{"version":"1.9","identifier":"610c6e47-e3b4-4deb-9edd-09b868676446","language":"en-US","title":"Jungle to Ice: Fred. Olsen's 87-Night Amazon and Antarctica Voyage Broke the Company's Sales Record in a Day","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://crusiefrog.com/news/fred-olsen-amazon-antarctica-grand-voyage-2028","datePublished":"2026-10-16T21:56:18.568479Z","dateModified":"2026-10-16T21:56:31.624171Z","authors":["Patrick Karsh"],"excerpt":"Borealis sails from Southampton on January 5, 2028, up the Amazon to Manaus and on to Antarctic waters, with no flights. Bookings set a company record on day one.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/610c6e47-e3b4-4deb-9edd-09b868676446/1b05fcc11157fdd15e4698f9105cbd89.jpg","keywords":["itinerary"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Jungle to Ice: Fred. Olsen's 87-Night Amazon and Antarctica Voyage Broke the Company's Sales Record in a Day","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"Borealis sails from Southampton on January 5, 2028, up the Amazon to Manaus and on to Antarctic waters, with no flights. Bookings set a company record on day one.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By Patrick Karsh · Published October 16, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/610c6e47-e3b4-4deb-9edd-09b868676446/1b05fcc11157fdd15e4698f9105cbd89.jpg","caption":"Borealis in A Coruña, April 2022 · Estevoaei, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","accessibilityCaption":"Borealis in A Coruña, April 2022","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"Borealis in A Coruña, April 2022 · Estevoaei, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"There are cruise itineraries that make you raise an eyebrow, and then there is the one Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines put on sale on July 22, 2026. Eighty-seven nights. Twenty-eight ports in 17 countries on five continents. Hundreds of miles up the Amazon River to Manaus, then down the length of South America to three days of scenic cruising among the icebergs of Antarctica. All of it roundtrip from Southampton, with no flights involved.\n\nThe British public's response was immediate. Fred. Olsen says the launch produced the strongest single trading day in the company's history, and that the voyage attracted three times as many bookings in its first six days as its 2024 South America Grand Voyage did. For a family-owned line that has been in shipping since 1848, that is some record to break.\n\n## The route\n\n[Borealis](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/borealis) departs Southampton on January 5, 2028. She heads south to Tenerife, crosses the Atlantic to the Caribbean, and then enters the mouth of the Amazon. Calls at Santarém and Manaus put guests deep in the rainforest; the line's head of product innovation, Martin Lister, has talked about pink river dolphins and the birdlife along the banks. It is Fred. Olsen's first return to the Amazon in nine years.\n\nFrom Brazil the ship works down the coast with an overnight in Rio de Janeiro and a stop at Salvador, then continues to Puerto Madryn in Argentine Patagonia and Punta Arenas on the Strait of Magellan. Three days of cruising follow in Antarctic waters: glaciers, pack ice and snow-covered peaks, seen from the rail with a blanket and a hot drink rather than from a Zodiac. Then the long run home across the South Atlantic.\n\nFares start at £10,999 per person. That is a lot of money, and also roughly £126 a night for a voyage most people would consider a once-in-a-lifetime trip.\n\n## Why Borealis\n\nFred. Olsen runs three ships, and the choice of Borealis for this voyage is not an accident. She was built in 1997 as Holland America Line's Rotterdam, the sixth ship to carry that name, and she was designed for exactly this kind of long-haul, port-heavy cruising. At about 62,000 tons and just under 1,300 guests, she is small enough to navigate the shallow, winding Amazon and solid enough to handle the swells of the Drake Passage. A Holland America \"Rotterdam\" was built for the open ocean; that pedigree matters when you are 87 nights from home.\n\nBorealis is also Fred. Olsen's adults-only ship, which it became in January 2026. On a voyage this long, with a guest list that skews firmly toward retirees, that is a selling point.\n\n## The bigger story\n\nThe record launch is one piece of what Fred. Olsen describes as an exceptional year. Guest numbers are up 10% on 2025, more than a quarter of the remaining 2026 sailings have sold out, and bookings for 2027 are running more than 40% ahead. Perhaps more telling, all three ships, [Bolette](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/bolette), Borealis and [Balmoral](https://crusiefrog.com/ships/balmoral), recorded their highest-ever Net Promoter Scores in 2026, with Balmoral, the smallest, scoring best of all.\n\nCEO Samantha Stimpson credits the line's Freedom Fare, the more inclusive pricing it introduced for 2026 that bundles drinks with meals, gratuities, port fees and a four-week price promise for early bookers. People who book an 87-night voyage 18 months ahead want to know they will not see the price drop the following month. Fred. Olsen's promise is that if it does, they get a cabin upgrade or onboard credit.\n\n## Who this is for\n\nGrand voyages are Fred. Olsen's signature. The line has long run a winter world cruise and a rotating cast of long South America, Africa and Asia itineraries, and its guests, many of whom have sailed a dozen times or more, treat them as the main event of the year. The Amazon and Antarctica voyage takes that tradition and sharpens it: two of the planet's great wildernesses, as different from each other as it is possible to be, stitched together on one small ship with the crew you will come to know by name.\n\nIf you have ever wanted to see both the rainforest and the ice, this may be the only way to do it without an airport in between. Bookings opened on July 22, 2026. Judging by the first week, cabins will not last.\n\nSources: Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines press releases, Seatrade Cruise News, Cruise Industry News, Cruise Trade News, Cruise Fever.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}