After speaking to a customer today I thought I would put my views across with regards to the Fred Olsens Balmoral ship with the big black cloud of the Norovirus hanging over it.
Now I am sure that passengers that have had the bug and have been confined to their cabins , it must have been dreadful and I really do sympathise with them. However while travelling on the ship myself in December I wanted to

maybe make people realise that the actual ship itself is wonderful and does its upmost to provide sanatising gel at every turning point you go. I was looking at different options for a customer today and after taking down her requirements mentioned that a Fred Olsen cruise may be suitable , she dismissed this immediatly because of different stories she had read and could no be persuaded otherwise. I feel this is so unfair because on the whole the Balmoral is a lovely little ship. It has a fantastic atmosphere on board which you always tend to find onboard smaller ships. We had an oceanview cabin onboard and it was very spacious with good facilities and nicely furnished .As I said when ever you go into the bars ,  restaurants there is ample oppourtunity to clean your hands with the gel and all areas were impeccably clean. We had beautiful food onboard and fantastic service from the very friendly staff. I feel the poor Balmoral has just had a very bad run of luck of late which isnt helped with people who do not keep to cleaning their hands after every loo trip and being mindful of being on a small ship where bugs and germs will spread very easily. Obviously this is my own personal view , but hopefully cruisers will give the Balmoral a chance and see that Fred Olsens are a very nice cruise line to sail with .