My sons surprised us with a "Northern Lights" cruise last Christmas and we spent a year almost planning it, we wanted to see the elusive Northern Lights and tried to find out when would be the best time to do this. November was recommended so with almost eleven months to wait we opted for the end of November.

We booked the round trip from Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen and opted for a Q class cabin, this was on deck 7 of the Midnatsol, the cabin was just right, a very comfortable large double bed with a large porthole so that we could watch the snow capped mountains float by. Adequate storage for clothes and personal belongings, a shower room with an excellent shower and heated floor, we also had a television and a fridge, the television could be tuned to the webcam on the bow of the ship and we could watch where we were sailing....handy for early mornings. Cabins were cleaned everyday with clean towels replaced.

All meals were included in the cost, the buffet breakfast was served from 7am to 10am and plenty of choice, from hot and cold dishes, fruit, cereals etc. Lunch also buffet and a very generous selection of hot and cold dishes, the salads were excellent, also the sweets! Lunch was served from 12.30 to 2pm. Dinner was served at 7pm and at your allocated table and was waiter service, the waiters were all friendly and chatted away. Two excursions were included in the price, one a sight seeing tour where we left the ship and rejoined at the next port, a really lovely insight into how the Norwegian people live and work, the tour guide was very good and it was a lovely break from the ship, the second "free" tour was to North Cape and although we enjoyed this it was very dark and felt we missed out on a lot of very beautiful scenery and was really just the wrong time of year for it. We had booked an extra excursion for dog sledding in Tromso but unfortunately due to lack of snow was unable to do this, we did however go to see the huskies, it was very unusual for inadequate snow in November! Read more