We were up at 7.30 this morning in a state of suppressed excitement and a touch of anxiety, as today we had to take the 10:18 train from Durham to Liverpool to join the fabulous M/S Borealis.
Yes! We are going on another cruise, this time on the wonderful Fred Olsen Borealis, on which we’ve cruised twice before (in 2021 and 2022). We love cruising with Fred Olsen Cruise Lines; unlike other cruise lines I could mention they haven’t used Covid-19 as an excuse for making cutbacks; they are as good as they’ve ever been, and we were really looking forward to this cruise, as all three of the FOCL ships (Borealis, Bolette and Balmoral) were due to ‘meet up’ in Funchal, Madeira, on the 9th of November. Lots of events had been arranged to take place in Funchal that day, and we thought it would certainly be something different! 😊
Before then, however, we had three days at sea to look forward to, before arriving at the Azores, visiting Praia de Victoria and Ponta Delgada before heading down to Madeira.
As ever, although we were happy to be going on holiday once again, I cannot stop myself from worrying, imagining lots of “what ifs”… what if the taxi was late or didn’t turn up at all? What if the train was late or cancelled (they cancelled the 10:18 yesterday!) People say it must be great to have a vivid imagination like mine and most of the time that is true, but it was times like this where I wished I could just stay calm and not keep imagining all the things that could go wrong!
I needn’t have worried, however. After Trevor had returned from taking Cedric, our cat, to the cat hotel for his holidays, we brought all our luggage downstairs to the hall to await the taxi. It turned up five minutes early, and we loaded our three suitcases (one case each, and an extra one for my shoes!!) in the boot of the car and set off for the railway station at 9.45am. A quick look at the Rail Enquiries app reassured me that our train was expected to be on time.
At the station, we enjoyed a large white Americano coffee each before making our way to the platform where we could see the approaching headlights of our train. Then we boarded, stashed our cases in the luggage racks and made our way to our reserved seat in Coach B. As the train slowly pulled out of the station and we passed the magnificent sight of Durham Cathedral and the castle, I started to relax. The holiday begins now! 😊
The journey passed pleasantly and once we pulled out of York, Trevor cracked open the bottle of prosecco he’d stashed in his rucksack and we enjoyed it from some cardboard cups we’d brought with us for that purpose.
We arrived at Liverpool Lime Street at 1.15pm, a quarter of an hour late. Then it was down in the large lift to the underground station, where it was only two stops until James Street, which is only a 10-minute (if that) walk to the cruise terminal. The weather, for the 1st November, was certainly better than we’d expected, as Storm Ciaran has been bashing the British Isles, with very strong winds and torrential rain. However, the air was crisp and cool, but the sun was out, so we didn’t need to use the large black plastic bin liners we’d brought to cover our cases as we trundled them along the pavements towards the ship. 😊
Rounding the corner, we caught our first glimpse of the distinctive twin red funnels of the Borealis, and felt a fresh surge of excitement as we hurried along.
As we entered the cruise terminal, one crew member said “Do you know about the change in itinerary?” When we shook our heads, she said “We’re not going to the Azores now as the weather is too bad and the Atlantic is too rough with 10 metre (over 32 feet) waves. We will therefore be in Belfast tomorrow, then Cobh and then Vigo, before we sail for Maderia”. Trevor and I looked at each other and said “Oh well. Safety has to come first I suppose”. To be honest, the way the weather has been recently, what with Storm Babette, Storm Ciaran (and Storm Debbie to come. Storm Debbie !!! Ha ha ha!) we would have been more surprised if we had managed to get to the Azores. Changes in itinerary are not uncommon at all on cruises, and the replacement ports were certainly attractive enough.
As we are booked into a Junior Suite, we skipped the queue and used the priority boarding lane, and in no time at all we were making our way up the gangplank and into the plush interior of the vessel, to the smiles and cries of “Welcome on board!” from the cheerful crew.
Making a beeline to Deck 6 and our aft balcony suite, room 6227, we dumped our bags and hotfooted it up to the View self-service restaurant; we were quite hungry as it was now nearly 2.00pm and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. I enjoyed a large bowl of fresh moules marinières; the food on board Fred ships is always very good, and they had a good selection of tempting dishes. I didn’t want to eat too much now, however; I’d save myself for dinner later on. 😊
After lunch we made our way to the poolside bar. The swimming pool and hot tubs are set under a large retractable roof and we wondered whether it would ever be open this cruise; maybe in Madeira.
I enjoyed a couple of glasses of chilled cava while Trevor had some “Newky Broon” (Newcastle Brown Ale). Then we returned to 6227 to find out where our lifeboat muster station was so we could go along and see the safety demonstration, and be ticked off their list. By the time we returned, our cases had arrived, so we spent some time unpacking and hanging our clothes up or folding them neatly into drawers. I placed all my shoes in neat rows in the bottom of the wardrobe.
As we are in one of the aft suites, our balcony is larger than average, and we laughed and said it was probably bigger than our whole cabin on the last cruise we were on, on the little Glen Rosa in September. 😊We looked forward to spending some time sitting in the comfortable-looking sun loungers and watching the wake as the Borealis sailed along; there is always something hypnotic about it.
Afterwards we went up to the Observatory and I gave my cousin Brenda a call (I spoke to Adam, her husband) to let them know we would be in Belfast tomorrow if they were around and wanted to meet up! They were delighted to hear from us and Adam said he’d give me a call in the morning. It was certainly a surprise for them as we were only in Belfast on the Ambition in July, and they hadn’t expected to see us again so soon afterwards! Although we were disappointed at not going to the Azores, it was nice to be able to spend time with my cousins instead!
We had been allocated table #222 on first sitting at 6.15pm in the Borealis restaurant on Deck 4. We always ask for a table for six, as we enjoyed the company of our tablemates and we’ve had lots of laughs, banter and good conversation in the past.
We were fairly hungry as we made our way to the restaurant, and when we arrived at #222 the other two couples were already there; Richard and June from Newark, and Colin and Angie from Liverpool. They all seemed very pleasant and we enjoyed an excellent meal in good company. We agreed to meet in the Morning Light pub at 10.00pm for the trivia quiz. 😊
In the meantime, we went along to the Neptune Theatre for tonight’s entertainment, which was an introduction to the types of shows and cabarets we had to look forward to. The cruise director was Simon Egerton, and we realised we knew him from our cruise in April on Bolette, and indeed on the Borealis in July 2021. The entertainment certainly looked as if it was going to be excellent.
Afterwards, in the Morning Light, we enjoyed some more drinks courtesy of the all-inclusive drinks package, which is good value at £24.00 per person, per day. Certainly better than P&O’s 40 quid charge and Cunard’s extortionate $60.00 pppd charge. We scored 11/15 in the quiz, not good enough to win.
Richard and June said their goodnights after the quiz, and Colin and Angie said they were going up to the Observatory if we wanted to join them, but Trevor and I were quite tired by now so we decided to head back to 6227 and settle down for the night. It was about 11.30pm, very early for us when we are on holiday.
Back in our suite, I went out onto the balcony and stood at the stern, looking at the faint outline of the wake in the darkness. It wasn’t much of a wake as we were only going very slowly, but I breathed in a big lungful of bracing sea air before going inside and settling down in our big, comfortable bed with its crisp cotton sheets and plump pillows. We had individual duvets so there would be no quilt-hogging tonight. 😊
We slept very well indeed, and looked forward to what tomorrow would bring.