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Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines Ltd.
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Shipping
Founded	1848
Headquarters	Ipswich, United Kingdom
Products	Cruise ships
Parent	Bonheur
Website	www.fredolsencruises.com

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines is a UK-based, Norwegian-owned cruise shipping line with three cruise ships. The company is owned by Bonheur and is headquartered in Ipswich, Suffolk, in the United Kingdom. The company is part of the Fred. Olsen Group.

History

The company originated in Hvitsten, a small town on Oslofjord in Norway, in 1848 by three Olsen brothers, Fredrik Christian, Petter and Andras, who bought their first ships and began an international shipping company. The company is now into the fifth generation of the family and operates various companies skilled within the cruise and passenger shipping trade, as well as aviation, ships' crewing, ship building and offshore industries. The Fred. Olsen group also has business interests in the luxury hotel sector, estate management,^[1] property development and electronics companies.^[2]

In May 2006 Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines announced the purchase of a new vessel, Norwegian Crown, from Norwegian Cruise Line. Following delivery of the vessel in November 2007, she was dry-docked for refurbishment. She was renamed Balmoral and entered service early in 2008. This was followed by a new centre section being added, with new cabins and public rooms, increasing the size from 19,000 GT to 24,000 GT (approx).

In 2018 Fred. Olsen announced that a series of 600-passenger-newbuilts was being planned and they were in negotiations with shipyards, but those newbuilts were never ordered.^[3]

In July 2020, Fred. Olsen bought the former Holland America Line ships Amsterdam and Rotterdam for $37m^[4] and renamed them Bolette and Borealis respectively, to be delivered in September 2020. They replaced the Boudicca and the Black Watch which were retired in August 2020.^[5]^[6]

Fleet

Current fleet

Ship	Built	Entered service with Fred. Olsen	Gross tonnage	Flag	Notes
Balmoral	1988	2007	43,537 GT	Bahamas	former Crown Odyssey; Royal Cruise Line
Borealis	1997	2020	61,849 GT	Bahamas	former Rotterdam; Holland America Line
Bolette	2000	2020	62,735 GT	Bahamas	former Amsterdam; Holland America Line

Former fleet

Ship	Built	Years in service	Tonnage	Notes	Fate
Black Prince	1966	1966–2009	9,499 GRT 11,209 GT	Built as a combination ferry/cruise ship/reefer ship. Rebuilt into a cruise ship in 1987.	Scrapped in October 2013 as Ola Esmeralda.
Blenheim	1970 Upper Clyde Shipbuilders Ltd	1970–1981	10,427 GRT 12,244 GT	Built as a larger version of Black Prince and Black Watch combination ferry/cruise ships. Sold to Scandinavia World Cruises 1981. Burnt out 1984. Rebuilt and continued as Discovery 1.	Scrapped in 1997.
Brabant	2006	2018- 2020	1,566 GT	First river cruise for Fred Olsen. Chartered from Amadeus River Cruises between 2018-2020.	Laid up in Germany.
Black Watch	1972	1996–2020	28,613 GT	Retired in 2020, after Fred. Olsen bought the former Amsterdam and Rotterdam.	Scrapped in Alang, India in 2022.
Boudicca	1973	2005–2020	28,388 GT		Scrapped in Aliağa, Turkey in 2021.
Braemar	1993	2001–2024^[7]	24,344 GT	Retired in 2022,^[8] sold to Villa Vie in 2024

Destinations and cruise holidays

For most of the year, the ships are based in UK ports.

Destinations include Northern Europe, the Baltic, the Mediterranean, the Adriatic, the Canary Islands, the Caribbean, Africa, Canada, the United States and South America^{[citation needed]}

Operations

Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines operates smaller scale cruise ships, ranging in size from 24,000 to 62,000 GT (approx), currently a fleet of three cruise ships, the ambience on board is traditionally British.