Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines has cancelled four winter sailings on Bolette, saying they ‘did not quite reach the guest numbers we were hoping for’.

It has also had to cancel next Monday’s cruise on Balmoral from Rosyth because of a problem with one of the ship’s propellers.

Balmoral will go into a short dry dock in Newcastle for repairs, before returning to service for its scheduled sailing from Southampton on 11 September.

Bolette will now not sail from 26 October and will return to service on 21 December on a Christmas cruise to Norway.

The cancelled cruises had all been due to depart from Tilbury and the cruise line has now moved Bolette’s full winter schedule from Tilbury to Dover and Southampton.

UK MD Peter Deer issued a statement saying: “This is always a quieter period for cruising and this small number of sailings did not quite reach the guest numbers we were hoping for, especially in light of the current high fuel prices we are all facing.

“With most of our crew remaining on board (and the remainder taking their planned leave), we will use this time to bring forward some routine technical work which we had planned to do in 2023 – it will also leave us with one of our ships in the north of the country and one in the south for most of the winter.

“Cancelling these cruises was not an easy decision for us to make and our team have been speaking with guests who are affected to help them find an alternative cruise to look forward to.”