Questions re Fred Olsen Line & Balmoral

[Parapara]

We are considering taking a cruise on the Balmoral next year and I have been looking at the Fred Olsen website and here. How does this ship/ shipping line compare with the Orient Line and the Marco Polo? We travelled on her last year and loved it. We had thought we would travel on her again but she is unfortunately sold. We like a 'destination'type cruise ship. The Marco Polo had very good lecturers on board who gave lectures about ports of call, geology and history of areas we were to visit. Do Fred Olsen ships have have these? Does the ship organise good shore excursions? The few examples on their website give sketchy outlines and seem expensive. Obviously it is hard to tell what the revamped Balmoral will be like at this stage and details are sketchy. I think I saw on this board that it might be hard to tell what cabin you are booking- does anyone know if this is correct?

Any information to help us decide whether to book or not would be great.

Thanks:)

[sparkieplug24]

Havent been on the other two lines so cant comment on these.

 

However I have been on several cruises and the one we had on Fred BP in April was probably the second best cruise we have been on it would have been first if we had not been to St Petersburg last year.

 

The Port lecturer on board the BP was good and gave very informative talks on all ports outlining not only what trips there were on offer but lots of interesting things about the ports and what they had to offer including some history and main points of interest.

 

We did a few shore excursion when on this trip all were found to be very good and although at time of booking some did seem a tad expensive they were more than worth the money and everyone we spoke to thought the same. Nearer the time of departure Fred send out a book on excursion outlining in more detail about ports and excursions. We did a canaries cruise from Greenock what cruise were you thinking of doing???

 

I think the Balmoral looks like a fantastic ship and if she sailed from a bit further north I would definately consider a cruise on her.

 

Also Fred is more formal than many newer cruise lines with Black tie and cocktail dresses on formal nights and Gentle wearing jacket and ties on informal nights.

 

Hope this helps

 

Donna

[Miketap]

I would not compare Fred Olsen to Marco Polo or the late-lamented Swan Hellenic in terms of intellectual stimulation from lecturers. They are much more a 'normal' cruise line with a distinctly British slant. I see with Balmoral they are trying to break into the US market in a serious way; it will be interesting to see if it works.

But both Marco Polo and Swan Hellenic return in 2008. Marco Polo was sold to a Greek outfit, but has been chartered by Transocean for a series of cruises from London Tilbury in summer 2008. They say they will continue the Marco Polo tradition, but who knows what their style will be. Look at

http://www.transoceancruises.co.uk

Swan Hellenic are reborn with the original Minerva as part of a deal between Lord Sterling, who bought the name and goodwill, and All Leisure Group (operators of DISCOVERY) who own the ship. She will sail from Dover from May, later moving to the Mediterranean, and then to the Antarctic in November-February.

Mike

[Parapara]

Thank you very much for the information Donna and Mike. The cruise we are looking at is one from Rome to Dover in June next year. Being from NZ we look for a cruise that is a reasonable length and destination intensive and the Marco Polo fitted the bill very well. The Balmoral seems to be being advertised in NZ at present so perhaps they are looking to this part of the world as well as the US for passengers.

Jean

[NHBob]

Also Fred is more formal than many newer cruise lines with Black tie and cocktail dresses on formal nights and Gentle wearing jacket and ties on informal nights.

 

Donna

 

Great!! This would appear to be a similar dress standard to Cunard's QE2 and the now departed Caronia. I'm considering Fred. Olsen for 2008, and enjoy a formal ship. One of my continuing complaints about about Holland America is the significant relaxation in dress code, and almost total lack of enforcement of the minimal code they do have (formal just means jacket and tie for men).

 

For those who enjoy traditional dance music, I've recently learned that the "Music of Your Life" organization is sponsoring two Caribbean cruises, on Balmoral, 3 March and 13 March 2008, featuring Buddy Morrow and the Tommy Dorsey 7. I've done two transatlantics with the Buddy and the full Dorsey Band, in my opinion one of the two best big bands afloat (the other being the Harry James band). So, I expect that the smaller group will be equally talented. For you youngsters out there (younger than my 75 years) Buddy Morrow is one of the last of the great big band musicians, now 86 or 87 but still going strong. He is best known for his big seller "Night Train", which the band closes with every night. Haven't seen this mentioned on the Olsen website yet, but I have this info directly from Music of Your Life.

[Angie1961]

We are on the Venice to Dover next June can't wait to try our Balmoral.

To be honest this New Year will be the first time on FO for us, we are going on a party cruise on BP, really looking forward to that one.:)

 

Angie

x

[Guest Anorak33]

Parapara - I would certainly expect any FO ship to exceed your experience on Marco Polo as far as comfort cleanliness and dining is concerned.

We went once on MP several years ago and this was the only cruise I ever lost weight on.

Our cabin was smelly, we had the entertainers next door who played dvd's loudly at various times of the day and night - no one would do anything about it - the walls were so thin that I think if they had sneezed we would have caught their cold - the porthole would open but it was too dangerous as the sealevel was often above the glass level - and the food was not good at all.

We didn't find the crew in a happy state, there seemed to be lots of problems on board at that time. Anyway now its sold and maybe destined for happier times.

MP was owned by NCL in a roundabout manner, we like their other ships and have just given up on hopes of getting a reasonable price on the Braemar transatlantic and have booked NCL on the same date in Oct. On there we get a full penthouse suite for what an inside would have cost on Braemar - more or less.

Of course it's less formal - in fact its not formal at all on NCL but that saves weight on air travel which is a good thing, and makes a change. The average age is much less on NCL, and although as we have been on Braemar many times and are friendly with crew and repeat passengers the NCL ships are more fun really.

I guess if you are pretty staid and from a previous era then FO is just what you are looking for, we are not permanently at that stage yet but it makes a nice change once in a while.

[stephen@stoneyard.co.uk]

We cruised on Boudicca to the Artic. The port lecturers were just a sales pitch for the shore excursions and an instruction to wear layers. Luckily the Master was a local and used the public address system to give detailed information (and play Greig) as we cruised. He was the highlight of the cruise for us.

 

The other three onboard speakers were excellent but not really directly relevant to our itinerary. They were fascinating but did not add to our understanding of the area we were cruising.

 

We only did one excursion on the entire cruise. It is difficult to travel outside the town in Longyearbryn independently because of Polar Bears. It was expensive (£55 per person) for half an hour at a visitors centre and half an hour at a husky kennels with coach transport between. We prefer to do our own thing and spend a little longer at fewer places than most tours. We often wait for the coach parties to leave a museum and have it almost to ourselves. We rarely do thing that you cannot walk to from the ship (or shuttle bus). Norway is ideal for us.

 

Saying all this we loved the cruise and would like to book again for 2009.

 

Fred Olsen have Arts Club themed cruises. Some of the themes are subjects like wildlife, history and civilisations. If your cruise was on of those they would have a guest speaker as well as the port lecturer. I would hope the speaker would lecture about the wildlife, history or civilisations in the area of your cruise.

 

Hope this helps, Stephen.

[Parapara]

Thank you Stephen and Anorak 33 for your replies. We have actually decided not to book on the cruise for next year. Your reply, Stephen, re lecturers is helpful and when I looked at the Fred Olsen website for shore excusions I found the choice very limited and suspected that the ship wasn't really for destination oriented passengers. We look for a cruise that is destination intensive with the pleasure of a comfortable bed, good food and good company on board ( the best of both worlds!). I must say that we found the Marco Polo suited us very well when we cruised on her last year and I can't agree with your comments Anorak 33. We would happily have cruised on her again. However, each to their own!