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Anchor Fair On Fred


DAN 60
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Just back from a great cruise on fred. The Meteor Shower in Tenerife.

A bit disappointed with the embarkation, we are GOLD members on fred

and booked an anchor fair. So apparently no priority boarding. However

we were given a time to board of 2 pm. Ok we did get there early 1pm,

we actually boarded at 3-30 pm. so waited two and a half hour's to board.

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This is not new. They have been doing that since at least last November and it is perfectly fair in my from my point of view. If someone pays less why should they get priority boarding over people who have payed Freedom fares.

 

I do not see what the problem is at all.

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There is no blanket priority for gold members now, but they do issue different coloured embarkation cards at check in for different classes of passenger with priorities used within the classes.

 

I asked last October and I was told first priority is for suite passengers (?green), then gold members who have paid Freedom fare (? gold), then other freedom fare people (?white) and last is all anchor fare people (possibly blue, but not at all sure).

 

They were still giving different coloured cards out in May, so I think the priorities are still the same. I may have the colour of the cards wrong, but that is the priority order that I was told they use. Different colours of card are called separately, with a sequential numbering system used within each colour group. So arriving early will only get a priority within the catagory you are in.

 

I think disabled people embark separately, but I am not sure of the details.

Edited by tring
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This is not new. They have been doing that since at least last November and it is perfectly fair in my from my point of view. If someone pays less why should they get priority boarding over people who have payed Freedom fares.

 

I do not see what the problem is at all.

 

I disagree with you Barbara. Gold membership has to be earned by completing 100 nights on board and I think priority boarding should be given for anchor fare passengers. I've never been an anchor fare passenger so I don't have an axe to grind.

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I disagree with you Barbara. Gold membership has to be earned by completing 100 nights on board and I think priority boarding should be given for anchor fare passengers. I've never been an anchor fare passenger so I don't have an axe to grind.

 

 

I have no axe to grind - in fact we are gold members. I just think that people should get what they pay for, or not as the case may be. I was also expressing my opinion. I saw one of your posts from yesterday where you said, "A forum is for discussion and all points of view should be accepted without resorting to attacking people you don't agree with."

 

Funny how people change their mind about things overnight!

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I'm with those who think that once Gold membership has been earned, one should receive the benefits. It would be petty of Fred to withdraw one of the privileges because a cheaper fare has been booked - especially when it isn't costing the company anything.

 

I'm still unsure of all the differences between standard and anchor fares. I have always thought that the anchor fare (or last-minute, or whatever the cruise line calls it) was simply "book near the departure date and we'll bung you in whatever cabins we still have unsold". These later bookings were also subject to several financial constraints such as 100% deposit, 100% cancellation fee,

 

Now Fred is imposing all sorts of penny-pinching additional charges for those booking anchor fares - £5 per person per day for the shuttle bus, £2 per person per night to change dinner sitting. Fred is also giving full-fare payers priority for booking shore excursions, priority embarkation and debarkation. Are there any more examples? To my mind, this is raising the fare by the back door ...... and a little dishonest, something I wouldn't have expected from Fred Olsen. But they've obviously changed. I wonder if they know how irritating such sneaky behaviour is to customers? It would be better to charge a higher anchor fare which covered all these "nominal charge" items

 

I know there rightly are additional benefits for the more expensive grades of cabin (such as canapes, laundry vouchers, bathrobes, etc) which is only to be expected. The higher the cabin grade, the greater the "service". But I do think it's wrong to differentiate between a cabin booked on the standard fare, and exactly the same cabin booked on an anchor fare.

 

Opinions?

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Poor etiquette to follow up my own post, but I've just found the following from a Black Watch review on this site:

 

"Talking to other last minute Anchor Fare passengers it was obvious that Fred Olsen now have a deliberate policy of giving late bookers the opposite dinner sitting to the one they request and then try and extract a £2 per passenger per night levy to change. A cheap, unpleasant way of raising revenue and doing little for passenger relations. Because the ship was only 2/3rds full the dining room on both sittings had plenty of room."

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Poor etiquette to follow up my own post, but I've just found the following from a Black Watch review on this site:

 

"Talking to other last minute Anchor Fare passengers it was obvious that Fred Olsen now have a deliberate policy of giving late bookers the opposite dinner sitting to the one they request and then try and extract a £2 per passenger per night levy to change. A cheap, unpleasant way of raising revenue and doing little for passenger relations. Because the ship was only 2/3rds full the dining room on both sittings had plenty of room."

 

When booking an Anchor fare, you are not given the choice of dining times so it is not possible for FO to purposefully seat you in the alternative one and make money out of you trying to change. I have booked an Anchor fare and received the dining time I wanted, purely by luck rather than FO intervention.

Whenever you book an Anchor fare, the saving is usually more than the cost of changing your dining preference. If you feel strongly about dining times, don't book Anchor fares. :)

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Fred. as always charged the £2 supplement if you want to pick your dining times. This as either been at the point of booking or if you change dining allocation on board. The only thing they do not allow you to do is pick the restaurant on board ship.

 

The comment you highlight regarding a review on this site of giving late bookers the opposite dining to which they have requested to extract more money from the passengers was actually a comment made by yourself.

 

This is also wrong as late bookers on Anchor fares are not asked which sitting they prefer.

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Just back from my first Fred cruise on Braemar and had a fantastic time. I didn't understand all the differences when I booked Anchor fare on 19 May for our 9 Aug cruise and to be honest, I am not sure if I understand the differences now. We did not choose a dining time, and did not choose a cabin. We were given second sitting and had no problems at all with that. The cabin we got was fantastic so no problems with that. Never saw any shuttle buses as we docked close to each town, and never felt that we were being treated any differently to any other passenger during the cruise. We booked our St Petersburg tours on line before sailing, no problem, and had no problem booking the shore excursion we wanted on board either.

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Cruising Nomads, it is very wrong of you to accuse me of lying when you said "The comment you highlight regarding a review on this site of giving late bookers the opposite dining to which they have requested to extract more money from the passengers was actually a comment made by yourself."

 

This comment was not made by myself and when you have bothered to read the following review from Chasnunn you may wish to correct your mistake .... publicly.

 

"Black Watch Cruise Review by chasnunn: Last minute Anchor Fares good value BUT..... Sail Date: October 2013

Destination: Europe - Eastern Mediterranean

Embarkation: Dover

Published 24/11/13"

 

http://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=244356

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I am sorry for passing such a comment. I had not read the review by Chasnunn which you are referring to. But I had read your review Black Watch to the Azores which in point number 4 dated Aug 16th you state the following..."I had always done this on previous cruises with Cunard and P&O, and it never occurred to me that anybody in the shore office would be unthinking enough to put a child on such a late dinner sitting. But they did, and the thought did cross my mind that perhaps it was deliberate so that they could gouge a little more cash from the customer. Not a pleasant thought, and a disappointment to see Fred acting in this way."

 

Does this not mean the same thing.

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https://www.fredolsencruises.com/my-cruises/my-cruise-account/oceans-membership

According to the website Gold members get priority boarding at UK ports. Makes no difference whether they are Anchor or Freedom, unless there is more information in the t&cs.

 

UPDATE

http://www.fredolsencruises.com/about-us/Pricing-Policy/Pricing-Policy

This refers to priority embarkation not being available at UK ports if booked an Anchor fare. I assume that means Oceans Gold members :confused:

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Thank you for your correction. I can see where you misunderstood, but I wouldn't like other posters to think that I had deliberately made something up.

 

Let's avoid the ad hominem comments and stick to the subject. I find it very interesting, and other posters views too. It seems that a few people (like me) are unclear of exactly what they are signing up to with Fred on an anchor fare, so this clarification is useful. It also might let Fred know where their penny-pinching is unworthy of them!

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Interesting link you have posted. Have never seen this page on Freds. site before.

 

I have booked many Anchor Fares but have never seen a cruise you could not pick your cabin grade. Do not see how this could work as you could end up paying more for a lower grade cabin.

 

Shore tours. Never had any problems booking and was not aware of this. Sometimes the Shore Tour booklet arrives before open on website other time opposite happens.

 

Never had Priority Debarkation. Usually been on groups first i.e. Saga/Titan/Nat Express then Coaches and finally by deck order top to bottom

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Shuttle bus charge - Fred had previously charged everyone for shuttle buses and brought in a 'free shuttle buses for freedom fares' policy within the last year or two. Within the last year we have done a 23 night cruise, an 8 night cruise and a 28 night cruise on Freedom fares. In the very few ports where shuttles were provided for those cruises, they were free to anchor fare people as well as freedom, because the buses were 'provided by the port'. The 'free' shuttle advertising seems somewhat below the belt to me, especially as they seem a lot less likely to provide a shuttle bus than they did previously, even when there is a long walk into the port. I would prefer to have the option to pay £5 and have the shuttle rather than be left without one.

 

Dining arrangements - as previously said, I am not aware of any other company offering dining choice on Guarantee cabins and the £2 pppn has been well below the saving for anchor fares I have seen.

 

Shore excursions - We booked an anchor fare to Greenland last year to replace a cancelled holiday. The shore tours were not able to be booked until about 4 weeks prior to the cruise, (we booked about 2 months ahead), and we were given no restrictions of booking shore tours when they became available, so we were able to book what we wanted. Some Freedom fare people could not do so as there was limited availability on some tours and they were not quick enough. Fred did supply extra tours nearer to the time, but we got an early departure for excursions, which left us time to do other things in the ports, even though we were booked on an anchor fare. The excursions become available on line much earlier that the excursion book is provided, so the advatage is to those who keep any eye on the website for them to be released.

 

Priority debarkation for early bookers - I have never heard of this and do not believe it is supplied. If there is a reason for someone to need an early disembarkation, then it is for the passenger to ask and reception usually try to help, but the mojority of people are disembarked by deck order, or according to groups.

 

These are just facts as I know them and others may be able to inform about any recent changes regarding those policies, but I am not aware of any and I last travelled two months ago.

 

Basically, everyone has the chance to book their cruise on either Freedom or Anchor fare and there are restictions on Guarantee bookings with any company. I do not see why people booking anchor fare should complain about restrictions, but I also do not see why people booking freedom fare should complain about what they have paid. You 'pay your money and makes your choice' as far as I can see.

Edited by tring
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Shuttle bus charge : Shuttle buses were Free to all Gold Members until Anchor Fares existed. Also I believe Suite passengers were given free tickets.

 

Dining Charges : P & O operate a system that their late booking (Anchor Fare ) that changes can be made on board with no charge if room available on that sitting.

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