FRED OLSEN CRUISE NORWAY 12-25 JUNE 2016, on the BLACK WATCH

Although the ship was old and visibly in need of urgent repairs (some of these repairs were even carried out during the cruise and caused a kind of petrol smell in our room) and according to the Captain did not meet present environmental standards, we very much enjoyed the beautiful nature of Norway and were impressed by the good service.

We felt less impressed by the fact that the shipping line extorted from us an amount of fifty pounds for an unavoidable name change (my original guest not being able to join) and the negative reaction I received from the unsmiling staff at the guest services desk, when I requested a refund of these fifty pounds.

The lady at this desk even told me that she did not believe that Royal Caribbean never charges me for name changes!!!

This in combination with the fact that I was charged an amount of £ 1,32 for

being served a glass of port wine rather than a glass of red wine was a real shock.

The port wine costs per glass £1,10 less than the house wine, so one would expect a refund rather than an additional charge. The lady at the guest services desk was unrelenting in her successful efforts to maintain this charge on the bill, so that the final result was that in addition to the £ 9000 charged for the cruise, an additional amount of £ 51,32 pounds was lost, of which £ 50 even before the cruise started!

The episode with the £50 was so unpleasant because of the utter greed it reflected.

How can a name change cost the shipping line more than 50 pence and how is it possible that such a trivial work cannot be financed out if the sum of £9000 paid for the cruise?

On ground of this episode I decided that this would be my first and my last cruise with Fred Olsen.

On the subject if the wine I would like to elaborate a bit more.

The only red wine included in our drinking package was a wine of a poor quality.

I feel sure Fred Olsen himself has not tasted this wine: he would have replaced it immediately by another wine.

Guests can easily get confused by the complicated rules of your “ included drinks” package. After I was presented with the extra charge of £1,32 I devoted 15 minutes of study to the fine print of your package which brought me into a state of confusion.

My proposal to Fred Olsen is to replace these rules by a more simple concept, including cheaper but better drinks for the package which will make it more acceptable to the passengers.

hugovanreijen@yahoo.com

Wow what ever kind of wine cost over a thousand pounds a glass no wonder its not in the drinks package. I would not expect to pay that price on a 5* line. I did not think that Fred was that upmarket.

I think the wine was £1.32, sounds like a bargain to me.

If the glass of port was not included in the wine package, then I think a supplement of £1.32 very reasonable.

The majority of tour operators and airlines make a charge for name changes, so I don't think it unreasonable for Fred to do so.

At least Fred Olsen let you change your guest. Try doing that with most airlines and you would have lost the entire cost

as you are obviously so eagle eyed to notice you had been overcharged by such a huge sum for a drink I am surprised that you didn't notice when you signed the bill. I wouldn't have much sympathy for someone complaining to me who had already signed off a bill as you cant prove what you did or didn't have. if you had challenged this at the time it would have been no issue to sort out.