Jump to content

Would Fred Olsen work as an alternative for Voyages of Discovery?


OlsSalt
 Share

Recommended Posts

Love to get more feedback about Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, now that we are looking for the small ship, high enrichment, unique itinerary replacement for the Voyages of Discovery.

 

Certainly the Fred Olsen website looked intriguing on its face, and some of their ships like the Bodicca would be a cut above what VOD was offering. Keeping in mind the comparison one already accepts the more bare-bones tangible basics one found on VOD ships, but which also excelled in the intangibles of cruising.

 

When cruising on VOD in the past, we often saw Fred Olsen ships in harbor with us so this cruise line too plies the world into its more remote corners. It always intrigued us as being a fellow globe trotter. Thanks for any insights.

Edited by OlsSalt
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just done a really lengthy post that has somehow got lost!!!!!!

 

Overall I would say Fred is a possibility on a really good itinerary, though his ships (apart from Braemar) are older than Voyager - being spruced up superficially, though still old boats. We had problems on Braemar with fuel fumes in the autumn and said we would go elsewhere, but have been enticed back by the offer to VOD passengers (worth 10% to us because cannot combine with AI or loyalty discount). We are doing Boudicca to Mauritius in Oct. We live very near Liverpool and will stay on in Mauritius for a week or so and stop off in Abu Dhabi for couple of nights on return, so we will not need overnight flights. Lots of sea days though.

 

Food good - not always quite as good as it was, but better than carnival brands IMO. Staff excellent. Some speakers OK, but nothing like All Leisure. They do a fair bit of "entertainments" - shows, quizzes, games, ballroom dancing etc. Some passengers travel more for the ship, than the ports, but good itineraries get diff type of passengers to an extent. Still quiet and calm generally, though Fred's introduction of a low priced AI package has changed the feel of the ships to some extent. Set dining times big problem for us, but can request time and table size (including tables for two) but may not get, (more chance if book fairly early).

 

Would not book to the rear of the ship and low down, because can be quite a lot of vibration.

 

They have done some good offers over the last 3 years (book three - get quite big discount), but prices rocketed this year. Higher grade cabins WELL over what they are worth. If probs with cabin, need to tell them and they will move - if they can find somewhere else.

 

Suggest you post on Fred section of these boards, though realise some will be bias in their opinions :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the details of your response - without the superb lecture speakers we loved on the Discovery, looks like Fred is just running another ship. I'll have to hold out a bit longer and see what emerges from the soot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the details of your response - without the superb lecture speakers we loved on the Discovery, looks like Fred is just running another ship. I'll have to hold out a bit longer and see what emerges from the soot.

 

Yes. We would use for particular locations (Spitzberg and Greenland were excellent), if you can get the right deal. We would not want to pay a fortune for Fred or just use for the sake of going on the ship though. So many people use cruises for the entertainments and activities, which are not our thing, but we have found we can avoid those on most ships.

 

We are looking much more at land holidays and are in the throws of booking a couple after our cancellations, but going by ship one way looks as though it would work in some cases for us e.g. Boudicca. Nightmare to arrange though - flights, hotels, stopover(s) during flight(s)................. Can book some well timed flights that way though, so we can actually sleep in a hotel overnight rather than be on a plane :)

 

Happy holiday searching,

 

Barbara

Edited by tring
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is that Exploritas organization or whatever they are calling it today - used to be called Elderhostal in the US - RoadsScholars maybe today -- .

 

They use conventional cruise lines that have the occasional off-beat itineraries and bring along their own group of speakers which offers a more in depth educational experience for their group members, who meet separately onboard for their own classes.

 

However, this would be primarily a US group with US speakers which would carry a very different perspective and affinity feeling. We loved the UK orientation from the VOD speakers, which we found so fascinating and kept us on our toes. These two groups (VOD and Roads Scholars) would be more like comparing Downton Abbey to Keeping up with the Kardashians. (!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is that Exploritas organization or whatever they are calling it today - used to be called Elderhostal in the US - RoadsScholars maybe today -- .(!)

Yes, these days they are called ROAD SCHOLARS. They cruised on VOD for several years for their annual World Academy voyage (Jan. thru Mar.) .

This year and next year their World Academies are booked on HAL Amsterdam's World Voyages.

 

With regard to lecturers, does anyone know whether All Leisure Group's cadre of top-notch lecturers will be transferring to another similar cruise company? That has been a valuable asset, and it might be sustained elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...
Love to get more feedback about Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, now that we are looking for the small ship, high enrichment, unique itinerary replacement for the Voyages of Discovery. .

Not sure if you are still monitoring this thread, I have only just found it.

 

 

We really loved Voyager and the friendly crew, and miss it. We have sailed on Black Watch and Braemar and Fred isn't quite as good, but close. He is very popular with a loyal following of repeat cruisers. We found Braemar better than Black Watch, a lot of door banging on the latter. The Braemar was much quieter, though engine viration was noticeable at the back of the ship. The Palm Cafe was more like a restaurant than the Lido buffets of other ships, less of a scramble to find a table as the waiters had it well organised. You also don't need to wear penguin suits on formal nights in the Palm, just be tidy. We had an excellent lecturer, Air Accident investigator, on the Braemar. You can check my blogs (see link in sig) for my views on ships, the Braemar one has only just gone up and still has a few errors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

In 2012 we did CMV up the Amazon and then FO for Canada, and in 2014 world Cruise on Black Watch.

 

As a knowledge hound I was more than disappointed with the information provided by FO which I thought would be better than CMV. However CMV staff seem much brighter and I was told they have far more autonomy than FO staff.

 

As examples the information on Patagonia was non-existent, going through the Suez Canal elicited a shoddy piece of double-sided A4 with the information centred on the page. Shambolic. Quiz questions came replete with wrong answers and apparently borrowed by staff and ported ship to ship which gives quite an advantage to frequent cruisers!!!

 

In any event the cruise was great but information dire. Talks were Okish.

 

Having been on the Canadian trip,[and having had to buy our own table-tennis balls in Cobh] we were fully prepared and had uploaded Wikipedia to one of two laptops , and printed off plenty of detailed information for ports and countries to be visited. Also free navigational maps with certain countries like Brazil and Australia.

 

The major error we made was not including a printer in our baggage as relying on reception to print out lyrics for the singers etc etc was tedious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...