 Durant
and Cheryl Imboden'sEurope for Cruisers europeforcruisers.com |
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Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines
ABOVE: Fred. Olsen's Black Watch in Istanbul, Turkey. INSET BELOW: Boudicca at Copenhagen's Langelinie Quay. Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines traces its roots back to 1848, when three Norwegian brothers--Fredrik Christian, Petter, and Andreas Olsen--bought a handful of ships and launched an international shipping company. The family firm's headquarters is still in Oslo, although its passenger subsidiary--Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines--is based in Ipswich, England. The line focuses primarily on the British market but has overseas agents in countries as far away as the United States, South Africa, and Australia.
The company's European voyages include out-of-the-way destinations such as Greenland and Bear Island along with more typical Mediterranean and Baltic ports. In 2010, the Fred. Olsen Web site has Google satellite photo maps to help you find the ports and destinations that interest you. Cruise line's Web site:
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Fred.
Olsen currently has four cruise ships: Black Watch
and its sister ship Boudicca, Braemar, and Balmoral (which
joined the fleet in 2008). All
four vessels are relatively small by
today's standards, with passenger capacities ranging from 804 to 1,350 and
dimensions that are compact enough to allow mooring at downtown quays or in
smaller ports.
