The Balkans on Bolette

Bolette Cruise Review

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 3
Helpful Votes: 74

Overall rating:

4.6 out of 5
Bolette

Winter Warmth In The Canaries & Cape Verde

Sail date: June 14, 2022

Ship: Bolette

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 1 year ago

Review summary

Excellent cruise with great weather, terrific food & drink & first class service. Ports visited in Spain, Croatia, Montenegro & Albania were wonderful.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
Fantastic - covid test carried out efficiently & 20 mins post release from this we were on board & in our cabin!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Fred Olsen food always good but this cruise it was excellent- Colours & Tastes specialty restaurant was a WOW - Poolside lunch & breakfast were also first class.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5
For smaller ship without the “glitzy” activities there was plenty to do. Great gym, enrichment lectures were very good & port presentations excellent- didn’t try & push FO trips either concentrated on the port area history, culture, food & drink, & what to do. Quizzes great fun both general knowledge & music.

Entertainment

5 out of 5
All the entertainment was first class but the Bolette theatre company were truly MAGNIFICENT- without doubt all of them could perform in west end shows - that’s a measure of how good they were. The shows were well arranged song & dance routines were great & final day crew show was great fun.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Compared to our April Princess cruise this was cruise service at its best! Drinks service first class, cabin brilliantly cleaned every day & service in all restaurants was exemplary. We’ll done Fred Olsen!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5
Being smaller ship makes navigation easy from early days in the cruise - everything was spotlessly clean & staff were visible cleaning inside & outside the ship especially early morning & late evening - doing everything to keep customers healthy.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5
We had terrace cabin giving us access to private sun beds on promenade deck which was excellent- the sliding door from the cabin was very heavy though and some people had trouble using it. Cabin spotless & shower in bathroom was double size with great water pressure. Very comfortable.

Ship tip

If you are going somewhere warm - worth the extra for terrace cabin over ocean view to give you access to private outside sunbed.

Ports of call

Durres (Tirana), Albania

5 out of 5
Didn’t visit Durres due to ship draft - instead we visited Sarande - well what a visit! Albania was spectacular! Went on a Jeep safari & boy was it worth it spectacular scenery visited inland villages, went to a street cafe with spectacular waterfall cascading through it!! Visited two wonderful castles that Ali Pasha built - very friendly people who don’t have much but so happy to see tourists. The jewel in this cruises crown. Albania is currently unknown it won’t be for long!

Kotor, Montenegro

5 out of 5
Kotor is a beautiful place - great history, fantastic little streets to investigate, great shopping & very good bars & restaurants at reasonable prices. Setting in Adriatic fjords spectacular!

Dubrovnik, Croatia

5 out of 5
Beautiful city - tour of city walls & trip to top of city on cable car both must do’s. At top of cable car is terrific bar & restaurant offering panoramic views of city ( food & drink very good too). Seafood restaurants in Dubrovnik are excellent but not cheap.

Cartagena, Spain

5 out of 5
Great port easy to access fabulous Roman amphitheater & museum- great coffee shops on Main Street

Cagliari, Sardinia

2 out of 5
Disappointing- did bus tour. City was scruffy & dirty - graffiti everywhere. We did get into port early & ship was only there for 5 hours - Italian’s not early risers, so that might not have helped, but based on this visit Sardinia not a place I would rush back too.

Split, Croatia

4 out of 5
Another lovely city, friendly people, easy city to get around. Fruit & fish markets are fab to visit & people watch.

Disembarkation

5 out of 5
As with getting on the ship 30 mins after leaving the Bolette we were in a taxi to pick up our car - excellent - Princess take note!!
Was this review helpful? 19

6 Comments