Mr. Ferguson

Age: 40
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: Festival Cruises
Ship Name: Bolero
Itinerary: Southern Caribbean

My wife and I just returned from a Caribbean cruise on the Bolero from March 3 to 10, 2001 and we have called it the "Cruise from Hell". We were sold the cruise by a travel agent that promoted the cruise as an all English crew and upon arrival we were sadly mistaken because 75 % of the ship was French speaking people from Quebec and France the remainder were English Speaking people. The crew was found to also to be French speaking and as a result there was a terrible language barrier.  To add insult to injury we found out that the ship crew had been given their termination notice several weeks before our cruising date, therefore the morale on the ship was poor to say the least. The waiters were always in a hurry to get you seated and back out the door. The food on board was below cafeteria grade and the portions were small. To receive fruit other than watermelon for breakfast we had to argue with the waiter to finally give us 3 oranges. I guess they needed them for their bar drinks. It's tough finding a drink to place a slice of watermelon on. During Happy hour the drinks were reduced in price, however the sizes of the glasses used also decreased by 50% in size, thereby giving the passengers no value for their money.

The entertainment on the ship was found to be very poor, we would rate it as high school grade. The cruise director made all the announcements for the entertainment in French, thereby leaving the English speaking wondering if it was ever going to get better.

The shore excursions were run by the ship and had no value for their money. After being taken on two onshore excursions, we asked for our money back on the remaining booked excursions and took a cab, which was found to be a lot more informative and half the price.

At a rating of 1 to 5 (five being excellent) we rate the Bolero and staff during this cruise at 0.5. We would strongly recommend that any passengers planning on cruising on the Bolero between now and the end of April 2001, to find another cruise line and/or contact your travel agent so you would not be as disappointed as we were.

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