Post cruise feedback

[Chanbre]

How and when does Fred Olsen ask for feedback after a cruise. We left the Bolette in Southampton last Saturday and have not yet received anything.

 

A feedback postcard was left in our cabin midway through the cruise, but it was seeking to resolve any issues we might have whilst we were onboard.

[tring]

It can be some time after a cruise that a feedback request turns up, two weeks or more for instance.  Having said that, whilst we had feedback requests for our summer cruises, after our more recent cruise on Bolette, late Sept/Oct, we only got more general questionaire which went on at great length asking what activities etc. we like to have on cruises.  So I am not even sure it bore any relevance to our Bolette cruise.

 

If you have strong opinions about your cruise, I suggest a letter sent to Fred's head office could be a good idea.  I also suggest you do a review.  If a review is placed in the review section rather than just posted here, your review would be searchable by prospective passengers for a lot longer than reviews posted on these boards, which will go off the first page relatively soon, so will likely not be seen again by others.  I tend to write reviews for the review section, but then post the link to them here, which alerts people to the content of the review.

 

Hope that helps.

[Chanbre]

Thanks @tring.

[Britboys]

On 11/24/2021 at 9:18 PM, tring said:

...If you have strong opinions about your cruise, I suggest a letter sent to Fred's head office could be a good idea.  I also suggest you do a review.  If a review is placed in the review section rather than just posted here, your review would be searchable by prospective passengers for a lot longer than reviews posted on these boards, which will go off the first page relatively soon, so will likely not be seen again by others.  I tend to write reviews for the review section, but then post the link to them here, which alerts people to the content of the review.

 

Hope that helps.

I'm beginning to think that Fred has made all the Customer Relations team staff redundant. I wrote to both Peter Deer and Fred Olsen Jr on 12th August with feedback on the multiple cancellations I have experienced with them and to date, I have not even had an acknowledgement from them. I have chased twice by telephone (and so know they received my letter) and a third time by email 4 days ago but not a word....

[tring]

57 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I'm beginning to think that Fred has made all the Customer Relations team staff redundant. I wrote to both Peter Deer and Fred Olsen Jr on 12th August with feedback on the multiple cancellations I have experienced with them and to date, I have not even had an acknowledgement from them. I have chased twice by telephone (and so know they received my letter) and a third time by email 4 days ago but not a word....

 

Interesting, true we have heard nothing from Peter Deer for some time, yet his updates did come during the lockdown.  We are due back on Borealis on 7th and will see what digging I can do. 

 

With the new COVID news, I do wonder what will happen to the holiday business worldwide, though in some ways it did seem likely new variants would continue to turn up and could easily be very problematic.  We were just begining to forget about it all and have booked a couple of cruises with another company for 2023/24, which on reflection was pretty daft.  At our age though any hols cannot be kept on hold for that long!

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

Interesting, true we have heard nothing from Peter Deer for some time, yet his updates did come during the lockdown.  We are due back on Borealis on 7th and will see what digging I can do. 

 

With the new COVID news, I do wonder what will happen to the holiday business worldwide, though in some ways it did seem likely new variants would continue to turn up and could easily be very problematic.  We were just begining to forget about it all and have booked a couple of cruises with another company for 2023/24, which on reflection was pretty daft.  At our age though any hols cannot be kept on hold for that long!

As of today, Fred is still selling a 4 night cruise to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, departing next week! Be interesting to see if they change the itinerary before departure...

[tring]

39 minutes ago, Britboys said:

As of today, Fred is still selling a 4 night cruise to Amsterdam and Rotterdam, departing next week! Be interesting to see if they change the itinerary before departure...

 

Yes, though they could still go and have excursions only.  I have given up trying to second guess what will happen with Fred cruises after he was able to go to Iceland in August after late changes and I had been saying he should have ducked out much earlier.  Also, I was amazed when he changed the first port on his Swedish cruise, so he was entering Sweden from Denmark, when if going from the UK, he would have not have been allowed entry at all!  The Swedish cruise even saw passengers able to go ashore independently if I remember correctly.

 

I am sure the holiday companies are well in touch with future ports/countries to be visited and have a reasonable Idea of how far they will be able to bend rules, with port agreement.  Regards our Canaries cruise in December I would not be at all surprised if we are restricted to tours only, rather than the current allowed ashore independently rules and I have been thinking that for a while.  We will see, but we will be spending a lot of time on the ship if that is the case, hoping for weather that is good enough to sun bathe.  May be our last chance of sun for a long time to come.

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by tring

[rkacruiser]

7 hours ago, Britboys said:

I'm beginning to think that Fred has made all the Customer Relations team staff redundant. I wrote to both Peter Deer and Fred Olsen Jr on 12th August with feedback on the multiple cancellations I have experienced with them and to date, I have not even had an acknowledgement from them. I have chased twice by telephone (and so know they received my letter) and a third time by email 4 days ago but not a word....

 

As a FYI of my experiences in trying to contact specific cruise line executives in the United States, I have found it to be effective of sending a snail mail letter, Certified, Return Receipt Requested by our USPS.  Addressed to the specific Executive, the Return Receipt never has that person's signature (someone else's signature appears), but, each time I have done this--and it has not been more than 2-3 times--a personal snail mail letter was received by me from the Executive addressing the issue that caused me to send the letter.  A positive difference made?  Yes, those letters had an impact.  For awhile.  

 

Know nothing about the postal system in the U.K., but, if such an option is available for you, you might want to consider it.  

[Britboys]

7 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

As a FYI of my experiences in trying to contact specific cruise line executives in the United States, I have found it to be effective of sending a snail mail letter, Certified, Return Receipt Requested by our USPS.  Addressed to the specific Executive, the Return Receipt never has that person's signature (someone else's signature appears), but, each time I have done this--and it has not been more than 2-3 times--a personal snail mail letter was received by me from the Executive addressing the issue that caused me to send the letter.  A positive difference made?  Yes, those letters had an impact.  For awhile.  

 

Know nothing about the postal system in the U.K., but, if such an option is available for you, you might want to consider it.  

I did post a letter snail-mail on what we call here 'signed-for delivery', to prove that it reached them. Sadly however I am still awaiting a formal  acknowledgement of any description...

[rkacruiser]

6 minutes ago, Britboys said:

I did post a letter snail-mail on what we call here 'signed-for delivery', to prove that it reached them. Sadly however I am still awaiting a formal  acknowledgement of any description...

 

That's unfortunate.  The responses took a short period of time for me to receive them.  And, honestly, I was appreciative when I did receive them.  

 

Is Fred. Olsen privately or publicly held?  Maybe that makes a difference in the response one receives.  I am a shareholder of CCL (the Executives of the Company to whom I have written) and I identify myself as such.  

[Britboys]

36 minutes ago, rkacruiser said:

 

That's unfortunate.  The responses took a short period of time for me to receive them.  And, honestly, I was appreciative when I did receive them.  

 

Is Fred. Olsen privately or publicly held?  Maybe that makes a difference in the response one receives.  I am a shareholder of CCL (the Executives of the Company to whom I have written) and I identify myself as such.  

Not sure about the shareholding position. The cruise line is a small part of the Fred Olsen group, which is a largely family-owned company, now in its fifth Olsen generation.

 

Tbh, I doubt being a Carnival Shareholder really cuts much ice, there must be millions of us internationally...  I certainly don't think my Carnival UK shares would make the Cunard or P&O CEO's quake if I wrote to them.

[rkacruiser]

1 hour ago, Britboys said:

I doubt being a Carnival Shareholder really cuts much ice, there must be millions of us internationally...  I certainly don't think my Carnival UK shares would make the Cunard or P&O CEO's quake if I wrote to them.

 

Agree.  My name is not Micky Arison or any member of the Arison family.  But, in the years that I have been able to live on this planet, I have learned that it's best to use whatever "connections, etc." that one has for one's advantage.  There is no harm in trying to do so.  

Edited November 27, 2021 by rkacruiser

[ighten]

IN answer to the original question we received our email 4 weeks after disembarking

[Chanbre]

Have just received an email from Fred Olsen asking "how was your cruise" and wanting "to hear your thoughts". This arrived about 9.5 days after we left the ship.

[Coravel]

The Amsterdam cruise went ahead as scheduled and everyone was allowed onshore to do their own thing or take booked excursions.  There were lots of noisy youngsters on board - mainly Olsen employees from Ipswich apparently.  We tagged the four nighter on to the cruise to the Canaries that sailed on November 20th.  We didn't miss any of the ports, not even La Palma and the captain took us to the back of the island after dark to watch the volcano.   We could see the red hot lava flowing down the side of the volcano and light up the sky.  I must admit we hadn't prepared ourselves for the terrible smell of noxious gas emanating from the eruption.  Also we were removing volcanic dust from our eyes for two days.  

 

The Bollette is more upmarket than other ships we've travelled on but we were disappointed with the quality of the food in the main restaurant.  After the first day, apart from dinner in the evening we ate all our meals in the self service View restaurant or of Colours and Tastes Asian restaurant which was far better.  

 

During the 16 nights we had to take four covid tests and temperatures taken each time we returned to the ship.  

[rkacruiser]

5 minutes ago, Coravel said:

We didn't miss any of the ports, not even La Palma and the captain took us to the back of the island after dark to watch the volcano.   We could see the red hot lava flowing down the side of the volcano and light up the sky. 

 

Many years ago, while sailing on a Hawaii cruise, our Captain took us around the area of Hawaii (the Big Island) to view the eruption of Kilauea.  Memorable; no memory of obnoxious gas odors or volcanic dust, however.  

[tring]

On 12/9/2021 at 9:34 PM, Coravel said:

The Amsterdam cruise went ahead as scheduled and everyone was allowed onshore to do their own thing or take booked excursions.  There were lots of noisy youngsters on board - mainly Olsen employees from Ipswich apparently.  We tagged the four nighter on to the cruise to the Canaries that sailed on November 20th.  We didn't miss any of the ports, not even La Palma and the captain took us to the back of the island after dark to watch the volcano.   We could see the red hot lava flowing down the side of the volcano and light up the sky.  I must admit we hadn't prepared ourselves for the terrible smell of noxious gas emanating from the eruption.  Also we were removing volcanic dust from our eyes for two days.  

 

The Bollette is more upmarket than other ships we've travelled on but we were disappointed with the quality of the food in the main restaurant.  After the first day, apart from dinner in the evening we ate all our meals in the self service View restaurant or of Colours and Tastes Asian restaurant which was far better.  

 

During the 16 nights we had to take four covid tests and temperatures taken each time we returned to the ship.  

 

Thanks for feedback.  We disembarked Borealis this morning and found food better than we had on Bolette, but not quite up to the ore covid standard.  We "saw" the volcanic area of La Palma about 5 or 6 days ago and little activity at all.  We could see a short bright red stripe going down the side of the island, which was hot lava, but nothing else at all, so certainly no obvious pollution.

[tring]

On 12/9/2021 at 9:34 PM, Coravel said:

 There were lots of noisy youngsters on board - mainly Olsen employees from Ipswich apparently. 

 

I do not know about your specific cruise, but we were talking to a member of staff on Borealis last week who mentioned a large number of the Olden Family had been on the ship (not sure when).  They apparently included Fred Snr.,  Annette Olsen and other family members, including some children.

 

Having re read your comment, I am thinking the, 'youngsters', may have been young adults rather than children, hence may have been staff members gaining first hand experience of the ships and sailing experience on the ships, which could differ a lot to the usual Fred passengers, so perhaps tend to be party animals.

[Coravel]

I wouldn't recognise Fred Snr or  Annette Olsen but the people in charge of the group had a suite on deck 8 and the youngsters who were in their early 20's were consigned to deck 2.  The senior person dined with the captain and other officers in the View for  the first lunch of the Amsterdam cruise, and as we were sat at the next table we overheard them discussing the future of the Balmoral and Braemar.  But  sat in a noisy restaurant is not the best place for eavesdropping so I would not wish to speculate too much.  It was a bit like listening to Radio Luxembourg back in thee day when it was the only source of decent music.  The youngsters were family members.

12 minutes ago, tring said:

Fred

adults

[tring]

3 hours ago, Coravel said:

I wouldn't recognise Fred Snr or  Annette Olsen but the people in charge of the group had a suite on deck 8 and the youngsters who were in their early 20's were consigned to deck 2.  The senior person dined with the captain and other officers in the View for  the first lunch of the Amsterdam cruise, and as we were sat at the next table we overheard them discussing the future of the Balmoral and Braemar.  But  sat in a noisy restaurant is not the best place for eavesdropping so I would not wish to speculate too much.  It was a bit like listening to Radio Luxembourg back in thee day when it was the only source of decent music.  The youngsters were family members.

adults

 

Interesting, thank you for the information.

 

As you probably know, Fred Jnr is chair of the cruise line and the overall company (a much bigger affair) was owned by his Dad, Fred Snr., though the chair of the overall company board is now Fred Jnr's older sister, Anette.  A few years back Annette and her board were not thought to be supportive of the cruise line as it "Did not make enough money" (I got that first hand from a Fred Captain).  Passengers who have been cruising with Fred  for longer than me have said that Fred Snr has always had a soft spot for the cruise line, but that was only hearsay on my part.  Some aspects of the Olsen company were discussed on the thread "Designed the Olsen Way", where I added some links including the following which include pictures:-

 

https://fortune.com/2015/03/07/fred-olsen/ 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anette_S._Olsen

 

Fred Jnr was apparently on Bolette for a few days recently, leaving in Tenerife where he lives the day before we arrived on Borealis about a week ago.  He also visited Borealis the day we were in Tenerife (apparently he does visit the ships often when they are there).  We had been talking to a senior officer who said Fred was pleased with his new aquisitions.  They had a string of flags out over the ship when he was on board and we were in the Crow's nest when the flags were taken down, so we then looked down to the keyside and saw him get into a Porsche SUV which was parked by the ship.

 

Interesting Balmoral and Braemar where discussed as just last night a Captain waiter told us that he had Friends working on Balmoral who were currently taxed with ordering supplies ready for the re sail, though he did say they need the bookings before the sailing is confirmed.  A few days ago another member of crew had told us Fred was advertising for staff in The Philippines as well so seems some cogs are being at least oiled, though I was not previously convinced Balmoral and/or Braemar would sail given we has earlier on our cruise we had been told that the current cruises were still not turning a profit (though loosing less than they were when they were still mothballed). 

 

We understand all the refurb and many other decisions are "owner decisions", so it does seem likely it was Olsen family members who were on the ship with you as head office staff alone would have very little to do with big decisions.  I see the first Balmoral cruise currently planned is mid March, so a decision regards that sailing would need to be made very soon as it is usually said it takes three months to get a ship up and running.  Balmoral cabins have been in use so far as it has been used as a quarantine ship for staff arriving from their home countries, though staff have now said it is possible for the new staff to have two vaccinations  before leaving their home countries (e,g, Philippines, India Thailand) and hopefully as we go into next summer covid may again begin to become less of an issue, but we shall see.  Personally we would like to see both of the smaller ships commence sailing as it is only those ships that can do the really good itineraries that we like, but so much is uncertain in theses days.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Edited December 21, 2021 by tring

[Coravel]

Many thanks for that information Barbara.  We are booked on the Black Sea cruise next October.. It was previously  planned for September 2020 on the Boudica but now the cruise has been transferred to the Balmoral.  Since the itinerary includes ports in the Ukraine and Russia who may be at war with each other very soon, I would not be surprised if they are considering their position.  Of course they could simply alter the itinerary,  

[marylizcat]

On 12/9/2021 at 9:34 PM, Coravel said:

 

During the 16 nights we had to take four covid tests and temperatures taken each time we returned to the ship.  

Ii wondered if you could give me any more information about these tests. Were they for the benefit of the ship or the ports of call, if you see what I mean? Were they nasal swab lateral flow tests? Were they free of charge?

[tring]

1 hour ago, marylizcat said:

Ii wondered if you could give me any more information about these tests. Were they for the benefit of the ship or the ports of call, if you see what I mean? Were they nasal swab lateral flow tests? Were they free of charge?

 

On our recent two week cruise we had three lft's.  One pre cruise, one mid cruise which Fred does on longer cruises and covers the cost for that.  We then needed to pay £10 for the lft within two days of our return as needed by the Gov., But that charge was for a doctor's certificate to say we tested negative.according to Fred.

 

From what I understand Coravel did a short cruise as a B2B, so would also have been tested on the turn around day, making four tests in all.  All very  smoothly organised.

[Coravel]

They were all lateral flow tests which we had to take either before check-in or on sea days.  The ones we had to take on the ship were carried out in large groups in an empty restaurant and it was very efficient.  All were done for the ship's benefit and were free of charge.  One of the tests was because we were doing a back to back so had to return to Southampton where we were not allowed to disembark until the 2nd cruise was completed. 

[Chanbre]

In November the temperature test was done when sea-cards were scanned whenever we boarded the ship. One of the crew pointed a hand-held device at the side of our necks.