Alas, more cruises cancelled.

[comcox]

Received notice from Fred Olsen this morning about our April cruise with the following information: 

 

"Over the last few months, we have been working with the Government, other UK cruise lines and our industry body to plan our back in service dates. With the good news about vaccines, advanced testing and the detailed planning that we have been doing, we are now able to start looking forward with more confidence. Of course, there are still some unknowns, however our plans are to resume service on the following dates:
 

• Borealis: Friday 23 April 2021
• Bolette: Saturday 29 May 2021
• Balmoral: Wednesday 9 June 2021
• Braemar: Spring 2022

You will of course notice from these dates that your cruise with us will not be sailing. We are all truly sorry to disappoint you, especially over the festive period, however we felt it was right to let you know as soon as these decisions had been made.

You will also notice that we have made the very difficult decision to cancel Braemar’s 2021 season with a revised back in service date of Spring 2022. Braemar typically sails our extensive Mediterranean and Caribbean fly-cruise programme and we believe this may be more complex for us to operate during 2021. Our journey planners are now working very hard to develop new itineraries for Braemar from Spring 2022 which we will share with you in March next year".

[ovccruiser]

Had a cruise booked on Braemar 5th May 2022, that has been cancelled 😞  I will wait for the revised itineraries in January

 

[Britboys]

Obviously sad for those with cruises cancelled but this seems to be a sensible move. I'm due to sail on Bolette next June in Northern Europe but not convinced it will happen...

[tring]

So that is the whole fell swoop of Braemar cruises cancelled, apart from one sailing from Southampton on the 23rd September 2022 to the Corinth Canal.  So all of Fred's smaller ships not sailing - no doubt better for business given economies of scale (well limited ones in Fred's case), but to my mind that is also what to me would have been his USP as Lord Sugar would put it.  Whether the extra cost of Fred will be worth it in the future remains to be seen, but we will at least give him a try.  It was only about a week ago he pulled out of his river cruises for next summer, though that was not surprising as the boat was leased.  I do fear for the future of Braemar, and any other ships that could be considered smaller, throughout the cruise industry.

 

I am not surprised the Caribbean cruise season has gone, given Fred's flight prices, which I suspect he will more or less have to charge as he would not have the bargaining power when dealing with extensive flight contracts, like Carnival etc. will.  Fred has an advantage in our opinion regards that though as we prefer to book our own flights, choosing times, days routes etc.   So we have been happy to buy cruise only on cruises to far off places.  What I am surprised about though is that Fred has cancelled so many cruises at this early stage, with the need to refund many deposits, rather than sit on it a bit longer. 

[comcox]

I hope we don't lose the Braemar completely as it's small size can take it where the other FO ships cannot go.  The April itinerary I had, with two port stops in the Faroes along with Shetland and Orkney islands,  is not listed for 2022 so I don't know if it will happen again.  I had two other CMV cruises booked there for this year which disappeared as well.  I guess I will have to fly or take the ferry someday when things open up again.

[tring]

46 minutes ago, comcox said:

I hope we don't lose the Braemar completely as it's small size can take it where the other FO ships cannot go.  The April itinerary I had, with two port stops in the Faroes along with Shetland and Orkney islands,  is not listed for 2022 so I don't know if it will happen again.  I had two other CMV cruises booked there for this year which disappeared as well.  I guess I will have to fly or take the ferry someday when things open up again.

 

Fred's cruises for summer 2022 have not been released yet - due out in march when he said he would publish Braemar cruises.  Just the odd cruise released as specials for that time.  The only Braemar one is a Corinth Canal for Sept 2022.

 

I agree entirely about Braemar as his three smaller ships all gone for now, two for good. Must make a big difference to itineraries.  Sorry you lost yet another cruise but thanks for posting your notification.

 

[plumstead]

Very disappointed had a Dutch cruise on the Bramar cancelled in April 2020 then booked on the Bolette for 1st May 2020 different itinerary but accepted now had it cancelled.But I miss why the Bolette cruises are being cancelled ?

 

[tring]

2 hours ago, plumstead said:

Very disappointed had a Dutch cruise on the Bramar cancelled in April 2020 then booked on the Bolette for 1st May 2020 different itinerary but accepted now had it cancelled.But I miss why the Bolette cruises are being cancelled ?

 

 

Still quite a number of further cancellations going on Industry wide, so not totally surprising. Some countries have said they will not accept cruise ships until a specific date and it is generally expected on other parts of these boards, that when cruises do start they will be restricted to very few, if any, ports usually within the country you sail from, so UK for us. May not be any other European ports called at for a while - perhaps not until middle of 2021, and ports further away beyond that.  Future remains uncertain though, so we just have to wait and see.  Each cruise company likely to just start with one ship and build up gradually, depending on how it goes.  That is what Fred's new plans do.

 

Have you seen the new restrictions for when cruises start up again?  Each cruise line seems to have published their own rules (as currently expected) on their websites, though can change over time, especially as cruising gets going again.  Could speak to Fred, but be aware they will not tell you of any future changes, as they will not have decided what, if any, they would be.  FOC still advising against cruising altogether of course.

 

Edited December 18, 2020 by tring

[tring]

2 hours ago, plumstead said:

Very disappointed had a Dutch cruise on the Bramar cancelled in April 2020 then booked on the Bolette for 1st May 2020 different itinerary but accepted now had it cancelled.But I miss why the Bolette cruises are being cancelled ?

 

 

My previous reply mentioned FOC, but of course meant FCO.  Sorry about that

 

There has been lots of discussion about future cruising etc. on the Cruise Critic P&O boards, so you want to have a look at the sort of thing being discussed there, if you have not already seen some of it, as that is another line which mainly carries Brits.  A lot of incidentals, but gives an idea of the views of other cruisers from the UK and also the odd interesting link.  This Fred section is pretty quiet.

Edited December 18, 2020 by tring

[ighten]

Even though the 23rd April is technically listed as a scenic cruise at the current moment I cant see that happening.. One to watch though and hope for just to escape this madness.

[berkshireboy]

I have just been notified by Fred that my cruise on Borealis S2108 – ‘Irish Highlights & Scottish Scenery’, 29th April 2021 has been cancelled.  Fred is now showing the first cruise by Borealis as 22 May.

[tring]

10 minutes ago, berkshireboy said:

I have just been notified by Fred that my cruise on Borealis S2108 – ‘Irish Highlights & Scottish Scenery’, 29th April 2021 has been cancelled.  Fred is now showing the first cruise by Borealis as 22 May.

 

Thanks for the early notice.  Someone had reported the same earlier this morning on social media as her cruises cancelled.  The alterations re the cancellations have only just been on Fred's site in the last 15 minutes as was not showing before.

 

That leaves cruises which were planned before covid as start cruises and they have a number of ports of call, so will have to be changes there to allow for the short scenic, then just UK cruises, which have been widely reported as the way forward once cruising re starts, but how long Fred will sit on that remains to be seen.  If there is no light at the end of the tunnel, he may not be inclined to re vamp cruises which may not happen at all.  The long haul destinations for next winter must also be suspect IMO, even the US are limiting their cruises from/to the US ports to 7 nights until the autumn when I last heard and P&O had taken an Aurora September US cruise off sale, until CDC decide if the cruise can go ahead.  We were originally booked on that, but had jumped a month or two ago to a short Norway cruise, as we would not want to risk that with covid restrictions in place. 

 

We are in a sorry state and am beginning to think a holiday in Britain this summer may be as good as we could hope for.  I have always been a well known pessimist though, but always qualified that with my assertion that I am never disappointed 🙂

 

[berkshireboy]

We have three cruises still booked this year and one next year.  All four are re-arranged from cruises cancelled last year. I suspect that the likelihood of the next two cruises taking place are remote.  However the last one this year [Azamara, October]  and the one next year  [Fred, March 2022] could go ahead, fingers crossed. Under the circumstances I've asked Fred for a refund of the deposit for the cancelled Borealis cruise.  They are happy to do this but it will take up to eight weeks to be deposited back into our bank account.  Fortunately, it is for a comparatively small amount.  .

[ighten]

Would be nice to see (when and if they are allowed) Fred to be one of the first  to start up with purely scenics or resident only with one or two ports in the UK only.. Fleet ship size and port spread makes them ideal for it and there loyalty of return passengers would probably work for them..

 

I think the spanner in the works though is as usual the crewing of the ships and also how efficient this country can get at pre testing for passengers.. What slightly works against Fred is going to be the older pax age.(though technically they should be vaccinated at that point)

 

I doubt we're going to see anything really announced or scheduled until April+ as its going to take till those sort of times to see if the vaccine can finally start unburdening the NHS back to normal levels. And then of course the question is how long to re crew the ships and if the capacity levels are below profit levels is it worth doing.

 

The only cruise I have left now for this year that I have much confidence in is a Christmas Canaries trip - I have a suspicion that if that doesnt happen there wont be a cruise industry left (certainly not in the form of choice and brands we are used to). I also have a fall New England which I cant see happening and have already had one UK scenic cancelled for April.

Edited January 16, 2021 by ighten

[tring]

9 hours ago, ighten said:

Would be nice to see (when and if they are allowed) Fred to be one of the first  to start up with purely scenics or resident only with one or two ports in the UK only.. Fleet ship size and port spread makes them ideal for it and there loyalty of return passengers would probably work for them..

 

I think the spanner in the works though is as usual the crewing of the ships and also how efficient this country can get at pre testing for passengers.. What slightly works against Fred is going to be the older pax age.(though technically they should be vaccinated at that point)

 

I doubt we're going to see anything really announced or scheduled until April+ as its going to take till those sort of times to see if the vaccine can finally start unburdening the NHS back to normal levels. And then of course the question is how long to re crew the ships and if the capacity levels are below profit levels is it worth doing.

 

The only cruise I have left now for this year that I have much confidence in is a Christmas Canaries trip - I have a suspicion that if that doesnt happen there wont be a cruise industry left (certainly not in the form of choice and brands we are used to). I also have a fall New England which I cant see happening and have already had one UK scenic cancelled for April.

Would be nice to see Fred go for an early start, but we will see.  Apparently takes a month or two to get a ship ready, crewed and crew quarantined, so a difficult feat and may benefit the larger cruise companies, i.e.  Carnival Corporation, as they have already done some cruises on cruise lines based in other countries.

 

Any pre cruise tests would be the responsibility of the passengers or cruise line.  Fly holidays abroad have needed passengers to pay for private tests and are not provided by the NHS.  Costly as well.

 

Any holiday would be welcomed by us at present 🙂

 

Edited January 16, 2021 by tring

[comcox]

My only 2021 FO cruise is now in November to Mediterranean.  A lot may depend on how those countries are doing as well as UK.  I also have the challenge of being American and needing to test just 48 hours before and after flying each direction as well as before boarding.

[ighten]

13 hours ago, tring said:

 

 

Any pre cruise tests would be the responsibility of the passengers or cruise line.  Fly holidays abroad have needed passengers to pay for private tests and are not provided by the NHS.  Costly as well.

 

🙂

 

 

This has become the elephant in the room though as it makes it harder trying to start up.. Aida , Mein and Costa (not sure about MSC) managed to include it free and at a designated time and place when you booked a scenic(resident only Blue or Bubbled)  back in October/Early Nov - It remains to be seen if the UK will ever have this ability but I think if they dont and its left to the passenger - it wont help with restarting in Spring or Summer as the consumer simply sees this as yet more expense on top.

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by ighten

[tring]

50 minutes ago, ighten said:

 

This has become the elephant in the room though as it makes it harder trying to start up.. Aida , Mein and Costa (not sure about MSC) managed to include it free and at a designated time and place when you booked a scenic(resident only Blue or Bubbled)  back in October/Early Nov - It remains to be seen if the UK will ever have this ability but I think if they dont and its left to the passenger - it wont help with restarting in Spring or Summer as the consumer simply sees this as yet more expense on top.

 

Must admit I was thinking this was more likely to be a thing sorted by the cruise line, rather than individuals though making a point they would not be Gov. supplied which I thought you meant (possibly I mis understood that).  There seem to be plenty of tests around now, so should not be a problem for the cruise lines to source them by the time cruises re start and numbers of people with the virus in the UK would have to be way down by then, so a lot less need elsewhere.  I presume lines could also source from anywhere in the world.

 

Whether the cruise lines try to charge for them remains to be seen, though as you say probably not.  We will all pay in the long term of course though perhaps offset by profits from bubbled tours?  The advantage I would see of cruise line supply is that they will get the tests a lot cheaper as would be a mass purchase for them.  Any re start will obviously be a few months away yet imo, but I think most will agree with that and you mentioned spring or summer.

 

Roll on summer.

 

Edited January 17, 2021 by tring

[tring]

4 hours ago, comcox said:

My only 2021 FO cruise is now in November to Mediterranean.  A lot may depend on how those countries are doing as well as UK.  I also have the challenge of being American and needing to test just 48 hours before and after flying each direction as well as before boarding.

Sorry just realised my "like" for this post could look bad, though what I meant was to show my appreciation of your predicament.  A lot can happen by November regards requirements, both here in Europe and over your side of The Atlantic.  I just hope it will be forward steps without anymore back steps.

 

Meanwhile I hope all is well with you at home.

 

We still have a couple of cruises booked in June and July, the latter with Fred.  Though initially we were thinking we would not want to go on these if COVID restrictions are still in place, our hopes have turned to them going ahead in any form and we would probably take the disadvantages to just go away.  Just have to see what happens and how we feel about that nearer the time though.

Edited January 17, 2021 by tring

[comcox]

26 minutes ago, tring said:

 

We still have a couple of cruises booked in June and July, the latter with Fred.  Though initially we were thinking we would not want to go on these if COVID restrictions are still in place, our hopes have turned to them going ahead in any form and we would probably take the disadvantages to just go away.  Just have to see what happens and how we feel about that nearer the time though.

We also have a July cruise but with Hurtigruten around U.K..  No idea if it will go as planned or not.  Wearing masks and some other restrictions would not bother us, but I would prefer to have some freedom of movement in ports.

[ighten]

58 minutes ago, comcox said:

We also have a July cruise but with Hurtigruten around U.K..  No idea if it will go as planned or not.  Wearing masks and some other restrictions would not bother us, but I would prefer to have some freedom of movement in ports.

 

Only consolation I can offer you is that Hurti have been excellent at refunding payments (a few days) - July is 6mths way, it will be summer so the Health service strain will fall naturally regardless of the vaccine benefits so we should hopefully be at normality in that department at least (everything crossed) ..  and if its a UK only cruise and IF it does go ahead the only other issues I see is it could become a residential only (Im presuming this is the Dover one not the Bergen/Scottish) and some landings could be removed..  I have my finger on that one myself but will leave it till the last minute

 

Reality is Its just tooo far to know (Hurti have a big advantage in that they have a lot of Hotel crew already in place and like Fred (if not better) perfect sized ships)... though I suspect our guess work is as valid as our transport minister who seems to be  as on the ball as the rest of the cabinet (ie in a different stadium 😉 ) 

[Britboys]

A further raft of cancellations made today, through to late June. My cruise around Northern Europe scheduled to sail on 23rd June has been cancelled. Got the email this afternoon.

[tring]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

A further raft of cancellations made today, through to late June. My cruise around Northern Europe scheduled to sail on 23rd June has been cancelled. Got the email this afternoon.

 

Sad, but strange since their website is showing cruises available from 22nd May from Liverpool and 29th May from Dover.  The site even let me choose your cruise and go through the booking system as far as getting a list of available cabins!

 

There is a flash on the main page saying their team are not available though, but suggesting you get them to ring you.

 

I wish Tui were as keen to cancel hols which are not going ahead.  We are booked to go to Lanzarote on 7th March and it is not cancelled - yet.  Not that I would say no to going mind.  Am a bit fed up today as it is my birthday and told DH he should have taken me somewhere nice.  A walk to our local M&S Food store for a few treats does not quite equal last year in a beach hotel in Sri Lanka after a tour and before joining Boudicca up the coast of India.  So much for our bargain price 5 year Indian Visa's which we had hoped to make good use of.

 

At least we had our vaccines yesterday, which seems a small step forward 🙂

 

Hope you are bearing up,

 

Barbara

 

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by tring

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, tring said:

 

Sad, but strange since their website is showing cruises available from 22nd May from Liverpool and 29th May from Dover.  The site even let me choose your cruise and go through the booking system as far as getting a list of available cabins!

 

There is a flash on the main page saying their team are not available though, but suggesting you get them to ring you.

 

I wish Tui were as keen to cancel hols which are not going ahead.  We are booked to go to Lanzarote on 7th March and it is not cancelled - yet.  Not that I would say no to going mind.  Am a bit fed up today as it is my birthday and told DH he should have taken me somewhere nice.  A walk to our local M&S Food store for a few treats does not quite equal last year in a beach hotel in Sri Lanka after a tour and before joining Boudicca up the coast of India.  So much for our bargain price 5 year Indian Visa's which we had hoped to make good use of.

 

At least we had our vaccines yesterday, which seems a small step forward 🙂

 

Hope you are bearing up,

 

Barbara

 

 

Iirc, there was a bit of criticism previously that there was a message on the website or social media before pax had been contacted? Maybe they wanted to get all the emails or calls done before announcing it publicly. Perhaps the website will be updated overnight. Interestingly, only a 10% mark-up on Future Cruise Credit this time, as opposed to 25%. Probably because most of us are already re-bookings from previous cancellations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARA. Yes, it's rotten having birthdays at present. I've had to put all my 60th birthday plans on hold from last November. I should currently be on Arcadia in the Pacific Ocean.

I'm a bit down too just now. I'm a very social being, so living a solitary lifestyle 24/7 for months on end is not coming easy...

Edited February 3, 2021 by Britboys

[tring]

27 minutes ago, Britboys said:

Iirc, there was a bit of criticism previously that there was a message on the website or social media before pax had been contacted? Maybe they wanted to get all the emails or calls done before announcing it publicly. Perhaps the website will be updated overnight. Interestingly, only a 10% mark-up on Future Cruise Credit this time, as opposed to 25%. Probably because most of us are already re-bookings from previous cancellations.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BARBARA. Yes, it's rotten having birthdays at present. I've had to put all my 60th birthday plans on hold from last November. I should currently be on Arcadia in the Pacific Ocean.

I'm a bit down too just now. I'm a very social being, so living a solitary lifestyle 24/7 for months on end is not coming easy...

Thanks for the birthday wishes.  At least there are two of us together, so I should in no way be complaining.  Sad you have missed a big one though, sorry to hear that  Last year was our 70ths - we are less than 6 weeks apart in age.  My main school friend (from just a year or two ago of course), had plans for a big 70th bash last year which did not happen because it was due late April.

 

I can see the point about telling booked people first but I do wonder if they are still taking bookings, which is bad if they are.

 

I think a lot of holiday companies will be getting quite worried now, so not surprising they are not being as generous.  I do wonder at times if Fred will continue, given the Bonheur board were never that supported in the past.  The payments on the new ships are reported as being due solely in years 4 and 5 so no loss there if I understood it correctly.  I think we will be claiming refunds from any future cancellations.