Deck Plans

[LandC]

Any idea when the full deck plans (ie with the public areas) for Bolette and Borealis will be published?

[Britboys]

Wish I did know, as am very keen to see them. I don't think there is going to be any significant change to the layout from their time with HAL but obviously the names of the venues will change.

[LandC]

We liked the Terrace Balcony cabins on Boudicca and Black Watch.  The nearest equivalent on the “new” ships are the TC cabins on Deck 3.  They have sliding glass doors on to the promenade deck, so strictly speaking they are not balcony cabins.  
 

Before booking, however, I would like to know if any of these cabins are under the kitchen or entertainment areas.
 

 

[comcox]

You should be able to tell something from this information about the two HAL ships Amsterdam (now Bolette) and Rotterdam (now Borealis)--they were considered R-Class ships under HAL: https://halfacts.com/r-class/

 

If you Google Amsterdam and Rotterdam deck plans, you can probably find the old deck plans online that will at least give you locations of kitchens and restaurants which I can't imagine they will move easily, perhaps just rename.

[LandC]

Thank you comcox.  The HAL deck plans show a Pinnacle Grill restaurant and a small theatre/demo kitchen above some of the TC cabins.  It will be interesting to see if Fred decides to keep these.  

[Britboys]

4 minutes ago, LandC said:

Thank you comcox.  The HAL deck plans show a Pinnacle Grill restaurant and a small theatre/demo kitchen above some of the TC cabins.  It will be interesting to see if Fred decides to keep these.  

My guess is that they will. The current fleet has a fine dining restaurant called The Grill, which I would think will be in the Pinnacle Grill area and I have seen in some of the publicity from Fred that the new ships will have cookery demonstrations.

[rkacruiser]

12 hours ago, LandC said:

I would like to know if any of these cabins are under the kitchen or entertainment areas.

 

9 hours ago, LandC said:

The HAL deck plans show a Pinnacle Grill restaurant and a small theatre/demo kitchen above some of the TC cabins

 

9 hours ago, Britboys said:

My guess is that they will. The current fleet has a fine dining restaurant called The Grill, which I would think will be in the Pinnacle Grill area and I have seen in some of the publicity from Fred that the new ships will have cookery demonstrations.

 

On the former HAL ships, the Pinnacle Grill had its own section of the Galley, maybe even its own Galley--I don't accurately remember.  Some noise might be heard in cabins beneath.

 

Cabins under the former Wajang Theater, I would not expect much noise to be produced by that venue.  

[comcox]

The former Wajang Theatre, later Cooking Demo space, was used to show movies originally, and occasionally they would have other events in there.

[tring]

10 hours ago, comcox said:

The former Wajang Theatre, later Cooking Demo space, was used to show movies originally, and occasionally they would have other events in there.

 

Fred has a cinema on Black Watch so agree it will be used as such, so could get noise until mid night or so.  There is also white space by the restaurant on the same deck which I have been told is a kitchen and creates noise on lower prom deck.

 

Those cabins are also quite small and expensive for what they are, so would not be our choice tbh though we did like the terrace balcony cabins.

Edited October 18, 2020 by tring

[rkacruiser]

On 10/18/2020 at 4:16 PM, tring said:

There is also white space by the restaurant on the same deck which I have been told is a kitchen and creates noise on lower prom deck.

 

That would have been the galley for the Pinnacle Grill.  

[electricron]

Everything is relative. The Terrace (Lanai) cabins on deck 3 are the same size as all the Oceanview cabins on deck 3. But their layout is different. While the Oceanview cabins have the beds opposite the door under the window, the Terrace have a glass door there. The Terrace cabins have the beds on one side wall with a very small aisle along the other side wall.

Here are the sizes of the various cabins:

Owners Suite 87 m2

Premiere Suite 36 or 43 m2

Balcony Suite 22-25 m2

Terrace Cabin 20 m2

Oceanview Cabin 20 m2

Inside Cabin 17 m2

 

20 m2 is the same 20 m2 between Terrace and Oceanview Cabins. 
The cruisemapper web site has drawings of the various cabin and suite layouts.

 

Whereas the sizes are the same, the difference in their layouts make them feel different. Terrace cabins are smaller than Balcony suites, but not by that much. 

Edited November 3, 2020 by electricron

[LandC]

Thanks for the information electricron.  I wonder if Fred will do the same as HAL and provide steamer chairs outside for the occupants of the Terrace Cabins?  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  

[rkacruiser]

On 11/7/2020 at 2:22 PM, LandC said:

Thanks for the information electricron.  I wonder if Fred will do the same as HAL and provide steamer chairs outside for the occupants of the Terrace Cabins?  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  

 

Well, if deck chairs are not provided, what's the point of booking such a stateroom?  Oh: "I can step outside my stateroom and am on an open deck."  If that's the reason, why not book an outside stateroom on one of the two lower decks, get some exercise by climbing one or two flights of stairs, and save some money?

[LandC]

My thoughts exactly rkacruiser!

[westerdam]

They finally added more to the deck plans for both ships such as the main lounge being named Neptune and a few other small things. The rest should be updated in the coming weeks.  

[comcox]

For some photos of what the two new ships looked liked when HAL owned them, especially cabins, look here: https://halfacts.com/r-class/

Amsterdam = Bolltte  and Rotterdam = Borealis.

[Britboys]

A few more things now added to the Deck Plans, including Bookmark Café, Oriental Room and Speciality Restaurants. Looks like they may be keeping the name Crows Nest for the Observatory Lounge.

[LandC]

Great news Britboys.  I can’t see the location of the launderettes on Borealis, but no doubt they will be added later.  It would also be helpful to know when the Worldwide 2022/2023 brochure will be launched.  I thought it would be here by now!

[tring]

On 10/18/2020 at 9:16 PM, tring said:

 

Fred has a cinema on Black Watch so agree it will be used as such, so could get noise until mid night or so.  There is also white space by the restaurant on the same deck which I have been told is a kitchen and creates noise on lower prom deck.

 

 

I have seen mention by Fred of cookery demonstrations, so will be using that venue for that at times, but no doubt will also be used as a cinema and other presentation/recital room as well, I would suggest.  Not somewhere we would be booking a cabin near.

 

The deck plans now clearly show a large white space area to the front of and around the rear lifts on deck 4, which must at least include the main kitchen area for the restaurants, as I had previously gleaned.  I have picked up a cabin review from HAL days (3392, I think), complaining of constant noise from what was the dish washing area of the kitchen, directly above.  Made me look at the deck 3 plans and suddenly it fell into place why some of those cabins had been made into Lanai ones, whilst others had not.  The ones under the kitchen and also to the sides of openings (another location we would not have), are still outside cabins, whilst what looks like the better located ones have been converted to Lanai cabins.  The exception being the front and back sections of deck 3, which again will not be popular locations, and where there is sometimes a more restricted view from the ship.  Just all fell into place when I realised that, while previously I just could not get to grips with why HAL had converted some cabins but not others in what looked like a very haphazard manner.

 

Well, sitting in the sun eating lunch in the garden with a bottle of Champagne yesterday, we decided to book a Fred cruise (7th Dec this year from Liverpool).  Prices are a lot less that his other cruises, presumably because it comes back on 21st Dec.  Hence, with our -10% on most of the cost from our cancelled July cruise and our -5% oceans discount, the only well placed grade H inside cabin came to a pretty good price, especially when Fred kindly gave us his drinks package as well.  So that is a trip to the Canaries in, what we always think of, as the worst month of the year and only a 20 mins taxi ride to the terminal from home.  The sea can do what it wants with us in such a central cabin.  We are hopeful it will go ahead as Spain will be keen to regain income from tourism and the COVID numbers have been lower in the Canaries than the mainland throughout, but if not no problem.  We are assuming we will need excursions to go ashore, but a few of those with some time in the sun on deck partaking of Fred's drinks will do us very nicely, thank you Fred.  The champagne was good yesterday as well - at Aldi prices it is worth doing from time to time, but you can spend a lot on spur of the moment booked holidays 🙂

 

Edited April 23 by tring

[Britboys]

2 hours ago, tring said:

 

I have seen mention by Fred of cookery demonstrations, so will be using that venue for that at times, but no doubt will also be used as a cinema and other presentation/recital room as well, I would suggest.  Not somewhere we would be booking a cabin near.

 

The deck plans now clearly show a large white space area to the front of and around the rear lifts on deck 4, which must at least include the main kitchen area for the restaurants, as I had previously gleaned.  I have picked up a cabin review from HAL days (3392, I think), complaining of constant noise from what was the dish washing area of the kitchen, directly above.  Made me look at the deck 3 plans and suddenly it fell into place why some of those cabins had been made into Lanai ones, whilst others had not.  The ones under the kitchen and also to the sides of openings (another location we would not have), are still outside cabins, whilst what looks like the better located ones have been converted to Lanai cabins.  The exception being the front and back sections of deck 3, which again will not be popular locations, and where there is sometimes a more restricted view from the ship.  Just all fell into place when I realised that, while previously I just could not get to grips with why HAL had converted some cabins but not others in what looked like a very haphazard manner.

 

Well, sitting in the sun eating lunch in the garden with a bottle of Champagne yesterday, we decided to book a Fred cruise (7th Dec this year from Liverpool).  Prices are a lot less that his other cruises, presumably because it comes back on 21st Dec.  Hence, with our -10% on most of the cost from our cancelled July cruise and our -5% oceans discount, the only well placed grade H inside cabin came to a pretty good price, especially when Fred kindly gave us his drinks package as well.  So that is a trip to the Canaries in, what we always think of, as the worst month of the year and only a 20 mins taxi ride to the terminal from home.  The sea can do what it wants with us in such a central cabin.  We are hopeful it will go ahead as Spain will be keen to regain income from tourism and the COVID numbers have been lower in the Canaries than the mainland throughout, but if not no problem.  We are assuming we will need excursions to go ashore, but a few of those with some time in the sun on deck partaking of Fred's drinks will do us very nicely, thank you Fred.  The champagne was good yesterday as well - at Aldi prices it is worth doing from time to time, but you can spend a lot on spur of the moment booked holidays 🙂

 

That's it, blame it on the bubbly Barbara 😂. What a civilised way to book a cruise though...

[tring]

14 hours ago, LandC said:

It would also be helpful to know when the Worldwide 2022/2023 brochure will be launched.  I thought it would be here by now!

 

Not so sure about brochures as some companies are not producing them just yet, but the cruises until spring 2023 were published at the beginning of March and have been on Fred's website since then.  The one exception is Bolette as she does not seem to have anything after her Christmas cruise for 2022, which is a 14 nighter departing 22nd December.  Fred normally has two ships going off to far flung places, sold as world cruises, but often in sections as well, (Boudicca used to have sections of 14 nights upwards), but perhaps Fred is holding fire on that sort of thing to see how the pandemic goes and where it may (or may not) be possible to sail that sort of itinerary.  TBH I would be surprised if the world cruise program for early 2022 goes ahead completely as planned, so he may leave any plans for early 2023, thinking he could transfer some cruising from 2022 if needed, letting the booked passengers for those have first call on the following year's cruise(s).   Borealis is off on an "Around the World in 80 Days", leaving on 21st February 2023.  Braemar is in the Caribbean (as usual), and Balmoral sailing from the UK.

 

Apart from an itinerary for Bolette for early 2023, I would not expect any other wide scale cruise releases until early March next year, when the cruises from spring '23 to spring '24 would be due out, though Fred does have a habit of releasing the odd cruise to an unusual destination early with a big marketing flurry.  Let me know if you have problems with Fred's website - I could give you a link or two.

 

Regards timing of a brochure, if you email Fred asking about it, he is tending to reply pretty quickly at present.  I do like the brochures to flit through myself.

 

Edited April 23 by tring

[LandC]

Many thanks for your reply tring.  I also like to flick through a brochure!  I have asked Fred about the launch of the Worldwide 2022/2023 brochure twice now.  Originally due to launch in April, this was then changed to “summer” 2021.  I can see the reasoning behind this, as he will want to include the complete deck plans, and is probably also waiting for government advice regarding visiting some countries, which may not be available until June.  
 

Like you, I’m wondering if the longer itineraries departing early 2022 may need to change, given the Covid situation in some of those countries.  
 

We would like to book again with Fred, but we have a cruise booked with another line in the autumn, so will wait until we find out if that is going ahead first, as if it is cancelled we will probably move our deposit to another cruise later in the year.  I hope the UK sailings are successful this summer -  it will be interesting to read the reviews of Fred’s new ships!

 

[tring]

1 hour ago, LandC said:

Many thanks for your reply tring.  I also like to flick through a brochure!  I have asked Fred about the launch of the Worldwide 2022/2023 brochure twice now.  Originally due to launch in April, this was then changed to “summer” 2021.  I can see the reasoning behind this, as he will want to include the complete deck plans, and is probably also waiting for government advice regarding visiting some countries, which may not be available until June.  
 

Like you, I’m wondering if the longer itineraries departing early 2022 may need to change, given the Covid situation in some of those countries.  
 

We would like to book again with Fred, but we have a cruise booked with another line in the autumn, so will wait until we find out if that is going ahead first, as if it is cancelled we will probably move our deposit to another cruise later in the year.  I hope the UK sailings are successful this summer -  it will be interesting to read the reviews of Fred’s new ships!

 

 

Agreed.

 

You may, (or may not) be aware he has pulled the odd cruise from the late summer/autumn sailings to places which are less likely to have a realisitic chance of sailing or possibly because a longer than usual itinerary.  They appear to have been replaced with four new cruises, and he sent emails out advertising an Oceans priority launch a few days ago (which you may have received) - they are probably on full sale by now.  So his itineraries are all a bit dynamic at present, hence even preparing the final draft for a brochure is not really a goer.

 

Hopefully by the time it is published the world will have a clearer future - oh, is that a pig I saw flying past?

 

Barbara