The emphasis was on the outstanding views and the experiences - and to our great pleasure, on the food. Fabulous food (especially if you like fish but friend enjoyed her vegetarian menu and there was plenty of interesting meat). Excellent catering for a dietary issue that we had notified in advance. Enormous and varied hot and cold buffet at breakfast and lunch, set menu at dinner. You get to talk to other people as little or as much as you want. We enjoyed being sat with the same people at dinner as we got to know them, but also liked sitting with different people at lunch - and sometimes on our own. We met loads of really interesting people on the viewing deck, particularly as we had midnight sun which quite a few people stayed up to see (and worth it for amazing views and colours).

The crew are outstanding - friendly, helpful, happy to actually engage with guests over the week, and very efficient indeed. They are rightly proud of their ship. The crew made our holiday feel very special. The size of the ship and number of guests seemed well judged - you can get away from everyone and read your book if you want, but you get to recognise people too as it is not too large.

The expedition team point out locations of interest (geological, cultural and arctic specific) from the deck, and there are some interesting - and humorous - lectures and informal meetings. The marking of the crossing of the Arctic Circle is fun! We picked some excursions which we enjoyed hugely - if you are bothered you might want to check that a very late night is not followed by a very early morning, the website and booklet are not that helpful for timings but describe the trips very well. We had to catch up on sleep one afternoon (not so terrible!) You also miss some points of interest and ports if you pick some excursions, something to be aware of if there is a particular point you want to see (ship in Trollfjord or the specially cut channel through the Lofotens for example). Also if there is a particular port you want to see, check the time the boat docks there and whether you get a longer stay travelling north or south (we only went one way and now want to go back to see a couple of places we missed or were only very short stops) Read more