braemar - 2 April 2009

[sealegs57]

HI

Is anyone out there cruising the Caribbean on the Braemar - 2nd April 2009? Would love to hear from you or anyone who has advice/tips etc - we're fairly new to this cruising business!

[sagalout1954]

We will be going 19 Mar-2 April Western Caribbean, first time with FO - too late to help but I have read this http://www.holiday-truth.com/holiday_truths/cruise_reviews/40/ Can thoroughly recommend the Hunter travel guides from Amazon.

[sealegs57]

Thanks - I'll check it out. have a great time!:)

[long_shot45]

We just booked this cruise. We are from Texas and we understand not many "yanks" on board.

[aaronleez]

We just booked the April 2 - 16 cruise. This will be our second cruise, although we travel often. I know of a great website of reviews that I have been reading, but I am not sure if this board allows me to post other sites. My name is Aaron, 30y M, my wife is Juana, ??y F. We hope to meet some of you onboard.

[sealegs57]

Hi aaron

This is our second cruise - first one was to Alaska 4 years ago with Holland America- it was great but looking forward to some heat this time! I know it won't be the 5 star treatment we had with HA but we got a good price and we're quite easy to please.

Buy the way I'm Margy and the other half is Simon - probably will bump into you at some point - its quite a small ship!

Cheers:)

[aaronleez]

This will be our 3rd cruise. The first cruise was on the Carnival Pride, with stops in Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, and Mazatlan. The ship was great, especially the food. Our second was aboard EasyCruise, through the Greek islands for 14 days. That cruise did not include any food or drinks, it was pretty much a floating hotel. They had restaurants but they charged and we had a great time. I think I preferred Easycruise because they had long port stops (sometimes from 8AM until 4AM) I have been to Barbados for one week and hope all of the other stops are as beautiful as Barbados was. If you guys want to take advantage of every minute at port, I recommend visiting Tripadvisor.com and looking at the forum for each town we will be visiting. You will see the most common answers to the question "we will be in (insert name of town here) for 10 hours, what are the one or two must do activities? They were very helpful in our trips to Greece and Italy.

[sealegs57]

Thanx - will check it out - have used Trip advisor several times - picked up some really useful tips when we were planning a safari in Kenya last year. WE will probably do our own thing when in port- rather than the trips offered by FO but as you say you need to Know how to make the most of the time there. However we are keen to do the FO swimming with dolphins - any idea if you need to book this before or during cruise?:)

[Belfastlad]

Hi

 

I am going on this cruise, having trouble finding out more info on the ship, booked it off a shopping channel. any pics on the cabins etc.

 

Many thanks

[Travelling Brummie]

Have you tried Fred Olsen's web page?

[aaronleez]

http://www.fredolsencruises.com/our-ships/braemar

 

Click the links on the left side of the page for pictures of the restaurants, lobby, deck, etc. It looks pretty nice.

[Belfastlad]

Many thanks folk. Have tried the Fred Olsen site, but the pictures of the suites and balcony cabins show same pic? Are these photos very dated? I heard the ship had recently been refurbished? :confused:

[sagalout1954]

It wasn't a full refurb Belfastlad. I gather it had the equivalent of a 'cut and shut', a new middle section was put in between the bow and the stern (look at that, I've even started learning the sailing lingo - well I have if that means the front and the back). Isn't that what they do with stretch limo's? Hope you and I don't get rough seas, might end up with the ship in 3 bits :eek:

 

Apparently, though it can now carry a few hundred more passengers, not all the facilities have been enlarged so can't now cope (theatre for example).

[Travelling Brummie]

The theatre coped OK in January, the only problem was the clash between the first performance passengers getting out whilst the second performance passengers tried to get in. Bit of queue management needed.

[sagalout1954]

Sealegs57 - This site is interesting, though not wholly reasssuring! http://www.cruise.co.uk/cruise-reviews/search/?reviewcruiselineid=3&reviewcruiseshipid=2&reviewdestinationid=2&action=search&searchsubmit.x=49&searchsubmit.y=12

[sealegs57]

Hi there Sagalout - thanks but not sure I like the sound of that!!! Got to keep an open mind tho

[long_shot45]

Any "Yanks" on this trip besides us?

[aaronleez]

I think we will be the minority. Just curious, did anyone else book this cruise using the Vacations to go special?

[sunderland sam]

We just booked this cruise. We are from Texas and we understand not many "yanks" on board.

We are from the north of England & look forward to meeting you, we have not been with Fred Olsen before but understand they are a realy good company.It won't be long now so hope to see you soon.

[sealegs57]

HI Sunderland Sam

We are also from the NOrth and flying from Manchester- 4 weeks to go! :) Can't wait. WE've just booked a couple of shore excursions and going to leave the rest till we get there and play it by ear - what about you? What currency are you taking with you - we don't know whether to just take US $ or some EC$ as well. Anybody any advice?:confused:

[sunderland sam]

This is only our 2nd cruise too, last year we went on P & Os Ventura to the Canary's, we had a great time but thought we would try a smaller ship this time.A friend told us she changes her money on the ship others have said to take American dollars so we are not sure what to do.We have booked shore trips with F.O. as we haven't been before.We are leaving from Newcastle.Look forward to seeing you soon, heres to a Happy Holiday.Best Wishes from S.Sam:)

[sealegs57]

Yes - here's to a Bon Voyage! Plenty of sunshine and lots of fun!:cool:

[thom65]

Hi long shot!!

I'm from so. calif. have 2 friends from here also booked. would like to get to know more people aboard. anyone interested please e/mail me... travelintom@gmail.com

[Belfastlad]

Hi

 

I think it would be best to stick to US dollars for trips/excusions, although the exchange rate is bad at the minute. :cool: I am holding off as long as possible to change money, hoping :) the pound improves.

[sagalout1954]

Found a 'virtual tour' here http://www.cruisedirect.co.uk/fred-olsen-cruises/braemar/virtual-tour/