Hello folks its Sonja here. I too was on this cruise. Merry Christmas to you all. I think the staff were absolutely wonderful, the older passengers were bloody awful, coming from the I want something for nothing brigade!!! But yes, we are all entitled to our opinions, its still a free country. Kay and Steven were a wonderful couple and I spent many a happy evening with them playing blackjack, giving fred a bit more money, but it was my choice. I got into a lot of trouble on that cruise with the older passengers but they had nothing better to do than to take a pot shot at me. The captain was a comedian, and the hotel manager was a gentleman in the end. God bless this ship and all who sail in her!! Love to Manuel, the bar manager, Juan he was lovely, and teresa the cabin lady!!! Yes deck 5 was very noisy but my husband Graham slept through the lot. Am not absolutely certain who we will sail with next year but sail we will. Love to Steve and Sheila who shared table 9 with us for dinner. And hope Fred enjoyed his trip round canary islands. Merry Christmas folks, the reunion is taking place at my pub in January when you will all be very welcome, including Olav the captain. Sonja Molden

thought the ship handled the bad weather very well.The smoking was a bit of a nuisance but was easily overcome by avoiding the smoking areas.Whem we sat in the Lido we sat well away from the smoking area

I was also on this cruise and have to disagree, the ship performed very well in the weather and the Captain handled it perfectly. I was on Deck 4 and there was movement overnight but there would be in a storm, wouldn't there?

I was also on this cruise and remember 'Dickens' and his wife very well!!!! As do the fellow smokers I was on the cruise with, as every time any of us dared to light a cigarette in the smokers bar, he was huffing and puffing and complaining to his wife, and waving his arms around like a demented urautang. There is no shortage of non smoking bars on the Black Watch, and indeed, in the Lido bar, no shortage of non smoking tables that were available nowhere near the smoking section. In fact Mr Dickens seemed to take delight in sitting as close to the smoking section as possible purely to give himself something to complain about, and from what I observed, these were the only conversations the two of them ever had in the evenings. I notice that Mr Dickens has stated his age at 65 well I can only assume that he had a very hard paper round as a boy. Also I would put the average age of this cruise between 65 and 95 !!!!! And with that I mean 98% of the passengers. Very strange considering the people (models) in the Fred. Olsen brochure seem to all be between 35 and 55, but the entertainment is solely aimed at pensioners (and octogenarians at that!). I was in the Lido bar every night as it was described in the brochure as the bar for the "younger set" and still we had to listen to music from Cole Porter to the mid seventies, and absolutely nothing later. The Fred Olsen staff told us that as people in our mid forties we should never have gone near ANY Fred Olsen cruise, as they are aimed entirely at pensioners, and should have gone to P&O or Ocean Village. I will write my own review soon... and if you are under 65 I would read it before booking a Fred Olsen cruise.....