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Not seen this mentioned by anyone else yet.

 

Fred Olsen is to offer river cruises from next summer.

 

Brabant is a 156-guest river cruise vessel named after a Fred Olsen ship from the 1920s.

 

She will offer 30 cruises on the Danube, Rhine and Moselle rivers from April to November 2018.

 

Bookings can be made from May 26 either over the phone or online.

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The river cruiser involved appears to be the Amadaus Princess which Fred has chartered for two years [i assume with the existing Amadaus crew].

 

The balconies on board are French balconies so no chance of sitting out on a sun lounger. :)

 

I must admit I prefer Freds existing river cruises on their cruise ships.

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Thanks for posting the information, I might have been tempted until I came across the following part of the information about the new river cruises

 

"All holidays featured in the new ‘River Cruising by Fred. Olsen’ brochure are based on fly-cruises, and include return flights from / to a London airport and transfers to / from the boat. Cruise-only options are also available."

Why do all of these companies think that the south of England is the centre of the planet and only offer flights from London, one of the most difficult (M25) and expensive places to get to / stay in a hotel the night before.

 

 

Yes they offer a cruise only option but then you don't have a package holiday with all that that implies and you then have to arrange transfers etc as well.

 

 

Given that a lot of Fred's customer travel with them from regional ports to avoid a long journey south why could they not offer London and for example Newcastle or Liverpool or Edinburgh? There are flights from these airports as well.

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Thanks for posting the information, I might have been tempted until I came across the following part of the information about the new river cruises

 

"All holidays featured in the new ‘River Cruising by Fred. Olsen’ brochure are based on fly-cruises, and include return flights from / to a London airport and transfers to / from the boat. Cruise-only options are also available."

Why do all of these companies think that the south of England is the centre of the planet and only offer flights from London, one of the most difficult (M25) and expensive places to get to / stay in a hotel the night before.

 

 

Yes they offer a cruise only option but then you don't have a package holiday with all that that implies and you then have to arrange transfers etc as well.

 

 

Given that a lot of Fred's customer travel with them from regional ports to avoid a long journey south why could they not offer London and for example Newcastle or Liverpool or Edinburgh? There are flights from these airports as well.

 

Yes, I noticed that so even I could be tempted to fly I would not want to risk booking our own flights from a local airport.

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Thanks for posting the information, I might have been tempted until I came across the following part of the information about the new river cruises

 

"All holidays featured in the new ‘River Cruising by Fred. Olsen’ brochure are based on fly-cruises, and include return flights from / to a London airport and transfers to / from the boat. Cruise-only options are also available."

Why do all of these companies think that the south of England is the centre of the planet and only offer flights from London, one of the most difficult (M25) and expensive places to get to / stay in a hotel the night before.

 

 

Yes they offer a cruise only option but then you don't have a package holiday with all that that implies and you then have to arrange transfers etc as well.

 

 

Given that a lot of Fred's customer travel with them from regional ports to avoid a long journey south why could they not offer London and for example Newcastle or Liverpool or Edinburgh? There are flights from these airports as well.

 

Totally agree about companies thinking London is the centre of the planet. We would never dream of going on any flight from London and would not even want to change flights there as there are so many better alternatives.

 

Regards real river cruises there is loads of opportunities out there so I do not see why Fred thinks he can get many people to fly from London. Viking (for one) offered flights from other airports with no supplement when we travelled with them, and as far as I know they still do. River cruising is very different to Ocean cruising.

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Wait and see, the pricing may be based on an ex-London departure, but there may be other options for additional cost...

 

Either way, this thread would be moved over to the River Cruise forum if there was an active moderator around :)

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It may depend on whether Fred is going to charter an aircraft or use scheduled airlines. If a charter, as there are only about 150 passengers in total, it would probably need to be from a centralised location.

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It may depend on whether Fred is going to charter an aircraft or use scheduled airlines. If a charter, as there are only about 150 passengers in total, it would probably need to be from a centralised location.

 

Using a charter for a river cruise would be a very bad idea, especially for such a short flight.

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Who is the moderator on here? I know Hattie and Sharon on two of the other boards but don't think I have seen a name on here.

 

Perhaps we are all so courteous and well behaved on here we don't need one :).

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Using a charter for a river cruise would be a very bad idea, especially for such a short flight.

 

I've got the brochure now and see that pricing is based on scheduled flights from the London area. Flights from other airports will be priced on request. Without the flights the price drops between £250 and £300 per person [although transfers would not be included for cruise only].

 

I was surprised to see that wine/beer with meals is not included.

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I've got the brochure now and see that pricing is based on scheduled flights from the London area. Flights from other airports will be priced on request. Without the flights the price drops between £250 and £300 per person [although transfers would not be included for cruise only].

 

I was surprised to see that wine/beer with meals is not included.

 

Our brochure has arrived and I see excursions are not included either, yet all other river cruises I have seen include both those and drinks with meals. Fred's prices look high compared to other companies, given that difference. Mind you not sure we would actually want excursions or alcoholic drinks with meals all the time. One thing that puts us off river cruises is higher prices for things we would not want. Prices will find their own level once cruises are on sale and especially once the cruises have started and (hopefully) posted reviews. There are always price changes from the initial brochure prices, according to the popularity of individual cruises.

 

I think these initial exchanges regards this new venture by Fred, for cruises not even on sale yet, is very much in place in this dedicated Fred Olsen forum, as it has a lot of interest to many of us who use this forum. Later threads about specifics would be better placed in the river cruise section, though any threads there go off the first page very quickly (within a few days), so may well not get any response.

 

I should think Fred will be very pleased about the extra publicity this thread is bringing to his new river cruising as well. I think someone said they had received a leaflet about these on one of Fred's ships and I suspect that will continue.

Edited by tring
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Ours also turned up today and we think it's very expensive. As Berkshireboy says, river cruises normally include excursions and drinks. We are not keen on the drinks packages because although we enjoy a drink, too much can be damaging to your health. After 25 nights aboard the Black Watch it was easy to recognise the AI passengers by looking at their faces.

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Ours also turned up today and we think it's very expensive. As Berkshireboy says, river cruises normally include excursions and drinks. We are not keen on the drinks packages because although we enjoy a drink, too much can be damaging to your health. After 25 nights aboard the Black Watch it was easy to recognise the AI passengers by looking at their faces.

 

We find that even when an AI package is included, after the first few days we revert to water and juice for a bit as it all gets too much. I suspect that companies know that this will happen and price accordingly.

 

AI is however handy so that most of the costs are paid upfront and the majority of other companies provide beer and wine with meals as a minimum.

 

I haven't seen a brochure yet (given that we only got the Oceans club information last week, a month after everyone else I suspect that the pigeon will arrive sometime in June).

 

Interesting that they will do regional flights.

 

For those with a brochure just out of interest are they offering loyalty points/ perks with the river cruises?

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For those with a brochure just out of interest are they offering loyalty points/ perks with the river cruises?

 

I did not take a lot of notice of the brochure given the prices for a cruise without excursions drinks etc., but I think it said you can get Oceans discount on the cruise and Oceans discount off on board spend, if applicable to you. That is only from memory. No really big discounts for early booking, like offered by Viking - their 2018 cruises are cheaper than their 2017 ones as they have a bigger discount on them.

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I am afraid after looking through mine, it went in the recycling...

Seemed very expensive compared with, for example, Riviera Travel, who include flights/train travel and transfer, along with excursions on their River cruises. I am not a fan of AI as Despite enjoying a drink or two, i think I would feel obliged to get my moneys worth....not good for my health or waistLine!

And Riviera are avery good alternative to Viking , Emerald and the like...

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We phoned customer services to check there is no drinks package on Brabant. We were told that they may well introduce one as they have received a lot of negative comments. We also think they are not being competitive enough with other lines. We will wait and see.

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The new river cruises brochure has arrived at long last and having read it, it is a bit of a damp squib.

 

I agree with others that it is overpriced for the product on offer and that's before adding any additional costs to fly out of an alternative to London.

 

I think they might struggle to sell this when compared to the package offered by other river cruise companys on ships that are newer. It certainly doesn,t tempt me.

 

The added sting in the tail is that they only know alternative / regional flights 10 months before so if you did want to book in early you are booking blind in terms of the actual flight location and time. If you book a flight other than London and have to cancel you have the added non refundable charge for the flight.

 

All in all not something I would book as presented at present. It will be interesting to see how the new venture goes.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just got a second brochure in today and the have "New Dining Drinks Upgrade" as a head line.

 

So before they have even sailed they have reconsidered their product and price v other lines. Sensible.

 

The drinks package upgrade is £10 per person for day for wine, beer or soft drinks during mealtimes only. Costly when compared to the £15 package on the cruise ships but inland they may not have the benefit of duty free savings I suppose.

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