We have cruised many other cruise lines and were looking forward to this one because Viking was supposed to be a cut above, etc. It is not and we won't book another ocean cruise with them again. Food was average. Not much variety. Service both dining and cabin was great. We had booked an Explorer Suite in the aft portion. The Infinity Pool on the 7th deck sprung a leak with the seal breaking overflowing on two separate occasions. First time they said they fixed it but then it happened again a few days later. We were told management would be contacting us. We heard nothing. Very disappointed in the lack of communication and caring. The cabin-couch only allowed for two people to sit. Chairs were hard to sit on-no cushioning. Overall, a very uncomfortable, unrelaxing cabin for the $$ spent! Entertainment sparse and poor and at later times. The shore excursions were nothing outstanding. Regular like you'd find offered by other cruise lines. Too bad because we really wanted to like Viking. Lack of caring doesn't do much for future booking on their ships. We're sticking with Holland America and Celebrity! Read Less

Came on board to accompany a friend and to see the beautiful landscape of Norway. Get ready for many non smiling passengers. The staff can be found doing multiple job assignments. Your room can be attended to by the wait staff. I was happy that our server was attentive to special dietary restrictions. Most speak English fairly well and one guide spoke 6 languages. He seemed like the most kindhearted individual. Turned off by a hostess who felt like she needed to admonish an infraction in dining policy. Needs training in customer service. What was a fairly pleasant boring but beautiful cruise was tainted by her caustic approach in addressing us. Best thing on the ship was the salmon. If your looking to be entertained, this is not for you. The weather was cold and rained a lot. Darken the windows when sleeping since it was light for 23 hours. Bring warm clothes and a good water repellent jacket. Dress is very casual. Water is a premium. Need to bring water from restaurant if you want it in your cabin. Coffee is only served in morning at breakfast, but available on deck 8 with purchase or package. Ice is a commodity. Had to get my own ice daily for my water from the bar. Norway is not cheap. Everything is expensive. Cashed in US dollars for Krones at reception and was shorted each time. Asked if there was a fee and replied no, but get ready to pay a hidden rate(not the true exchange rate at time). There is a laundry facility available, but clothes take a long time to dry. Can’t beat the remarkable views traveling by water. Salmon the best, staff mostly helpful. Passengers- depressing. Sorry Norway, land of my ancestors. You need to lighten up. Read Less

We have just returned from a South to North trip. Some of the experiences were great, the ship was comfortable and the crew friendly but we will not be going again in the late spring for the wildlife as we'd originally intended. From the UK everything is very, very expensive. More than we'd anticipated. £10 for a lager, £40+ for a run of the mill Pinot Grigio, £80-£100 for a 2 hour sightseeing tour, etc. And many of the excursions are a rip off because either they are too time limited due to the ships schedule or take place in the dark. Eg, at Trondheim our guided bus tour of the town (including a viewpoint lookout) was in the dark. It could have been run an hour later. At Saltstraumen, the tide was hardly running, so no 'maelstrom', and worst of all the 'Sailing in the Polar Night' aka 'Silent Whale Watching' (they changed the title as there were no whales), supposedly under an electric engine and maybe sail, is a farce. The captain confirmed they never raised the sail on that trip, most of the time we were under noisy diesel power, no whales are the norm this year as the herring have gone further north, and, of course, after the first half hour it was in the dark so the wonderful scenery we were told of was invisible. When the excursion sheet says the trip is say 3.5 hours for the dog sledding, you have to allow for time getting to and from the venue by coach and kitting up, safety talk and making a fuss of the dogs so this only a half to three quarter hour actually out. I didn't do this trip as I have mobility problems and thought it would be too long. It wasn't. Mobility wise on the ship there is a lift between floors, the outside doors have automatic button opening and there are shallow stairs with a rail and then a ramp for embarkation. Do as much homework as you possibly can before you go. There are maps provided for each port where there is time ashore and if you are of average fitness I would recommend using these and on-line information and doing your own excursion. Many did and saw so much more than we did on the organised trips. Read Less

Everything was OK with the boat, food, cabin (we would have liked one double bed instead of 2 beds apart!) and services on board. Just one thing to complain about: We were booked on the Dog sledding in Kirkenes. Some others were supposed to do it in Tromsoe. The Dog sledding planned in Tromsoe was canceled due to lack of snow, therefore, they added the people to the one planned in Kirkenes. This resulted in too many persons at the same time and consequently, the tour was shortened significantly to allow everyone to go within the same time frame of the shore stop. The tour looked nice but ended up to be expensive for such a short time spent on the sled!! We decided to do the full tour of the boat but one way would be good enough: The stops were sometimes to short to spend some time on the shore and especially on the return but we booked the flights to Norway on our own and did not find a flight from Kirkenes. I think it would have been much better to stay one day there and do the Dog Sledding on our own. Much easier to say after than before!! The midnight concert was really fabulous, the acoustic of the cathedral is amazing! Read Less

I choose the cruise after watched Hurtigruten advertisement about the trip. Yes we have quite high expectation about the trip. The best about this trip that we are able to see a very beautiful aurora somewhere after Tromsø and still able to get some beautiful view of Norway. Before voyage I received all the information I needed and the booking of the trip worked well too. I'm not satisfied with the service on board because : 01 Excursion The Silent Whale Exploring (Tromso) Excursion Code H-TOS5K 16 November 2017 and paid each of us NOK 2198.99 (total NOK 4397.98 . One day before Expedition Manager personally informed to us that we may not be able to see the Humpback whale because the Herring fish not yet around but he assured us that we will be able to see some Orca (smaller whale). Surprisingly on the day of the excursion, once after we arrived on the boat, the guide told us that we won't see anything because it's not yet the season for Humpback whale nor Orca because the herring not yet arrived (Poor Herring everybody blamed "the Herrring"). I think this is very unprofessional and I felt being cheated. If it's not yet the Herring's season you can actually cancel the excursion. I'm very dissapointed. 02. Food Breakfast, lunch and dinner all almost similar for 7 days. More food variation needed as you have international passengers from different nations. 03. Unhappy staff Except one gentleman in the dining room (reception/waiters) who always greet us warmly, the rest always looked unhappy. I will definitely come back to Norway but my next trip won't be in the cruise anymore. Read Less

We chose this cruise for the itinerary, but 5 of 9 ports were skipped (2) or significantly delayed. Shore excursions were just ok, even the ones we purchased were just ok. Most of the staff and crew were excellent, friendly, and bent over backwards to please. Public areas were overcrowded at events or activities. Food was very good to excellent in main restaurant and especially Manfredis. World Cafe , pool grill, and Chefs Table just ok. Cabin was roomy enough but very limited drawer space in Deluxe Veranda. Bathroom was nice. A lot of people like the stark Scandinavian decor, but we found that the abundance of hard surfaces and minimal softening features made the restaurants and public areas very noisy. We chose the post cruise Montreal stay (Westin) and are very disappointed with the hotel. Waited 5 hours for room to be ready. Room looks into windows of adjacent building, have to keep drapes closed all the time. They refused to change the room. The flight Viking booked leaves at 8:30 am but the transfer leaves at 4 am. Airport is only 30 minutes away. Just adds to the misery of the Montreal experience. By contrast, the pre cruise in Oslo and Bergen were wonderful. We tried to book business class but Viking said they only have economy for this cruise. We found out later this was not true. We are too old for the discomforts of economy flights ( even though we managed to upgrade to premium economy through the airline) all the way from the west coast. It's definitely a deal breaker on any future cruise. Read Less

Zuiderdam I sailed from Bergen to NYC.Sailing through Hermine the captain made the correct call missing Nova Scotia and head for NYC. I enjoyed the city for a full day.Hop on hop off for$64.00 with ferry. It appeared as though they are short staffed rarely extra staff was called in when it got super busy.I was disappointed in finding out the ship had no self serve laundry.$30.00 abag or $110.00 unlimited.Very hard working staff and friendly. I was surprised to hear the ship ran out of 4 or 5 different beers.The onboard entertainment could be better and a longer show to boot.The milk cartons were the worse you had to punch a straw through the top, good luck trying to open it to pour.I suggested to the cruise line to offer extended days in certain ports.1 day in Reykavik was not enough I hate to rush to see as much as I can.They decided to fix some area on the lido area interrupting seating.I feel the whole needs reconfigurating.not enough seating at prime time.The casual smart dining menu is similar a lot if the times.So if you want to sit for an hour and a half or two it,s up to you.I also don't know why they only offer happy hour in just 2 locals.I heard they are going to dry dock the ship in the near future. Read Less

Our trip from the U.S. middlewest started off abysmally with two flight cancellations, by American and Scandinavian airlines. It took two days for us to finally reach Bergen, and consequently we missed the Norway in a Nutshell tour which we had booked. This was not the fault of Hurtigruten, of course, but it did not put us in a good mood to begin with. When we landed in Bergen with a Hurtigruten "Arrival Package," we had no instructions on how to reach the bus. We asked the driver of another bus, and he indicated our bus would be "down there." We dragged our bags to this location, but no Hurtigruten bus and no idea if it ran every hour, three times a day or what, or even if we were standing in the right spot at all. Exhausted by our trip over, we gave up and paid another bus line to take us into the city. The package for transportation from hotel Raddison Blu Norge to ferry terminal was no better. We had no idea when or where to wait, and neithr did anyone at the hotel desk. The desk was obliging enough to call Hurtigruten in U.S. to inquire about it, and the fellow who answered said he would get right on it and leave a message at the hotel for us. No message ever arrived. Just by chance we spotted a Hurtigruten bus on the street , and asked this driver about it. He told us when to go to pickup spot but again, this was rather wrong. We checked out of hotel and were sitting in lobby surrounded by baggage when I Hurtigruten diver showed up and spotted us by our luggage tags. He said drivers automatically called for passengers in hotel lobby FOR EVERY RUN. No one had ever told us this!!! That's quite a bit on our arrival, but if you take arrival package, be sure to get directions straight before you leave home!!! We would have been far better off , and saved $$$, by taking the regular airport bus into town and a taxi to terminal. Contrarily, our transportation packages in Oslo when trip ended went perfectly because we had gotten directions from a knowledgeable employee in advance. The rest of our trip went well. A few pointers: There are two dinner sittings, 6:30 and 8:15, and we were given no choice. We were assigned to 8:15, which we surely did not want. We are not Spanish! I asked right off if we could switch. The dining room hostess seemed skeptical, but it did work out. They give no attention to language when making table assignments. We were placed with a German couple who were nice but spoke zero English, and vice versa. The next night we landed an engaging English couple who had been marooned in the midst of Germans. Food is marvelous, especially the desserts, and I lived on wonderful smoked salmon. We had an ordinary outside cabin on deck 3,and I can't imagine why anyone would ask for more. We were in it only to sleep anyway. Ship's public venues and appearance are all very nice. There were only 310 passengers on our run, with ferry's capacity of 628, so there was plenty of seating in lounges, etc. There is no entertainment provided at all, and no background music in lounges!!!, thank goodness. All very quiet and restful. Most of other passengers were Northern Europeans. As to clothing, it was mid-May, and at all times indoors I wore a heavy sweater, long-sleeved shirt under that and tank top below that. On land excursions I was glad to have a wool scarf and wooly cap. We took the Alesund, Trondheim and North Cape excursions. Could have walked around Alesund on our own, but I didn't know how close the quay was to central city. The other two stops require the arranged excursion. My husband thinks the photos in brochure are misleading. The dramatic fjords are around Bergen, not further north, and at the time we took the trip, mid-May, the ferry did not enter Greiranger fjord nor was an excursion offered to it . Really we did not see any big fjords at all. Hotel Radisson Blu Norge in Bergen in Bergen and Radisson Blu Scandinavian in Oslo were fine Read Less

To sum up, I've put the summary first you can also read the more in depth view after, if the mood takes you. If you want reasonable size cabin with half decent facilities don't choose this cruise, unless you can afford the much larger cabins at much larger prices. If you are after fine dining don't choose this cruise, we found the food very good but may not be to everyone choosing. If you are after entertainment in the evening don't choose this cruise, there isn't any apart from piano man in the bar. If you want Hurtigruten to fuss after you don't choose this cruise, it's not in the Norwegian make up to be concerned that you are enjoying yourself and being looked after they are not bothered. If something goes wrong don't expect an apology so don't choose this cruise. If you are adventurous and want something totally different you want amazing scenery Summer or Winter within a stones throw, choose this cruise. You can get 24 hours of sun in the Summer and 24 hours of darkness in the winter so in winter you won't see so much of the amazing scenery. In the Winter you may be lucky and see the Aurora Borealis. You may also get rough seas 40ft waves and 80mph winds and you will get freezing cold temperatures along with a trip into the Arctic Circle. The choice is yours! would we go again, the answer is yes! but we would try and get a two for the price of one offer if they come up, then it would be value for money at £888 each for 6 nights, compared to other cruises it's expensive. Hurtigruten are relying too much on the scenery, summer and winter and selling it as a working ferry but they want cruise liner prices without delivering the service. They need to go on some customer service courses or experience another cruise line to see what's on offer. The management certainly need to change their attitude, the staff on the ship were always very polite and helpful. We booked a trip on the M/S Nordkapp the Voyage North for our 40th wedding anniversary we did not expect anything but hoped we might get a bottle of wine on the night of our anniversary. We should have known better, this would not be the trip of a life time. At the time of booking I paid Hurtigruten to have a car pick us up at the airport and take us to the ship I advised them of the flight number and arrival time, touchdown 20:00 hrs, and what time I expected to exit the terminal 20:30hrs. When we reached Bergen and stepped out of the terminal on time, no car, nothing, we waited and waited, going in and out of the terminal in case we had missed someone carrying a notice with our name on, nothing. I phoned the number provided several times and got no reply. Eventually someone did answer only to hang up on me when I explained why I was phoning. Then an employee from the Flybusen company asked if we had a problem I explained to him and he said it happens all the time with Hurtigruten, people missing the departure of the ship. with his help we got a bus to the Hurtigruten terminal and just made the departure at 22:30. Because we were late we got none of the information given to other passengers. after a expensive coffee we decided to go to bed. We knew the cabins were not going to be palatial but we expected them to be clean! that was another mistake, when I pulled down the bed I was going to sleep on I looked at the pillow and it was filthy it looked like someone had played football with it and the actual pillow in side the case was stained yellow all over really gross. We were both so tired by this time I just threw the pillow against the door to block out the light coming in through the gap at the bottom of the door, I'm still not sure if any of the bedding was changed before we got there all the sheets were creased but that may be because the beds fold up with the bedding trapped against the cabin wall, how the pillow was so dirty I don't know. When we awoke in the morning we were able to see what we missed on our arrival in the cabin, well it was a sorry sight tatty to say the least, we had one chair to sit on which was far from new, the the top of the back of the chair was frayed where so many hands had gripped and rubbed along it with stuffing coming out, with the seat section well worn, along with the very worn carpets. Then we come to the bathroom, adequate, but small and old, the shower worked with just enough water to feel clean. Toilet seat was broken moving around very much when the sea was rough, a skill just to sit on it in such conditions, then there was the sink, when first we looked, it seemed as though it had not been cleaned but it was just old and stained, with the surface all crazed with small cracks making it look worse. We had booked the trip in the hope of seeing the Northern lights, no guarantees, and as luck would have it we did not, they said we had the worst storm in ten years, staying in Trondheim for an additional 12 hours to let the worst of the storm to pass, so for most of the cruise it was very overcast, these are small ships 11,000 tonnes compared with the big cruise liners of 100,000 + tonnes. Once we had gained our sea legs the rough weather was not a problem in fact it was different, something to talk about, you must expect bad weather in the North Sea in the winter months if you want gentle cruising don't choose this trip. Hurtigruten do say they are a ferry for the Norwegian people which they are, 11 ships, constantly going up and down the coast stopping at 34 ports on the way North and the same again coming South. We missed out on 14 of the ports due to the adverse weather conditions but it was not a big deal, many of these were docked at when we would be asleep. The views of the Norwegian coast were stunning and that was the other reason for the voyage, which didn't disappoint us. My wife and I found the food to be generally very good breakfast was not always a big choice, if you slept in there was even less. Midday meal was between 12:00 and 14:00 help yourself a good selection of hot or cold dishes always plenty of fresh seafood which was really good. Evening meal, there were two sittings 18:00 and 20:00 although with I guess maximum 150 passengers when we were sailing, all could have been accommodated at one sitting and according to the specs, the ship has the capacity of 622 passengers with 456 beds (you have to guess the number of tatty the beds out of the total) If you do choose this type of cruise there is no entertainment to speak of, one man with a synthesiser cranking out a variety of tunes and songs in a bar that feels quite soulless but that's probably because it bankrupts you to have a few drinks in the bar and not many people were prepared to pay the Norwegian prices for booze, small bottle of beer £8.50 glass of wine £9.00 they say it's to stop the Norwegian youth from drinking but there were no Norwegian youth on the ship . What's wrong with giving international passengers duty free privileges, you have to pay by charging drinks to your cabin number, they also advertise duty free for travellers in the on board shop, so it could be done. That may have made the evenings more enjoyable, remember the further North you go in the winter months the shorter the days, it does afford a greater chance of seeing the Northern lights but it shortens the time for the views of the passing scenery so the evenings can seem to be quite long.   Read Less