Leither

2 hours ago, rebeccalouiseagain said:

2 hours ago, rebeccalouiseagain said:

2 hours ago, rebeccalouiseagain said:

And there is nothing nicer than sitting in a hot tub in cold weather.  I use them all the time on vacation.  I look forward to that aspect.  So not only don't they have the "four" originally advertised, but the two they have aren't filled, which do the math- lack of water, probably don't work or have legionaires, or all three.  Opulent!

There would be no reason to fill the pools whilst the ship is cruising in cold weather. Looks to be 21 degrees in Lisbon so clearly it’s moving into warmer weather. As I’ve said before we sailed on the Braemar several times and it was a lovely ship, contrary to what some people here believe. Don’t know what it’s like now but photos indicate it’s not much different, even down to the same furniture. But I agree, it’s not a ship for permanent living.

46 minutes ago, www3traveler said:

Chief, In case you are not aware of you is on the Villa Vie's Bridge, it is Captain Zeljko Jurac.

Details here -

https://www.linkedin.com/in/capt-zeljko-jurac-8086b3154/details/experience/

4 hours ago, Travel_Around_The_World said:

 

Let's not split hairs here. Of course I know what an en-suite bathroom is. Bathrooms in cabins or hotelrooms are private bathrooms meaning that you don't have to share a bathroom with your next door neighbor or with the entire hallway but if yiu have guests in your cabin or hotel room they will use that private bathroom as well. 
En-suite bathrooms are only common in suites with 1 bedroom or more on ships and in hotels. Your guests will use another bathroom, not the one attached to your bedroom. 

Most newer cruise ships have en-suite bathrooms in suites with one bedroom or more, but some older ships have only one bedroom despite having a bedroom and living room. They have naturally no en-suite bathroom just a private bathroom for the suite. 

It is tacky to use the word en-suite and has only one purpose: too make the bathroom grander by using the word "suite". 

PS: who said I will sail with them? I am just going to take pics and hop right back off. 🤣

 Certainly  here in Europe, en-suite just means a bedroom with a bathroom attached. That can be a bedroom in a house, a hotel room or a cabin on a ship.  It doesn’t mean that the accommodation is a suite.

That said, I do agree with your general point about the descriptions used by this company. I had to laugh at them describing the cabins with portholes as “this unique feature”! Were this a British company I think they could be prosecuted under The Trade Descriptions Act or dealt with by The Advertising Standards Authority.

36 minutes ago, rebeccalouiseagain said:

Yes

Yes they are at sea, which means the passengers were never allowed off the ship in port.  So recap of the Odyssey "Ultimate World Cruise"- the left four months late, their first "exciting" port was Brest, France and they weren't allowed off.  Second port was Bilbao, Spain, which no one's really heard of either. Then onto another random port, Gijon, Spain where they were overnighting but guess what?  Couldn't get off the ship.  Now a sea day and then Lisbon.  Something tells me they will dock in Lisbon because passengers are getting on there.  Still- is this insane?

I think most people have heard of Bilbao.

As of 12:15 U.K. time, it’s now left Gijon, en route to Lisbon according to VesselFinder.

On 10/4/2024 at 8:17 PM, Electra 7 said:

Hi I would like to know what is the dress code compared to cunard and also can anyone advise me about ballroom / Latin dancing onboard 

6 hours ago, Jules. said:

Hi, I don’t think that you can ever be overdressed in the evening on a cruise. I’ve cruised both Fred and Cunard and  I’m sure that your existing wardrobe will be more than suitable, looking at your signature and what cruise lines you’ve travelled on. 
I’m not a dancer, I know Fred provide evening music to dance a social foxtrot to, I joined in with the dance lessons at the time. However, that was way back on my last cruise with them back in 2012, things may have changed since then. 
I’m on Bolette in a few days, I’ll report back about the dancing when I’m home 😀

When we started cruising with Fred Olsen a few years ago, you used to see these ballroom dancing sessions on the floor where they held the evening entertainments. Our last cruise on Bolette, there were a few determined dance sessions on a dance floor near one of the bars.

5 minutes ago, Travel_Around_The_World said:

Because consumer and consumer protection laws are neither adequate nor easy to entangle in the US. 

OK!

25 minutes ago, gkbiiii said:

This is the Miami maritime attorney, that I have personally recommended, to the women thrown off vessel.  He is well know in Miami, for getting results for cruise passengers, for tort litigation.

Why is it Americans always seem to be so quick to involve lawyers?

9 minutes ago, Travel_Around_The_World said:

Some of these comments are damming.

You have to take a lot of the comments with a pinch of salt but one Shannon Smith seems to know what they’re talking about.

18 minutes ago, gkbiiii said:

But, UK was part of EU before, but your saying they allowed "free movement of products", but not people; but Switzerland, which is not in EU, allows people, but not goods?  Wow, quite complicated.

When U.K. was in the EU, there was free movement of goods and people, but the latter subject to passport control as we weren’t in Schengen. Switzerland is not in the EU but has numerous separate treaties with the EU, including being part of Schengen. Norway is in a somewhat similar position.

8 minutes ago, gkbiiii said:

I don't understand; I thought the Republic of Ireland is in the EU and that Northern Ireland (UK) had no Hard Borders with Ireland?

9 minutes ago, gkbiiii said:

I don't understand; I thought the Republic of Ireland is in the EU and that Northern Ireland (UK) had no Hard Borders with Ireland?

No hard border with the Republic but it does have with the rest of the EU.

1 hour ago, gkbiiii said:

Why would they need "passport control," when this ship left from an EU port and docked in France?  Something is very strange here, there is something more going on.  Notice the CEO & gal, left at the first chance they got.  Oddly, with unpaid bills as stated above and not fully provisioned, with basics like fresh water: what gives?

27 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

Belfast isn't an EU port 

Who says rhey have “unpaid bills”? And NI isn’t in the EU.

22 minutes ago, as3369 said:

There are some unsubstantiated reports that Villa Vie departed with unpaid bills...Yikes!

Is that unusual? I would have thought that invoices are subject to whatever the trader’s credit terms are - 30, 45 days etc.

41 minutes ago, StorylineQuestions said:

The following is from my Marine Traffic app notifications.  I have no other information. 
 

 

NOTIFICATION

ODYSSEY has moved away from GALDAMES (Fire Fighting Vessel) The two vessels stayed in proximity for 44 minutes. Time: 2024-10-07 06:12 UTC Position: N 43° 20.32', W 003° 01.49' Speed/Course: 0.2 knots / 71° Area: UKC - Biscay Bay Source of Position: TERR-AIS The following information is available to MarineTraffic subscribers only

According to VesselFinder, Galdames is a tug and certainly looks like one in the photo, rather than a firefighting vessel. If appeared to be guiding Odyssey into the berth.

Odyssey has docked in Bilbao at about 07:00 U.K. time. She was assisted by a tug.

Just now, Leither said:

According to VesselFinder it hasn’t moved for 13 hours now.

1 minute ago, Leither said:

According to VesselFinder it hasn’t moved for 13 hours now.

Or more correctly, that was the last time its position was reported.

According to VesselFinder it hasn’t moved for 13 hours now.

21 minutes ago, UKCruiseJeff said:

It is odd that the last progress signal on the app was over 11 hours old. 

 

Jeff

Yes, I was wondering why that was.

12 hours ago, PG_traveller said:

I love cruising as much as anyone here, but at the end of my cruise I very much love returning home. To my own bed, my bathroom, my kitchen, etc. I can't imagine having to eat restaurant food every day, day in, day out. At minimum I would need a big enough room to accommodate a couch,  a balcony, Queen size comfortable bed (after the first night on board one of the vloggers reported that the bed was hard), mini kitchenette.

 

I'm an introvert, I can't handle being around people 24/7. I need my own living space.

 

I like the concept of seeing the world in a floating hotel, just not sure the reality would be for me.

From what I can see on the Odyssey website, the Ocean View cabins, sorry Villas, are little different to when we first cruised on the Braemar in 2015. Even some of the venues like the restaurants and bars have kept the same names and furniture.

I too like the concept of a world cruise but three weeks has been enough for us on the several cruises we’ve done, let alone 15 years. But then we’re not all the same.

26 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Thanks a lot, 45 mins would make it walkable for us, depending what we had been doing that day.  However Google maps tends to be a lot more optimistic on all travel times than turns out to be the case, so a taxi sounds in order, as long as we can find one.  Standing in a queue can be worse than walking for me, so not worth a wait.

 

Agree about Google Maps being optimistic, plus there’s always the chance of taking a wrong turning. 

8 hours ago, tring said:

 

Will look into the restaurant, thanks for the advice.

 

Thanks also to you and Leither for replies about the shuttle buses.

 

According to Google Maps, it’s a 45 minute walk from the cruise terminal to the cathedral.

We went on the Braemar to Bordeaux, Seville, Aviles, Vigo & Rouen in June 2017. In Rouen, we watched the light show at the cathedral then waited to get the shuttle back back to the ship (it wasn’t walkable). It took ages to arrive and there was quite a crowd waiting. I can’t remember if it had to make one or two trips. That would’ve been about 11pm I think.

Reagards.

18 hours ago, BND said:

What will be interesting is following along on this adventure.  And, that's what it is for most of them, an adventure.  For the most part those that have bought a cabin are experienced travelers and cruisers.

It certainly sounds like an adventure for the travellers but I have to say I wonder if it’s going to end well. We sailed on the Braemar several times, a lovely ship, hence my interest in this saga. Right from the start it sounded a very dubious undertaking. I didn’t do a lot of digging but the company behind it didn’t appear to  have the business background nor the significant financial resources for such a venture. 
We’ll see!

On 9/27/2024 at 6:00 PM, rebeccalouiseagain said:

You have to have a product that people can find.  Cruisers use travel agents and VVR doesn't cooperate with travel agents (red flag).  The product does not sell itself.  The ship looks old and tired and people will look for reviews.  The itinerary is not great-there are no ports that aren't visited by other cruise lines.  The ship is small and has few, if any, amenities.  Why would anyone book a segment on this ship when other cruise lines offer a better product, a similar itinerary and for the same price?

We sailed several times on the Braemar as was and it was a lovely ship, just the right size. Last time was in 2019 when we went through the Corinth Canal, a fascinating, memorable experience. We’ve only cruised with Fred Olsen but have never ever had to use a travel agent. Not sure what you mean about “few, if any, amenities” ; certainly it doesn’t have go-kart tracks, zip wires etc but then lots of us don’t want to cruise on this sort of ships.

Apart from that, this is a fascinating thread with several very knowledgeable contributors.

, 

5 hours ago, lohr500 said:

Not going well so far 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8jl3720yw3o

I’ve been following this website for the last few weeks, from one of the delayed “residents”.  She’s being making the most of the delays, travelling to various places, presumably supported financially by the owner.

https://basiak.blog/when-do-you-sail/