Live from the Bramaer 19.11.13.

[Willow1686]

I'm glad that you had fun; I hope that you carry on having fun and that at some point we get to know more about the very English experience...

[Skipper Tim]

Okay!

Let's be honest, this is the worse "live" review ever.

 

Myself and Jean are now in Tenerife (were we're staying for a few days) and have parted company with our new friends, some of which are still talking to us after Jean gave them all colds!

 

I didn't keep up with typing my thoughts so I'll wave the white flag and admit this is now a review rather than live blog.

 

The headline feature is Fred Olsen are very good! The crew and service is top notch if very English.

 

I'll try and get settled in a wifi spot tomorrow and post a bit more detail.

 

Well I assume you were just too busy enjoying yourselves. I too look forward to a more considered review - those are much harder than my usual daily ramblings. Just on the basis of your brief comment I would now be willing to consider Fred Olsen. Be careful with the power you wield!

[papcx]

Okay.

 

Let's get the "big" issue out of the way. Passenger age. The average age of a Fred Olsen passenger is old! I wouldn't want to put an age on it but the most common activity I saw onboard was dozing in a chair. The organised activities (of which I must say there was plenty) were geared towards an older generation, such as crochet, card players meet and greet, beginners bridge, improvers bridge, detox for weight loss and Christmas patchwork and many more. I've never seen people on a cruise doing a jigsaw before! Now in the interest of balance some people are a "young" old and we met plenty of nice people. However some are an "old" old, if you need a walking frame then the bay of Biscay is going to provide you with some new challenges! Wearing your slippers around the ship will help ease those challenges.

 

On a plus, you never struggled to get a drink after the theatre (on Fred you have dinner then theatre for both sittings) because about 90% of the ship went to bed leaving the bars and lounges empty.

 

Don't get me wrong (or flame me) this is just what I saw, it didn't effect the cruise I had in any way at all.

[Willow1686]

However some are an "old" old, if you need a walking frame then the bay of Biscay is going to provide you with some new challenges! Wearing your slippers around the ship will help ease those challenges.

 

It brings a whole new meaning to shuffleboard...

[papcx]

Lisbon is a beautiful city, even in the rain!

 

And it's difficult to imagine anything more symbolic of the sea than dolphins...

 

I agree Lisbon is beautiful. We did have a few hours that were rain free, just cold, so we'll probably go back at some point.

 

We walked through the back streets near the port for a bit, which was "real" the area looked quite poor, some locals were drinking coffee in a pavement cafe, which is alway a good sign for me so we had a coffee and a pastry. We then got a taxi to the main city street and just walked down past all the statues and monuments.

 

image by papcx, on Flickr

 

DW worked in Portugal for 5 years, including a few months in Lisbon and we found where she lived and worked, which was fun seeing her get all giddy!

 

 

image by papcx, on Flickr

 

We walked up the hill (the trams weren't running) and found a beautiful hilltop garden with panoramic view, I can imagine the sight in the summer.

 

image by papcx, on Flickr

 

We'll defiantly go back at some point.

 

 

We saw quite a few dolphins through the week. The view from the Observatory bar over the bow is quite stunning on its own, add dolphins playing chicken with the ship it's even better.

Edited November 27, 2013 by papcx

[jeanlyon]

They do have quoits and shuffleboard as well! Yes lots of oldies sleeping around the place, but then I saw that on Oriana in September as well. LOL some of those sleeping weren't as old as us either!!

[Willow1686]

Papcx

 

I'm sorry that you missed the trams; at least one of the routes is quite hair raising in its apparent disregard for the laws of physics, compounded by motorists who appear not to have grasped that a tram can't get out of the way.

 

On second thoughts, perhaps that's why the trams weren't running :)

 

jeanlyon

 

I think that as soon as school holidays finish most cruise ships swing to an older demographic, Fred Olsen being the extreme example, but since slumbering passengers leave more room for me at the bar, and in the pool, I really don't see it as a problem.

 

I am, however, wondering whether my Senegal excursion to the Pink Lake plus dune buggying might be called off for lack of people prepared to pay to crack a few bones in the pursuit of happiness; obviously they could have done that for free in the Bay of Biscay...

[clive and anne]

I thought Quoits and shuffleboard on the bow of Braemar was great fun in a force nine gale across the Bay of Biscay.

Nice to see Jean (aka The Germ Factory) smiling before her one woman Virus warfare attack. LOL

[papcx]

Okay. Next topic (this will get Skipper Tim going!)

 

Food.

 

We never had breakfast delivered to the cabin, so I can't comment.

 

We ordered room service once. Remember the standard room service menu is free, which is good. It took 2 hours to arrive, but it was on the bay of Biscay when apparently half the ship missed the MDR dinner so room service was probably stretched to breaking point. I had a turkey and bacon club sandwich, ate one half which tasted good, and was ill (Bay of Biscay, not the food.)

 

I did the buffet once. Good selection of sandwiches if a little "out there" ie sweet pepper on white! I tried the prawn cocktail in a small crusty cob and slice of French baguette with Parma ham and melon balls. I didn't try them but there were puddings and ingredients to make your own cream teas.

 

A nice touch was the cream tea service in the Observatory Bar. It's on deck 8 right at the top and right at the front. It's just the sort of place you'd find cruisetrail :D but all teasing aside it is a great view.

 

Braemar bow. by papcx, on Flickr

 

It's a chargeable service (£6.95 each) for which you get the proper tea through a tea strainer, finger sandwiches, little cakes and the ingredients to make your own cream tea. The waiters/ess are all done up proper in serving uniform complete with white gloves and they pour your first cup of tea. They only do the service a couple of times each cruise and you need to reserve a place, although I do know one couple who reserved on the morning of one day (because I advised them to try it at breakfast). We did it both times, the first time had a pianist in the background and the second time had the ships trio, although the Christmas songs were a little weird. Our new friend Clive joined us the second time, but we missed Anne due to Jeans germ warfare attack. Highly recommended. (The cream tea, not Jeans germ warfare attack)

 

MDR.

 

First things first, the service is very good. Iced water served as soon as you get in (free btw, that's one for the MSC followers) and tea and coffee free at the end. The coffee was okay, but IMO the tea was I drinkable. This applies to breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

We had breakfast and lunch a few times. It's open sitting, so as usual it's potluck on your table mates, but as it's a mostly an English ship your usually okay.

 

Breakfast and lunch are a buffet service, which I'm never a fan of, but you can order from a menu. However unless you order something specific that needs cooking fresh (i.e. poached eggs) the waiters just get it from the buffet for you.

 

Dinner.

 

The food IMO was okay. It's very English. Steaks, lamb, chicken all with veg. Some of the soups were a little more adventurous, including some chilled soups! A couple of pasta dishes were, I thought, a nod at trying something different, as were some fish dishes. Don't get me wrong, nothing was bad, it's just not "different" enough for me. A bit like holidaying in Blackpool.

 

The biggest problem with the MDR food, I felt, was it was all, and I mean all, luke-warm. I like my food very hot, If it's too hot I can pace myself so it cools. This turned up luke-warm and unless you can eat quickly it just gets cold. That applied to breakfast, lunch and dinner.

 

 

 

 

One thing I can criticise FO for is the food timings. There's no 24hr buffet, and there's even big gaps during the day when it's closed. When we got off in Casablanca, we returned at 14:05, which meant we'd just missed the lunch sitting. The buffet wasn't due to open till 15:45 (although it did open a little earlier than the advertised time). We'd not had lunch ashore so that meant from breakfast in the AM we had no food until just gone 15:30. Very hungry, and a little drunk from drinking on an empty stomach.

[Willow1686]

Papcx

 

Thank you for the latest instalment; I'm glad that your wife survived her close encounter with the wonderful world of micro-organisms in good spirits.

 

Ok, there is a serious problem; I can deal with just about anything short of undrinkable tea. Could I get round it by bringing my own tea bags or is it a failure of the 'tea requires boiling water' cataclysmic variety? I seem to recall from my time on the Black Watch Capetown to Southampton run that there were kettles in the cabins, but this time I won't have my daughter along to rescue me from my customary morning stupor.

 

Clive and Anne

 

It is always unnerving to encounter the sort of passenger who regards a Force 9 gale as a pleasant breeze to tone up the nervous system; I am hoping that I won't have to experience that delight for myself. I don't get seasick but I'm hopeless at quoits and shuffleboard whatever the weather...

[papcx]

Papcx

 

Thank you for the latest instalment; I'm glad that your wife survived her close encounter with the wonderful world of micro-organisms in good spirits.

 

Ok, there is a serious problem; I can deal with just about anything short of undrinkable tea. Could I get round it by bringing my own tea bags or is it a failure of the 'tea requires boiling water' cataclysmic variety? I seem to recall from my time on the Black Watch Capetown to Southampton run that there were kettles in the cabins, but this time I won't have my daughter along to rescue me from my customary morning stupor.

 

Clive and Anne

 

It is always unnerving to encounter the sort of passenger who regards a Force 9 gale as a pleasant breeze to tone up the nervous system; I am hoping that I won't have to experience that delight for myself. I don't get seasick but I'm hopeless at quoits and shuffleboard whatever the weather...

 

Willow.

 

Undrinkable tea! It's hot enough, I think the problem comes from full fat (I drink skimmed) long life (UHT) milk, which should be outlawed as far as I'm concerned. There are kettles in the cabins with some half descent tea-bags, twinnings, but again, it's that UHT milk.

 

Clive and his force 9 gale! He has some interesting theories about weather (and other things) just ask him about sea mist!

[MaisieMoo123]

Some of us were younger than Clive!

[clive and anne]

But only just Michelle

[papcx]

It's 1:14 in Tenerife and it's a barmy 19 Celsius. The beer is flowing freely (thank you all inclusive) and I'm sat on my balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, listening to the waves crash against the cliff face.

 

Orion's belt is clear in the night sky and if I stretch my neck a little I can see Jupiter.

 

More importantly, on the horizon, sailing east to west is the stylish MS Braemar. On her are are new friends and ex-tablemates Steve and Loraine (sorry Loraine, I got your name wrong earlier)

 

Remember, take care of each odd-er!

[jeanlyon]

Papcx

 

I'm sorry that you missed the trams; at least one of the routes is quite hair raising in its apparent disregard for the laws of physics, compounded by motorists who appear not to have grasped that a tram can't get out of the way.

 

On second thoughts, perhaps that's why the trams weren't running :)

 

jeanlyon

 

I think that as soon as school holidays finish most cruise ships swing to an older demographic, Fred Olsen being the extreme example, but since slumbering passengers leave more room for me at the bar, and in the pool, I really don't see it as a problem.

 

I am, however, wondering whether my Senegal excursion to the Pink Lake plus dune buggying might be called off for lack of people prepared to pay to crack a few bones in the pursuit of happiness; obviously they could have done that for free in the Bay of Biscay...

 

Willow - Ha ha - never thought of it like that. My husband is 75 and I'm 66, but you wouldn't find either of us sleeping during the day on board, well not unless he has dropped off in the sun at the pool. He's always busy doing something, lecture, table-tennis, chatting to others, walking the Prom deck, swimming. We;ve only done one Fred O to West Africa on Braemar and yes there were mostly our age on board, but quite a few younger ones as well.

 

Jean

[Willow1686]

It's 1:14 in Tenerife and it's a barmy 19 Celsius. The beer is flowing freely (thank you all inclusive) and I'm sat on my balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, listening to the waves crash against the cliff face.

 

Orion's belt is clear in the night sky and if I stretch my neck a little I can see Jupiter.

 

More importantly, on the horizon, sailing east to west is the stylish MS Braemar. On her are are new friends and ex-tablemates Steve and Loraine (sorry Loraine, I got your name wrong earlier)

 

Remember, take care of each odd-er!

 

I saw this last night, and was too embittered to reply; my TA had emailed me my tickets but the sort of all inclusive was nowhere to be seen, and when I rang they told me that they were in the process of refunding it. I politely pointed out that this is the 3rd cruise I had booked with them this year, and that there would be no more if they messed up my booking on something so simple.

 

Fortunately they rang to apologise this morning, and my new emailed tickets now include this vital amenity; I expect to work my way through a lot of poolside drinks in the -hopefully- blazing sun, and I can now relax :)

 

I'm really glad you continue to have fun, and I hope it continues!

[Willow1686]

Jeanlyon

 

I think the dropping off in the sun may be a guy thing rather than an age thing :D

[MaisieMoo123]

Paul did you dare to look at the bar tab on the tv to see how much of a bill you would have run up if we hadn't all been all inclusive? Certainly worth paying £10 a day for!

[clive and anne]

I looked Michelle and we had drank our way through £510 so you are right £140 was a bargain.

[papcx]

Paul did you dare to look at the bar tab on the tv to see how much of a bill you would have run up if we hadn't all been all inclusive? Certainly worth paying £10 a day for!

 

I don't remember the final number (we got suckered into buying photos and a few other bits anyway) but I do remember on the forth morning it was £340! Bear n mind we lost the 2nd day to seasickness on the BoB!

 

That Clive and Anne have a lot to answer for!

 

Greetings from Tenerife!

Edited November 28, 2013 by papcx

[clive and anne]

We was just " Looking after each udder" like we was told to do.

[papcx]

MS Braemar.

 

The stylish MS Braemar has plenty of info about it on Wiki, so if your bothered about when she was built and who owned her etc, go and have a look.

 

Having just sailed on her, I'll comment on her condition etc.

 

"She's a ship not a boat, you can put a boat on a ship, you can't put a ship on a boat." She's an older lady, but she still has a lot of class. She's also quite petite, which means there's a family feel onboard as you pass the same people everyday. The fact everyone speaks English helped in that regard. However being petite means "she moves a bit". She actually moves quite a lot! Even while moored in dock a slight breeze will cause her to sway. It's probably something to do with the draft, other experts may be able to explain, all I know is she moves a lot. The BoB is renowned for its "choppy ness" and on this occasion half the passengers stayed in their cabins for the dinner service (according to our waiter) she was going up & down, left & right and side to side! I don't know if the stabilisers were used but if they were they were useless.

 

Her general appearance is very good. Each port day had crew painting the hull, meaning there are very few patches of rust. The decks are well maintained and there are even chairs on the wrap-round promenade. (One lap of the promenade deck is a quarter mile, to give an idea of her size.) The aft has a layered structure which is interesting, had the weather been nicer the sail away parties would have been nice.

 

The bars, lounges and theatre are again all clean and well maintained. The restaurants, 2 main and the palm's cafe are very nice. Spotlessly clean and very well presented.

 

The captain in his announcements used the phrase "Thank You for cruising on the stylish MS Braemar" and our roll call laughed about it, but truth be told, she is stylish, and FO and her crew should be proud of that.

[papcx]

We was just " Looking after each udder" like we was told to do.

 

I just LOLed at that and half a dozen people in the bar stopped talking to stare at me.

 

I think udder will become a life-long feature in our lives now! I also think your spelling is better!

[clive and anne]

Paul never forget your Dik-a-dum dum.

[papcx]

Service.

 

A large proportion of the crew come from the Philippines. With the recent disaster in that region I think everyone could understand that some crew had worried faces, some may be waiting for news, others may have received the worst news imaginable. Under those circumstances the crew onboard the Braemar should be proud of themselves. They are a real credit to themselves and FO.

 

More specifically.

 

The cabin stewardess (who didn't introduce herself) performed the usual cabin services. Cabin cleaned and beds made in the morning, beds turned down, daily news delivered and choc on pillow in the evening. There's the usual DND/Make up my cabin "thing" for the door. I can't fault the cabin service.

 

MDR dinner service was the usual main waiter and his assistant. Maxie, the main waiter, was from Goa, India. He had done several FO contracts and this was his first cruise of a new contract after his "holiday". He would tease me this movement was nothing! He's done around the Cape Horn in storms. He's also done Regents cruises were the sea was so rough, some passengers arranged to be airlifted from Antarctica rather than get back on the ship! His assistant was Dinny! You just could not stop this guy smiling. On dis-embarkation day he was on the quayside walking to the ship, as we were walking off. He was still smiling, gave Jean a kiss and shook my hand. Class acts both of them. Dinner service was smooth and classy. I sometimes bring a beer into the MDR with me, but will always drink water at dinner. I think in a week I asked for my glass to be filled twice. Jean can't remember ever having to ask for wine to be re-filled. Orders were taken professionally and served at a good pace, with little intrusion into the dinner conversation.

 

Jean with Maxie & Dinny. by papcx, on Flickr

 

 

Bars and lounges.

 

There are 2 bars and 3 lounges on board.

 

Bars.

The Lido deck bar I never saw open and the pool bar was open only once as far as I know (the afternoon in Casablanca, when the sun finally made an appearance) The weather just wasn't right to have them open. The service the one time in the pool bar was a little slow, but nothing to complain about.

 

Lounges.

The Observatory Bar is a great location! Deck 8 forward, overlooking the bow. The service is good (however these's no draught beer up there.) Sometimes there was a pianist playing softly in the back ground.

The Morning Light Pub is named after one of the first sailing boats FO owned. I didn't know that until the last night when I looked at the huge model I'd walked past all week.

 

MS Morning Light. by papcx, on Flickr

 

Service was good. Music was played softly in the background, but it was on a pretty short loop.

The Coral Bar is at the back and is the entertainment lounge. We went a couple of times, but usually only because all the "udder" bars had shut.

 

The Neptune Lounge is the theatre and had a waitress service. A little longer to get a drink, but nothing too bad.

 

Overall the service is top grade. A nice balance of chatter to service. A couple of faces were glummer than should be, but under the circumstances, I for one, would not criticise that.