Balmoral, Fred Olsen ship sails gracefully out of the Tyne

It is nice to know exactly what your ship, or floating hotel will look like and our video reporter David James Taylor has sat at the Port of Tyne with his camera to give us so exceptional exteriors of these magnificent ships. The Balmoral is a classic ship operated by Fred Olsen and a big favourite of our close friend Marty Kristain of the mega band from the 1970’s, The New Seekers. He can often be found on it as their celebrity guest. Many star guests have their favourite ships. Marty used to share a flat with David Bowie, who hated flying and used Cunard to cross back and forth, but Marty will tell you about that should you have the pleasure of meeting him. Marty also painted the Doris Visits cartoon. But back to one of his and Carole’s favourite ships. The Balmoral was built in 1988 and was then 187m long and 34,242 GT in weight. She’s put on a bit since then and I am not going to say anything Marty! Now the Balmoral is 218 meters long and weighs 43,537 GT. She has 10 passenger decks and can carry 1,778 passengers. All Fred Olsen’s ships start with the letter B as you will know from the history of the family we share on our destination video of Olsofjord, and she was named after the Balmoral estate. They took the ship over in 2007 and had her rebuilt to their very special specifications. It increased her capacity by 186 more passengers and 53 more crew cabins. They also introduced 60 new balconies along the public areas and gave the ship a new life. Her first cruise was on the 13th February 2008 to the Caribbean where she based in Florida for the season. She is the biggest of the ships in the Fred Olsen fleet.

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