Braemar

[Cruiseroz]

:rolleyes:Braemar spoilt? Our 2 back to back cruises on the Braemar

 

We have sailed with Olsen Lines on 4 cruises in the Baltic, Artic and Norway and loved it on the Black Watch twice and the Boudica twice.

 

We have sung the praises of those two boats.:D

 

However, the last two back to back cruises were disappointing on the

Braemar.:mad:

 

We only met 2 previous people that had cruised on the Breamar that

said they loved the extension, everyone else stated that it had been

totally spoilt.

 

Not having been on her before we cannot compare, but only to say that

a ship of 23,000 tonnes had too many passengers on her, at just under

1000 passengers.

 

The Executive Chef was excellent the Dining Room Staff were excellent.

 

But with so many passengers having the option of dining anywhere for Breakfast and Lunch, the Grampian Restaurant could not cope.

 

Because of my non Dairy diet the staff in the Grampian Restaurant needed

to make sure I had a non dairy diet, they were brilliant.

 

But over the 28 days we were on the vessel, we could not use the

Grampian restaurant most lunches due to the long wait for a table.:mad:

 

With my husband on crutches we could not stand in line for a table at breakfast and lunch. So we had to go elsewhere, which I did not mind,

but most meals on this vessel serve food with either milk, cheese or cream in abundance! Which made dining in the other restaurants a traumatic experience.

 

Supa from the Grampions was excellent, as soon as he realized I was not in his part of the world he would come and find me! That is exceptional service in our eyes.:D

 

Thank you Supa!! Thank you Gordon!!

Wish the Senior Officers were as pleasant as you two guys!

 

However, we found that we kept getting annoyed by lounge room bar staff wanting to serve us a drink any time of the day anywhere!

 

The first cruise was very nice, unfortunately the weather changed through no fault of the shipping line!

 

But the Port trips were too crowded and with husband on crutches

although we had booked and paid for the trips did not go on a few.

 

Found the best value is to get off the vessel at the ports and hire

a taxi to go around and see the sites. Taxi drivers love doing this

they give a more detailed and personal view and it worked out cheaper

if you negotiate a price before getting into the taxi.

 

We asked for a price for 2 hours and all taxis were good to their word.

 

Unfortunately the trip to Sicily was terrible, to begin with I do not know why Cruise Lines bother to stop off at various ports if they cannot

stay there a miniumum of 10 hours. It is a total waste of time anything less.

 

Sicily we found that our watertight doors on the vessel did not work!

We had to move to the Container Port and had our cases left out in the sun all day and all one night uncovered.

 

Sicily Port Authority would not let the ship sail.

 

We and a few other passengers had a fair bit of trauma trying to get

a flight out of the island to connect to an international flight at Rome Airport.

 

Indeed we were told by the Hotel Manager to go and use our credit cards and book our own flights back to where we needed to go!:eek:

 

As we lost our flight from Rome to Heathrow, [we had come into Rome from our home in Australia] and were due to fly out of Rome to Heathrow to visit relations in the UK during October we were most upset.

 

Our already paid for and booked Business Class flight missed we were expected to book two more seats on a flight to the UK. This expense would have put our credit card over the limit.

 

Another warning to tourists, watch your credit card get used, in Malaysia 4 years earlier our number had been sold to thieves who spent $5000 in a jewellery store in Thailand!

 

Hence we lowered our credit limit on the credit card, hence we could not

purchase two more Business Class tickets, which we needed due to my husbands health and spinal problems.

 

We would have thought that Olsens would have immediately made sure

passengers had the contact to the flights they had been booked on. But no I had to humiliate myself at reception to explain our problem regarding booking two more Business Class tickets!

 

All day we were left with several other passengers wondering how we were going to get to the UK. Olsens wanted us to use the charter flights to another part of the UK, not taking into consideration our already booked flights to Heathrow and our already paid for and booked transfers from Heathrow to Southampton area.

 

After digging our heels in they came to the party and paid for a hotel and flight out of Sicily to Rome and then Rome to Heathrow.

 

But that was after a nightmare of sitting for 24 hours wondering what was going to happen to us.

 

I would not use the Braemar again, we could see she had been a lovely vessel but had been spoilt by the extensions.

 

Our suite was very nice, but the bathroom was tiny in the extreme and with no bath!

 

In Venice the ceiling in our suite leaked and for three days we had two rubbish bins and towels on our floor.

 

The extension had not had a check for water leakage it appears as upon trying to go up the staircase to the Grampians Restaurant there was a torrant of water coming down the staircase!

 

A very expensive and disappointing holiday that was meant to have aided my husband after surgery.

 

To close I would not recommend this vessel especially paying the extra for a suite.

[merecat]

Its a good job the water wasn,t comeing up the stairwell and the Scicilian authorities impounded the ship untill all her faults where rectified.:)

[Griller]

Overcrowding of public areas is rather what I feared when they stretched poor Braemar.

 

Obviously FO have realized that its difficult to make money out of running smaller ships in competition with the lower prices and running costs of the huge ships now out there with other lines.

 

Hence the capacity increase.

 

It may be more lucrative for FO but hardly enhances the cruise experience when the sort of things happen which the OP describes.

 

I will say it again - it has to be an ultra cheap deal to get me on FO these days.

 

I find the less I pay the less critical I am.

[Cruiseroz]

Further to my comments about Braemar....

 

She did have a new Laundry with new washing machines and dryers.

Cost is one UK Pound for both wash and dryer. Reception gives the

discs out to use in the machines which is good value.

 

We used this facility about once a week, as we were on the vessel for a month.

 

But would not advice using anything but the 'short' cycle like most

auto machines they go on for 2 hours if you let them.

 

Would have been nice to have more ironing boards which would mean

a larger Laundry. Especially on formal nights!!

 

I think passengers would greatly appreciate that facility even if it meant cutting an inside cabin out!!

 

I have to say we found that Olsens keep their decks much cleaner than the Princess ship we have used out of Sydney. We made comment on that a few times during our month on board Braemar.:p

 

One problem doing a back to back cruise is after one cruise if you want to sit out on the balcony while everyone is rushing around! its not possible unless you want a shower! The deck crew come from balcony to balcony without thinking there may be passengers sitting outside! The crew come along with a high powered hose to clean down the deck and surrounding walls!

 

We were lucky we missed the free shower by a hairs breadth! LOL.:p

 

I think Olsen's balconys are much better than the pokey little balcony

we had to suffer on the Sun Princess out of Sydney last Christmas.

[Cruiseroz]

Very true!

What worried us and others was, what if they needed to close

the watertight doors in the middle of the Black Sea and couldn't.

[from the bridge]

Husband is a civil engineer [specializes in maintenance] after 6 hours of trying to get the doors

fixed it may have been a good idea to have asked if anyone could

assist. Any attempt to offer assistance to the Hotel Manager was

brushed aside.

 

I am thinking of our friends daugher on board a flight back to Oz

from UK when they had a medical emergency asking for a doctor

and she answered the call.

 

Surely it would have been better to have asked for assistance

before locking the vessel in the Container Dock and having to

disembark 900 odd people from the vessel and bring 900 odd new passengers on board, who by the way knew not what the problem was!!

 

 

 

 

Its a good job the water wasn,t comeing up the stairwell and the Scicilian authorities impounded the ship untill all her faults where rectified.:)