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Nordlys

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Fridtjof Nansen

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Nordstjernen

Every moment a delight

Halifax

We sailed on the Nordlys from Bergen to Kirkenes northbound for 6 nights. We had booked an outside cabin midships Deck 6 with a slightly obstructed view by life rafts so that we didn't have anyone walking past as you would on Deck 5. A couple of days before sailing we were contacted by the Ships Tour guides and offered a suite as an upgrade for a much reduced rate - which we decided to take up. (Deck 6). We certainly made the right decision. There are only six of these suites on board and they have bay windows on the side so that you have a 180 degree view sitting in the comfort of your sofa. This certainly beat trying to vie for a seat on the 7th floor viewing deck. We also had a lovely welcome pack, of champagne, chocolates, and nibbles etc,  lovely. The suite had heaps of storage, floor space, coffee/tea making, bar fridge and a sizeable bathroom with a large shower. It is more towards the back of the ship where the jacuzzis are, but quiet. Our last day was in rough seas where quite a lot got seasick including us, but our friends didn't so I'm not sure if it didn't help that we were further back in the ship. We still made the right decision. 

We took all our meals in the buffet section as this was included and the staff were very attentive and the food was plentiful. I am coeliac and therefore gluten free. I had advised the office by phone call in Australia before leaving and they had noted it. I also emailed Hurtigruten and they added it to my profile, yet I was not down as a gluten free meal at the restaurant! It was very disappointing until I had mentioned it to the waitress, Ines, and she sorted it out and it improved from then on. She was wonderful and always made sure I had gf bread on my table at night. I do have to say that I think they could improve in this area. The bread, crackers and toaster were in a certain position for breakfast, but on more than one occasion I watched non gluten free bread being fed into the toaster because people either didn't understand the concept or language on the sign, or were impatient for the other toasters provided. Then at lunch and dinner they moved the gf bread and crackers to another spot which doesn't help the non-gluten free people realise that this area is not to be contaminated. Continuity would be a good thing. The staff were very helpful with the buffet and everything was marked. I would have liked to have seen an effort be made to provide gf pancakes or a pastry as well. Drinks are very expensive as elsewhere in Norway, roughly AUS$20-25 for a glass of wine and we didn't dine in the Bistro or the A la Carte restaurants.  The housekeeping staff were always cheery and helpful as well. We had two excursions booked - NorthCape which we loved - a bus trip to the Cape and then a wander around for a decent length of time (1 hr?) and the other one was to be Meet the Vikings in the Lofotens but this was cancelled because there were only 12 out of the 15 required for the trip. What a shame. We were very disappointed. A refund arrived in our account after our return home, as we had prepaid before boarding. The Guide Team are amazing. Their talks are always amusing and interesting with lots to learn about Norway and its history and culture. Always ready to be helpful and explain. This was our first ever cruise so I can't compare it with a huge cruise ship that has entertainment, services such as hairdresser etc, and stabilisers, but that's not what we wanted, so we found this just what we hoped for.  Very interesting with lots of little stops in communities that don't have any other means of transport, and the scenery is breathtaking. We even saw the northern lights twice which is a bit iffy for this time of year. Wow!!   If you add the southbound cruise as well, the concept is that you get to see the places during the day, that you slept through at night going north. Maximum of 590  this ship with only a few children sighted so mostly the older generation.   I should add that we were careful, using the hand sanitising where provided liberally, and being careful using the tongs etc at the buffet and touching the hand rails, but we didn't really see any sign of covid on the ship with only the occasional person wearing a mask.

First time cruisers 

This was a "bucket list" item, to see the coastal scenery of Norway. 

Every day had an almost endless abundance of raw natural beauty, with many jaw dropping moments, whether it was the midnight sun bursting from behind cloudy/moody mountains, majestic views of hundreds of miles of partially snow-clad mountains and fjords, or Orca gently gliding through a bay.

The food exceeded all expectations and was of high quality and in abundance- abundance especially on the breakfast/lunch buffets and also occasionally an evening buffet (evening usually table service). The ship was so much better than I had anticipated- perhaps because of all the posts saying bear in mind "this is a working ship", think not of crew cabins/grog but of maybe a very clean 3* hotel with much better restaurants and daily room service and a "coastal experience team" who want to help you get every bit you can from the trip. 

What can I say that others haven't?   The best feature of Nordlys for me was the full walk-around deck 5. I had come to appreciate the scenery, rather than look at it through a window, and this deck always enabled you to find somewhere with a reasonable amount of shelter from wind to be outside and see it at it's best from the front, behind, or side. I preferred it to the official observation deck 7 where outside is at the rear only. 

The staff I always found very helpful, curteous and did the best to make your stay as happy as possible. Danny from the expedition team gave us daily briefings on what to expect from scenery/points of interest/excursions/weather and helped make the journey very special.

I found May a good time to travel because you get a taste of everything- some sunny days, some moody days, mostly still calm seas, and a little "roller coaster" bounce that Nordlys easily handles. Most of the journey is sheltered between islands but there are some open sea stretches also. It's too late for northern lights, it's light 24x7, which means your only real problem is working out when to get some sleep- as any sleep you can miss some wonderful sights!   

Tips? Bring ski clothing as well as thermals/warm under clothing. I was able to be outside enjoying the views much of the time, because I had brought insulating wind-proof/water-proof coat/trousers/boots-  don't forget warmth for the legs! This was in May. Remember things are nearly always more cold/more windy at sea than on land.   Only a handfull of people of the 500 or so passengers had kitted out properly for being outside on the journey. Most people would be on deck for 1-2 mins with a hat and a warm jumper/normal coat and normal trousers, then retreat inside to view from the lounges. Be prepared and just enjoy everything rolling by, warm and cosy wearing the right gear, with no windows in between!

We were so grateful for the great time we had on board - thanks to the cruise team we had the holiday of a lifetime!

There was absolutely nothing to complain about, but many points to praise:

+ the staff were always cheerful, friendly, hardworking and efficient - they really made you feel welcome and showed genuine interest to make this holiday the best experience you could have

+ very motivated and well informed expedition team with interesting and worthwhile presentations

+ delicious food - you can even chose a vegan menu every day (!)

+ very relaxing atmosphere on the whole ship, no stress, no rush, just efficiency and calm... and free hot tea and coffee on every deck :-)

+ very good safety protocols, we felt safe and secure: whole staff trained for evacuation and even helicopter-rescue twice during our stay

+ best itinerary ever!!                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Thank you Nordlys-Team, you are great!!

Best cruise ever

Wanted real Norwegian experience- visiting local places, travelling with locals

Wonderful cabin, junior suite

Fab bathroom & great shower

Amazing views from room

Great food, plenty choice. Managed allergies

The crew were great

Advice re swimming. Tours pricey but good

Alcohol very expensive at least £45 for a bottle of wine. There are options on board that give a bottle a day for a little less but cheapest option is cheap wine!

Docking is noisy, so the nights are distributed but this is part of the trip

The food if fabulous. Buffet breakfast & lunch

Plenty of places to sit & read or work. Good wifi

Interesting shop

Talks great & interesting. I really liked the talk on life in Norway.

I got to swim in fjords and in the sea north of Artic Circle, the sea was beautifully clear even in the habour

We were lucky and the sea was flat.

Easy to accessthe towns without the tours, maps provided & tesm keen to provide info.

Northern lights & swimming 

We had seen this cruise advertised in the newspapers quite a lot and knew several people who had been on it. This one is different from other cruises as the ship has a schedule to meet to fulfil its obligations to the Norwegian government. We liked the idea of stopping at ports several times a day (and night!) and seeing lots of different places.

We booked through ROLCruise and the price included return flights from London, as well as unlimited tea and coffee throughout the voyage, and wi-fi. 

The food was superb - very plentiful and delicious. There was a nice balance between buffet-style meals and more formal meals in the evening at a set time.

There was no 'entertainment' as such - and we would not have wanted it, but the expedition team were excellent - we had very informative presentations and lectures which were also frequently very amusing, and all were optional.

We did not have family with us, and this trip is probably not suitable for younger children.

There was a fitness room, sauna, and hot tubs but we did not make use of these.

The down side was that Norway is a very expensive country compared to UK - organised expeditions and other things such as drinks that were not included in the original price were extremely costly, but we knew that before we went and set a budget accordingly. We did 3 excursions, and these were all well organised and informative. They were all very different but we enjoyed them all.

Would we do it again? Probably not. It was a one-off. Would we recommend it to others? Definitely.

Trip of a lifetime

This Hurtigruten coastal cruise has been on my "bucket list" for 38 years, and now we made it from 16 June to 21 June of 2022. It has always been marketed as something extra, particularly on landscape beauty and food onboard. The landscape did not disappoint us, but everything around the food and restaurants are just worse than bad. Nordlys were  lacking 3 chefs on our cruise, but that should not be an excuse. Very poor variation of food, food is not fresh and the presentations are just awful. 

Also, the health and safety measures onboard are poor. Due to lack of staff all that works with clients in restaurant have to put on a mask if they feel unwell. They are not staying in bed until they feel well again. After 1-2 we started to see restaurant staff putting on mask, and more of them throughout the cruise. The day after our arrival to Bergen my wife tested positive for Covid-19. If you want to stay healty, it is my recommendation to avoid a trip with Hurtigruten.

Far below our expectations

a massive breakfast buffestwith everything you can think of. great and helpful staff. amazing view of the coastline and ocean. clean,  friendly staff, clean cabins, great but sometimes pricy food, cool excursions. I eally enjoyed the cruise and its expeditions, the guides, the staff on the cruise ship, the morning greetings. I especially enjoyed the breakfast buffet and its’ free seating. The cities we visited could have stayed longer in some of them especially trondheim. I enjoyed the fitness aera but I do not appreciate small children running around touching everything on the buffet breakfast. and the people whobring small yelling children to pricy dinners should probably think twice. Nice to hear so many languages spoken on the ship both fro  passangers and staff. maybe make it easier to from port to port and maybe itis a little bit too expensive for some things. I liked the gift shop.overall it was wonderful, but maybe more singles cruises.

great experience, amazing views and friendly and helpful staff

Embarkation good, welcome snack

Cabin comfortable and good window onto Deck 5 

Need to be a GOOD sailor, 12 metre waves and constant rolling was quite challenging for some!

Shower room clean, shampoo etc rather too high for little folk!

Ship spacious and interesting, deck7 lovely for views when the weather permitted

We would have appreciated an afternoon cake/cookie with our cup of tea. The Bistro was available but expensive 

Dining room very pleasant and food mostly excellent

We would have prefered more lunch time buffets, the three course meals with very little choice didn't always suit us

Everything was EXTREMELY expensive, wines, excursions 

We would have enjoyed more to do on board! There was one short film provided and some jigsaws!

The expedition staff did some great talks and points of interest. Aslak was fantastic, he made our cruise so enjoyable

Overall the cruise was VERY weather dependant, we didn't even make some ports! 

NORTHBOUND A LOT MORE INTERESTING THAN SOUTHBOUND

No frills, need to be a good sailor, lovely staff!!

Very good Expedition-Team! They offered a lot of gatherings for Points of Interest, for Information about History, Nature, Norways Culture and Identity, Polarexpeditions, Myths…

They also gave a lot of Information about the tours but without trying to sell - 

   

Nice Crew in the restaurant and at the reception - very friendly and helpful.

Very good food - allways something local from the different harbours, very fresh and good variaty 

Brilliant nature, although due to the weather we could not visit everything.

3 nights with polarlights - we got announcements in the cabins and jumped out of bed. Totaly worth it!

We had some days with bad weather - 12 meter high waves but we never felt unsave - so, thanks to the Captain and his crew :)

One thing I did not like - some guests block the seats on deck 7 in front of the windows although they go for their meals, go for a nap and even when they leave the ship in the harbours. Those seats are for everyone, so in my opinion, the crew should collect the jackets, books and bags, that are used to „reserve“ the seats. Thats what they do in hotels nowadays…

And it where not the germans this time :)

Polarlights and stormy weather

Nice and interesting journey. We enjoyed this trip very much. It was a wonderful landscape with interesting harbours and nice people we meet. Lovely little towns and interesting cities where the ship anchored. Sometimes we had prefered the ship would stay longer in harbour so that we could have more sightseeings. We had wounderful weather,made fantastic excursions and had a lot of fun. On board the expedition team offered very informative presentations which we enjoyed very much. The food on board was wonderful. We loved the tour with the husky and also enjoyed very much the wiking festival. On the northcape we had great weather so we could make very nice pictures. We made also a trip to the russian border which was very intersting with quite a lot of snow but the sun was shining all the time. In due to the good weather we could also use the jacuzzi.

Wonderful trip along a fantastic coastline.

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