Documentation

[besberry]

I booked the Borealis 2024 world cruise just over three weeks ago via a TA.  I've had no documentation at all from Fred and they've messed up our dining times.  I know there's a fair length of time before the cruise, but I've never waited this long for documentation.  Is this normal for Fred?  Are they usually this bad?   It's my first cruise with them and I'm afraid I'm not accepting COVID as an excuse, they've had 18 months to get systems in place and working.

[July morning]

I've booked four (at different times two of them this year) Fred Olsen cruises and gotten documentation immediately, perhaps it's your travel agent that you need to speak to

[tring]

1 hour ago, besberry said:

I booked the Borealis 2024 world cruise just over three weeks ago via a TA.  I've had no documentation at all from Fred and they've messed up our dining times.  I know there's a fair length of time before the cruise, but I've never waited this long for documentation.  Is this normal for Fred?  Are they usually this bad?   It's my first cruise with them and I'm afraid I'm not accepting COVID as an excuse, they've had 18 months to get systems in place and working.

 

If you use an agent, all paperwork goes to them for forwarding on to you.  We used an agent who has a very bad reputation to book a couple of Fred summer cruises as we had booked a very good offer with them for another cruise line which was cancelled and the agent would have kept some of our cash had we not re booked with them.  Some details did get corrupted on one of those, but looks like it was the agent at fault - no surprise there.  Fred normally very good, but have read somewhere they are about to change to a new computer system, so may be a temporary problem.  I also think they may not be answering phones, but they have done that when there were a lot of refunds to process in the past, though an email I sent at that stage, meant a call from Fred within a couple of hours, so maybe worth trying an email, as unlike other companies, they will normally talk to people who have booked with agents.  Also worth checking on "manage my cruises" if that is working at present - there have been some problems of late - poss same reason.

 

Closing their phone lines did result in some very prompt refunds compared to other companies, so seemed a good idea to me as emails were getting a response.

 

We booked another cruise direct a month or two ago and all went fine.

 

Edited August 21, 2021 by tring

[1160451]

We have just booked the Corinth Canal cruise in April 2023 this afternoon. 
Direct with Fred.

Took 2 hours for paperwork to be emailed and it was on Manage My Cruises within 30 minutes.