Black Watch Solar Eclipse Cruise - Photos

There are quite a few, so you may need a coffee / tea and biscuts before you start :-)

Faroe Islands are here

Solar Eclipse are here

Alta are here

Northern Lights are here

Tromso are here

Trondheim are here

Alesund  are here

Black Watch Solar Eclipse Cruise Review

The Ship

Fred Olsen Black Watch, 700 passengers and with a few miles on the clock, so plenty of maintenance to do. For her age she is not in too bad a nick, but does feel a bit dated along side more modern cruise ships. That said, she has lots of loyal followers, so she must be doing something right.

Cabin

We had an inside on deck 3 at the aft end of the ship. For an inside it was large enough, with plenty of wardrobe space, the bathroom has a shower only, and was not the biggest I have seen, but adequate for its purpose. When we arrived onboard, the sealant around the bottom of the shower had seen better days. But even without a complaint, it was noticed by staff and replaced without fuss.

Ports

All the ports were excellent, with the exception of the Faroe Island, as there did not seem much to do. The other ports, either on a tour or just a walk round gave a good varied selection.

Weather

The weather was as you would expect for this time of year, snow in Tromso and Alta where it snowed for nearly the whole time we spent there.

The cruise gods were exceptionally kind with the sea. When we were on Oriana this time last year, I remember 10 metre swells, but this year beside a few occasions where it got a little lumpy, it has been fine.

Entertainment

The Theatre Show company have been excellent, not only in their shows, but also with all the other activities they have performed around the ship.

Out of the speciality acts, I thought only Lee Caroll, the comedian, was worth watching 

Lots of quizzes during the day ( if you like that sort of thing ), but I have to say, our performance has been abysmal on this cruise.

The lectures on the northern light and solar eclipse were well attended and seemed to go down well withe the audience 

Food

We ate breakfast and lunch mostly in the Garden Cafe, which is the buffet on Black Watch. This is however no bun fight, with white table cloths and lots of staff. Far better than anything P&O has to offer.

We also ate there one night when they had an Asian buffet.

All good quality food, but nothing outstanding.

Of an evening we ate in the MDR, 1st sitting on a table of 6. Our table companions, Chris and Gordon and Jean and George were great company. The food, as with the buffet was OK, but nothing special, but the Lobster was not too shabby 😜

The crew

Excellent and can not do enough for you is all I can say really, well done to all

Conclusion

Putting aside that  Black Watch is not my favourite Fred Ship, this has been an excellent cruise. I think the Captain at the farewell cocktail party last night summed it up by saying, " you have done more in this cruise, than some people do in a life time".

For me the high light was the Solar Eclipse. I have seen them before on land, but to be at sea was quite magical and difficult to describe, but it will remain with me until I say goodbye to this world

Thank you all for taking the time to read the blogs, and to Sue who makes sure I do not have too many spelling mistakes

And just to finish with, a final photo from our trip in Alesund

So until Azura

Bye bye

Black Watch Solar a Eclipse Part XI

As with all cruises, we have sadly reached our last port, that of Alesund.

We were docked by 0800, with slightly overcast skies, but they did improve throughout the day.

Our tour was not until 1000, so we had a lazy breakfast before we left.

A short walk along the quay, and we boarded our Catamaran for our 3 hour cruise in Hjorundfjord, now this is not the cheapest tour we have ever taken at £85pp, however, it was one of the best.

I spent nearly all three hours on deck taking photo and video, it was breathtaking in parts.

On our return, it was a quick lunch, then as we docked extremely close, it was a walk into town.

I will leave you with just a few of the many photos I took today.

I will of course post a cruise review over the next couple of days, and will post links to the hundred of photos I have taken this cruise.

Thank you all for taking the time to read and comment on the blogs, and if I have not bored you too much, we are off again on P&O Azura in April.

So until then bye bye 

Black Watch Solar Eclipse Part X

Well so much for our lazy sea day yesterday (Wednesday) but as we passed some much amazing scenery that you just had to be on deck to enjoy it.

Later in the afternoon we also left the Arctic Circle and passed the monument marking this 

They also held a raffle and sweepstake in aid of the RNLI, who Fred have been supporting for many years now.

We won a Fred Olsen luggage label, only cost me £20 in tickets 😜😜 but well worth it.

After dinner we had a cabaret show by James, who used to be a production singer but on this cruise is working in admin, and very good he was too singing a selection from 50 years of musicals 

We then had the second show from Lee Caroll, the comedian, he is very funny with a silly non offensive act.

At the end of the show the CD announced that the Northern Lights had been seen from the aft deck, well it was quiz time, but after that I donned some warm clothing and went on deck which was quite busy.

And there in all their glory putting on a great show were the Northern lights

At the same time James Hadley from the current show team performed his cabaret in the lido lounge which was just by the aft deck.

So it was all very busy with passengers coming and going to see the lights. James show was full of energy and his vocals were excellent

So after all this excitement there was only one thing to do, have another drink, and boogie the night away.

Well it was Sue that had the moves 😜

And so for us it was a late night as we made it back to the cabin at 0100.

We docked at Trondhim at 1000 today and just took the shuttle bus into town for a walk round.

Tomorrow sees us in our last port of Alesund, where we have finally managed to book a tour, a trip on a catamaran.

Then it's two sea days and we are back in Southampton.

So until next time

Bye bye

Black Watch Solar Eclipse Part IX

So after our 2 days in the frozen north, we left Alta yesterday afternoon (Tuesday) to some clear skies as we make our way south

Today, we have awoke to bright sunshine and 99% of the snow on deck has gone.

We pass out of the Arctic circle today as we make our way to Trondheim, and another lazy day ahead beckons.

It was the second formal night last night, and the ship was awash with DJ's and dickey bows ( and that was just the ladies 😜😜)

Not sure if I have mentioned this before, but the show team are also very active around the vessel.

Besides performing their shows, plus their individual shows, they also run two quizzes a day, plus they host a " Can we help with your mobile, or tablet " sessions.

And run Tap Dance lessons 

They also act as a tour escorts, so all in all work very hard.

And to finish today, I will leave you with a couple more pictures from our departure from Alta 

So until next time

Bye bye 

Black Watch Solar Eclipse Part VIII

I managed to tweak some of my photos of the Northern Lights with another app I had on my IPad 

Bye bye 

Black Watch Solar Eclipse Part VII

It finally stopped snowing very late in the afternoon, but still with overcast skies. We had had a note in the cabin that the assembly time to meet for the tour had been brought foward by an hour ( for the talk by Glod ). Now I know that the Black Watch came this way at Christmas, so I would have assumed that the tours department would have known that there would be a talk before the tour ?

So we all gathered in the Neptune Lounge at our new alloted time. I think the talk is the same one we had on Oriana last year, but our prediction of seeing the lights was 3. Last year it was 2 and we had a good display. 

But of course the main thing was the weather, of the three sites they use, the one in the north showed the clouds clearing by 2300, with a temperature of -8C, so that was the one.

It was about an hours drive in the coach before we arrived. It was a residential road which led down to a lake.

So the question is, did we get to see them ?

Yes we did, a bit fleeting, but at one time we did get a bit of a "dance" from them.

My photos are not the best, and when I converted them to use in the blog, they were rendered useless, so you will have to wait until I get home and can process them.

We returned to the Black Watch just before mid night and the staff were waiting as we boarded with hot sausage rolls and hot chocolate, which I thought was a nice touch.

Finally, I will leave you with this thought. Glod come on board with their predictions and take you to the site where you will have the best chance of seeing the lights. Oriana also stayed overnight, and I assume that their passengers also had Glod tours. But there were no Oriana passengers at our site, so where did they go ???

Just a thought !!

Bye bye