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We had cruised on Bolero two years ago and would have rated it average to good.This time we were impressed again with the maintenance and general appearance of the ship.
Meal service was excellent and compares more than favorably with other cruises over the last fall/winter season, ( Pacific Princess in October and Sundream in December.)
We found dining and cabin staff to be friendly and courteous, as was all the service staff.
I do not normally go to the evening shows, but enjoyed these because they were presented in cabaret style in an intimate setting.
Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our week on board.
There is unfortunately a downside for English speaking passengers.
The cruise operator has successfully marketed this product in France. Over 60 percent of the passengers were French from Paris and its immediate area. Most of us found these Europeans to be rude, arrogant and extremely annoying. For anyone sensitive to this type of culture clash I suggest that they avoid this ship.
A last word about kids. This is not a ship for them with few activities for the early teens and up. The most enjoyment they got was ogling at the many topless females, and as we all know, this in quantity can become boring.
It really is amazing how people on the same cruise can have so completely different versions of their experience. I really think it comes down to expectations as much as anything else.
As you read the reader reviews on this site one of the things you may notice is how first time cruisers inevitably rate their experience 5 stars. That's not really surprising since they don't have anything to compare the experience with and it's hard for most people to admit that they made a bad choice.
I've also noticed that passengers who really like the ambiance of say RCI or Carnival don't seem to adapt well to the HAL or Costa experience - kinda makes you wonder why they decided to try something different in the first place.
Finally, your fellow passengers seem to also have a very strong influence on how someone rates their experience. There are a number of reviews where the service and food are described as being top notch but the cruise is only given one star because the reviewer didn't like their fellow passengers (i.e. You know those French people - they have a different word for everything....)
Bottom line is do your homework before you decide to spend your money. Make sure you get a variety of opinions because as we have seen two people can describe the same experience very differently.
Joe at TravelPage.com
This is why questions like "what is the best ship/cruise line" or "Is the food good" are difficult to answer - it is all so subjective.
It is interesting how cruising of any type is generally regarded as a 'luxury holiday' by the public. All cruise Brochures, be it Crystal, Cunard, Festival or Airtours, play on this. They all portray luxurious ships, excellent food and first rate service. None of them portray themselves as offering a 'budget' experience, but of course some of them do!
For Readers Reviews, see: http://www.travelpage.com/yourfav/yourfav_cruise.htm
I was on the Bolero in Sept 2000 celebrating my silver wedding anniversary. I found it to be a lovely ship - our second cruise - and one of the reasons I chose this ship was because it was smaller than some of the others.
We were lucky because we met up with some really nice people and had a wonderful holiday on it.
The staff were friendly and it was immaculate throughout. Entertainment on board was good also. Perhaps the only complaint I had was that there were no small places you could hide away to have a simple read and none no-smoking areas.
Luv Norma
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