Fred Olsen Cruises suspended indefinitely

[Coravel]

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/5016/#fred

 

At least they are being upfront and honest about the situation.  

[comcox]

I don't see that the have cancelled cruise "indefinitely" on their website.  They do say you can transfer any 2020 cruise to another year without penalties. Officially only cruise thru May 23 are cancelled on FO's website.

[tring]

From the Fred website:-

 

http://media.fredolsencruises.com/pressreleases/fred-olsen-cruise-lines-confirms-pause-in-ocean-sailings-will-extend-beyond-23rd-may-2020-2993217

 

It is not prominent at the top of the page, but can be accessed by going to the bottom of the page and clicking on press releases.  I think they have probably done this as they want to contact the potential passengers, rather than have them try to contact their office with a complete blockage of their systems. The link says they will give at least 30 day's notice of cancellation.

 

Their Guest Services phone line is currently closed to allow their staff to get on with things that need doing (refunds/transfers etc.), so cannot contact them that way anyway.  Only the reservation lines are open and only from 9am-5pm Monday to Friday.  I have seen mention of some people being contacted, I think by email, but not sure about that.

 

There is now talk over here (including by the Chief Medical Officer) that some form of social distancing/restrictions will be in place for a year to come, so personally I do not see much in the way of cruise ships going anywhere before next spring,  especially for Fred as FOC have advised against anyone over 70 going on a cruise and that is a fair proportion of Fred's passengers and that may well stay in place after other travel has re started.  I would like to be wrong, but not sure I would want to be on a ship if there is a possibility of getting COVID either, as I would prefer to be within easy reach of good medical treatment in case it is needed.

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by tring

[Grand Cru]

On 4/24/2020 at 10:26 AM, comcox said:

I don't see that the have cancelled cruise "indefinitely" on their website.  They do say you can transfer any 2020 cruise to another year without penalties. Officially only cruise thru May 23 are cancelled on FO's website.

25th of May cruise to the Norwegian Fiords has been cancellrd.

[Grand Cru]

25th May cruise to the Norwegian Fiords has been cancelled.

[Coravel]

We had an e-mail from them today to say we can cancel any of our booked cruises and get a full refund if we wish.  If our September cruise is cancelled we will transfer what we paid to our January cruise.  

Edited April 27, 2020 by Coravel

[Grand Cru]

Our cruise On the 25th May has been cancelled, we had an email from Fred Olsen and a letter both of which told us about transferring to another cruise,but nothing about asking for a full refund, we just contacted our agent and was told refund could be up to 90 days.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Grand Cru
Spelling.

[Coravel]

I suppose it all depends on how confident you are that cruising will continue at some point in the future.  I think it will but it might take longer than any of us expect.  Matt Hancock said today that the government will introduce a two week quarantine period for all passengers returning to the UK from abroad.  Many other countries have adopted this approach.  This will make it impossible for cruise ships to operate until a vaccination is available.  

[comcox]

11 hours ago, Coravel said:

I suppose it all depends on how confident you are that cruising will continue at some point in the future.  I think it will but it might take longer than any of us expect.  Matt Hancock said today that the government will introduce a two week quarantine period for all passengers returning to the UK from abroad.  Many other countries have adopted this approach.  This will make it impossible for cruise ships to operate until a vaccination is available.  

It would really make it difficult for me as I fly to UK to sail with Fred Olsen, CMV, etc. but then I need to return to U.S. after the cruise.  Right now I'm booked on a September cruise returning October 5, but I'm booked to fly back to U.S. on the 7th.  If I have to face quarantine that will be a real issue.  Where would they quarantine those of us with no UK homes to go to?

[Coravel]

Presumably hotels but I'm just speculating.  More information is likely to come out soon.  

[tring]

2 hours ago, comcox said:

It would really make it difficult for me as I fly to UK to sail with Fred Olsen, CMV, etc. but then I need to return to U.S. after the cruise.  Right now I'm booked on a September cruise returning October 5, but I'm booked to fly back to U.S. on the 7th.  If I have to face quarantine that will be a real issue.  Where would they quarantine those of us with no UK homes to go to?

 

I would not worry about it as it is highly unlikely it will go ahead, given lots of things that have been said over here.  There would also need to be ports open to visit and I doubt any country will be quick to allow that.  The US seems very different to the rest of the world regards dealing with the situation - perhaps worth you trying to search more news from elsewhere to make your own assessment of that.  Some restrictions are being relaxed around the world, but that is a very far cry from international travel for travel's sake.  If quarantine is expected, it would also mean you would be stuck somewhere for two weeks when you arrive in the UK, so would seem unlikely that many flights will be operating anyway and I doubt the UK Government would be picking up the bill for accommodation of other nationals.  You will not get any firm info from the UK Government about the future (we can't), but in reality anything that is suggested could well need to be changed as it is all dependent upon various factors regards the Pandemic and would change on a regular basis according to how statistics change after any relaxation(s).  It is largely on a day by day basis.  The one bit of Gov info that is constant here is that there will be some sort of controls until a vaccine or really good treatment is discovered and able to be administered widely, and that is not expected to be within the next year. 

 

We are booked to go on a two week hotel holiday to Spain in November and that has faded almost completely in our minds now.  The news from the resort (Nerja) is that hotels are not planning to open until September at the earliest, so I suspect that would just be for Spanish people in the first instance and those plans could easily be put back as well.  Thing is no one knows what will happen and we cannot even get holiday insurance for any newly booked holidays while the FOC advise against any travel abroad and our annual policy will not cover any holiday booked now, even if that advice changes before the holiday.  It is the situation when you book that determines on insurability of a holiday, so our only option would be a hope to get a single trip insurance nearer to the holiday date.  Would you be OK for holiday insurance, to include COVID 19 - I would not have expected US firms to take on that sort of risk, unless the holiday was booked before all this kicked off?  The advice here is to ask for a refund when a holiday is cancelled and Fred now says he will cancel at least 30 days prior to a cruise, which is likely to be the way other companies go as that is normal when FCO advise against travel to certain countries.  Another advantage with Fred is that he is not expecting balance payments until 28 days prior to a cruise and we actually got our refund for our March and early April cruises yesterday.  He seems to be paying up quicker than other cruise companies we would use.

 

Travel will come back, but when is an unknown and likely to remain so for some time to come.  

 

Edited April 28, 2020 by tring

[Chanbre]

We have just had a phone call from someone at Fred Olsen asking for our email so they can send updates when closer to our booked cruise. I took the opportunity to ask what they were doing and when they were resuming operations. The response was that they are waiting for government advice etc and so do not know. So at present they have cancelled everything within the next month. They expect to continue cancelling a month in advance until things improve.