Nordlys Review
Rating by category
Additional details
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.
Cabin Review
I think in general the cabins are fairly basic and functional, but I can't give this anything but an excellent review for cabin as I was by surprise upgraded from Arctic Superior to a junior suite on deck 6 on late availability, I'm not sure this happens often and could have been to do with the 130th anniversary sailing, or maybe the superiors being over booked somehow, and often ships are booked up so there is no late availability- who knows? I didn't question! Of course I was therefore more than delighted with the cabin!
It had a good amount of space, bar/desk area, two large TVs (one for bed, one for sofa), teas, coffee machine,
Bed very comfortable. Two standard sized windows. Exactly like the picture bar side table could use a varnish!
If you were buying a suite and are blessed with the means my tip would be to investigate the ones on deck 6 with the bay windows, as these provide a special experience that you can't get elsewhere on the ship. The photos of the ship on the Hurtigruten website are out of date and don't show these larger bay windows.
On deck 5 although people can't see in without the lights on (the windows are v good that way), you could get people obscuring your view at times and it may not feel as private.