Homerody

That is the one side of cruising that I find sooooo off-putting. Regardless of line, there is a snobish appeal to more upscale cruising. But we've found a few cruisers on each sailing we've been on who like to share their travel experiences without the Do You Know Who I Am aura.

Yes, some stops are very short, 15 min. And for these one stayed on board and watched the port activities. Some of the excursions start at one port and end at another port where the ship will be and we just walked on to ship when we were dropped off. The on board briefings discussed the excursions but also gave suggestions for the folks not taking excursions, including accurate average walking times to points of interests in port city. I'm not sure I would be able to recommend or comment on doing just segments. There are many ship details and logistics for segment to segment that I don't know about. A suggestion I would offer is considering a northbound or southbound journey as this would be a great opportunity to see a good portion of coastal Norway.

We were on a Viking "Homelands" cruise in the spring. The included "overview" excursions in every port were numerous so not really an issue of getting one, but if one has a preffered time for an excursion - then the higher cabin categories have fist dibs a given number of days before sailing. Some paid speciality excursions do sell out before sailing. On our cruise the Edward Grieg house and recital as well as several go to market with chef and cook excusions sold out pre cruise. Another area where a higher cabin category may help (pre cruise) is the speciality restaurant booking (no additional cost) and there is a heirarchy of number bookings permitted and booking window based on cabin category. But once on board that goes away. We always opt for our own air and that has not been an issue for Viking Ocean or River. However, with own air the transfers are not free, if one chooses to use Viking transfers. (We always find our own way to/from ship). In the US, TA's are very limited as to discounting, rebates etc...- as noted by OP - but one can generally find a modest OBC offer. We end up using ours for a couple of paid excursions.

On our sailing with Havila, I do not recall a laundry bag in cabin or laundry service. But free self service laundry (machines and detergent in automated dispensing system) were available on Deck 4. Not a bad chore to complete on a rainy day. Or as an early riser, before first light of day and breakfast.

Per ususal @hallasm is spot on!

Hello @ Host Jazzbeau, We went with a roundtrip Havila in spring of 2023. And had a great time. Personally, I think the Havila service and - particularlly - the ship lived up to Havila's marketing hype (produced even before they had a ship in the coastal waters!!!) and the resulting high expectations I developed from said hype🤦‍♂️. . I have a brief review of our trip and some of the details of my Nordic "saga" of Hurtigruten, Havila and COVID elsewhere on CC. Bottom line, I would not hesitate going with Havila again. Happy to answer any related and/or specific questions you or others may have about our Havila experience.

just a quick clarification on paragraph 7 in my post (17 above) - in which I speak about a free food promotion - that was in the Havly Cafe where they have a quick food menu - pizza, burgers, salads, hot dogs etc and bakery items.

A quick and very late update. We were on Havilla Castor in April. Absolutely loved it. The ship was very nice, great scenery (including 2 northern lights sightings), and good service. The ship was at roughly 50% capacity with passengers mostly German, Scandinavian and a few from UK. Excursions were well run and quite good. I would agree with @Hallasm who said (elsewher on CC) Cape North is a great excurion. (Although we we had strong gusty winds that made the walk around a bit cold and challenging. But that was part of the charm and memories). We also enjoyed Saltstraumen. We enjoyed the perks of Havilla Gold - especially at breakfast, when we enjoyed leisurley our morning meal at the small and tranquil Hildring restaurant. All the meals were served by wait staff. No buffets in order to cut down food waste (and their costs, no doubt). We quickly got acclimated to the Havila food concept and actually preferred it to buffets on other ships we were on. So basically, if I wanted ham with breakfast, one order would be 1 slice. So I can order 1 or 6 or 13. Same with "small dishes" offered at other meals. 5 starters and no main course, not a problem. As noted on other posts alcohol is not cheap.So plan accordingly or consider a drinks package. (Funny thing, we were on another cruise recently with buffets. I caught myself thinkin OMG there is so much food being wasted. I guess I've been Havila-ized. 😀) While all the food was well prepared, well presented and tastey we generally enjoyed the fish/seafood items on the menu much more that meat dishes. On our sailing they had a promotion where food (but not beverages) were complementary. Bakery items were very good. We sampled pizza and burger on a day we had an excursion - for a quick meal - and quickly figured out why the pizza was a popular item. Room service was available by phone and app, but I never got the app to work. Staff at the cafe advised that the best and easiest way is to order at the counter and either they would bring it up or I could bring it back to cabin. Speaking of cabins, due to a pandemic saga involving cancellations and ship changes with Hurtigruten we decided to take a leap of faith and book with Havila (as I blathered on on other posts, I think). In any event, we ended up booking a Jr. suite and saved money over a no-balcony cabin with Havila. We thoroughly enjoyed our cabin and the extra space. The balcony was nice on the souther part of the round trip saling, but I suspect a balcony would be great in the summer months. All in all a great ship and experience. A couple of really minor first world problems encountered, but in the scheme of things inconsequential. I would highly recommend Havila.

@Flyinby - a bit unrelated to cruising - care to opine on left vs right side on Oslo to Bergen train? Still on the fence on the Atlantic Road excursion. A few pro's but many con's.

Thanks @Flyinby for your detailed posts. Very informative and helpful.

I forgot to mention about food served. The sample menus show a fish heavy menu in the main dining room and the specialty restauarnt. The main dining room menu rotates every 3 days to highlight local "gastronomy" - 4 regions IIRC. In either case, there are meat dishes (including reindeer and lamb), and some bean/vegetable/pasta dishes on the sample menus.So I think you'll have options and some variety. And then there is the cafe with "freshly baked waffles" (not a bad thing, right?) - and lighter meals. Perhaps a board contributor who has recently completed the coastal voyage with Havila can comment about their food experience and menus during the voyage.

Greiranger is a sight to behold, as I read and reaseached. TBH, though, the thought of getting off a ship to go on another for hours is not too appealing to me. So we put the excursion in the maybe bucket. So maybe it will be a last minute decision if there is availabilty and the weather is decent. Hard choices, too many places too little time.

Good points. We are land tourists who cruise occaisonally. so we've done a mix of cruise company excursions and our own exploration using walking, taxi, ride share and guidebooks, google maps, and pre reserached walking tours and some private guides. Well plan on same approach for our coastal voyage cities on our own with selected excursions. Did you by any chance take train from Oslo to Bergen? and/or Atlantic Road excursion during the coastal voyage?

Thanks for your helpful input. Great point about delays. We did a Greenland coastal ferry trip last summer. And on day two we encountered gale force winds and rough seas that slowed the ship to a crawl. And the resulting delay was over 6 hours. The crew was playing catch up for a while to make up time. Of course on our upcoming trip it will be smooth saling every day and northern lights every night. (and daily unicorn sightings...)

In a few weeks. almost 3 years to the day after the original cancelled trip. return trip

@Hallasm - good point about on shore local resources. Never really thought about that. And thanks for the list. I've been looking at a couple of other companis I found on Norway visitor site and the interwebs. I see some daytrip options but they do not seem to line up with ferry /coastal voyage times. Your explanation clarifies it... the excursions on voayge dates as reseved or held back for potential use by coastal voyage companies. And you are correct about costs. I saw a private excursion for the Atlantic Road listed at "from 1390 Euros" (the group tour is more reasonable). But if we want a group tour I think we'll stick to Havila offerings. Less hassle and no chance I'll not return in time to ship. 🙂 While cruising, we like to get away from the ship crowd and do our own exploring and private tours for things not within walking distance or require resources tha we don't have on the trip (e.g. fishing) when feasible. So we'll be explring most ports with longer port stops on foot and taking some "experience" excursions with Havila. We'll report back after trip with observations.

I am not looking to run afoul of posting rules by asking for names of companies to be posted in responses. I would like to know, for Hurtigruten - and also Havila - Coastal voyages, does anyone out there have experience booking excursions of a third party provider? I know that some ports, it is possible to do an independent walk, but for other expriences such as a fishing excursion or an Atlantic Road excursion - is it worthwhile to look into non-cruise company alternatives? Any insight is appreciated.

Want to chime in with our experience on the topic. We had a Hurtigruten trip planned at the begining of the pandemic. Obviously that was cancellled. Then there was a ship change with a less desirable cabin and more COVID cancellations. Along came Havila offering some spiffy ships at great prices - in a nice brochure. No ships yet - at that point - so in a huge leap of faith we took a refund from Hurtigruten and went to Havilla. Will be taking the voyage this spring - in a much better cabin and newer ship. Working on excursions now. A few related things: Havila is part a bigger shipping conglomorete. Not really sure about finances and company structure and chances of banckruptcy, and they do have issues of timely delivery of ships (COVID, recent earthquakes, and Russia sanctions) and even fines by Norwegian government for associated delays - if I were booking today, I would not hesitate booking with travel insurance (as is prudent with any large travel purchase these dsays). Bent Martini, the guy that runs Havila Coastal used to run Hurtigruten Coastal (till he got fired and sat out a few months - quite possibly to let a non compete clause run out and joined the fledgling Havila). And on excursions, they are pretty much simiare as Hallasam noted. In some cases Havila excursions are a few $$$ cheaper than Hurtigruten - although they dont sail on the same days of the week. As for food - as noted in the thread, no buffet on Havila. Smaller ala carte plates, as much as you want. I recently heard a podcats with one of the Havila execs and their stated goal is to limit food waste to 75 grams per person per day. And their customer service from early days - with just a brochure, to after booking questions has been very timely and highly responsive. On a tangent - a tip of hat to hallsam - an invaluable resource here on all things Hurtigren Coastal.