Understanding Fred Olsen Cruise Line Cabins & Fares

After your have decided which cruise fare suits your needs, the next decision you will be faced with is which cabin grade you want to go for. You may look at the deckplan with the multitude of cabin grades and the corresponding colours & think where do I start, but don't worry it's not too complex once explained.

Depending on which Fred Olsen ship you're looking at, the options available are pretty much the same across the whole fleet with only a few differences, for example Borealis & Bolette have six different cabin choices compared to Balmoral which only has five.

These cabin grades are broken down into four main cabin grades of Inside, Outside, Balcony & Suites with Single or Solo rooms incorporated in each of these grades. You can see from the below examples on Balmoral & Bolette, it helps to show how the cabins are grouped into categories.

Whichever Fred Olsen holiday you are looking to book, our website always includes deck plans on the dedicated holiday, cabin & ship pages - making it easier for you to make the right choice.

Bolette Cabin Key

Balmoral Cabin Key

The most common question we are asked by our customers, especially those that haven't cruised before, is what is the difference between the cabin/room categories within the cabin/room grades? Simply put, nothing! Fred Olsen, like many other cruise lines, depending on where your cabin/room is located on the ship can determine the cost. It's believed that those cabins located in the center of the ship are the best as they offer less movement whilst the ship is moving.

When explaining it to customers, the easiest way to do it is if you take a ship as a see-saw, the closer you are to the middle the less movement you will feel when the ship is moving, which will result in the higher price of the cabin category.

So for example, using the image above when looking at the Oceanview rooms, the D grade will work out more expensive than the F grade as this grade is located towards the front or back of the ship, where as the D grade is more mid-ships.

A top tip that we always advise customers is to look for rooms that are on the edge of categories. This way you are getting the same cabin but at potentially cheaper cost - as per the example from Balmoral below.

Additionally, when choosing your cabins you may look to avoid those that are located above, below or adjacent to facilities such as the pool decks, entertainment venues, dining venues, lounges & bars as these can generate noise from guests at night and crew when they are preparing for the day ahead. However, if you aren't too fussy or you hardly spend much time in your cabin this is just something to bear in mind.

You can see from the image above that some cabins have symbols and probably wonder what these mean? These are to help indicate differences in specific cabins.

For example it will indicate that these rooms can accommodate 4 guests, along with the bed configuration setup, it could have an obstruction from lifeboats & ships structure or the rooms may only have a shower instead of bath & shower. Don't worry you don't need to remember these are as they are listed as notes in the brochure as well as in the deck plans on our website.