Black Watch Reviews

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We (my wife and I) flew out to Peru to catch the last leg of the world cruise back to Southampton, and almost literally pushed the boat out to take a Premier Suite (their top suite). We expected superb service, but that was in part a big let-down. I'm disabled, and asked for assistance at the airport and ship. The airport was great with this. Coming from oop north, we stayed at the Hilton (package included parking) the previous night, and it was probably a good job we did. The rumour mill on the ship said that some 16 passengers missed the flight (a charter by Fred Olsen) due to a car crash on the Gatwick approach road, though I believe they did catch up with the ship at a later port. The hotel was OK but no better, but they arranged wheelchair assistance for me from the hotel right through to boarding the aircraft. For reasons unknown, they don't actually advertise this, and we found out only by accident. But a superb service it is, and they should make more of it. The flight was with Pullmantur, and I'd never heard of them (a small, Spanish charter company). We were on a 747-400, and had upgraded seats. These seats were on the upper deck, and were full business class seats and service. Service (and comfort) was excellent, and a lot of passengers (including the standard class passengers) were congratulating the crew on providing such good service. I'd certainly fly with them again! Unfortunately, the ship did not do as well. It provided no help for me (a wheelchair was required) for embarkation (nor for disembarkation). Not an impressive start! However, check-in was pain-free, so the embarkation was not a real problem. Taken to our cabin, our cabin attendant (CA, named Beth) greeted us and vanished. She came back with some sparkling wine, but only ran through the facilities when we asked her to (there were several things that were not obvious). Unfortunately, that was the start of poor service that went on almost every day for the rest of the trip. She cleaned OK, but it was done at her convenience, not ours. If there was a separate category for the CA, it would have a zero rating. The cabin was huge (about 550 sq ft, or 50 sq mtrs), though quite a lot of that space was dead because of the design (essentially two long cabins with a partial partition between them). It was still a great deal more space that we were used to, and it was pleasant to be able to sit in there. There was also a decent balcony, which was very good when we were in South America and the Caribbean but of no use when crossing the Atlantic! We got this cabin because of the length of the cruise, and it was well worth it for us. However, the smaller suites were probably better value for money. That first night, we were too late for the first sitting at dinner (which is the sitting we'd asked for), so we ate in the buffet restaurant. That was a bit of a mistake, as the quality was rather poor, and we didn't eat there again in the cruise. Overall, then, we'd not had a good introduction to the cruise. We mainly ate in the main dining room, with waiter service. The waiters, on a couple of occasions, asked me to move once I'd sat down, though at considerable inconvenience to myself. Apparently, they'd have had to go slightly further to walk round me if I hadn't moved. Never met that before! There was lots available for breakfast, but the theme of the food for me was the lovely, fresh bread rolls -- I'm missing that now I'm home. Food generally in the main restaurant was good, though not excellent. My wife struggled, as things she liked were often paired with things she disliked. Not a problem with separates (like veg), but a real problem with sauces and the like. Still, she didn't starve. The meat chef must have been on holiday, though. Medium steak would come out rare, really well done would be medium rare, and rare came out sometimes rare and sometimes uncooked. There were quite a few comments about this. And portion sizes were so variable. Roast chicken was half a chicken as a main course; garlic mushrooms as a starter comprised 4 small (about 12mm, or half an inch, across) mushrooms -- thank goodness I didn't sneeze! Someone in the reviews has mentioned fine dining, but it was a long way from that. The only thing that reminded me of fine dining was the small size of some of the dishes! One thing I can recommend: the fish and chips from the Marquee Bar. The fish was really sweet, and turned out to be an Asian river fish (no, I can't remember the name). This dish was excellent, and very popular. The waiters, once you'd been there a couple of days, were excellent. Our regular (dinner) waiter kept an eye open for us at the other meals, and waved us over to a suitable table. He served us well, and anticipated many of our likes and dislikes as well as my mobility problems. But the best part was that he (and others) involved themselves in our foibles! I'm a Daffy Duck fan, and it was DD's "birthday" on 17th April (he was 75!). I arranged a party for him at dinner that night, and everyone entered into the spirit of it. Our waiter sat a Jester puppet of Daffy on a wine glass; we had the usual song of "Happy Birthday to Daffy" sung by 6 or so waiters and a couple of officers; and they shook Daffy's hand at the end! I've never enjoyed a birthday so much. And after that, I was called Mr Daffy (or just Daffy) by a number of the waiters. (And yes, Daffy enjoyed his party as well.) I'm not a great one for shows -- I'm particularly picky about singers -- but I went to watch a magician and comedian (Mandy Muden) and watched bits of a couple of shows on the inboard TV system. The one I went to was truly excellent, and I would willingly have paid to go to see her (that says a lot for me!). The singers I watched on TV, though, I didn't like at all, though my wife enjoyed them. What was strange was that only part of the shows were put on TV. Some were not shown at all, while some were broadcast missing the first few (up to 15) minutes. And no mention was made of this "feature". We did have a longish bout of what the Captain called "stomach flue" but what everyone thought was norovirus, and a stupid film kept being played over and over again about washing hands, and why it was important; and this took precedence over a lot of the televised shows. There were other oddities, such as the mobile network going down for 2 days or so and not announced, but incredibly tall tales being given when I queried this; and our ship position being given on screen as Antigua right through to our arrival in Southampton. But generally the ship was a nice experience, though as others have said the passengers had a lot of infirm people amongst them (including me). As for trips, we didn't go on many, as we'd been to the Caribbean before. My wife was really impressed with Lima, and loved the city tour. She would like to go back there again. Manta (Ecuador) was interesting, and we went on a tour that took us to a market that sold, among other things, the panama hat. I had no idea that these came in multiple grades, basically from coarse to fine, with prices that ranged from $30 or so up to $300 or so. The other highlight was the Tagua (nut) factory, where they created sculptures out of these nuts (which are often called "vegetable ivory"). These were very nicely done, and we bought several of them. On a previous cruise, we had bought one at St Maarten, but they were much cheaper here. Next came the main feature for us: the transit of the Panama Canal. I'm not going to try to describe it, because I couldn't do it justice. While the first couple of miles of the canal itself looked like (and was, I think) a mining operation, perhaps partly because they are enlarging the lock gates to take bigger ships, the real scenery started in the Gatun Lake. It was worth the trip just to see this. Our next trip was a horse and carriage ride in Cartagena, Columbia. This was very interesting, though I was disappointed with the standard of English of our driver. The combination of the carriage and the street surfaces made it difficult to take photos, though. St Maarten was a bit of a let-down, as it was Sunday and a lot of places were closed. Even the shops at the terminal had a lot closed! Still, I managed to get a couple of bottles of rum, so the important souvenirs were obtained! Our last tour was at Ponta Delgada, which my wife did on her own. The place looks very nice, and my wife absolutely loved it. She now wants to go there for a week or two to look round properly. My one standard moan (for all cruise ships so far) is that the activities provided are boring, and I don't bother with them. This makes 23 nights on a ship about a week too long, and I'd think twice about going on another long cruise like this one. Having said that, we chatted to several people who'd been on the full 106 days of the world cruise, and no-one had cut their own throat. There must be a knack to surviving that length of time! Once we arrived in Southampton, we had the usual hassle of getting off the ship. I should have had wheelchair assistance, but that wasn't provided. And it was a very long walk from the ship to the point where we picked up a coach to Gatwick (to collect our car for the drive north). Fred Olsen really does need to sort itself out with regard to helping passengers who ask for wheelchair assistance. Overall, then, the cruise was interesting, though Beth's poor performance made it quite disappointing.

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Travelled with my wife, this was our first experience with Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, after having done the obligatory research initially. A well organised event - a Fred Olsen charter flight for some 370 cruisers aboard a Pullmantur Air Jumbo 747 from Gatwick to Callao (Lima) was a pleasant experience, perhaps the most comfortable charter we've ever travelled on, with comfortable seats, plenty of legroom, seemingly continuously being fed & watered, toilets regularly cleaned by cabin crew during flight (something regular airline could learn). Upon arrival in Lima, clear directions through all formalities and onto the coaches taking all to the ship. The Black Watch itself is a tired old lady, but with a certain faded dignity - our cabin, rather optimistically called a "Superior Outside Double" was for us rather small and cramped, with no room for twin beds side by side, all be it with a small picture window as against portholes - one bed was along a cabin wall, the other against the outer bulkhead, set in "L" shaped configuration. Clear signs of wear & tear (scratch marks on dressing table, one draw not fitting properly, loose shower head, etc), but comfortable beds none the less. The in cabin TV was still was still one of the old box type, with sometimes a fuzzy picture - these days, we would have expected a slim flat screen set. The air conditioner struggled in the South American climate, even at the coolest setting, and sound insulation between cabins was an issue. Everything generally worked OK though, and unlike some cruise liners, tea/coffee making facilities were in situ. The Glentanur Restaurant was well fitted out, service quite attentive, with variation and quality of food generally very good indeed, as was the service. However, the finesse wasn't quite there, when compared to other cruises we've made on larger vessels - for example, all main dishes came with veg already on the plate, whether you wanted any or not (on the RCL and Celebrity boats, these were served separately by your table waiter, with more choice), and the waiting staff could have had a little more training (e.g. waiters often taking short cuts by leaning over and in front of you when serving other diners, rather than going round the table to serve them). We never used the Garden Cafe, or the Marquee Grill, so cannot comment. The entertainment provided in the evenings in the Braemar Lounge was excellent, and frankly exceeded expectations. The Black Watch Show Company provided quality floor shows, clearly well rehearsed on every occasion, and the quality of "imported" acts also in the same bracket. Upon arrival in St Johns (Antigua), there was to have been a changeover of entertainers & lecturers, but due to a flight cancellation at Gatwick, the replacements never arrived. The Cruise Director, Ashley Bolton-Burrows and his team pulled out all the stops, and provided alternative entertainment every day & evening, by organising crew talent (and it's surprising what can arise from below deck..!) into performing for passengers, and persuading some passengers to give talks on some of their experiences. Full marks must go to him and his staff. All (other) lounges and bars were pleasant, as were the staff servicing them, and drinks were about UK pub prices, with minimum price for a bottle of wine about ??15 - ??16 (for the dining room as well). The library had a large selection of all types of reading matter, so there was never any shortage. The Wifi was available, but only at certain "hot spots", and VERY costly (??25 purchased 146 mins of online time, about 18p per minute - and the connection is SLOW..!) During the voyage, a minor epidemic of "stomach flu", or some such tummy bug made a threatening appearance, with about 40 of the 721 passengers affected but the stringent hygiene practices and restrictions put in place kept matters from getting out of hand, and all credit due to the Doctors and their staff. Previous research seemed to put the average age of the predominantly British passengers as +/-60, but it certainly appeared to be MUCH more than that - my wife and I are in our mid-70s, and we felt (and looked) like young striplings by comparison to some. Taking the voyage as a whole, we THOROUGHLY enjoyed the complete experience, and the "friendly" atmosphere the ship and her crew generated - one can understand why Fred Olsen have such a loyal following. Would we rate the Black Watch 4 or 5 star..? No, 3 - 4 star is about right. Would we cruise on the "Black Watch" again..? Probably not, simply because we prefer cabins with balconies so that we can sleep with fresh air and not canned air, which we think caused our coughs & colds.. (there are balcony cabins on the Black Watch, but one of those costs an arm & several legs..). Would we use Fred Olsen again..? Yes, probably, as we like Fred Olsen as a cruise line, but only when they get hold of some more modern ships. Meanwhile, we'll stick to balcony cabins on other vessels...

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We left from Southampton (not on list of choices).Worth going the extra miles to reach Cape Verde... warmer and sunnier. We liked the 2 days at sea and then a port stop procedure. All good ports to stop at and Lisbon especially interesting (but cooler of course). Fred Olsen did screw up with embarkation as boat was late (or still being checked after a dry dock experience) and passengers were slowed down by queues of some length. Not what was expected by an older crowd. Finish one queue and then find another. Not good. Lots of standing when we could have been sat down for 2 hours. AND WE HAD TO PAY FOR TEAS AND SANDWICHES! Only the British put up with this nonsense. NB on returning, the porters are FREE but not very forthcoming. Taxis will 90% take you to the wrong Train entrance... deliberately as it saves them 5-10 minutes. Find out where you want to go before you get in and insist and then check on arrival at the train station! Take Taxi number. A big big problem for older people. A great crowd of people on board and much fun had, especially at the 10pm quiz every night. Entertainment was very good. Thanks to Ashley, the acts and all the entertainment staff. I would easily do this cruise again. Good enrichment speakers, well attended. Food? Very good and back to where it was 2 yrs ago. Lots of choice and good meals. Currys are always excellent. We ate more in informal Garden Cafe. Very nice. Food staff did seem a little more stressed and tired than previously. Black Watch is great allround winner. And the passengers seem younger than they did 10 years ago!

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We were booked on Black Watch for her voyage to the Cape Verde islands on November 26th, and were told to get to the Ocean Terminal at a given time. We drove to Southampton where we were given free parking (hooray) for the duration of the cruise,great but on entering the terminal on time found it packed with people and nowhere left to sit! We were held there for nearly 2 hours before being allowed to board the ship,not a good start. Also about 3 weeks before we were due to sail Olsen's demanded a fuel surcharge which was calculated as a percentage of the fare paid. in our case nearly ?200.So their very unfair system means that the more you paid for your fare the more your surcharge would be irrespective of the fact that the cost in fuel to move a given person from A to B is the same whatever cabin they occupy! Talking to many people on the ship we were amazed to find that the majority had not heard of this surcharge let alone paid it! We booked over a year in advance and paid over ?2000 a head,but a lot had booked in the last 2 or 3 weeks before sailing and paid as little we were told as ?700 odd. This really leaves a sour taste in the mouth and obviously the moral is if you want to go on one of Fred Olsen's ships don't book early,leave it to the eleventh hour and get it a lot cheaper. The Ship itself is in very reasonable condition although being an elderly lady,having been built in 1972,and you will find deck crew repairing and painting around the ship 7 days a week as we did. There were a lot of sea days on this cruise so when we got to the 1st port,Portimao we were ready to stretch our legs. From there we sailed south to Tenerife and there did an excellent whale watching trip (ships tour)on a catamaran from the south of the Island. On again to Mindelo in Cape Verde where we hired a taxi for 2 and a half hours (for 4 of us) for 70 euros (far cheaper than the ships tour)and went right up into the mountains where the views would have been superb had it been clearer and not drizzling. On next to Praia where we just walked around the town and interesting typical West African market. We arrived at our last port in the Cape Verde to find that the shore landing facilities were woefully inadequate and as this was a tender port the Captain forbade a landing so we sailed away half a day early. So the Cape Verde islands are really a waste of time as a destination. After having an ill passenger lifted off by helicopter from Las Palmas one evening we docked in Lanzarote in the evening, and sailed again for Lisbon the next afternoon in hot sunshine and to the sounds of Colin Bryant's Hot Rhythm Orchestra playing on the afterdeck. It was nice to see Lisbon again and we had a morning ashore here before sailing for Southampton in the afternoon. Overall we saw a lot of sun,got a good tan and had a restful time, we liked the ship generally,it was clean and the food and service was good,but if you like to go on a ship with an extremely elderly,and in many cases infirm clientele (one man on two sticks boasted "I'm 101 you know") this would possibly suit you, but possibly not the way the Fred Olsen Company is out for the last penny, a ?1 for a small bottle of water and no bottle of wine less than ?15+ and ?5 a head for use of a shuttle bus into town from the dock. Brambleseven

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For this cruise to the Red Sea for Petra in Jordan ,we travelled to the NEC Cruise Show in October 2010.We were informed the ship was almost full and we were offered a total of 4 cabins to choose from.We thought we received a reasonable discount on brochure price until in February 2011 we were given an additional fuel charge ,this almost wiped out the discount from the cruise show. Seemingly there were many cancellations for this cruise presumably because of the unsettled situation in the middle east,therefore there became available many late deals.Yes i am aware that shipping Co's must try and fill available cabins as they don't wish to sail with empty space,i also know that cabins were sold for half the price we paid .This is not my main gripe but the additional fuel charge still rancour's ,i know for a fact that the late Booker's despite the reduced price for the cruise did not pay this additional fuel charge,and those who did were subsidising these half price travellers. CAN THIS BE RIGHT? That off my chest,This Cruise was Fantastic and everything we had expected There was some doubt as to whether we would be able to stop at the planned ports in Egypt.The Captain gave us updates as we sailed towards Alexandria,as after we had left the UK there was the COPTIC MASSACRE.However we were assured that the tours planned would be undertaken. Our tours were in ALEXANDRIA,CAIRO and GIZA,LUXOR and VALLEY of the KINGS,and from Sharm El Sheikh a Trip to ST CATHERINES MONASTERY.On all these coach tours we were accompanied by an Armed Plain Clothes Policeman,in Alexandria we had in addition Police Motorbike Outriders who preceded us and stopped traffic to let us pass.To Cairo [from PORT SAID]we went in convoy of 5 coaches with additional forces in jeeps interspersed between the coaches to the outskirts of the area ,however there were plenty of security present at Giza Pyramids and Cairo Museum,also at the Temples of Karnak ,Luxor and the Valley [FRom SAFAGA]. No we did not feel intimidated at all and felt that we were being taken care of under special circumstances existing [i have been to Egypt Twice Before].Lucky for us we managed to get to Petra in Jordan which was the main reason in booking this cruise and one to mark off "our to do list",and it was well worth our expectation.

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