Dining on Balmoral

[jemchome]

We have to decide which sitting to request for our Fjords and Llochs cruise in July.( I`m assuming it`s 6.30 or 8.30). We really can`t make up our minds! We do want to eat formally. This is our first cruise with Fred Olsen .With previous lines we have gone for the earlier sitting as we have been with elderly relatives who preferred to eat earlier. This time it will be just myself and my husband, so we have a choice. Can anyone help us to decide? Influential factors might be- We will probably not go on any organised excusions . It looks as though the ship sails at 6 pm each night. We like a drink before we eat but don`t like to go to bed too soon after eating

It partly depends on how long the meal takes, what time the shows begin and how long they are and what other entertainment is on apart from the shows. Can anyone help with advantages and disadvantages?

[Kez100]

We went to early sitting with children and that was the sitting all young children attended during our cruise. Sme teens went to late sitting but if you want to avoid children then late is the one to bag. Not that the restaurant children were anything other than well behaved on our trip.

 

I didn't find the sailing time of six o clock an issue because we had to be back on board a lot earlier anyway and always had time to dress.

 

I thought the early sitting for the show seemed most busy but, for one or two popular shows, some early eaters stayed in their show seats to watch again which made it more difficult for the later arriving late eaters to find a seat.

 

Fred Olsen doesn't have 24 hour eating. When you come back from a trip or you have been out doing your own thing - if you miss afternoon tea - it can be a long wait until 8.30 for a meal.

 

If you are on a cheap guarantee cabin they don't offer a choice of sitting so you have less chance of getting what you request (although we did get ours, but that might have been due to having young children)

 

There is bound to be quieter activities available during first sitting which we didn't get any chance to assess as we were eating early- I'm thinking bars and the pool.

 

8.30 is late to eat if you are an early to bed person. I assume you get a less stressy coffee on late sitting. We often felt we had to get going faster due to being on first sitting - not good when I drink black coffee when it's quite cold!

 

Final disadvantage - for anyone on my cruise - I will have drunk all the free champagne in the cocktail party by the time you get there on second!

[jemchome]

Oh my goodness- we are both teachers and would quite like to avoid children! We thought F.O. didn`t really have many children. Never mind. We`ll probably request a late sitting then. I think it`ll be nice to be on deck when the ship leaves port and still have time for a leisurly drink before dinner.Can you remember what time the second show finished? Also, we would like to be with the largest number of people on a table. Can you remember if that would be a table for 8?

Which restaurant did you prefer?

[Kez100]

FO doesn't have many children on board. We were on a family friendly mid August cruise and there were about 18 under 12's and 24 in the teen group. Not many out of 1200 passengers. This year they seem to have dropped the 'family friendly' logo in later version brochures. Because they laid on skeleton kids facilities (3 x 2 hour sessions a day) they tended to appeal to families where children and parents do a lot of things together. My two are really not into kids clubs with sparring to get to the front of the queue for things.

 

You may be pre-UK school holidays as well if you go in July, depending on the date.

 

I can't remember the late show times but my daughter will (children do come in handy with their agile memories!) If no one else replies I 'll ask her tomorrow. Knowing her, she probably kept all the daily times newspapers for her diary!

 

The Ballindalloch restaurant has lots of tables for 6's and 8's and I think the big table in the middle might even have been a 10. We ate there on a table for 4. I have requested a 6 in the Spey this time (we are going with two others). A quieter more intimate restaurant, but I think 6 was the bigest in the Avon and Spey. Again I am pretty sure my daughter has a seating plan for the Ballindalloch somewhere in her Aladdins Cave of a bedroom.

[Kez100]

As for other entertainment, the Lido Lounge had an alternative on and that varied from mellow music to the show company locating there when a headliner act was on in the main show lounge. The Observatory had mellow piano music followed by a disco (very small) - The Obs is a beautiful room/bar - my daughters fave (not that she should really have a favourite bar at her age!) There could well have been something going on in the Morning Light pub as well. We were away during the Olympics (and knew someone competing) so tended to watch that at the back of the Lido Lounge. I'll see if I can get her to dig out a daily times newspaper.Then I can give amore accurate idea of what was on for one evening. The timings for shows etc tended to be the same each night.

 

Oh,and don't miss the launderette. Brilliantly social place - FO needs to put a bar down there! I spent one evening talking to two of the (off duty) entertainers for a couple of hours down there.

[jemchome]

Thanks very much for the info,can`t wait to go now!

[Kez100]

No problem. They are lovely ships in an old fashioned traditional way.

 

Daughter had answers to everything. I just hope the Captain kept hold of his Norwegian nautical maps!

 

One thing I had forgotton is there is a free cabin menu (albeit a pretty restricted choice) so you could have something from that menu if you were on late sitting and really hungry, having missed afternoon tea.

 

Ballindalloch had one table for 10 and just over 20 8's.

 

Evening showtime in main show lounge was 8.45 and 10.30 (most of the time) and in the Lido Lounge 9.00 and 10.45, when there was a show there. Other times the Lido was open party type entertainment from 8.30 on.

[jemchome]

Thank you for taking so much trouble with answering! I think we`ll request the later sitting (though I know it`s not guaranteed with our guaranteed cabin booking) and request a table for 8 so there`s bound to be someone we get on with! What did you think of the entertainment?

[Kez100]

We were never bored and always found something of interest - which was pretty good as there were the four of us to keep happy. The headline acts change and the ship's show company left as we disembarked, so it's unlikely you will get the same people as we did. I was pleased that the choice of acts managed to cross all generations rather than concentrate on the older generation (which FO is famous for appealling to)

 

We only found one act really not our cup of tea, a female vocalist, but a lot of the older set loved her - so it's horses for courses.

 

Especially good (and quite possibly still on board) were the Rosario String Trio, Sam in the Observatory (mellow piano and vocals) and the crew show is not to be missed.

 

I hope you have a lovely time. As teachers you really deserve a relaxing break in July! If you have a great time you'll have to grab another guarantee bargain and jump back on with us to the baltics three weeks later!

[jemchome]

We teach in the UK but our term finishes slightly earlier than the rest of the country ( Fri July 10th). So we are able to travel slightly before the majority of schools break up. (We sail on July 17th ). Our youngsters are 22 and 20 and this will be our first holiday without them!

We went on a Baltic cruise with Sun Cruises when they still existed.

[Sarah_Jayne]

It sounds like we are going to be on the same cruise. This is our first time on a cruise and my question is also in relation to meals. Am I correct in reading that there is an option to have evening meals in an open planned seating buffet style resturant too? We aren't always 'fancy dining' people (though we can do that too!) and liked the sound of that option for some nights.

[Kez100]

yes. The casual dining is in the Palms. Sometimes theme

Buffets like Thai and others times ordinary buffet.

 

We went two evenings to the Palms. The Thai night and the middle formal night when we didn't have enough time after our excursion to all dress for dinner - there were four of us in the cabin!

 

The Palms has laid tables and proper crockery. Waiters find you a table and bring water and serve you drinks if you want any. Waiters take your plates. It's a nice casual option.

 

The theme nights were very popular.