Sailing The Fjords on Fred. Olsen's Bolette
Shell Garlick
Our Shell recently sailed with Fred. Olsen on the Bolette to the Fjords. She's kindly written us a blog about how it went.
For our holiday this year my partner and I decided to take a Norwegian Fjords Cruise with Fred. Olsen. We picked the Norwegian Fjords & Mighty Waterfalls itinerary as it had a nice mixture of scenic cruising and ports (and this is what Fred. does best!).
We arrived in Southampton and headed for our Covid test. This was straight forward and we were in and out in 30 minutes and free to head to security. There was a little wait in the terminal as there was a problem with the ports Wi-Fi meaning we couldn’t check in as we normally would. This was handled perfectly by the staff of the ship who kept us regularly updated and hydrated while we waited. In the end, they resorted to ‘Plan B’ which was to check everyone in manually on the ship. Although this was a long process it was handled well by the staff and we were soon on and ready to start our holiday.
Onboard Bolette
The atmosphere onboard is relaxed and with the ship being small you are never too far away from where you want to be still with lifts at the front, middle and aft of the ship. There are 6 restaurants, 8 bars & lounges and 2 pools.
The Cabin
We had a Picture Window Ocean View cabin (E Grade) and the first thing we noticed when we walked in was how spacious it felt. There is two single beds, which can be made into a double, two side tables, a dresser and a couch. There is also a Smart TV giving access to TV channels, movies, the ships tracker, your onboard account and more. There is tea and coffee making facilities in each of the cabins too, with a range of teas and both normal and decaf coffee. Each morning, whilst we were out for breakfast the room was cleaned and tidied and then also whilst we were out for dinner in the evening. The cleaning staff certainly had impeccable timing not to make us feel rushed to get out in the morning or trying to get in our room in the evening whilst we were trying to get ready.
We were towards the aft of the ship and although we felt some slight movement whilst sailing through the North Sea, this is to be expected and the cabin was quiet.
Restaurants
By far our favourite was The View, the main buffet restaurant. Because the ship is small and there are two sides to the restaurant there was no queuing, and the food was of great quality with very little queuing. The only time there was a little bit of a wait was at the stations serving stir-fries etc but often the chefs would make more than one portion to save people waiting so long.
Our second favourite was The Poolside. Nothing beats that holiday feeling of having your lunch or dinner by the side of the pool. At this restaurant, they served favourites such as Fish & Chips and Burgers plus a selection of salads and bruschettas which changed daily. They did repeat the menu a couple of times during the cruise (I think they may only have 3 or 4 menus in rotations) but that was great for a foodie like me who can never decide what to pick so I could go back and try the rest of the menu.
We went to the main restaurant (The Terrace) a couple of times which offers a la carte breakfast and lunch plus a 5-course dinner every day. The food was really nice and the only reason we didn’t head back here more was that we enjoyed the flexibility of the buffet. We booked into one of the speciality restaurants onboard, Colours & Tastes described as a modern Asian fusion. The supplement here was just £15pp (£10pp if booked before departure). We picked the Bao buns and Philippine pork sisig as a starter and they were both incredible. For the main we both opted for the Crispy fried chilli beef and Jasmine rice. I ordered it as it came however my partner doesn’t like anything too spicy which, as everything is made fresh, was no problem for them - they made his with no chilli at all and perfect for him to enjoy too.
We didn’t try the other speciality restaurant, Vasco, a Goan restaurant however we did hear other guests talking about it with only positive reviews.
Bars
There are a mixture of bars onboard all with differing atmospheres.
There was The Observatory which was great on one of the days which was a bit drizzly as we could sit in there and listen to the ships commentary of scenic cruising without having to don our waterproofs! We also took part in one of the many quizzes in there – Name That Tune. We didn’t win but we were pleased with our efforts at least and it was great fun.
Our favourite bars were either the Pool Bar for when we were lazing around the pool reading a book or the Sea View Bar at the back of the ship where we took the opportunity to sail away from a port with a glass of something fizzy or a cocktail in hand.
We prepaid to upgrade to all-inclusive which allowed us to pick from a couple of the house wines, soft drinks, house spirits and the cocktail or mocktail of the day. The service onboard was faultless and we always knew there was a server close by to take our drinks order.
Entertainment
The Daily Times was delivered to our cabin every night as part of the turndown and it was clear to see that there was always something going on onboard. The Bolette Theatre Company put on a show 4 times in the 7 nights and every performance was amazing with the last show of the cruise even getting a standing ovation from the audience. On the other nights, there was an instrumentalist and also a comedian with his pitch just right for his audience.
Across the ship, there were talks, lectures from the restaurant team and also climate change experts, and interviews with the staff but my favourite was the scenic cruising commentary. In a place like the Fjords, it would be so easy to get caught up with the ‘oohs and the ahhs’ of the scenery without fully understanding what you are looking at. For me, the commentary added an extra dimension that was priceless.
On the last night, there was a Captain's Farewell Toast. The Entertainment Manager Sammie and Captain Mikael Degerlund spoke with some of the First Officers of the ship and also some of the crew members which had everyone laughing with some of their stories and the Captain's tongue in cheek questions. It was great to raise a glass to the wonderful staff who had made the cruise so great.
The Intinerary
On day 3 after the previous day at sea, we arrived in Norway. We started our scenic cruising with Lysefjorden where we sailed under Pulpit Rock. We waited here for a little while whilst the ship spun 360° to give everyone on the ship the best vantage point. We then sailed to Jøsenfjorden and witnessed some of the cliff faces combined with grassy mountainsides, all with pretty little villages situated between. We even managed to get some sunbathing in. On a sun lounger, cold drink in hand, watching the breathtaking scenery go by… what’s not to love?!
Day 4 saw a visit to our first port – Eidfjord. We took a stroll into the village before settling on taking the Troll Train up to one of the viewpoints in the village. The pictures we were able to take from up there of both the scenery and the ship were incredible – we felt like professional photographers just with our camera phones haha. Once back on the ship the weather started to turn so we headed inside but we still had some fabulous places to watch the world go by from within the ship. Via the commentary, we knew we would be coming to the next highlight around 4 pm and we were not disappointed. We arrived at Furebergfoss just as the rain stopped – perfect! The waterfall is huge and has such power, we were all gobsmacked by it. Again, the ship spun a few times to give everyone a chance to see it from wherever they were standing or sitting.
Day 5 was a visit to Olden. We dropped anchor and tendered to shore. Once again we walked into the town to look around some of the shops before hopping on an open-top bus to see Briksdal Glacier. We stopped at the first viewpoint, which is quite far away, but you were able to get much closer using the ship's excursions. We left Olden around 3 pm and sailed down the Fjord taking more postcard-worthy pictures.
Our last port was Haugesund, a port city with buckets of charm. It has a true Norwegian feel to is with quirky little shops, lots of parks and churches plus a lovely marina which we found was also a sun trap. Perfect for sitting outside one of the many cafes for a coffee.
Fancy sailing with Fred. Olsen? Find out more here
