To experience the coast of Norway from the water we choose the 10-day round trip from Bergen. Upon embarking the ship we are told we cannot access our cabin for two hours and we are informed that we can 'upgrade our evening meal by paying an additional 299 Norwegian Kroner and sit in an exclusive dining room. What? We paid close to $10,000 USD for our 'all inclusive' cruise and the 'upgraded' dinner I was just offered is what I was expecting NIGHTLY! Dinner in the regular dining room was not good food. It was bland with few spices or imagination. Clean our cabin? Not for three days did we get our cabin cleaned. We requested five-times to please clean our cabin, new towels, more toilet paper. The cleaning crew took care of all the cabins on our deck six except the five on one dead end. "So sorry, they forgot". Not nice. Coffee? Do you have the 'coffee' upgrade? Yes we do, but, find a hot cup,of coffee at 6:30-7 am in the morning you have to BEG and experience confrontation with the crew on the fourth deck. They don't want to pour you a cup of coffee. They keep the canister of fresh coffee behind the desk. Coffee after dinner in the 'regular' dining room? Nope. You have to climb the stars to the seventh deck and go into the lounge, wait for the bartender to notice you then he gives you a cup and you can self serve. We just kept our coffee cups from then on placing them inside our cabin cabinet so we could get a cup of coffee without the hassle.

Our excursions (extra cost of course) included King Crabbing (excellent!); Bicycling riding through Trondheim (excellent!); Rib boat to the tide changes and surrounding geological wonders (excellent!); Kayaking (excellent!); and lastly a guided bus tour to hell! Very bad! The guide was to lead the tour in English and French. He was not a fluent speaker in either language. He would begin to explain a detail in English, lose his place, hesitate then finish in broken French. It was disjointed. He was terrible. He would drone on and on and on and I just wanted to jump off the bus! The French speaking members of the joint tour complained to me that they could not understand a word out of the tour guide. When we returned to the Kong Harald we thought the cruise director should know that all our tours were excellent but this one and the French agreed. What spineless people the French were, they told the cruise director the tour guide's French was excellent. Holy cow!

The seventh deck 'Explorers' lounge chairs was another problem. When we arrived on the Kong Harald, an announcement was made to please rotate and share the lounge chairs. The views from these seats are spectacular. The crew requested that seats not be 'saved'. We observed the Germans came up to deck seven right after breakfast and stayed there most of the day. One boorish German woman placed her feet on her husband 'lounge chair' when he left the room. A young father with his three-year old daughter tried to sit in 'her husbands seat' and she placed her feet on the seat scolding the father in German verbally and with her finger waging. Her husband did not return for well over 90-minutes. The crew of the Kong Harald need to monitor this type of boorish behavior. We met some wonderful Australians and two amazing Danish women who walked the deck for well over one mile every morning. We found out they were 89 and 81-years old. The coast of Norway is wonderful, but the best part of our trip were the very nice people we met. Also DO NOT MISS Steilneset Memorial in Vardo, Norway. Simply spectacular architecture and presence. The activities director and his staff were stellar.