french families were doing the same as I expect that little Pierre and little Francoise get through a lot of them.

One of the Tourist shops with a large assortment of “Bol Breton” with different names.

Architecturally the most interesting item is the church of St. Martin in the middle of the town, which features some nice stained-glass windows. But it looked like  that most of the visitors were to some extent much less interested in culture, but much more intertested into sitting on the terraces and having a drink. And out of the wind (hiding behind the walls) this was very pleasant indeed. It takes about 1.5 hrs. to walk all the main streets of the walled city and the city walls prevent you from getting lost so you always end up again at a City Gate and from there you can see the tender dock.

The local fish delivery. Only one dock but the boats came in, one after the other. Ensuring that the local restaurants had an ample supply of fresh fish.

Some guests had taken the Transfer to the large city of Rennes and reported later that they were “sort of underwhelmed” as the shops in Rennes were all closed. And that while the Daily Program advised that they were open. We all are getting more and more the impression that the daily programs are not much scrutinized by management before they go to the printer. We came across the same thing later in the evening, when we looked for music to listen to and found that the schedule in the program was completely different to what the musicians were doing and where they were scheduled to pop up.

The town has been very nicely restored with all the medieval features put back. But if one looks closely (see behind the traffic sign) one can see that a lot of new brickwork was needed.

Back on board, we fell into the “Lido trap” by deciding to have only a small lunch, with an eye on the early 18.00 dinner., but then one walks by the dessert, ice and cheese counter and all good intentions go straight out of the window.

Last tender was at 19.00 hrs. but most guests were back early as we had the Captain’s farewell party. One at 17.00 hrs. and one at 19.00 hrs. But even at 17.00 hrs. (first sitting) only the lower level was full, with approx. 400 guests and I saw a larger number than usual of guests not having dressed up, sitting on the upper level, watching but where there was no service. Courtesy of management deciding to move the formal day/night from a sea day to a port day & with a late departure.

We had been invited to the Hotel Director’s table, a lady who had worked for Fred Olsen, then for Hebridean Princess, and then back to Fred. Contrary to what I am normally used to, she did not host cocktails before dinner but stood in line to say hello at the  entrance to the  Farewell Party. Same thing as with the repeater party, the whole ships staff were standing in the entrance to say Hallo and then to disappear again. Why not socialize a little bit if you are there anyway ? The Farewell party had free flowing wine, beer and G&T’s again, ample appetizers and with the Captain reading out how much food had been consumed and then introducing the “drivers” of the ship as he was always asked who “was driving the ship” if he was not on the bridge. So a first Officer (Croatia), a 3rd officer (philippines) and a cadet (english) were introduced. This was followed by a small group of regular crew, two rows of 10) where the front row were all asked where they were from. A small group as this was all the ship could do during the build up to dinner and cocktail time.

St Malo as seen from the ship. Tender ride to the dock is about 10 minutes.

Then we had dinner at my old Captains table, where I almost got mad at the Maitre’d Hotel, with the table setup. All the males at one side and all the females at the other side. So I Lesley and I shifted seats to bring some balance but with 2 single ladies sitting next to each other, then the Hotel Director and then yet another Lady it still was not as it should be. The opposite of the Hotel Director was the Asst. Hotel Director, nothing against him but one would expect that at least he would be in the ship to keep an eye on the Hotel operations. He showed up too late for the table photo and that sort of proved my point.

For the rest it was a nice experience as everybody was chatting away. All guests were from the bigger suites and half were from first and half from 2nd sitting. Then Hotel Director and Ass.HD excused themselves again to go to the next Farewell Party. I appreciated the hospitality by being invited but WHY DOING ALL THIS on a port day and being rushed with the Farewell Party going on as well.

Tonights show was the crew show, which they do in 2 sittings. We decided not to go, as we know all the philipino “main entries” and secondly it is so widly popular with the guests, why take space away from others? So we looked for some other entertainment and ended up in the Ocean Bar only to find that the piano player scheduled, was playing in the Morning Light pub instead. But it gave the opportunity to see departure with the ship sailing out of port (only a short distance to open sea) and then curving around the anchorage and outlaying islands to head northwards to our final port of call.

Tomorrow we will be in Cherbourg and we will go across the road to the Oceanographic Museum, called the “Cite de La Mer”, to visit the bookshop. The town lays on a shuttle to the town but one can also walk it as downtown is only 15 minutes away. Then between 10 am and 12 noon there is local dancing in the terminal, which is always nice for guests who do not want to venture into town. Weather for tomorrow: Partly Cloudy, with a cold strong wind and temperatures around 10oC / 50oF.

Day 04; 18 April 2026; La Pallice, France.

April 19, 2026 / / 1 Comment

We docked this morning at 07.00 hrs. at La Pallice an industrial port on the West coast of France. This is really a gateway port for visits to La Rochelle, which is a nice old city that was not much affected by the bombing in the 2nd world war. The houses are mainly built of a white sand stone in the old town, giving it the nickname “La Ville Blanche” or white town. The world war was around here as La Pallice has a big 2nd world U-boat port, a massive concrete block providing shelter for docked submarines coming back from their North Atlantic patrols. We had already figured out, hurrah for google maps, that not much was going on in La Pallice so we had gotten ourselves Transfer Tickets for an afternoon visit to La Rochelle. The port had laid on a shuttle service to the entrance of the port (a 5 minute drive) as it is not allowed to walk from the ship to the dock gate. So large number of guests hopped onto this shuttle service and when arriving at the Gate found out that there was nothing there. Some managed an Uber ride or to take the hourly bus but for the majority there was nothing but to take the shuttle back.

A google map of La Rochelle. All the vertical roads are pedestrian shopping areas.

The ship had announced that there would be taxi’s and local busses there but we did not see anything at all, when we came by in the afternoon. Not that we expected anything very much as it was Saturday and then in France the people work a little bit less, and that includes the taxi drivers. (We even only saw very few taxis in down town La Rochelle) So the Ladies at the Guest Services Desk on board, faced a lot of comments and complaints from guests who considered themselves “misled” about the information provided.  These guests had nowhere to go as the ship had only been able to arrrange for 6 buses in total. 4 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon for the transfer to La Rochelle.

Another new thing for me. I had never seen a two level Merry-go-around before. Not visible in the photo, but there is a fixed staircase allowing access to the upper level.

After breakfast in the cabin, we moved to the Observatory to give our cabin stewardess the chance to service the cabin. We still have not met her, as she is either hiding in one of the other cabins or comes rushing by in a great hurry. With the suites it is harder to catch the cabin stewards / stewardesses as the cabins are big enough to roll their cleaning trolley into the cabin and then close the door. Then they leave a note on the door knob, saying, “cleaning in progress”. But we will catch her some time in the coming days.

Then a quick lunch in the Lido restaurant followed by assembling in the Auditorium so we could march in a organised column ashore to the buses. The word marching is a little bit over the top here, as we started as the last of the column and were the first to reach the coach, being considered “quick advancing” Infantery. The “cavallery” made up of rollators, wheel chairs and supporting troops, took somewhat longer.

To the left you can see one of the many arches covering entrances to shops. Not many shoppers to be seen as they all stayed off the street in the shade.

It is about a 25 minute ride from the La Pallice dock to the main bus station in La Rochelle. Not very scenic as it is an industrial area but the bus station is right at the edge of the old town so very practical. We had about 2.5 hrs. to walk around the town, have a drink and then be back on board by 18.00 hrs.

La Rochelle is a bit of an odd fish among all the old french towns. First of all it has always been a strong hold of Protestants in a very Roman Catholic country, and still survived and prospered. When greatly reconstructed in the 18th. century they set back the shops somewhat so the pavement in front of the shops was covered by a hangover of the first floor. So a large number of shops can be reached while walking nicely in the shade of the arches, well away from the burning sun. The city walls facing the sea have been very well preserved as well as the Old harbour which is adjacent to the old city center and really the focus point of the night life of the town. From this old port most of the French immigrated to Canada to populate the areas around the St. Lawrence River and the province of Quebec. So if you find that the Quebecois speak a strange version of French; they speak the French that was common around La Rochelle in the 17th. century.

The one street without the arches/ covered walkway, forced everything into the main street, and as one can see, it was busy.

So we followed the throng of visitors and residents that flowed under the arches and along the shops through the old town. To my amazement there were even 2nd hand bookshops her and a real absence of large department stores. Most “names” in clothing and fashion had their own small or larger boutique or had bundled forces in what they call here a “Comptoire” where several brands had joined in together and rented one shop. We saw that for fashion, farm products, wine and some other merchandise. Unfortunatelly, no maritime books for me as an eager collector, what they had was already in my collection, so I have to keep my hopes high for new books in Cherbourg.

Apart from shopping, there are several museums and old buildings to visit, but it being a Saturday, the lines were rather long. Same went for the terraces outside the cafe’s; choch-a -bloc with people enjoying the beautiful weather. Except one cafe, nobody sitting outside. So our first thought was, what is wrong here? Well after some scrutiny, there wasn’t anything wrong. They were just different, there were no ashtrays on the tables. That seemed to have put everybody off. But it attracted us like a magnet and so we sat down and could watch the world go by.

The old port. Protected by two large towers. In the old days a slighly submerged thick iron chain ran between them, keeping unwanted visitors out.

And quite an interesting world it was. The area here is for pedestrians only, except electric buses (free of charge for the downtown area, so we saw a lot of elderly people hopping on and off) and bicycles which were zipping by in large numbers, families on small and large bikes and families with family bikes (3 wheelers with a box on the front for the childeren or the dog). Then things were livened up even more, with a protest march again the occupation of Gaza by Israel. As far as my French goes, it seemed that the main bone of contention that France was supplying Israel with weaponry. That was something I did not know. I knew that France was big in the Arab and African world but that most of the supplies for Israel came from the US, the UK and Germany. So I learned something new again. Who says that cruising is not educational; and here I was, sitting on a French terrace in La Rochelle, drinking a Craft beer brewed in Corse.

Her Ladyship having a diet coke on the terrace.

What was also interesting was that there was still some sort of Guild grouping system in place, as was standard in the middle ages, The road of the goldsmiths, the road of the carpenters / joiners, the road of butchers, etc.etc. You do not see that very much anymore, except in Arabian Souks and in Nothern Europe were you have nowadays the “street of the Real Estate Agents”, as the latter tends to group together to improve business. But here in La Rochelle we found the road of the hairdressers. Within 2 blocks of houses there were 10 of them. Some male or female only, some in combination with beauty services or with massage. Most of them had also their prices on display, so you could even window shop before making your choice.

Our local entertainment for cocktails this evening.

We were back on the coach by 17.25 hrs. and after the regular confusion of guests missing (gone home or having gone back on the other coach) we raced to the ship. And then we had an immigration inspection. It is a requirement in France to carry one’s passport (or in my case my European I.D card) and it seems that the French do check if you do so. And so I ran into a short French moment of confusion……..when they found a Dutchman with an European I.D card on a British ship. How was that possible ? Hence I had to be verified against the ships manifest and then got my card back from a rather mystified French immigration officer. Clearly not comprehending why a Dutch man would travel with a bunch of limey’s. Well he was going to be mystified again at least one more time as there is also a German lady on board…………. Of course there were a few British who had not taken their passport ashore but they were pushed through with a gallic shrug and with body language of “get them back to their island as fast as possible”. A lot of British people do not realize that immigration officers in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Spain are not very happy at all about Brexit and it shines through during passport check. It has given them a lot more work and on the continent none of them really understands the reason why the split happened in the first place.

When we came to the gangway we had confusion with our ID cards again. As mentioned on day zero, something had gone wrong and our photos had been switched. That was corrected by Guest Services and for the next two days all was well in the world. Now coming back the security computer had found a new variation; both our ships I.D cards had my photo on it. So we went back to Guest Services and the now the manager came out, totally puzzled. The solution was to do a complete reset of the system during the night. We will find out in the next port if it worked.

Back on board it was time to change and watch sail away from the Obervatory again. This evening’s entertainment was provided by Howard Johnson, the resident guitar player. Apart from the late night pianist, all entertainers rotate through the public venues, so if you go to the same lounge every evening, you see eventually all the entertainment coming by. He played a series of 60’s and 70’s songs (Bee Gees, Beatles, Carpenters) while we watched the ship sail out of the bay of La Pallice. For dinner there were many tables empty, guests worn out and going to bed or chosing the Buffet Restaurant. There is one speciality Restaurant on board, Colours and Tastes, which has a very good menu but the space has been upgraded and does not look that great anymore. More about that tommorrow as we have booked Italian night.

During dinner the Dining room Manager came by with an invite  us for dinner at the Hotel Driector’s table. I know that the Captain does not do any tables this cruise, the cruise schedule is too tight to sit comfortably in the dining room, so a management decision had been made to invite us to the Hotel Directors table. That is going to be quite interesting as this Lady worked for a long time for Hebridean Cruises, where we made a cruise last year. See the write up and review on this website, under cruise reviews.

The only thing that marred this, was that some body on the ship had decided to switch the 2nd Formal Night from tomorrows sea day to the port day after and with it the formal table. That does not make sense at all, as now it means that people coming back from shore in St. Malo, have to hurry or go back early , will be tired and having to deal with a tender service (not air-conditioned) and then rush to change into formal gear. Not exactly a gracious experience. Also tomorrow is the repeater party which could have been an elegant affair, if all would have been formal. And most British like to dress up, and now that option is taken away. Now it is casual and that result in a very “personal”  interpretation. I saw a football T shirt in the diningroom the other evening, and that is a Very personal intrepetation of Elegantly.

Tonight there was the Chef’ table (100 pounds a person) in the back of the Colours and Taste Restaurant and we saw that the long table was full with 10 guests. Music was provided by the duty pianist (that is roving pianist with a mobile electronic piano who fills gaps in the entertainment program everywhere) He had set up in the front of the restaurant and provided background music. The restaurant was kept empty for the rest and I wonder if 1000 pounds revenue, with all the extra labour it takes to do a Chef’s table, made up for the lost revenue of having all the other tables closed.

The regular entertainers of the ship. With a sixties themed show.

For the show we had the ships cast again, who brought a compilation of mainly 1960’s music, including the psychedilic costumes that went with it, those were THE thing when Carnaby Street in London was at the top of its game. Again the show was very good and so thought many other guests as they had all stayed up for the show, after a busy day in La Rochelle.

Tomorrow we are  at sea, as the distance to St. Malo is too long to do it in an overnight but as it is not that long, we now only have to run at a speed of 11 knots. Weather tomorrow at sea:  Sunny but breezy with increasing winds in the afternoon, temperatures 14oC / 57oF when not in the wind.

France might be all about wine but the Corsicans make an excellent light IPA.

 

Day 03; 17 April 2026, Pauillac France, 2nd day.

April 18, 2026 / / 0 Comments

So what does one do when one is in a port like Pauillac for a 2nd day. We have been extensively to Bordeaux when we were there with the Prinsendam and also docked overnight. We looked at the wine options for today but as we both like white German and Austrian Wine (Veltliner is a firm favourite) and Bordeaux is a red wine area that was not a great idea. Pauillac is not very exciting for the rest as we found out during the first day so we decided to stay on board. A lot of guests had decided to do the same, so the bars and public rooms were buzzing. During lunch (you are asked if, when coming in, you want to have a shared table during lunch as only part of the diningroom is used) and that is most of the time very nice as most British are very chatty and love a good natter, especially when combined with free wine. The people at the table had been on a wine tour and were quite disappointed. Cheap wine was served as samplers and they were then being  tempted to buy a bottle of Chateau Margaux for 500+ euro’s while the same bottle had been seen for 51,– british pounds at Waitrose. (This is an english supermarket chain which is a bit upmarket, providing better service  and also better quality brands).

Our lunch menu for the day. It does not show the free wines, but normally there is a chardonnay, a sauvignon blanc and a red merlot. Then heineken draft beer and a regular sodas, all included.

I do not know if the Lady did not mix up a Grand Cru with an standard “Appelation Controle”, but she considered herself an expert so we had to believe her. Staying on board is easy as a. there are plenty of seats in the public rooms, b. we have a nice suite on deck 7, which Holland America calls Neptune Suites. Fred Olsen kept them the same apart from not having the Neptune Lounge for nibbles. But we get canape’s at 17.00 hrs. every day so with a drink it nicely covers the period until the music (for 2nd sitting) starts in the main lounges.

This is the Library of what was called the Exploration Center with HAL. Now it is dedicated to Sir Richard Attenborough with a large number of nature books to support it. As the Coffee counter is just around the corner, all tables are numbered so you can wait for the drinks while they are being made. There were a lot less tables here during HAL days.s the Library of what was called the Exploration Center with HAL. 

During the morning there was suddenly another General Drill and we wondered why. Was the captain not happy with the drill yesterday, so decided with a repeat or what else ??. Then during the course of the multiple announcements made, we realized that they had Port State Control to verify the ships documents and Solas compliance. A ship normally gets new ships papers each year, issued by Lloyd Register or another approved company (like Rina in Italy or Germanischer Lloyd in Germany). This is normally done after a full ship inspection and drill. The certificates issued are then accepted by the Flag State (in this case the Bahamas for the Borealis) as valid for their adminstration to issue the sailing certificates.

Then there is the Paris MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) who monitors on behalf of the connected countries, the standards on the ships with ad-hoc inspections, normally every six months. The results are listed on the website and if there are deficiencies found by port state officers in Spain then they can be verified by port state officers in Greece. etc.etc. Most of the world is connected to this, except the USA where the USCG does their own thing. Hence when a ship comes to a USA port for the first time it has to go through a full inspection, regardless whether the ship had one a week earlier in a European port. But such is politics.

The Coffee bar. Unchanged from HAL days. But the chocolates and cookies on display are not freebies any more, all is for sale.

So The Borealis had Port State today and they had to go through the full sequence with Fire drill, assembly drill and the boat lowering routine. Then the Port State Officials moved on to checking other vital safety systems, causing the lifts to go out of service for more than 45 minutes, while they were connected to the Emergency Generator. This gets normally done each week and although an announcement is made that the lifts might be out of order, it is normally not the case, as the Emergency Generator can provide enough power to handle all the lifts. Today something must have happened as 45 minutes of no lifts at all is rather unusual. But we sailed on time, so things must have been corrected.

Appetizers for in the cabin. And what is nice that it comes with a explanation so that mere mortals, like us, who are not that posh, also know what we are enjoing.

Let’s correct this, we sailed almost on time. With the departure time being set at 18.45 hrs. and with the ship pulling out at 19.15 hrs. As usual, the delay was caused by late returning tours and we saw several coaches coming from Bordeaux racing towards the ship. We watched it all with great interest from the Crowsnest, called Observatory here, with a nice cocktail in our hand and the String Trio performing in the background. Sailing down the river Gironne is very interesting even if it is only a short distance to sea from Pauillac. Going more towards Bordeaux the river is much smaller but from Pauillac the river hugs the west bank and one is still quite close to land. The Fred Olsen cruise schedule gives arrival in the early morning and depature in the early evening, with no set times. So officially nobody knows when we get there and how long we stay. Although there is guidance from the office of when the ship should get there, to ensure the scheduling of the tours, it gives the captain a fair bit of leeway to decide when he/she will exactly arrive or depart. As we only have 10 knots to speed to make to get to our next port of La Pallice, I think the Captain set departure for just before 1900 hrs. to take advantage of the river situation.

At 19.00 hrs., the river experienced the last of the flood and there was a wind blowing from the sea. So with bringing the stern off the dock, the flood could get inbetween the ship and the dock and helped the ship come easily off the dock. Using the last of the flood and not the full flood meant that the ship was not drifting too far upriver, while swinging around, and not coming to close to the sandbanks. Also 1900 hrs. gave us an hour of sunlight to enjoy the scenery. And thus we saw undulating french country rolling by, with many sites full of vine yards, interspersed with small villages and the occasional church and chateau tower. It took about 1 hr. to get to open sea and from there the ship turned north to La Pallice.

The information we have received from the ship for that port is somewhat vague, which I think has to do with the fact that nobody speaks French, and thus does not pick up the nuances of what is really meant. There is a shuttle from the ship to the port gate. We think is not a ship shuttle but a port shuttle laid on for security reasons as the port of La Pallice is very large. What happens when one get to the Port Gate is everybodies guess but according to the ship taxi’s and a local bus are available. Problem is, it is saturday and then things in France do not always go as announced. Based on having previous experience with French Industrial ports, we booked a n afternoon Transfer from the ship to La Rochelle for 29 pounds each. At least we will get there and we will make it back.

This evenings entertainment Crooner Ben Francis. He is already world famous on the Fred Olsen ships as he has been on the ships before. The rest of the world might be waiting as he had a very pleasant voice. He will be back on the final night of the cruise.

Dinner was a much quieter affair then yesterday as many guests had opted to go to the Lido or did not make it at all due to all the wine tasting. Show time had an un-expected change. We were supposed to have a Lady playing a violin bringing us “music fusion”. However she was stuck somewhere and could not get to the ship. So at last minute a singer was flown in from Chile ( he was on another ship) via England to do the fill in. Not that it mattered as he had a very nice show. His main claim to fame sofar was that he has worked with Michael Ball and Adele in the background choirs.

Tommorrow we are in La Pallice and taking the Transfer to La Rochelle in the afternoon. Weather is supposed to be same as today, temperature around 20oC / 70oF, mostly overcast with a gentle breeze.

 

Day 02; Pauillac for Bordeaux, France.

April 17, 2026 / / 7 Comments

At 07.00 we arrived at Pauillac. The Captain had explained last night that he had never been here but that did not really matter as it was thick fog so he could not see anything anyway. The town is located in the estuary of the river Gironde and the river is still very wide and deep here. So nearly any sort of ship can dock as the length of the berth is 300 meters plus. I came by here the last time in 2010 with the ms Prinsendam but we went up the river all the way to Bordeaux. The Prinsendam could do this as her funnel was lower than the clearance height of the bridge just outside Bordeaux and the length of the ship was just short enough to swing around in the river at high tide. According to the french pilot it “izzzze not possible to zwing on ze low tide az-ze the zhippe will go bumpe”. He spoke english with a distinct french pronounciation. Luckily here at the much wider part of the river, the chance of going “bumpe” is a lot less and thus the good ship Borealis docked without any hiccups.

A left over from the Holland America Line days. Terracotta soldiers. I have no idea why Fred Olsen kept them, but it still looks nice.

We are docked about a 1 mile down river from the town of Pauillac at a rather new berth, so I assume it was put in by the authorities to entice large cruise ships to visit, and then for the guests to go by coach to Bordeaux. There is a smaller dock, more of a breakwater to protect the local marine just outside the town, and that was used by river boats today. We saw their guests lateron marching accross to the road to go and visit a local winery.

A change from HAL days. The whole Explorer Lounge was changed directly after take over, into a chinese tea room and Garden Room. See here the garden side. As nearly all British are wild about gardening , this works very well on this ship even if not expected on a cruise ship. In the morning this place is really full and many guests are examining the gardening books laid out on the large center table.

And that is what Pauillac is all about. Wine, wine, wine. The town itself has over 20 wineries and estates and the local Office du Tourism, is nearly completely dedicated to selling wine and accessories such as bottle openers, which are available in a dizzying variation of designs. Due to the mile travel distance Fred Olsen had laid on a 15 minute shuttle service; first stopping at the train station for those who wainted to take the train to Bordeaux and then at the Tourist office for those who wanted to inspect downtown. With taking the train came the advise,  that as it was a branch line, the service was not very frequent and ” sometimes did not go at all”. Luckily in this case not a big problem as we are here for 2 days so everybody can make it back even when delayed by a train “that did not go. The shuttle service also ran through the night, albeit with a lower frequency but I think not many will have gone ashore during the night as the nightlife here in Pauillac only seems to consist of a Pizzaria staying open past midnight.

The Boulevard of Pauillac following the rivers shore line. As one can see it is not the most exciting place and the road is a main district road which can be very busy. But the place is all about wine and not about regular shopping or night life.

We decided to go ashore around 11.00 once the rush at the shuttlebus was over. The ship was conducting a General drill and we were treated to announcements over the General P.A system. This is understandable for drills but the ship does it for nearly everything. Arrival announcements in the cabin, Cruise directors updates in the cabin, gangway movements due to the tides etc. Luckily this captain is not big on announcements but Fred Olsen has another Norwegian captain who likes making announcements and standard comes into the cabin just before departure. If that is in mid afternoon he upsets those having an afternoon nap. Not for a short announcement but with reading out half of the Berlitz Guide write up for the next port. And that all with a grating Norwegian “Hu-de-Buh” accent. It can really spoil your afternoon nap. Announcements can be made, like it was done during Holland America Line times, over the tv on the “View from the Bridge” channel, but this is not used here and everything comes into the cabin. Maybe appreciated by all the hearing aid owners on board but not by me, I like my piece and quiet when in the cabin. Well that was my rant for the day.

Another shot of the boulevard of Pauillac. How a British telephone box ended up here, I do not know but there was no telephone inside. Maybe once in the past it had a direct line to the UK, especially for British home sick tourists. Who will ever know how it came to end up so far into the French Country side.

Company’s are nowadays required to make regular announcements to keep the guests informed and knowing the ship intimatelly, I could follow the proceedings quite well. Fire on B deck with the assembly of the teams outside the Engine Room meant that the fire was in the cold room/ store room area as the assembly station always has to be 2 vertical sections (e.g. 2 firescreen doors sections) away from the fire. The area of the fire is called the HOT zone, the first area away, the WORK zone (only people in breathing apparatus allowed) and the 3rd zone is called the SAFE zone, where everybody is allowed to assemble and support the teams who are going to tackle the fire.

The shuttle service was extremely well organised with English speaking traffic controllers at both ends of the route and the shuttle service ran on its 15 minute cycle, even during French Lunch time when it is not uncommon for a shuttle service to be completely shut down for an hour. By the time we arrived at the Tourist office and the end of the downtown boulevard, most of the town had gone for lunch so shops and all related were closed. The cafe’s on the boulevard were all open and were doing a roaring trade with about 50% French and the rest English and American customers. Unfortunately the mussles are not in season yet (July to January) otherwise we would have gladly joined in. You can of course find restaurants who serve mussles (frozen) all year around but this is sort of frowned upon by many french restaurants.

This is the main historic highlight of the town, the church of Saint Martin, rebuilt in 1826. They charge 5,– Euro admission but unless you are really into churches, not the most exciting place to visit.

So we walked the front streets and the back streets and did not see a single (french) soul. The church of Saint-Martin is a bit of a strange happening as it was a rebuild of a previous church. This one was razed down when it became too small and then by using materials from another church down the road, a new church was cobbled together in mid 19th. century Greek Style. It resulted in a very austere design and definatelly did not have the “wow factor”. But because of living in England we are spoiled anyway as even the local church in our local back garden is from the 12th. century with all the stories to tell that come with it’s history. Then her ladyship wished to inspect the local supermarket to see if the prices were similar to those in England. They were. Petrol prices were higher than in the UK but that had mainly to do with the amount of tax levied on the basic petrol price by the French Government. For the rest the prices were much higher than recently, courtesy of Ball-room Johnny and his activities in the Middle East.

I could not resist this photo. It seems that the local authorities are really concerned that somebody would steal heir bottle bank, so they put a fence in front of it. But it was still used.

By 14.30 hrs. we were back on board and decided to test the pizza’s in the Fresco restaurant. That was a resounding success with the caveat that the free wine and beer for lunch does not extend to outside eateries on board. So I have to find out how it works for the small restaurant at the hamburger bar starboard forward of the Inside pool as it is inside.  Somehow it does not make sense but we do not really care whether it is free or not. How much free “chateau plonk” and Heineken beer can you drink anyway ??.

The outdoor “All Fresco” sitting area for the Pizza place. I like the layout much better than with Holland America as it looked a lot less gloomy.

Then it was time to upload the blog and to get ready for cocktails at 19,00 hrs. For tonight we selected the Piano Bar on deck 5 with the Resident Piano Man Paul Burton. He has been with Fred Olsen for a very long time and a firm favourite of the guests. Or as he says himself, I am very popular with guests, waiting / killing time, before going to dinner. He prefers to play music, at least in the early evening, of composers long dead, and also tells then something of the background of these old songs. So this evening he dissected two songs from the movie Casablanca (Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman) and I found out that the music in this movie was on average much older than the movie itself. It was just repackaged for that movie. One is never too old to learn something new. So he promised to continue to reveal  more of this useless and irrelevant information during the course of this cruise.

Dinner options for the Lido buffet evening meal. It is a buffet line, but not much self service as the cooks are handling the plates and also the tongs for rolls etc. It all helps to prevent Noro-virus from spreading.

Dinner was of the regular good standard and as expected it was a much less hectic affair tonight. Guests where not marching in en-masse when the doors opened and I think quite a few went ” for casual” to the Lido restaurant, called “The View” here on the Borealis. Dress code was casual today and indeed a lot of T-shirts were observed but many gentlemen, including Yours Truly, still opted to wear a jacket or a more stylish tropical shirt.

The show tonight were the 4 singers, mentioned before. We are now all confused as the ship gave the impression that they had just boarded but tonight we found out that they had been at sea already for nearly 6 months. What is nice with Fred Olsen is, is that the company does not enforce standarization that much so all the ships are equal in entertainment quality with the program strictly controlled by a manager in the office. Hence the 4 singers could sing tonight their own favourites and as we have learned through the years, if you let them sing their own favourites, songs that work the best for their type of voice, then you always get a very good show. Tonight was no different.

Tomorrow is our 2nd day in Pauillac with more tours to Bordeaux and the surrounding country side. Most tours are half day but there are 2 tours of 7 and 8 hours long, giving more time in Bordeaux. Temperatures are expected to go up a bit, sunny with a maximum of 23oC / 74oF here on the river; so Bordeaux. more inland, will be a few degrees higher.

Day 1, 2025 Dec. 17: At Sea.

December 18, 2025 / / 1 Comment

And Yes, it was wobbly during the night but the captain explained at lunch time that he was trying to keep up the speed as much as possible and had been running between 18 to 20 knots at times. This with the intention of getting to Lisbon as early as possible. The earlier he would be, the easier it would to get into the river Tagus, and from there into the shelter to the dock.  He did not explain that there is a low sand bar at the entrance of the river and if the swell gets too high, this swell builds up over the bar. This results in a higher top of a wave but also into a deeper trough which reduces the depth of the fairway considerable. That might mean you cannot go in even when the weather itself allows it. This is very hard to explain to guests without a 30 minute dissertation on it, so I can understand that he kept it neutral.

Captain William Sharples Commander of the ms Queen Victoria

The Captain is William Sharples and is somebody I do not know as he is from the generation after me, (I am getting old……) so I never saw him at the simulator or met him in a port somewhere.  But at least he is trying to communicate and explain what is going on.  So I expect that tonight, if the waves allow, he will speed up again, a bit of inconvinience late at night but will not be as bad as cancelling a port. The local authorities in Lisbon have already announced that if the ship comes in early, they will not come out early, so going ashore will still be at the regular arrival time.

So what are we doing this cruise, Southampton – Lisbon (19 Dec.),  Funchal (21 Dec.),  Santa Cruz de Tenerife (22 Dec.), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (23 Dec.), Arrecife (24 Dec.), At sea (25,26,27 Dec) – Sout- hampton (28 Dec.) As you can see, Christmas and Boxing Day are during the last 3 sea days.

Going back to our cruise.  Breakfast in the cabin  is possible until 10 am. and is setup in the cabin by the Butler. This level cabin, does not have a high table for eating from, so it is set up on the small cocktail table.  But the breakfast came on time and was of good quality.

Our Christmas tree

A most peculiar item arrived in the cabin last night. This seems to be our christmas tree. It is a small fir tree but no baubles nor even a bit of angel hair to make it festive. The cabins, one class up, which are the named suites like Laconia and Carinthia, have a full size tree full with decorations. So  we seem to be entitled to a tree much smaller but without a single decoration………….. The mind boggles.

This is our cabin 6109, see below, located midships right off the center staircase. So in bad weather (with 5 decks above and 9 decks below) it is about the most stable area of the ship. The bathroom is made up of two sections. A wash basin area with toilet and then a separate area for the shower and the bathtub. Next to it is the walk-in wardrobe.  The wash basin area has a door from the sitting room area to reach the toilet and a door also from the bedroom area.  None of the cabins in Queens Grill class have  a complete separation between the sitting area and the bedroom area; this is only the case with the very top suite.  The entrance has a desk to the left and a small bar with basin to the right. There is a glass storage area and a fridge. With the cabin comes complimentary (standard) drinks, still and sparkling water, and 2 bottles of spirits.  This is refreshed every day by the Butler. It also comes with fresh flowers but for our cabin this has been reduce to a single flower in a cabin. But a long lasting flower. Then there is the option for fresh fruit.  But this is only on request. It is not offered.  So if you ever book a cruise, with this class cabin, check the list of amenities in the Cabin booklet “Voyage Guide” or the Cunard website. (The same goes for  borrowing DVD’s,  see story below, no note in the cabin, so you have to know.  Then the menus for the coming day for the Grills is given to the cabin, so you can scrutinize it at your leisure.  There is a elaborate in- room-service menu but I have not been able to find out if is the same for all cabins or that the availability depends on the cabin class.

Our cabin from a Cunard photo.

Being a sea day meant lectures in the Royal Court Theatre, so we debated to go and see them and then realized that Cunard broadcasts them live and runs a replay on the tv. And, at least today, the lectures from last cruise were also still running on the tv.

So when went for a walk instead. As is similar for most ships, the public rooms are on Deck 3 and 4, apart from the Lido restaurant (deck 9), the kiddies place on Deck 10 and then the Grills on Deck 11.   Between the grill restaurants is a small lounge reserved for Queens & Princess guests with a desk occupied by the concierge. We went to see her, as we had found a challenge in the cabin. The DVD player was not connected. Cunard, at least on the Victoria, has not upgraded their TV system yet. So you cannot see your On Board Account on the tv., nor have an tv entertainment system with a large movie library. A few movies (english, japanese, german, spanish) run as a loop, but not continiously,  and then there are a number of news channels. (Weather depending)  so when the ship came out, a Dvd player was installed and you could get DVD’s from the concierge.

I think that sometime in the past, quite a while ago, a guest took out the adapter (2 pin european to 2 pin American) for own use and did not put it back. Since then the Butler has tried to fix it but did not get anywhere as she ran into onboard “Red Tape”. As that is the same within every company I knew at once what was going on. The Butler is part of Housekeeping, so she called Housekeeping but they do not have adapters as they are kept by the Front Desk / Pursers desk./ Guest services. Housekeeping calls the Pursers office, who says ———- it is your cabin, and thus your problem. And thus nothing happens.

So I went on  a mission to get an adapter. I went to see the concierge, a lovely lady from Bosnian background and explained the conundrum. (11.00 hrs.) She at once called the butler to fix it. I saw the butler after lunch, who of course explained that she could not do anything, she had tried before. So back to the concierge to defend the butler. Now I explained who I was before retirement and also explained what is in the Carnival Safety Management System and directives, e.g. that “adapter control” lies with the Pursers Desk. She went on the phone again. The message delivered must have come through somewhat garbeled as a gentleman from the Pursers Desk showed up with a European extension lead and a adapter from European to English British. 10 for effort, 0 for results.  He left and shortly after, a lady from the front desk showed up, accompanied by the ships electrician to fix the problem.  The electrician looked at the DVD player and said, “you only need a adapter, there is nothing wrong”……………. Yes we knew that. Electrician and Pursers desk Lady disappeared again with the promise to get the right adapter.  When we came back from dinner, there was an adapter on the table, delivered by the Butler. But the story does not end here, so the saga will continue to tomorrow.

Dance Class in the Queens lounge. They show it at the same time on the screen in the lounge so everybody can see the dance team at all times. Topic today was the Cha Cha Cha.

Leaving the cabin, we passed by the Queens Lounge where a dance class was in full swing and then to the shops. The ship has two atriums, the big one in the center From Deck 1 to Deck 3 that is where you come on board, and then there is a small one behind the Royal Court Theatre near the bow. This one goes 2 decks up. On deck 2 there is on portside the casino and on the right side the Golden Lion Pub. One deck up are the  shops all around this open top of the atrium.  The location of these amenities  here is of course on purpose, every day, those guests going to see the show or lecture, will have to walk through one of these two area’s and might thus be tempted to have a closer look.

The staircase in the small atrium with the staircase going up from deck 2 to deck 3 (and going back down as well). If I would get a dollar for each photo taken on these steps, then my wife would be very happy.

I think due to the wobbly weather, the Golden Lion Pub was half empty (normally it is always full, often with people who camp out there all day long) and so we decided on a pub lunch. To our utter amazement Cunard had decided to “re-imagine” the pub lunch with the aim to raise regular pub-grub to a level of cullinary heights. Which heights Mr. Michel Roux, world famous chef, wanted to achieve I do not know apart from the fact that you now have to pay for half of the dishes. Lesley had Fish and Chips with the strangest batter we have ever seen. I decided on the Ploughmans lunch and I think if a regular Ploughman would see it, he would have run out the door, cursing, screaming or sobbing, depending on his philosphical state of mind.   So we will not even dare to go for the paid dishes.  But they have beer on draft, and also Cunard now has its own beers, a pilsener, a ruby amber and a stout. (= a sort of Guiness but not as dense) They offer this also as a Flight of Beer, with 3 small glasses, and charge the price of 1 pint $ 7.50  which is reasonable.  I prefer a Guiness over the Cunard Stout but the Red Amber pale ale is very nice.

A full Queens Lounge for the afternoon recital. Please note the banners hanging from the ceiling in black and white, denoting the colour theme for this formal night.

Then it was time to move from English Culture to the music world and listen to a piano recital in the Queens Lounge.  On the keyboard Maestro Robin Collvill. he advised that he had been around for a while (playing piano for about 70 years) and still learning. We listened to a series of pieces varying from Grieg, to South American Tango and back to French impressionists. Very, very good and soothing to listen to, as could be seen from a number of the grey haired crowd who where revisiting former concerts……………..

Today is the first formal night, called Black and White. The 2nd one is formal- any colour goes and the 3rd one is Red and Gold. Also Cunard, while trying to keep up tradition, is finding it harder to keep the dress code going. Hence we received a special letter from the Captain, asking the guests to conform with the dress code or restrict themselves to the non dress code area’s. ( deck 9 with Lido and Wintergarden, deck 2 with the Golden Lion and the show lounge)  We love dressing up and have brought a different formal outfit for each formal night.  But this being Cunard and a mainly British crowd, (the germans are coming for christmas and new year, but they also dress up) 90% was dressed to the hilt. Even the Golden Lion crowd was predominantly in a Whistle-and-Flute….

Cunard christmas decorations are very nice and in the sb. forward corner of the Queens lounge they have setup a small christmas village.

While the wobbly weather continues during the evening, it will lessen tomorrow morning when we are past Cape Finistere on the North West corner of the Iberian Peninsula, the Commodore Club (Crows Nest on Holland America and Observation Lounge on many other companies) was half empty so we had ample seats to choose from, to listen to the Lady Piano player. And yes, all guests were dressed according to the Captains request.

Then after our usual good dinner in the Queens Grill, we went to the show lounge to see a performance from Aled Jones, This guy used to be a very famous choir boy singer (with 11 Cd’s) and managed after his voice broke to transform into a good classical singer (now up to 42 CD’s). I do not know famous he is in the USA, but he is in the UK, presents classical programs on the Radio and this winter he is also in the musical ELF in London. His show was very good and kept us well entertained. He is transfering in Lisbon to the Queen Anne, so he is keeping his fingers crossed that the Captain’s plan of “running away from the bad weather” is working out. I get the impression that most of the guests on board are repeat guests so with them the need to see Lisbon once again is not so much of an urge.

We will have another wobbly night and by tomorrow the wind is supposed the go down from 50 knots to about 35 knots and the swells should settle as well. At the moment we have two wave systems interferring with each other, which on occasion, causes the ship “to lurch” as stabelizers can only deal with the sideways motion (and are doing that very well)  The Captain will keep the pedal to the metal as much as possible to get into Lisbon before the wave system comes too far down and makes sailing into the Tagus River impossible.

 

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