Braemar - Cancelled Med Cruise

Hello to all - first post.

Booked our 3rd cruise on the Braemar last November for departure 20th July 2012 Dover.

Just had a letter 20th Feb, cancelling cruise due to the Olympics ! (didn't know they had an event for cruise ships!)

By way of compensation have been offered £250 on board spend on the Black Watch (we had £150 on the Braemar) - and a upgraded cabin!

We booked a suite on the Braemar & have been offered a Balcony Cabin on the BW - some upgrade !

'Management' is now taking matter up with FO Cruise director (poor guy).

So not sure how we will get on as unable to rearrange dates due to other commitments (small things like work!).

F O have always been very good with us (even when the Braemar pool emptied itself into our cabin!:D), but this just seems a very shabby way of treating customers.

Presume they can get more revenue with less costs using it as a floating Hotel.

Any one else having probs with F.O over this?

We do not like the bigger vessels and prefer to sail from UK ports if possible - any recomendations :confused: ??

(Looked at Seaborn - v good but need to fly)

Thanks

Henry

We have been told today that our cruise to the Northern Cape, the 5th July, on the Braemar has been brought forward a week but our TA didn't go into details as to why.

This is what she is being used for ,Fred., as usual has an eye to making a quick buck http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/captain-greybeard/2012/02/exclusive-cruise-ship-chartered-to-provide-olympics-accommodation.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+captain-greybeard+%28Captain+Greybeard+-+Travel+Advice+-+Mirror.co.uk%29

:)

This is a terrible way to treat passengers.:mad: People have been looking forward to their holiday for quite some time.:(

come on fred this is a one off ,have you no thought for your loyal band of passangers who keep your cruise line afloat by sailing with you year in year out.

well same old story£££££ first joe public bottom of the pile.

Thought FO was a touch different to the others.

Just goes to show that my motto of "never trust anybody or anything" keeps coming back to haunt me.

Shame on you Fred Olsen.

Problem is it it seems that all cruise lines are just as "money grabbers" as each other.

The main the question though is who is going to look after the Racing Dolphin's for the 3 weeks ?

Keep the faith, could be worse we could have to cruise with Ocean Village:) Only a joke......

Take it easy.....

I do despair of Fred at times. How much goodwill has been lost through all the cancelled holidays? How many of these have never cruised with Fred before - and probably never will now. No doubt there were good commercial reasons involved but full compensation should have been offered to those affected for throwing their plans into disarray.

Unless I am missing something I can find no mention of this major change to the Braemar schedule on the news section of their web site, which suggests to me that they are not especially proud of this action.

Thought FO was a touch different to the others.

 

Just goes to show that my motto of "never trust anybody or anything" keeps coming back to haunt me.

 

Shame on you Fred Olsen.

 

Take it easy.....

So Fred Olsen have cancelled their passenger's charter in favour of a more lucrative commercial charter. Damn the Olympics. Many people just booked on the Braemar to get away from them.

I'm disgusted - there's nothing more to say!

How much goodwill has been lost through all the cancelled holidays?

I don't know but I bet FOCL does.

Simply put, there is a downside to the company of losing existing clients (a few possibly permanently) but I am sure that they will have put a £ figure on this.

The upside is obvious and in this case greater than the downside.

Like all other businesses, FOCL is not a charity or a benevolent organisation. If they believe that they can improve returns they will.

.

I'm disgusted - there's nothing more to say!

I'm quoting myself here because I've been thinking about this and do have something more to say:mad:

What effect will this have on the staff that rely on generous customer tips?

What is FOCL putting in place to 'make up' this loss of earnings for these employees for this period of time?

How does FOCL explain the existence of only 1 'sunshine' cruise (L1213 - with M1217 being cancelled completely) during the school summer holiday period this year?

What a way to find out too - go to the website to book (M1217) and find out that it's no longer there along with others and have to come here to find out what's going on.

Come on FOCL we know you read these message boards- a better explanation is needed please.

I too am disgusted in Fo for this, there target market is the 55plus market, and they are the ones with liquid assets, and can be very very loyal customers, I wonder how many loyal customers Fred will lose with this behaviour.

really feel for those that have booked or intended to book like my husband and I, I work in schools and am off during school holidays only so now FO is out for me.

I work in schools and am off during school holidays only so now FO is out for me.

We received a letter on the 20th February telling us our mini cruise to Holland and Belgium had been cancelled and our norwegian cruise had been moved.

FO had re-booked us onto the rescheduled Norway cruise on 29th August which although not brilliant for us is ok but the mini cruise that we were doing back to back with the Norway trip was now on Balmoral out of Southampton and there was a 1 day gap between them.

The mini cruise also now only went to Antwerp for 2 nights and back again.

We have re-booked to go on a mini cruise at the beginning of May instead, we were looking forward to having the 2 cruises together but not to be. We have been offered £75 Cabin credit for the 3 night cruise and £200 for the longer one. Considering we are spending over £6000 on these 2 trips i feel that giving us 4.2% as compensation is rather mean.

I don't know but I bet FOCL does.

 

Simply put, there is a downside to the company of losing existing clients (a few possibly permanently) but I am sure that they will have put a £ figure on this.

 

The upside is obvious and in this case greater than the downside.

 

Like all other businesses, FOCL is not a charity or a benevolent organisation. If they believe that they can improve returns they will.

 

.

Yes of course they have to maximise returns, but it may well be that by being more generous now - perhaps a discount off a future cruise - they can retain business in the longer term which might otherwise be lost. And they would be viewed in a better light.

we booked in November for our first cruise on Braemar, after reading new in Daily Mirror, we have cancelled. We no longer wish to sail with Fred Olsen ever. Have booked with Princess cruises.

Well at least you we told your holiday was cancelled through the proper channels. We only found out through the Daily Mirror, after my brother-in-law read it. Even our TA didn't know till I phoned her. Good start to our first cruise. :~(