Fred To Enter The River Market

Fred Olsen have long been one of my favourite cruise lines, Braemar was the first ship I ever did a ” proper cruise”. When I say proper I mean not a mini cruise or ship visit as it was a 14 night Canary Islands sailing.

In the last couple of years Braemar has been one of the lines ships that have started to do river cruising. Although in reality it is not really totally river cruising as the ships have been sailing from a UK port – Dover or Southampton.

German Waterways sails on Braemar on 13th November this year from Southampton and calls at Flensburg, Lubeck, Hamburg, for a 2 night stay, Bremen and then back to Southampton. This cruise takes in the rivers Elbe and Weser aswell as the Kiel Canal. It is a river cruise but with quite a few days at sea too.

The news last week that Fred Olsen are launching their own real river cruise line for 2018 will, I`m sure, be welcomed by many of their loyal passengers.

The programme will cover the period of April to November 2018 and again in 2019. The ship will be the Amadeus Princess, chartered from Amadeus Luftner cruises, and renamed the Brabant. The Brabant was one of Olsen`s original cruise ships launched in 1926. She was around 2300 tons and carried 70 first class passengers and 30 third  class passengers as well as cargo.

There will be 12 different itineraries ranging from12 to 25 nights on the rivers Rhine, Moselle and Danube. The pricing structure will include cruise, flights and transfers but, initially, not excursions or drinks.

The ship is smaller than most river cruise vessels meaning she will be ablel to berth much closer to the town centres. That is one of the real benefits of river cruising, being able to simply step off the ship and walk into the nearest town or village.

I`n sure this new venture will be very popular but have just one thought. What about all the thousands of regular Fred`s cruisers who love the line because they don`t want, or can`t, fly to start their cruise? This will definitely not be for them .