Cruise Critic U.K. News: Cruise Critic Readers Remember Black Watch, Boudicca

[LauraS]

(6:30 p.m. BST) -- While Fred. Olsen Cruise Line fans received good news that the line has two new ships -- Bolette and Borealis, acquired in July from Holland America Line -- Cruise Critic members have been posting fond remembrances of Black Watch and Boudicca, which will be leaving service.   Black Watch and Boudicca are something of an anomaly ...

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[shiftynj]

I was sorry hear about this, but not at all surprised. The fact ships 20 years newer are going to the breakers was a good indicator that there would be a downstream shift from the first-tier brands of their older vessels.

 

We sailed the British Isles & France aboard Black Watch back in 2008 or so and she was dated then (particularly cabin plumbing... public restrooms had been upgraded) but there was still such a classic and homey feeling about her.

 

I am still on a scavenger hunt for anything related to the chapel that existed just forward of the Theater when the ship was built as the Royal Viking Star. I got some former RVL crew to describe it but have yet to find a picture. This space had been converted to two inside ordinaries by the time I was aboard (though they do not appear on the deck plan... I think the purser told me they usually gave them to entertainers).

 

 

 

[ovccruiser]

Had a thought, I and my wife were on the Boudicca which docked at Dover on 19th March, the last cruise done with this ship. It was the last leg of a World Cruise through the Med from Limassol. Seems strange to think I have been aboard a last cruise, I have done a couple of Maiden cruises, Cunard QV and QE, but this is a first last cruise, sad really.