First Time FO

We have sailed on Princess, NCL, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland American and Carnival.

How does Fred Olen compare - good and bad?

We have sailed on Princess, NCL, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland American and Carnival.

 

How does Fred Olen compare - good and bad?

Having never been on any of the lines you have, I can't compare but I think it would be very different! The ships are smaller & older but the staff, itineraries & excellent food are what makes the Fred Olsen ships great for us!

As they are smaller ships, they can go to a lot of places that the big ships can't. We have found it to be very personal & friendly with a nice mix of passengers onboard; yes a lot are of the older generation but there are all ages - I am in my 40's & we have taken our teens & going back for more - and we all love it!

They are probably not as 'plush' or glitzy or glamorous but that is only from me seeing photos of the big line's ships.

The food & restaurant service is very good & the drink package is worth having. The Entertainment is probably not the best in the Industry but we have seen some good shows in the Showlounge & some good Acts in the various bars & lounges.

The only way to find out is to try one - my first experience was on a mini cruise & it certainly gave me a taste!

Of the ones you mention, we've tried Princess, Holland America and Royal Caribbean (including the gi-normous Allure of the Seas) and have loved all our cruises - BUT, for us, Fred is the one we like the best. The crew is second to none. The ships are by no means as sophisticated or 'flashy' (though some of the carpets are eye-catching to say the least!), and the entertainment is very much scaled down, but the food is good and the atmosphere is friendly & relaxing - plenty of space for everyone, and very few children.

So it all depends what you want from your cruise. If good entertainment is high on your list, then for me nothing comes even close to the shows on Royal Caribbeans big ships. If you want an atmosphere more like a quirky British country house hotel, then Fred may be just perfect for you. It is for us, and we can hardly wait to get back on board in December for another Christmas Fred-style!

Thanks to both of you - it really sounds like it is more my style. The quirky British country houses intrigues me!

We have sailed on Princess, NCL, Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, Holland American and Carnival.

 

How does Fred Olen compare - good and bad?

We've been on a number of FO cruises and also one cruise on Celebrity Eclipse. They are so different it's difficult to compare. Celebrity is much bigger, there is a noisy central area when you walk from one end of the ship to the other which has loads of shops, one arm bandits, gambling areas, etc - the cabins are better than Freds. The food is very good. In fact everything is bigger and generally more noisy, although there are quiet spots.

As someone said, FO is like a decent country club, food is good, entertainment varied and usually of a good standard, although on a smaller scale. They have a lot of repeat travellers.

We prefer FO and would certainly do another cruise, but it's highly unlikely we would go with Celebrity again.

wft

Thanks to both of you - it really sounds like it is more my style. The quirky British country houses intrigues me!

That's a fair description I would say as far as the atmosphere goes; the thing I like about Fred Olsen also is there is nobody trying to push & sell things to you constantly (we have had this on other lines!), there is no 'tackiness' / holiday club/camp style entertainment - it's quite classy in some ways without being OTT!

Have you actually booked yet?

No, we have not booked yet. I was hoping for an October,2016 cruise - any suggestions?

No, we have not booked yet. I was hoping for an October,2016 cruise - any suggestions?

Really depends on where you are sailing from, how long you want to be away for! There looks to be some really nice ones in October - I would be happy to go on any of those itineraries! We have been on 3 of their ships & the last one next year. Balmoral is the largest at under 50,000 tonnes so probably a lot smaller than you are used to but she's a nice ship with some lovely lounge areas, nice restaurants & nice outside areas too but then so are the Boudicca & Black Watch; Black Watch being older but very traditional & kept very nicely.

Your reply make me think - we love outside areas, especially when dining.

Your reply make me think - we love outside areas, especially when dining.

There are not many actual outside dining areas on the Balmoral! Weather might not be too reliable to dine outside in October anyhow?

Are you a member on Facebook? There is a small FB Group for Fred Olsen where there are lots of photos posted by members of the various ships. Might be worth checking that out!

We have been on Cunard, PO, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity and NCL all which have their own pros and cons. On the spur of the moment we booked a three week FO cruise a couple of years ago.....and we were really impressed. The crew were fantastic, the food very good, the entertainment not brilliant but ok and our inside cabin had a wet room. Ok the ships really need a total update..especially the cabins, but somehow this didn't matter. Would we do another FO.....definitely!

Note that there are departures from Rosyth and Liverpool in October next year. Handy if you are nearby, but perhaps not otherwise.

Balmoral is the biggest ship so may be less different for you than the other ships and, if it is available you can request the Spey or Avon restaurants at no extra cost - a number of tables for two are available in there as well. Those restaurants are small, on an upper deck and have big windows with good views if it is still light at dinner time, though October will not be. Anyone can eat up there for breakfast and lunch, but there can be a queue to get in.

The only other ship with a restaurant option like that is Braemar (The Grampian), but it is a newer ship so is not as stable on the sea as Fred's other ships. It is our favourite ship of Fred's fleet and we have managed in very bad sea conditions in a centrally placed inside cabin, but the movement was still very noticeable. Autumn seas do have a bad reputation so Braemar may be best avoided if you are at all unsure about that.

Fred has a particulalry good reputation for going north as they do a lot of scenic cruising in their itineraries and there is a 7 night Fjords cruise on Black Watch leaving Rosyth on 23rd September, which could be different with autumn colours and you would not have to cross the Bay of Biscay risking bad seas and unecessary days at sea. Black Watch is not our favourite ship but it is popular with a number of people and 7 nights could be a good trial period for a Fred cruise. All Fred's ships have good observation lounges which we like a lot.

We will be flying from the USA. I will check out the FB page

We cruise with a variety of different lines like you and although I realise I may upset regular FO-ers, we were disappointed with the ship when we cruised with Fred for the first time this year. Our cabin had fixed single beds with no bedside tables. It was narrow and cramped and our rusty balcony (for which we paid a huge supplement because there are so few of them) was overlooked by everybody walking below on the Promenade deck. We had two outbreaks of Norovirus and a significant number of passengers suffered from Bronchitis. The food was good, the itinerary and tours excellent and the crew up to the standard we've found on other ships. The entertainment was much lower key with no theatre but there were some excellent acts in the bars, just not that well attended after 10.30 p.m. During the day there were the usual things - deck games, quizzes, bingo, dance lessons, choir.

Just wanted you to have different opinions to consider

I now see the OP is from the US so may well want a different sort of cruise ship to what Fred offers. They are not really ships to look upon as a destination in themselves.

We have travelled quite a lot on all of Fred's ships and I do agree there are disadvantages as well as advantages. My post, which is later on in this thread, gave an indication of pros and cons re specific ships (in Fred's fleet), but I have seen better threads overall about Fred compared to other cruise lines, so I suggest it is worth searching this site for previous threads regarding that on this site. The reviews also give different perspectives.

I aggree there are disadvantages with Fred's ships as they are older and not as plush. Also cabins low down and towards the back, can mean a cabin which is very badly affected by noise and vibration. I think there are some valid points made on all posts here, but I would say that mini cruises, (of which we have done a lot), are very different to the longer cruises - even two weekers. Fred are known for a mostly British, older clientelle. All of Fred's ships have show lounges and shows or cabarets are done every night. The shows are well attended, but, especially on longer cruises, not many people are around the ship after that. We always feel that Fred provide for ballroom dancers to the exclusion of others and have found any disco type dancing is either not present at all, or is only offered after 11.30pm - this always disapoints us. I cannot remember ever seeing more than a few children onboard, even on mini cruises, but we do not cruise in the school holidays.

The main advantage with Fred, from our point of view is the itineraries as they are far more varied and visit a lot of ports not visited by the larger ships. This is especially the case for destinations like Greenland and Spitsbergen as well as Norway in general, but smaller ports are an advantage elsewhere as well. That is why we sometimes cruise with Fred. We also prefer smaller ships with a more relaxed environment and plenty of space on deck for sunbeds. Fred is just one cruise line we would use because of that. Departures form the North of Enland are also an advantage to us, but we would not choose a cruise purely for that purpose. We have never travelled for 'destination ship' and just the well visited ports that the bigger modern ships provide, although we have done some P&O cruises in the past on their mid sized ships. I think many of Fred's passengers have similar preferences.

Cruise lines can be very different and people do not all want the same thing, so it is very important to choose the right cruise line for you.

We have booked an Amazon Adventure cruise for next Feb/March and all I can says is I've been very frustrated with FO. We have booked direct with the company as we live in Spain, so will need to fly to UK before the cruise to pick up their charter flight from Gatwick. We booked in April 2015 so 10 months in advance and there was little information available then re flights, excursions etc but now only 3 months away we still cannot get information about flight times (we need these to arrange connecting flights and travel arrangements) The brochure lists port times as am or pm., so we cannot give timings to any tour operators we want to arrange private tours with, there are a few details of FO tours available, but we can't book them until after the tour brochure comes out about 6-8 before departure. We chose FO because of the good reports we'd had about them also because we wanted to do this particular itinerary. So far this has been a very different experience than other cruise lines we've been with.

Sandy in Spain

We chose FO because of the good reports we'd had about them also because we wanted to do this particular itinerary. So far this has been a very different experience than other cruise lines we've been with.

A few thoughts, you don't have to wait until the tour brochure is out, you can book them online.

You will have to wait until 6-8 weeks before departure though and that has been normal for Fred for many years now, but while you wait you can still review the details of the tours they typically operate as they are all listed in the online 'My Cruises' section of the website that you can log into.

Charter flights are not confirmed until quite close to departure but I would certainly not plan on trying to connect to them on the same day, pan to arrive the day before and depart the day after on your return, anything else would be very unwise as delays can and do happen.

Re port times, they are always going to be a little vague but if you want to know the most likely times then check the port authority for the specific port as they will tend to list the expected arrival and departure times, but take care to note that these are not set in stone and will vary on the day which is why Fred will never print exact times.

On our last cruise we did not receive the tour brochure until ten days before departure but we had already booked online. However, this year the tours are not even available to view online until six weeks before departure which is a bit of a pain as previously we could decide which one we wanted and then book them as soon as available.

On our last cruise we did not receive the tour brochure until ten days before departure but we had already booked online. However, this year the tours are not even available to view online until six weeks before departure which is a bit of a pain as previously we could decide which one we wanted and then book them as soon as available.

We are booked on the Canaries Christmas & Funchal Fireworks cruise on Black Watch, sailing on the 20th December. Tours have been online for about a week now and yesterday we received the tour brochure - so well in advance. We have also booked the preceeding Dublin mini cruise as a back to back and the tours for that have been available for several weeks now.

With flights, especially if charters, unless the the cruise company is linked with the airline [such as Thomson] then actual flight details are often only available a few weeks before the cruise. Arriving the previous day is a very good idea as you never know what might happen. A couple of years ago we were on an FO flight to South America departing at 10:00 am. Because of an accident on one of the roads within Gatwick everything ground to a halt with a huge jam back onto the motorway. Although we had left home [40 mins from Gatwick] with lots of time to spare we only just made it. Sadly, although FO delayed the flight as long as they were able, about 10 people didn't make it.

You will have to wait until 6-8 weeks before departure though and that has been normal for Fred for many years now, but while you wait you can still review the details of the tours they typically operate as they are all listed in the online 'My Cruises' section of the website that you can log into.

 

Shore tours are not available to view on 'manage my cruises' prior to them going on sale, although I think they used to be before the recent changes on the website.

It is, however, still possible to search trips previously offered by Fred, (and the approximate prices then), on their website. I have explained this on other threads recently.

You need to go to 'places we visit' at the top of Fred's web page and then concentrate on choosing options to get to 'ports of call' for your destination - if you at any stage click on 'cruises from this port', or an individual cruise, you wil loose the ability to see the tours unless they are on sale for that specific cruise. Fred's site does try to direct you to looking at cruises which are on sale, so you need to be very careful what you click and at times you will need to scroll to the bottom of the page to find the correct link. Once in a specific port of call, you then need to click on 'tours from this port'. That list of tours will not always be what are offered, but most are the usual fodder.

As said by others, trips are usually on sale on the net prior to a cruise book landing on your doormat. The time they are available in advance of a cruise does vary with the individual cruise.

A flight going to the Carribean from the UK will almost certainly depart early morning, (most likely between 8am to 10am), so the plane, with a different crew will return to the UK later that day and the same plane will likely be the return charter. If so, flying from Spain that morning would definately be a very chancy thing to do and would leave you extremely tired on arrival at best. We would also arrange an overnight in a circumstance like that. If a flight went out of the UK in the afternoon, it would arrive in the Caribbean in the middle of the night - so not really likely.

We go on a fly cruise from Tenerife on 12th November and were also very annoyed that we were only given flight times recently, as we wanted to arrange parking and decide if we wanted an overnight hotel!

Have you got a flight number though. We had that a long time before and when we searched for it, the flight came up and strangely enough the same flight number was there on the days Fred do their change overs, but not on other days. The flight time did change by half an hour, but it would have given an approximation if people had been told those details earlier.

snip..Re port times, they are always going to be a little vague but if you want to know the most likely times then check the port authority for the specific port as they will tend to list the expected arrival and departure times, but take care to note that these are not set in stone and will vary on the day which is why Fred will never print exact times.

FO are not even listed for some of the ports and those where they are the Port Authority has am or pm...so no help. Other cruise lines can give times so why can't FO??

As for flights times I can't believe that the airlines even if they are charter do not know what their flight times are, as they must arrange these with the airport quite a while in advance.

We are experienced cruisers and expect more information than we are being given.

Sandy in Spain

As for flights times I can't believe that the airlines even if they are charter do not know what their flight times are, as they must arrange these with the airport quite a while in advance.

Sandy in Spain

I also think the airlines know and suspect Fred also know but it is them who will not pass that info on. In my opinion it should be them who are blamed, not the airline.

Look at the later part of my post on this thread #20 (bottom of previous page) were I mention flights and how we found our flight number by searching. Flight times can always be changed though, which is probably why Fred are being particularly obstructive in this matter. I do see they cannot guarantee flight times until tickets are issued though and even package holiday companies say the same in that respect (e.g. Thompson, Thomas Cook etc). Some cruise companies book passengers on schedule flights which are more likely to be set 11 months prior to travelling.

On our last cruise we did not receive the tour brochure until ten days before departure but we had already booked online. However, this year the tours are not even available to view online until six weeks before departure which is a bit of a pain as previously we could decide which one we wanted and then book them as soon as available.

We found communications from FO pretty sparse and a bit belated too so we were very disappointed. We were doing 70 nights and by the time we got the tours info it was just far too late as we'd already made alternative arrangements.

Even onboard the ship they wouldn't tell us arrival and departure times and it was only by complaining in a letter we were allowed access to them so we could let our tour guides know. You should be aware that the early morning can be a very wide time window and if I remember rightly could be as late as 10:00 a.m.. If I get up at that time I feel like I've missed the best of the day LOL

The times are roughly as below and there is quite a wide scope on most of them.

Early AM - 05.00 to 10.00

Late AM - 10.00 to 12.00

Early PM - 12.00 to 15.30

Late PM - 15.30 to 19.00

Late Night - 19.00 onwards

I'm not surprised that FO are reluctant to commit to times in advance as there is always some uncertainty not only about the time they dock but also the time that they get clearance to go ashore so they don't want to have people complaining about not hitting the time they were given when something gets in the way.

However most private tour companies are very familiar with the local procedures and as long as they know which ship you are on they can usually make their own checks so they are ready at the right time for you.

As for the flights, as mentioned above, you can depend on the outbound flight being scheduled for mid-morning at the latest so trying to arrive the same day is not advisable.

The return flight will be overnight arriving early morning, but, as you use the same plane to return as the new arrivals used on the way out, any delays can have a significant impact on your actual arrival time so it is unwise to schedule an onward flight too tightly with your scheduled return.

I do understand that the lack of precise detail must be frustrating for those wishing to make their own arrangements in each port while of course those using the FO tours really don't notice this at all.

One other point to factor in, if any of your ports are tender ports then FO will prioritize getting people on their own tours ashore before opening it up for general disembarkation so you need to bear that in mind to avoid further frustration regarding timing.