Fred Olsen Cruises, Boudicca

strictly caters for dancing and not much else, not enough room for entertainment, quizzes, not enough seating inside when weather is poor,massive queues for tea/coffee,poor visibility in theatre, our reserved table in tne dining room faced into a corner with only abstract pictures on the walls to look at,very poorselection of desserts unless you liked jelly ! and very small cabins with limited wardrobe space, especially on a 3 week cruise, and to top it all the ship was infected with noro-virus bugs left over from the previous cruises.

We have just returned from a caribbean cruise with Fred Olsen Cruises on the Boudicca.

It was an excellent cruise and we will be definitely booking again.

Just back from the carribbean cannot fault the bodicca it is what you call a proper ship the crew were fantastic friendly and courteous at all times fantastic holiday food excellent spoilt for choice. It was our pearl wedding anniversary and fred olsen and crew gave us memories we will never forget as well as the card, chocolates, flowers, champagne, photograph and canapes thank you all very much

Just back from the Caribbean March 2009 on Fred Olsen's Boudicca - cannot fault this ship staff, food, entertainment were great the whole holiday was fantastic. It was our 30th wedding anniversary and the crew members made it so special for us we will never forget them will definately cruise with fred olsen again. The ship is a nice size you can get to know staff cruisers and at the end you are all friends its wonderful. Cannot fault our holiday and a big thank you to fred olsen and his crew.

This is a review of the BP813 cruise taken on the Black Prince in June 2008. The BW is an oldish ship which is scheduled to be withdrawn from service in 2010. Despite this, the ship was very clean and hygiene was maintained to a very high standard, as was witnessed when one staff member went down with a bug. The restaurant service was excellent - over and above expectations - and overall the crew and service staff were very helpful and courteous, especially to those passengers who were frail and infirm. The entertainment, which was aimed to those born from the 1930s to late 1940s, was also excellent and generally very entertaining, with a few bad points (see below). Swimming pools were warm and were emptied and cleaned each evening. The food was excellent - especially for my wife, who is a vegetarian - but who did not once have to cope with the rigors of "goats cheese" that so often feature on bland UK menus. Embarkation and disembarkation were achieved with fluent efficiency and with no fuss. Tours were well organised.Overall good. Nice sized ship. Great service from crew and service staff.

I was quite surprised at so many elderly passengers on a cruise going to potentially cold northern places! I accept cruises appeal mainly to the elderly but most cruises have a few unattached 40-something women and a few young single blokes, as they tend not to consider cruises but not this time! This isn't meant as a criticism, just an observation. It's clearly an advantage to those born before 1930, as most of them won't want screaming brats and rowdy louts spoiling their holiday.

Olsen have wildly varying prices. Some passengers paid rip-off prices, others got bargains, depending on when and how they booked. For example a G grade (cheapest outside cabin) for single occupancy was £7290.96 full price, reduced to £4107.95, which is what I paid but reduced to £2039 one month before departure.

Boudicca is very similar to Black Watch, with minor variations in deck plans. Boudicca is 28,388 tons, BW is 28,613 tons. Both ships are exactly the same length and width. BW was built in Finland in 1972, Boudicca was built in Finland in 1973.

The self-service Secret Garden cafe was hopeless. Most self-service restaurants on ships are large, this one was a poky little place in the middle of the ship. I turned up for breakfast when it was only about 15% full and the head waiter wanted me to sit on a table with someone else, when most tables were empty! If you were on a virtually empty train or bus and someone sat next to you, you'd find it a bit strange! The SG had things like cranberry juice but no tomato juice, you had to ask for it and you got something that's vastly inferior to Sainsbury's basics tomato juice. Fried eggs weren't available. The waiters either ignored you, or offered to fill up your tea/coffee when it was still full! The best advice is to have breakfast in the restaurant you go in for dinner, it operates on a self-serve buffet basis with fried eggs and tomato juice.

The captain was a hopeless public speaker, a major talking point among passengers, not just my opinion, he made himself even less popular when he cut out the last port of call in Greenland (Nanortalik) due to ice. He'd previously informed passengers that ice conditions change by the hour, yet he decided not to go to Nanortalik 3 days before we were due. There was no alternative port of call, despite there being lots of places around the southern part of Greenland. We simply had 4, instead of 3, days at sea en-route for Ireland.