teenieleek

It was held on the Balmoral towards the end of the cruise we just got off on Thursday. It was fifteen nights. It looked just like your photo.

Thank you for this. I have been very concerned. They really need to take much stronger measures much sooner as you say. Big sigh of relief here after my horrible experience in February. Maybe I’ll now start to get cautiously excited about my trip rather than dreading it!

Yes I understand but I’m not on the “other place” so I’m really hoping I’ll be able to find out the situation on here, just don’t know how else to access info.

I did in February too. Ta muchly Fred!

Horrible, what a shame. I think you, and everyone else on that trip, should ask for a refund.

I would be very interested to know how the cruise leaving today gets on. Unfortunately not many Fred passengers post so it could be difficult to find out. Any suggestions?

Just like in February too. I found the daily telling off and instructions from the captain very insulting. No one got on our cruise sick, the ship made us sick, not properly cleaned from the preceding plague cruise.

How are you feeling now? Hope you have recovered. This is all making me very nervous as we are due to go on Balmoral on 19th July. After having what FOCL called gastroenteritis (GP called it dysentery) in February I really don’t want a repeat. I was ill for three weeks and needed strong antibiotics, so it was bacterial, not viral then. I really must learn to turn down a “bargain” as I did say I’d never go with FOCL again!

Sorry, misunderstood. I thought you meant you’d paid extra for over 70. I might consider switching later. I get that someone would just enjoy being on a ship and having the company but it wouldn’t be enough for me, it’s the new places that draw me but definitely we’re doing it while still able, Spitsbergen in July then 24 nights to Canada (with Princess) in September so a busy summer.

Ah, ok, thanks. Haven’t tried that yet so maybe I gave a duff suggestion but probably still worth investigating. I liked that they go to age 80 because we’re both in our seventies. I’m hoping however that I’ll know when it’s time to hang up our travelling clogs because I’ve seen folk on ships who look so frail I wonder what pleasure it can still be for them….and how on earth they get insurance!

BoS platinum account includes world wide travel insurance, AA cover and something else I can’t remember but we got it for the travel. £21 per month. It covers cruises but not missed ports and it goes up to age 80. I had to get an “add on” for a health issue, around another £100 per annum so total around £350 for a year which is less than half what I was quoted elsewhere. I haven’t tried to extend the time limit but I imagine they would do it on a one-off basis.

What is the problem with Fred ships that they have so much gastroenteritis? I was really unwell in February for about three weeks during and after a cruise. Needed antibiotics. I am horrified to hear they have it on the Balmoral too as I’m going on it in July. Beginning to regret my “bargain”. Hope you don’t catch it.

Indeed. I got an email from Fred offering second person goes half price on a choice of four cruises. Having said I wouldn’t sail with them again I couldn’t resist the bargain so it’s fourteen nights to northern Norway and Spitsbergen. The website is still selling the trip at £3000 more than I’ve paid for a superior suite. It’s so unfair on those who book early. Princess has recently reduced prices by a third on a trip I booked two years ago. After a struggle they agreed to a “move over” to the new price. Some people won’t have noticed or didn’t realise they could ask to move. Again really unfair.

Just to let you know that the app is now working (on final payment day) and we’re going to The Catch on embarkation day….menu sounds delicious. Thanks for the help.

Thanks for that. Will do what you suggest. The app really does have its limitations however.

Ok, thanks, but it’s been a week now!

I have made the final payment, I am “green to go” on the app but I cannot reserve Sabatini’s for the embarkation night suite “freebie”. Nothing appears except “this is not available”. Anyone have any ideas please? You can no longer book anything on the website.

From Reykjavik we used Back to Iceland travel company for an excursion. We did the South Coast Tour. A big taxi/people carrier for four of us. It was a great day because we could customise it e.g. no to a sweater shop but yes to seeing puffins up close. They guaranteed that we would be back in time. We were first off the ship and last back on, but no pier running required! I’ve checked and we paid 110,000 IK. £630. Expensive but we saw more than we would have on a ship tour.

I said I would do a review after the trip but I needed time to get it in perspective because I might have been unduly harsh if I had reported sooner. There was a lot to like. Our cabin, a premier suite, was spacious, comfortable with a fabulous balcony that we had a room service lunch on one day. It was kept very clean. The bathroom was small for a suite, bog standard in fact, inherited from Holland America so probably not much could be done with it. The “joy of the journey” stuff suited me: geography, geology, history and none of it dumbed down. Delivered by experts in their field. The destination talks were also very informative and interesting. I enjoyed the cookery demonstrations and the movies that were shown. I didn’t go to the music talks but my husband did and he and others were very enthusiastic about the presenter and his depth of knowledge. Staff and service were good.The food was hit and miss. Some things were delicious, others a disaster. A filet mignon that I couldn’t cut, incinerated lamb chops and after two attempts at ice cream sundaes the waiter explained that they are assembled in advance and kept in the fridge so they would always be melted by the time I got them! Breakfast and lunch in the MDR were always good when I went and without the disappointments of dinner time! Colours and Tastes was very good and worth the extra. I cancelled my booking at Vasco for reasons that will become apparent. The buffet always had a wide selection but I just don’t like that style of eating although I did use it sometimes when I couldn’t be bothered waiting till 8.30 for dinner. On formal nights everyone in the MDR had got dressed up which was lovely unlike on American ships where I’ve seen Hawaiian shirts and baseball caps. We only got two out of three ports in Cabo Verde and, effectively one out of three in Morocco. Arrecife (gambas pil pil) and a half day in Lisbon (pasteis de nata and lunch outdoors) were fine but not instead of what was missed. Bad weather was the reason given and it was (partly?) true. In Morocco the ship did dock at Agadir but the rain was torrential and returning early birds were advising those of us waiting to disembark not to bother. “Agadir is closed, not so much as a corner shop open”. We got on the shuttle anyway and …..stayed on it to come back. Couldn’t even see through the bouncing rain. The excursion to Rabat from Casablanca was good with an interesting guide and a generous lunch (that I didn’t eat, see below). The traffic in Casablanca is horrible and the journey took much longer than the mileage would suggest. There was no time for shopping that day but no problem, I could shop in Tangier after my walking tour couldn’t I? Except I couldn’t because we didn’t go there, apparently too rough to dock. Now to the grim bit. After the first couple of days I developed an upset stomach and assumed I had been overeating. We hadn’t reached our first port yet. The captain then announced that there were “quite a few cases of gastroenteritis” and we should report symptoms. I did so but since I hadn’t been sick (only the other) I was told to eat bread and potatoes and avoid fruit. It did not improve, I ran out of Imodium (Arrecife to the rescue) but it kept coming back. One formal evening the dining room was half empty so it must have been rife (I couldn’t starve for ever). My day in Rabat was nearly an embarrassing horror. Luckily sign language is international and a long queue of burkha-clad women stood aside. I was still very unwell when I got home and by the time I saw a doctor I had been suffering for over three weeks. Dysentery, caused by contaminated food or water, she guessed, didn’t wait for results but prescribed heavy-duty antibiotics which worked. I have since discovered that this was the third Borealis cruise in a row with the same problem, not that we were told that at any point. What had they done about it? A quick clean and set sail again apparently. Twice during the cruise the water supply was turned off overnight with no explanation. A coincidence? We’ll never know. I am still angry at the lack of information and the lack of treatment. “All I have is Imodium” said the medical person. Really? No antibiotics? The daily instructions to wash our hands was insulting when the problem was not the passengers’ fault. I may have been particularly unlucky as my husband recovered quite quickly but I suspect others were even sicker than me. Staff in full PPE was a regular sight but then I think there was covid too. Plague ship indeed. Despite the positives I don’t think I will cruise with FOCL again. Maybe all cruise lines are equally opaque and unhelpful but my abiding feeling is that I don’t trust them to look after their passengers and they certainly don’t tell the truth. I know this review will annoy the “wed to Fred” folk but I have tried to be fair.

Thanks Barbara, I’m really looking forward to this now. I would love to do a round S America trip but the flights put me off. The older I get the more I dislike flying. I would like to visit relatives in Australia and do a NewZealand cruise but again…..the flights. I will post about my trip, good or bad because even biased information is useful to others!

I hope you had your clothes on! Peeping Tom for the tech age. I would have complained too.

Quite! “joy of the journey” and “handcrafted” or “sit down and shut up” and “hand-knitted”! Sounds grim so far. Hope our less adventurous trip to Madeira and then Cape Verde in a couple of weeks has quieter sea conditions but just in case, I’ve already looked out my anti-puke wristbands! We had very rough seas on the Pacific Princess (small and lovely) coming back from Greenland and I was fine so I’m quietly hopeful.

I would be very upset if I’d been promised Cuba and Antarctica and got neither. I would definitely cancel that one.

I sent customer relations an email complaining about the dropping of Lisbon from the itinerary, the spurious reason and the suspicious timing of the email. Someone phoned me a couple of days later to apologise for this, to say she had no more information than I had but that I could cancel and have a full refund if I wished. I was very surprised. I was given a few days to decide. After much humming and hawing we decided to stick with it as we’d been so much looking forward to this itinerary. I really hope we don’t regret our choice. I’ll let you all know how it goes.

I’ve never been on the Braemar, I didn’t realise it was a “pretty” ship or I might have been tempted to book. My first cruise was on the Balmoral to the Baltic nearly six years ago and really enjoyed it, helped by great weather. However my husband noted the fogged up windows, the very thick, lumpy paint round said windows and the 60s orange decor in our “superior” suite. We then went to Greenland and Iceland on the Pacific Princess, half the size of the Balmoral but much better maintained, more perks, better food and loved it. It has since been sold to Azamara as it no longer fitted the Princess business plan. These eight Renaissance ships are now owned, four each, by Oceania and Azamara. This could have been Fred. These are truly small ships, not in the first flush of youth, but beautified and made desirable. I think FOCL is falling between two stools. The stools being small and beautiful or large and glitzy. Medium sized and dated is not going to work. It particularly won’t work at the inflated prices they are now trying to charge.