Travel from Tenerife to La Palma with Fred Olsen

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

Thought I'd report on my just completed trip. 

When I booked on Fred Olsen's site, they were able to verify my resident's discount at the time of booking, something I had had problems with a couple of years ago.  Great!

When arriving at Los Cristianos with the boarding passes duly printed, all they wanted was an id document.  I had my passport (though had booked using my NIE) and handed it over.  He scanned it and scanned my registration plate.  He scanned the passenger's passport, stuck a label on the car, and told us which lane to get into.  He never once looked at my printed passes!  Wowee, nice use of technology.  Great!

Fred Olsen now has Gold Class. I was not on it.  But they do have a boarding lane for Gold Class, priority loading and unloading, free drinks, personal service (don't ask) and free wifi.  On the way to La Palma, there didn't seem to be anybody in Gold Class but on the way back there were and guess what, we had free wifi in Cattle class.  Great!

Unfortunately the boat back was about an hour and a half late due to weather.  That put us back into Los Cristianos just before 2100.  Can I tell you what an absolute abomination it is to debark and try to get out of there when about 6 lanes of traffic have to merge into one and there are all kinds of pedestrians stopping traffic?  My recommendation is to take an earlier ferry back.  Earlier than 1600.  Not great!

Cannot complain about the price.  Under €100 return for two people and a car.  Great! 

This was my first trip on Fred Olsen.  It was okay but I prefer the comfort of the seats on Armas and being able to go out on deck and wander around.  You can only go out the stern on Fred Olsen, and there is no shade.