We left Bergen at 10.30pm just as the sun was setting - beautiful. Our cabin was small and compact with 2 single beds but there was plenty of cupboard space to fit all our clothes and cases. We found that we had enough room for the 2 of us to be comfortable and the beds were comfortable. We were able to adjust the room temp so we were able to get a good night's sleep.

The shower was the best pressure of our trip. We enjoyed all the meals on board with buffet breakfasts and lunches all with good variety and a set menu for dinner. The bread rolls which were baked fresh every day on the ship were a particular favourite of my husband's. We had lovely weather during our voyage - it was overcast with sunny breaks on the first couple of days but once we had crossed the Arctic Circle we not only had 24hrs daylight but also 24hrs sunshine! The voyage itself was smooth sailing and we sailed close to the coast all the way. It didn't matter which side of the ship you were on as the Norwegian coast was on one side and a continuous line of islands on the other side. We either spent our time looking at the scenery passing by on Deck 4 where there were plenty of window seats or the Panorama lounge on Deck 7. Our cabin was on deck 5 the Promenade Deck so if we saw something we wanted to photograph we could quickly go to our cabin grab our cameras and go outside. The coast was beautiful with snow capped mountains most of the way and lovely little villages. Whenever the ship stopped for 30mins or more we would disembark and go exploring. We went on 3 of the organized excursions including Svartisen Glacier excursion which was excellent - the reflections on the fjord were spectacular. We also went on the North Cape excursion and the Russian Border excursion from Kirkenes where we disembarked. It was good to go on the Russian Border Excursion because we were able to put our cases in the bus storage and at the end of the excursion the bus dropped us off at our hotel in time for us to be able to check in to the hotel.

We found the Polarlys to be spotlessly clean and the crew were always ready to check that all the passengers entering the restaurant participated in the hand hygiene. We enjoyed our voyage so much that my husband wanted to stay on the Polarlys and sail down the coast instead of disembarking at Kirkenes! The majority of the passengers were German with some Norwegian, British, American and other Europeans.