P&O and Fred - your thoughts please

[winningstudio]

Hi

We have sailed with P&O three times now to the med and Norway but we are wondering about the Fred Olsen Cruises.

 

Reasons are we are from Durham and Fred sail from Newcastle which is a lot easier for us, and also the drinks package I have just discovered with Fred is very appealing to us as we do like a drink.

Anyone sailed with both P&O and Fred and could share your thoughts on price, value, food etc?

 

Happy Cruising Everyone :)

[daiB]

Hi

We have sailed with P&O three times now to the med and Norway but we are wondering about the Fred Olsen Cruises.

 

Reasons are we are from Durham and Fred sail from Newcastle which is a lot easier for us, and also the drinks package I have just discovered with Fred is very appealing to us as we do like a drink.

Anyone sailed with both P&O and Fred and could share your thoughts on price, value, food etc?

 

Happy Cruising Everyone :)

 

 

I would try them but no good in my scooter. Never be able to get off and on. Friends have used them and were happy enough.

 

Shame as it would be a very short taxi ride for us.

 

 

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[the english lady]

We started on Thompsons (who also have sailed from Newcastle-we have done it) then went onto Fred, now P and O. Personally do not find Fred so luxurious ..compared to pando..If any one states pando luxurious..joke ..then you have and idea what we thought of Fred, more old fashioned. To get a decent size cabin you are also looking at suite level with suite level prices. On embarkation day nowhere is open to eat until the MDR for the evening meal. no buffet at lunchtime.

Having said the negatives their cruises go to wonderful out of the way places. Very friendly ships as well.

[Purdey16]

We have been on 3 panda cruises and 1 Fred Olsen and we found Fred to be good we had outside cabin which was big enough for us as we do not spend much time in it the food was really nice we had 8.30 dinner setting the waiters were excellent the shows were also good and our cabin steward was excellent the only downside of the cruise I was a little board not much going on during the day also there was some mobility scooters on so they could get around on the ship we were on the Boudicca I hope this helps I'm new to this forum and hope I've replied right but I must say it's been 8years since we sailed panda and just booked a cruise to the Caribbean 2018 on Arcadia which we have not been on been on before

Hi

We have sailed with P&O three times now to the med and Norway but we are wondering about the Fred Olsen Cruises.

 

Reasons are we are from Durham and Fred sail from Newcastle which is a lot easier for us, and also the drinks package I have just discovered with Fred is very appealing to us as we do like a drink.

Anyone sailed with both P&O and Fred and could share your thoughts on price, value, food etc?

 

Happy Cruising Everyone :)

[Cruise Puss]

We've not actually travelled on Fred ourselves, BUT everyone we know who has has nothing but good things to say about them.

 

Why not try them and find out? :)

[annieuk]

We have sailed on both lines. The service on FO is excellent and we found the food to be good - on a par with P&O and the lunchtime buffet is better. However, P&O offer greater choice of eateries, no 24 hour food on Fred, after lunch service there is nothing until tea is served so if you are back late from a tour you have to wait until tea. The cabins are much smaller. We had what was called a Balcony Suite which was actually the size of a P&O balcony cabin. There are not so many offerings of entertainment, no proper theatre on the ships we've been on, just a show lounge.

It all depends what you are looking for. I would consider Fred for a short trip but I don't think I would want to go on anything longer than a week. I can't emphasise how excellent the service is on board Fred but they are older, smaller ships and can't be expected to offer the variety that is available on P&O.

[LondonTowner]

We have also sailed on p and o and Fred. The pluses on Fred are that the ship's are small, so have never had a tender port with them. Personally, have found the speakers on Fred more interesting than po.i also think that the food is slightly better on Fred, but as previously stated, not available so many hours as on po, but that ones the bother us.

 

Fred also have some more unique itineraries. I have limited mobility and found Fred staff a bit more helpful.

 

Having said all that, po have more variety for bars and restaurants and show much more up to date films.

 

The age is a bit older on Fred ships, but that really doesn't bother us.

[tartanexile81]

We were tempted by the amazing itineraries Fred Olsen offers so did a 70 day cruise to South America on Black Watch. We paid a lot of money for a balcony cabin but it was by far the worst cabin we have ever had - it was a narrow corridor shape with fixed single beds, which couldn't go side by side. There was nowhere to sit except on your bed. The balconies had been added as an after thought and stuck out our the Promenade deck and so there was no privacy at all. The ship felt very old-fashioned and closed in. The lack of venues for dining/ drinking / entertainment was also an issue for us so we were really bored in the evenings, although the entertainment staff were very hard. The ship 'died' after dinner.

 

Having said all that, as there were only 500+ people on the ship we found it very friendly on the whole with lots of die-hard Fred fans. There seemed to be a huge amount of repeat bookers. The food was also very good although as I said with very limited options. For example even the buffet was only open at set times during the day so you couldn't just grab a snack when you got back on the ship. Because of the size of the ship we were also able to get to areas larger ships can't and that was a real plus for us, and the whole point of us choosing Fred.

 

Fred also cruises from Rosyth which is very close to us but at present it's Black Watch home-porting there for a couple of months each year and we wouldn't go on her again. However everyone onboard told us that other ships were better (Balmoral?) so we're not saying we'll never cruise with Fred Olsen again.

p.s. A Fred Olsen brochure 2018-19 has just dropped onto my door mat :'):D

[Arachnid]

I have done 3 FO and 3P&O so far and have enjoyed the majority of them. They are two very different experiences, withP&O providing far more varied entertainment and food choices and FO havinga lot more personal interaction with staff and the ability to get into smallerless visited ports without the use of a tender. As stated already you will notget the larger cabins with FO that you get with P&O, FO tend to charge apremium for balcony cabins, however with both companies the cabins were always kept immaculate. Food inthe main dining rooms for both lines was pretty equal, however for 2 birthdaysspent on-board FO the free birthday cake and the singing of ‘Happy Birthday’ bythe wait staff was much enjoyed. I wouldhave no problem travelling on FO again, but I don’t think I could do anythingover 7 nights on any of their current ships due to the limited availability ofcheaper balcony cabins and lack of entertainment variety, but I would definitelyrecommend them for a short trip. TheDrink prices on FO when we travelled was pretty much on par with P&O, but Ibelieve they now do drinks packages which are supposed to be really good value.

[winningstudio]

Many thanks to all of you who replied to my post. Taking everything into consideration I think we will put up with the long journey down to Southampton and stick with P&O, we don't like the idea of small cabins, lack of varied entertainment, 24 hour food availability and smaller ships.

[jake 26]

If you click on 'news' at the top of this page you will see an announcement by Thomson that in summer 2018 they will be using Newcastle as the home port for ex Splendour of the Seas TUI Discovery, which is a beautiful ship about the size of Aurora, and has lots of good sized balcony cabins, good food and entertainment, and an inclusive drinks package. The brochure is released in late April.

We have been with P&O many times but we tried the Discovery last year and really enjoyed her.

I hope this snippet helps.