yorkshire traveller

On 9/24/2024 at 8:38 PM, PeterWW said:

Thanks - Yes I too am crossing my fingers that they may do something on Bolette in this regard on the forthcoming World Cruise.. Like you I was thinking of Cunard as well (having cruised extensively with them myself in the past) and knowing what they provide on their world voyages as regards gratuities, World Cruise dinner etc.. So yes, being a newbie cruiser with Fred Olsen, this was on my mind when I was posed the question in the first place. I guess we'll have to wait and see. I'm exactly the same as you as regard what attracted me to the 2025 Fred Olsen world cruise on Bolette, it was very much the itinerary. It's a wonderful itinerary and certainly much more appealing than the itineraries on offer from Cunard on their World Voyage this coming year (and in some recent past years too for that matter). For that reason alone I'm very much looking forward to it. Also I know that Bolette is a wonderful ship staffed by superb crew (and I dare say Borealis is the same).

 

I have every reason to believe that the trip in just over 3 months time now will be a highly enjoyable and hugely memorable adventure - I'm so looking forward to it! I'm also of course looking forward to meeting new people (including hopefully your good self) and sharing with them what is undoubtedly an iconic travel experience.

I am sure we will meet on board. Fred ships are very friendly. I see Cunard have had ro revise their itinerary due to the trouble in the Middle East. So pleased we are not transiting the suez even if we could. We have done it a few times. Didn't like the flies!

10 minutes ago, PeterWW said:

Many thanks for your reply, this is really helpful and I really appreciate it.

I guess I was just curious as to what/if anything Fred Olsen might lay on as special celebrations at various stages of the voyage, be it on board or even ashore in one of the ports of call. I know some other cruise lines do lay on special events (including one ashore) as part of their world voyage. 

We've booked a fair few excursions at various ports although at most we'll probably do our own thing (especially where it's a port we've been to before etc). This is the longest continuous voyage we've been on up to now (the previous longest being about 50 nights) and we're looking forward to it immensely, including the sea days actually. Thanks again.

I was hoping  they would fo something like Cunard do for passengers who are doing the full cruise. I know cunard have a separate lounge and on shore events but we didn't have that on Borealis. The cruise was only split into 2 legs though so nearly everyone was going all the way. This one has more legs and is longer so we will see what happens. No gratuities to pay on Cunard WC either, but the itinerary was not so appealing to us.

On 9/21/2024 at 10:25 AM, PeterWW said:

I am going to be on the Bolette too, starting 6 January 2025 so looking forward to it immensely. I was just wondering, based on your experience from Borealis previously, what (if any) special events can one expect to take place during the course of the full world voyage? Many thanks.

I expect there  will be some sort of celebration when we cross the date line. On Borealis an area at the front of the ship was opened as a viewing area with drinks as we sailed through the Panama canal. Maybe they will do that as we sail past Pitcairn island and other areas of interest on our voyagr. We had a lot of three nights. Think we will find out what we are having in October so we have time to gather outfits to wear. Some will relate to the ports we are visiting as well as tnigs like masquerade, 1920s, black and white etc. They are entirely optional as to whether you dress up it not.

We are really looking forward to the cruise. Lots of new ports for us. We have booked a few excursions but prefer to do our own thing where we can. Gave you booked any yet?

2 hours ago, ann141 said:

Welcome! Hopefully you will be able to book some excursions in a day or two though some of the more popular ones are sold out. There is a roll call for this cruise 

Thank you   I couldn't see the roll call. I will have another look.  We were supposed to be going to Brazil and Carribean but had to cancel because of the yellow fever situation.  There wasn't a lot of options to choose from as a replacement so have opted for this one.  The itinerary does look good but Ventura isn't our favourite ship 

We booked this  cruise today. Can't access excursions yet

6 hours ago, Eurovisionfan said:

We were on a lowly P&O ship, but it shows that whatever you pay doesn't stop the weather interfering with plans!!

We have enjoyed a fair few cruises on P&O but not since before covid.  By what I have been reading they are not as good as they used to be.

9 minutes ago, Eurovisionfan said:

We're on the same cruise. It was an offer too good to miss. We've been to many of the ports, including Neum, Saranda and Kotor which we've done on land based holidays to Dubrovnik/Corfu, but not Venice (we ended up in Trieste because of fog) or Split (always been on our list). It'll be the second longest cruise we've done (we were on the Marco Polo to Canada in 2019 for 30 days).

We also ended up in Trieste instead of Venice because of fog when we sailed on Cunard Queen Victoria.  We had to fly home from Bergamot. Hope we have no fog this time!

23 minutes ago, Britboys said:

If they did half price for solos I might get interested...

I think the offer was no supplement for solos. I agree it seems very unfair for anyone traveling alone 

12 minutes ago, ann141 said:

I have set up a roll call for this cruise which you are welcome to join 

Thank you

23 minutes ago, tring said:

 

Quite a bit of disturbance then.  The bath problem is likely that you booked fairly soon after those ships went on sale and a lot of cabins did have baths.  Some (quite a lot from what I remember) were subsequently changed to decent sized walk in showers and the deck plans were changed.  I do think though that they should have passed that information on to people who were booked in those cabins.  Yes, the back of any ship is something to be wary of, especially if on a lower deck.  I have known Fred move saver fare passengers from the back, often only a few cabins further forward, but enough to keep each of them a little bit happier which was perhaps a good plan for Fred.  We very rarely book saver fares, but did for a Baltic cruise last summer and the cabin we had did suffer a lot of noise early mornings - it was a crew area below and crew I spoke to told me that we needed to move as it would be an ongoing problem - shame because the cabin was good otherwise.  Anyway we were moved, so even saver fares are not totally ignored if real problems occur, though of course it may not be possible to move people, so still a risk.  A good idea to tell them pretty nippily if there are problems with a cabin as they will more likely have an alternative that is better at that stage.  There was a Canadian, St Lawrence cruise, on which we had booked a top grade outside on Black Watch having chosen it carefully and there were some problems.  We delayed mentioning it and the only alternative was the same on the other side of the ship, which was a tad better, but still problems as under the self service restaurant.  If we had mentioned it earlier, there would have been better cabins available.

 

I assume you must have been on the around the world in 80 nights, so was hopefully a good cruise, hope you had a good time despite the cabin issues and that everything goes well for your future cruise,

 

Barbara

 

It was  a fabulous cruise once we got our cabin sorted out.  We enjoyed it so much we booked for 2025 RTW whilst on board

2 minutes ago, kendadj said:

Life has to go on even for us!   And of course despite have multiple vaccinations, we don't know if we have responded to them and built up any immunity.  Roll on Evusheld 2

I have paid for 2 private tests as the NHS wouldn't do one.  The first test after my second vaccine showed I had no immunity at all.  The second test after my third vaccine showed I did have some immunity but quite weak.  I then joined a research programme and had another test free of charge which showed I had immunity but not how much.  I had had another jab by then. I caught covid last summer on holiday in Cyprus. I was ill but not as ill as I thought I would be which has somewhat reassured me that I won't die if I catch it again so just trying to carry on and not think about it too much now.

34 minutes ago, tring said:

 

If it is that bad I would be complaining about it.  Fred willove people if an alternative is available.  We had a really bad snorer in a hotel in Dominican Republic.  It was a double door and we could open the one on our side, so we stuffed the gap with lots of spare pillows, which helped a bit.  I hope you managed to get some sleep,

 

Barbara

 

Long story.  Grab a cup of tea!

We had already moved cabins twice so we really didn't want to move again.  Surprisingly I did manage to sleep   The snoring was preferable to the drone of the engine noise in the previous cabin we moved from.

We booked on the fare where you pay to choose your cabin and we picked it carefully for the location and the fact that it had a bath.  When we got on board we found it did not have a bath. Reception on the ship tried to tell us it was sold as a shower only so I rang our travel agent who confirmed we had indeed booked the cabin with a bath.  Had it only been a short cruise I would have let it go but it was 80 nights and I do like a bath.

They said the only cabin we could move to with a bath was at the back of the ship.  That is when we had the engine noise so we move to next to the snorers cabin.  By this time almost a week had gone by and we rely couldn't face moving again even we had been offered another cabin.

We have just booked a cruise on Bolette for next month.  It was such a good offer on the saver fare we decided to take a chance on the cabin allocation as we reasoned it couldn't be any worse than our last experience when we paid to choose. 

The day after we booked we were given our cabin number.  I couldn't believe it was in the same location as the noisy cabin we had on Bolearis!

Now I know you are not supposed to be able to change your cabin on a saver fare but we were still within the 24 hour cancellation period so I rang our travel agent who managed to get FO to give us a different location.  It looks fine with cabins above and below and fairly mid ship so fingers crossed for a quiet cruise.

On 6/26/2023 at 5:06 PM, kendadj said:

My initial thought was that this is not good news for people like myself who are immunocompromised (and have had 7 covid vaccinations) but I guess anyone who has had 2 or 3 doses had them so long ago that in all probability the effectiveness has waned.

 

 

I am in the same situation as you.  7 vaccinations and immunocompromised.  I managed to sail around the world for 80 nights earlier this year on Fred Olsen without catching it. Vaccinations were still required then. We have booked 42 nights on Ambition for January   I am taking a risk, hope it is worth it.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from FO offering 2nd passenger sails free with a choice of 3 cruises in Septemer/October.  We had no intention of booking another cruise at the moment as we have got 42 nights booked with Ambassador for January 2024 and world cruise 2025 on Bolette to look forward to.  However, the offer was too good to miss.  We have chosen A Scenic  Exploration of The Adriatic & Dalmatian Coast.

The other 2 cruises were going to Canada which doesn't really interest us.

7 of the ports will be new to us and we are looking forward to revisiting the others 

Has anyone else taken advantage of the offer?

On 7/25/2023 at 6:42 PM, JoJo1947 said:

Can you hear noise more easily from next door? This is Bolette.

We had a cabin with a connecting door on Borealis.  I could hear our neighbour snoring   I suspected I would have heard them even without the door though.

3 minutes ago, A.C.H said:

It's still very unclear if UK Travel Insurance, the Underwriters, will cover Ambassador cruises. Evidence from Social Media suggests that Nationwide will cover basic cruise cover but not the optional extras such as missed ports etc. You really need to contact the underwriters for clarification.

How would I do that please?

I am very confused by this situation with Nationwide insurance.  We are wanting to booked a cruise on Ambassador Ambition. I rang our insured to clarify whether or not we would be insured and was told no we wouldn't.  Do you think I have I been given the wrong  information?

2 hours ago, Rashers said:

Yorkshire Traveler, following on from our earlier discussion I have now opened a Nationwide Flexi Account and taken advantage of their worldwide insurance for my WTW trip. Thank you very much for your suggested help with this it came in very useful. Hopefully we will get to meet up on the Bolette …..

Regards

Simon

See  you on board!

2 hours ago, teenieleek said:

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.

Yes we did pay extra for over 70 but there is no age limit  

10 hours ago, teenieleek said:

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!

There is no limit with Nationwide.  I hope we are still able to cruise when we reach that age.  We are making the most of it it whilst we are still  able to but you never what the future holds   I expect those frail people enjoy being in the ship rather than being stuck at home.  On our world cruise one lady only got off the ship in one port but she enjoyed the cruise experience on board.

We changed from Lloyds because they wouldn't us to extend the time so best to make sure it is allowed with yours.  

1 hour ago, teenieleek said:

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. 

2 hours ago, Rashers said:

Interestingly we have just booked on the RTW cruise on Bollette, January 25, so hopefully will meet up with you at some point on that cruise. However, since booking we have struggled to find insurance that will cover the length, 106 days and the high cancellation cost are you willing to share any insurance company information with us where you have successfully booked cover. Thanks in anticipation.

We have annual insurance with our Nationwide Flex Plus account.  We pay a monthly fee, think it is about £12 a month.  This includes cover for up to 45 days.  We were able to add on for the extra time, also for age as my husband is over 70, we both have some medical conditions which we also add to the policy.  We also added additional cruise cover.  It wasn't necessary but it wasn't much extra to include missed ports and cabin confinement.  Amazingly we didn't miss any ports but if we had we would have been paid £100 each for each one missed.  The payment for cabin confinement would have been £150 per day.  Thankfully we didn't need that.

All the extra cost about £450 for both of us which is excellent value considering we were quoted £7,000 from some companies.

We did have to change bank our bank from Lloyds but it was a very smooth process  

1 hour ago, twotravellersLondon said:

We got through first time. Really interesting blog, good photos and exceptionally well written and presented.

Pleased you enjoyed reading it.  I did notice a few errors when I got home.  It wasn't easy using my phone and having limited internet access.   If I write one for our 2025 cruise i will take my tablet.

11 hours ago, tring said:

Started reading your blog, but need to come back when I have more time to read more.  Some good pics.  Thanks a lot for sharing it.

 

Can I just mention one thing though, I could not click through to the link above, I think probably because there is not a space before the previous word "blog." so you may want to re post the link. 

 

Not sure why you can't click on the ink.  I have just tried it and no problem.