The Golden Age of travel does still exist. You just need to search long and hard to find it. I discovered it recently…
I decided to “reward” myself on reaching the milestone of half a century by going on a luxury cruise – not your normal three-night Portuguese Island type cruise but something special. After much deliberating the choice was made – it would be along the coast and fjords of Norway, right up into the Arctic Circle in search of the midnight sun.
I did not want the brash, huge cruise ships with thousands of people and their loud, spoilt children. I was looking for something more intimate and sophisticated.
My knowledgeable travel agent pointed me in the right direction. The Fred. Olsen cruise line is Norwegian-owned but British-operated. They run an exclusive fleet of four ships, average in size and catering for the more discerning traveller.
I booked a 14-night luxury cruise onboard the Boudicca departing from Newcastle in England, crossing the North Sea and seeing fascinating places like Bergen, Olden, Geiranger and Tromso. This cruise afforded me the opportunity to see the northernmost botanical garden in the world to see forms of flora that I had never even heard of. Not to mention visiting the northern-most Polar Zoo in the world to see animals such as the wolverine – unknown to South Africans.
The Boudicca is sleek and stylish in appearance and still resembles what a ship should look like – not a huge, floating hotel. Nevertheless she still offers 10 decks, three pools, two Jacuzzis, a beauty salon, a casino, gymnasium, card room, library, internet café, ship shops, four restaurants and numerous bars and lounges.
She takes 856 passengers in 449 cabins with a crew of 325 – which is more than one crew member for every three passengers.
That ratio is reflected by the level of service. Nothing is too much trouble. Due to the number of passengers onboard, staff quickly get to know you and attention is paid to your preferences and dislikes.
Service levels in the cabin and dining areas were of the highest we have ever experienced. On one occasion we counted five times in one day that we had left our cabin only to return to find that the cabin had been made up, beds refreshed, towels replaced, dirty glasses removed and the ice bucket refilled.
Those are the little extras that made the cruise on Boudicca special. The fresh flowers in the cabin, the complimentary champagne on arrival, the fresh fruit bowl that is replenished daily, the fluffy robes, the binoculars, the mouth-watering canapés served in our cabin every day at 4pm, the complimentary pressing service for the formal evenings and then the balcony… aah, the balcony.
We had booked a balcony specifically as this is one of the only places on board where a person is permitted to smoke – and this is where we would spend most of our time gazing at the landscape that was passing before our eyes. With the sun hardly ever setting we would while our time away here sometimes until two or three in the morning to drink in what is the amazing spectacle of Norway with its dramatic vistas.
Cabins are generally larger than can be found on most other cruise ships, and extremely comfortable. All balcony suites have plasma screen TVs, aircons, mini bars, a sofa and a delightfully comfortable double bed with snug duvets and a full bathroom with bath and shower and all the amenities.
Dining on board is gastronomic heaven. There were several options to choose from.
At dinner, menu options included the finest fresh seafood, soups as exotic as double oxtail with port, spicy Thai chicken and coconut or prawn bisque, entrees like smoked fish tapenade with capers and crostini or a forest mushroom terrine with hazelnut cream dressing, and salads like crumbled stilton with pears and walnuts or roasted peppers and fennel. Main courses included Dover sole with shrimp mousse, roast Norfolk duckling in a Grand Marnier orange sauce, chicken supreme with champagne sauce or even more exotic dishes like roast reindeer with cranberry jelly.
Desserts were sweet temptations like Drambuie and raspberry parfait, Kahlua coffee crème brulee or hazelnut Frangelico gateau. There were always cheese, biscuit and fruit platters to top it all off. If guests were not satisfied with the menu options, they were free to order anything they wished, as long as the order was placed before 2pm. My specially prepared salmon fishcakes with scallops and bread and butter pudding went down a treat.
Evening dining is a fairly formal affair. The two formal evenings saw passengers dressed in their finest garb with evening suits and glittering ball gowns the order of the day. The two Captain’s Cocktail evenings are another fabulous opportunity to have free drinks and brilliant snacks. For semi-formal evenings a jacket was required for gentlemen while ordinary slacks sufficed for informal evenings – no jeans and sneakers here.
The room service option allowed us to have many sumptuous lunches on our balcony without having to face the crowds. What is easier than lifting the phone and having our cabin steward Mel delivering a fresh salmon platter and a ploughman’s salad to the cabin within a few minutes? High tea in the morning and afternoon in the Lido Lounge are grand affairs and the array of cakes and tarts that the chefs are able to conjure up out of those kitchens is astounding.
Fred.Olsen is unique in that it is the only cruise line I know of where passengers are allowed to purchase duty free drinks on board to consume in their cabins. This results in a huge saving as it can become costly to constantly pay bar prices in pounds. We paid £17 for a fine litre of whisky which is cheap by any standard.
Entertainment on board has a distinctly British flavour – all free of charge, of course. And if the line-up of entertainment for the evening is not to your liking, there is always the lure of the casino… Duty-free on board shopping ain’t half bad either with many bargains to be picked up in the boutique. Other entertainment on offer included yoga classes, art classes, dancing lessons, bridge classes and games on deck.
Cruising along the coast of Norway is unique in that one is almost always in sight of land – no boring days just surrounded by sea. The fact that Boudicca is not such a large ship also means she is able to gain access to some of the smaller fjords which the big liners are not able to do, and it is in these that the true gems are hidden.
Be warned, the weather that far north is different to what we are used to. When visiting Nordkapp, the northernmost point of Europe located at the latitude of 71º, 10 minutes and 21 seconds North we were greeted with the announcement that it was a beautiful bright summer day with a temperature of 3°C.
Downside of the cruise? It is rather costly.
Our balcony suite cabin option was expensive, but there are much cheaper options available. The compulsory tipping adds a hefty amount to the brochure price – especially for us paying in Rand. Organised land excursions tend to be pricey but getting around on your own is quite affordable. Then there are, of course, the kilojoules that pile on rather quickly but, believe me, it is worth every bite.
What were the seas like? We had two rough nights – crossing the North Sea from the UK to Norway and back again – the rest was smooth as glass.
Would I do it all over again? Without blinking. Would I do Fred. Olsen again? Without a doubt. The slightly more formal approach, the fact that there are no discos and even fewer children on board, no climbing walls and that it does not take two hours to embark or disembark are right up my alley.
It may not be everyone’s cup of tea but, then again, we all want something different for that once-in-a-lifetime experience. - Saturday Star