This was our first cruise along the Norwegian coast and the ship was a different experience to "normal" cruise ships. It's all about the scenery - big panoramic windows, allowing great views. A very relaxed atmosphere, no dressing for dinner but wonderful food and friendly staff. We did have a view of the northern lights and the stops along the way were great, we visited many towns, including ...
The Polaris is a new ship in the Havila line, and has only been sailing for 6 months. It’s a beautiful ship, very modern and spacious, and remarkably quiet. Many times we didn’t feel we were on a ship at all, it was such smooth sailing.
When we were planning our trip, I found it wasn’t always easy to get information on what to expect, so I will try and put down some of this for any interested ...
First Cruise with P & O and extremely disappointing. Definitely not good value for money.
The ship is old and tired. We had a wonderful cabin steward, who was helpful and friendly. Our cabin was clean but in need of a whole refurbishment. The first night we dined in The Meridian, the service was awful, we waited 50 minutes for our starter, then 50 minutes for our main. The wine arrived with ...
We chose Cunard because it was named as a Northern Lights Cruise. We wanted to see Norway, Northern Lights and Viking Villages.
The Cunard transfers to get to the ship and back were seamless. Great flights, the shuttle service was on time and accommodating both directions. The ship onboard and offboard process was seamless and easy.
The cabin steward and purser staff were very helpful and ...
Was originally booked on Polaris for January 2023 to see the Northern Lights, but ship delivery issues resulted in a rebooking on a sister ship in November 2023. We had the Lighthouse Suite which is the best cabin on board. This was a winter cruise so daylight hours range from about 8 hours in Bergen to 4 hours in Kirkenes.
There was at least one stop every day that had shore excursions - ...
We had an unexpected two weeks off and asked our travel agent to find a good deal for a cruise. The travel agent found a Norwegian cruise on the Norwegian Star leaving Southampton on October 23, 2023. We had never sailed with Norwegian before and were open to trying it out. We've sailed previously with Carnival, Celebrity, Oceania, Princess and Royal Caribbean. We have not cruised since 2018 so we ...
My wife and I cruised on Iona last summer and apart from the poor service in the bars and main dining rooms due to a lack of staff we were very impressed. We found a big improvement in service this time in what turned out to be a very eventful cruise to Northern Europe. We had a fire in the Atrium on the day of boarding after a battery on a mobile scooter exploded and caught fire in a very ...
This was our first cruise on one of the larger cruise ships and we were both a little apprehensive despite the fact that I had been on the ship lots of times as part of the Intercruises disability team. This did give me the advantage of knowing my way around and what the cabins were like etc. we both thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and have already booked to go back on IONA next ...
I flew from Houston to London and arrived the day before the cruise. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn in Heathrow and would highly recommend it. This was my first time on P&O Cruises. It mainly caters to British cruisers and many of the passengers I met have only cruised P&O. Their website states that their Elegant Nights are very formal. Many of the men wore tuxes, but some wore a jacket ...
We recently completed a 14-day Search for the Northern Lights cruise to Norway. Although we had quite a few days with rough seas, the Island Princess handled the seas well. Our cabin was spacious and the balcony was larger than on many ships. Some of the cabin furnishings clearly need to be replaced. Our mini-suite couch and chair looked very worn. The bed also had clear indentations of where ...