When the top brass of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines – including its chairman Fred. Olsen Snr. that rarely appears in public - on 24 July took to the stage at the Tower of London, they wanted to talk about one cruise only: The Poison, Murder and Mystery cruise (see separate article under More News for details) that is scheduled to depart from the Scottish port of Rosyth on 10 July next year.
Also present at the event was Her Grace The Duchess of Northhumberland, whose idea the cruise actually was. The Duchess told Cruise Business that she had met Olsen and it emerged that they both had poison garden, Her Grace at the ducal family’s country seat at Alnwick in the North East of England and Olsen in Teneriffe in the Canary Islands in Spain.
Professional actors will set the pace to the events on board the 880 passenger Boudicca as it sails south from its Scottish base to Spain, Portugal and the Atlantic islands. A professional author will write a storyline, based on developments of the murder mystery that forms the backbone of the entertainment of the cruise. Passengers are active encouraged to participate in the story by assuming a character in it and dressing in 16th century Florentine dress, the period and location in which the story is set.
It is here that the concept becomes interesting.
Passengers on cruise ships are largely consumers of entertainment: they watch shows, comedians and listen to concerts and singers etc. True, activities like sport include active participation by the passengers, but these are mainly daytime functions. In the evening, an overwhelming majority of the passengers watch professional entertainers to perform.
The Poison, Murder and Mystery cruise promises to change that. Nathan Philpot, marketing director at Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines said the company has contacted Guinness Book of Records to make this cruise with the largest number of participants in on board entertaining ever seen on any ship.
Fred. Olsen operates a fleet of four medium sized vessels. In recent years, it has diversified its product by offering longer stays in port, often overnight in key ones, plus widening further its already extensive portfolio of cruises by adding shorter ones, with extended port stays.
The company’s ships were built between 1973 and 1994, so none of them is exactly new and as they range in size from 23,000 to 45,000 gross tons, they are not particularly large either. Hence they cannot provide a Wow! effect with stunning size and facilities of the ships, no matter how well they are maintained and how well they are run. And they are, both.
Instead, their smaller size invites more interaction between those on board for the simple fact that you are more likely to meet the same passenger or crew member than on a megaship.
The company arranged a Titanic memorial cruise in 2012, when it became 100 years from the tragedy. Passengers were encouraged to dress in period attire, many did and it is on this positive experience the company wants to capitalise as well.
The cruise industry is supply driven: lines that build new ships market them aggressively and usually gain a large degree of interest from the public as a result. What Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines is planning to do is to take a completely different tack: as its old slogan used to say, “It’s All About the People.”
