Fred Olsen river charter

FRED Olsen Cruise Lines will foray into river cruise holidays in 2018, this week launching a dedicated river cruise program.

The cruise line will offer a total of 30 departures in Europe between 05 Apr and 03 Nov 2018, which will range from five to 25 nights in length.

Fred Olsen promised to bring its “unique style of destination exploration to the river cruise market” and said it would incorporate a large amount of scenic cruising in daylight hours to its itineraries.

“Fred Olsen river cruises will be underpinned by the usual high standards, award-winning customer service and understated elegance that they have come to expect of our ocean-going offer,” said Justin Stanton, Fred Olsen sales and marketing director.

“We firmly believe that we have crafted the perfect formula to ensure that our new river cruise guests are able to get the most out of their holiday with Fred Olsen,” he said.

The cruise line will charter Amadeus’ Amadeus Princess, which will be renamed Brabant and rebranded to Fred Olsen.

Brabant’s 2018 itineraries include Düsseldorf to Amsterdam; Düsseldorf to Nuremberg; Nuremberg to Budapest; Budapest to Hirsova (Bucharest); Düsseldorf to Basel and Hirsova to Düsseldorf.

The 110m-long vessel has four decks and less than 80 rooms and suites, staffed by 40 crew.

Due to Brabant’s small size, Fred Olsen said pax “will enjoy the usual hallmarks of Fred Olsen’s ‘closer’ approach to cruising”, describing the vessel as having the “style, atmosphere and elegance of a country house hotel”.

Bookings open 26 May.