I do have a soft spot for Fred Olsen’s and think there cruises are lovely – good British cruising with friendly service and a real home from home feel on-board.  I fear though not everyone will agree with me after the cruise line have just agreed to a £280,000 compensation payout for a group settlement for holiday makers who suffered gastric illness on board the Boudicca between October 2009 and  May 2010.

Passengers on board suffered severe symptoms including diarrhea,vomiting and severe stomach cramps. Many people on board who were looking forward to the trip of a lifetime were instead confined to cabins and having to be seen by the nurse. Cruises are unfortunately at risk from suffering with this virus with high contact and huge amounts of passengers on board but with Fred’s being a small line it seems to spread quite easily on board and between this period they seemed to struggle to cope.

I think Freds have done the right thing in offering the compensation as the world of cruising can be a small one and word of mouth soon spreads if people are not happy with a line.  Hopefully this shows clients that Freds take the matter very seriously and want to keep their clients happy and keep a good reputation so clients will return.

The debate of the Norovirus on board is a big one and who to lay blame on is controversial at times. Is it the cruise lines for low levels of hygiene and not enough levels of cleanliness met or is the guests fault for lack of hygiene and washing hands onboard.  My advice would be wherever you go and whatever line you travel with always take full advantage of the hands sanitizes dotted around the ship and try and keep touching hand rails and door handles to a minimum.

Hopefully Freds can move on from this now and look forward to a happy, clean and illness free fleet of ships.