Good News for the Toon !!

Fantastic news for cruise passengers living in the North as Newcastle announce that they will be basing their flagship the Balmoral there from May –August 2016. This means that for those passengers who live in the North East Freds are doubling their capacity offering loyal guests even more choice and a greater number of cruise departures with 11 in total for 2016.

The port of Tyne is in a fantastic position for cruises going over to the increasingly popular Fjords and Baltic’s as it will shave three days of sailing time of the itineraries and gets you into the heart of things a lot quicker.

Balmoral’s cruise season from Newcastle will commence on 21 May 2016, with a five-night ‘Norwegian Festival & Fjords’ cruise. Other departures include a ten-night ‘UK Castles’ sailing, which offers guests the chance to visit Balmoral and Braemar Castles – both of which lend their names to Fred. Olsen ships – and an 11-night ‘Spain, Portugal & Guernsey’ getaway.

I think this will be brilliant news for people in the North who find travelling down to Southampton a bit tricky especially when they have to add a one night stay on beforehand to break up the trip. This will now save them the time and the extra expense.

Fred Olsen’s are a fantastic cruise line to travel with especially if clients are looking for a good traditional cruise line with that familiar British feel and I always think their ships feel like a home from home. It’s all sterling on board as well so you find drinks and purchases are very reasonably priced.

This also means good news for tourism and jobs in Newcastle as the international passenger terminal welcomes around 620,000 passengers each year which in turn generates around £60 million for the North East economy and provides over 2,000 jobs.