September 2024. My parents in law have been wanting to go on a cruise for a while now but didn’t feel like going on their own so they tagged along with Sam and I. My father in law’s ultimate destination would be the Norwegian Fjords, combined with the new that soon-ish cruises to the Fjords would be limited (and thus price sky-rocketing) we decided to cruise to the Norwegian Fjords. Considering I have to take time off at work outside of major school holidays we were looking at September-October, combined with my wish to cruise for longer than a week we ended up with a P&O cruise out of Southampton.
We finished up our trip with a few days in London. As we didn’t know when exactly we would be getting off the ship and when to book a Eurostar back home we had counted in a night in London as a buffer. With my parents in law never having visited London we extended the stay to three nights so we could make them sample the delights of the city.
We selected the Novotel London Blackfriars, located just south of the River Thames near Blackfriars station. Here we had a direct 9 minutes Thameslink ride to St Pancras station for our return Eurostar as well as being only a short walk from Waterloo station where we would be arriving by train from Southampton. And added benefit was the pool which is always a request by Sam.
Even though we arrived before noon our rooms where already finished when we arrived at the hotel, enabling us to get settled immediately.
Thanks to my ALL Gold status we received an upgrade to the executive rooms on level 11. The rooms where in the new and contemporary Novotel design. Our room 1101 was a corner room and had some nice windows on two sides, allowing in plenty of light. My parents in law next door in room 1103 only had a small window, making their room much darker.
In the middle of the room there was the double bed, which in our opinion could have been placed a bit further away from the bathroom wall as that would have filled the room better. The bed had 240V AC Uk plugs, USB-A and USB-C plugs at both sides.
There was only one side with a fixed little ‘table’ to put your stuff on while the other side had to use the moveable ‘coffee table’.
In the far corner there was a modular sofa, enabling you to set a few different seating configurations. At the opposite of the bed, right under the massive TV there was a desk. It’s placement however was a bit unfortunate as it made the passage behind the bed a bit narrow.
In the entrance corridor there where some closets and a bag storage rack. Here we could also find the mini fridge with complimentary water bottles (still and sparkling). The water kettle with teas and a coffee pod machine for coffee. However as the hotel ran out of normal coffee pods, they only had decaffeinated pods.
The bathroom had a toilet, a sink in the middle and a spacious rain head shower on the other side. In between the shower and the bedroom is a frosted glass wall, which you normally can turn on and off to make it see-through or opaque. However the button in our room was broken (luckily) leaving it in opaque state. Plenty of towels, bathrobes and slippers and Rituals products where provided.
On the first evening (as my parents-in-law where absolutely knackered) we had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant Jamboree. As they only had 3,5 rating on Google I was a bit hesitant and expected an awful experience. When we went there we experienced the absolute opposite. Very warm service straight from the heart, they definably deserve a much better rating.
After two weeks of traditional UK inspired cruise food I was very happy to be able to order a simple pasta bolognese. This was very delicious and a big portion, not needing a starter or dessert to feel fed.
In the morning the restaurant hosted the self-service buffet with the usual selection of hot and cold breakfast dishes. I liked that they had the coffee, juice and pancake machines all in double, making that there was hardly any queue to use them. The only thing missing was that they didn’t offer individual mini buns like usual in hotels but always had to cut off your slices of bread from the bread themselves.
Down in the basement they offered the gym and pool. The gym was what you would expect from a hotel in its category. The pool was well-sized and the right temperature, only the built-in Jacuzzi might be a little cool for certain people. Right next to the pool there also was a Sauna, which Sam loved to use.
All in all we had a solid stay at the Novotel London Blackfriars. They surprised us with the warm and heartfelt service from all the staff we encountered, something very un-British. We will definably put this on our hotels to come back to list.
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