Homerody

9 hours ago, avw said:

"... Passengers were not as friendly as Azamara's passengers. They seemed to be trying to impress each other..." 

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.

1 hour ago, philbob84 said:

how do the excursions or time in the city work? as I read through things it does not seem like alot of time in port? 

 

ALso thoughts on doing just segements of the trips? I would be open to summer as well,

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.

3 hours ago, Werangels said:

We are considering a Viking cruise next winter.  What is niggling me is the priority given for boarding, booking excursions, etc dependent on how much you have spent for a cabin.  I can’t see many TA’s which handle Viking either and we wouldn’t want air with them.  The ship looks beautiful but these things are holding me back.  

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.

1 hour ago, grayjay said:

Just a quick but specific question where I couldn't find an answer, yet.
If you book a suite or mini-suite on Hurtigruten, your laundry is free ( at least on all the expedition ships).I wonder, if that is also true for Havila and the coastal route. I'd really want to pack less! Even with reduced luggage as everyday clothing is sufficient I'd really save on taking too much underwear, t-shirts etc. with me if I could have that washed for free. I'm not keen on doing it myself because I want as much time as possible gazing out to  sea or land!

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.

4 hours ago, hallasm said:

Exactly the same route, same arrival and departure times for both shipping companies.

Hurtigruten has 7 ships of different sizes and ages on the route - the cabins are also very different. Havila has four identical and brand new ships - more standardized cabins.

Both have good restaurants where food is served from the areas passed - fresh supplies every day. Hurtigruten has several buffets - Havila doesn't have that.

Excursions are pretty much the same too - probably the same suppliers.

Havila crews are the former Hurtigruten crews from the four ships Havila replaced.

The experience of nature is the same. Personally, I would choose Havila - but look at the price and offer.

 

Hurtigruten is changing their focus towards expedition cruises and are offering Norwegian Coast expedition cruises from Oslo and Bergen.

Per ususal @hallasm is spot on!

8 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

So as one who has semi-followed this thread:  is there a consensus about whether Hurtigruten or Havila is better for the Norway coast in winter [or any season] ?

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.

On 2/19/2023 at 7:35 AM, CruiseMark said:

Are there differences in the food? I don’t eat fish or seafood as I don’t want to be eating herring for two weeks 😊

 

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.

On 2/27/2023 at 2:03 PM, grayjay said:

For those planning to travel with Havila in winter: I just read about an excursion Havila offers to those interested to see the Geiranger fjord in winter times - they sail the fjord on a smaller boat ( I think it's out of Alesund) during a day trip with snacks/meal on board. We haven't done it ourselves, yet, but I have heard it's quite costly ( about 330 Euros) but well worth the price if the weather is right.

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. 

2 hours ago, Flyinby said:

It sounds like you've already gotten some good advice on this.  We just returned from the Havila round trip (with a few days before and after in Oslo and Bergen) and did seven of the Havila-sponsored excursions.  All were good to excellent considering the time limitations, and the peace of mind in knowing that you won't miss the ship or your times not matching up due to delays is well worth any extra cost.  Plus, the ship announces the upcoming tour in time for you to prepare, handles the refund it it's cancelled, and will not leave you behind if the tour is late.

 

We had only one of the tours cancelled, and Havila immediately offered us an alternative, which turned out to be really excellent, so we didn't have to stress out looking for a replacement or figure out our walking alternatives.  Another example is, on the 'Best of Vesteralen' tour, the ship coordinates with the buses to be returning on the bridge as the ship goes under, with the passengers etc. out on deck cheering and waving...not a huge deal but everyone liked it, and it wouldn't happen on a private tour.  Yet another is that they arrange languages in the way that works out best...some tours with multiple buses will have one bus German, one English, instead of having to use both translations on the tour.  These are not usually big crowds on the tours, so don't picture it as were a tour later in the year with many tours and crowds everywhere.

 

Another thing to consider is the feasibility of walking yourself depends a lot on the stop and the time, so do your homework carefully if you plan that.  It's fun to get off and walk to look around, even in the snow and for a shorter stop, but many of the ports are too far away from anything but industrial buildings and offices...so get maps and know where and at which ports you want to walk rather than take the tour, at least if you want to see more than random things you run across.  If walks are a good idea, the tours director will often give advice on which ways to walk and what you can see, so be sure to go to the daily briefings.

 

I think you get a lot for the little you'd save booking private tours, especially if you're not already familiar with the ports.

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?

21 hours ago, grayjay said:

Time is often short on the coastal route because sometimes the ships are late or even don't dock in some of the ports because of weather issues.

So we tend to take each day as it comes, use information about the ports I have read about ( or already have visited and know about). Taxis are often a good choice - for example we took a taxi to the aviation museum in Bodo , easy-peasy to do and lots to see.

In Honningsvag there's also a local bus to use to the North Cape, it runs at the same time and is a bit cheaper. In winter, though, the road to the North Cape are often closed due to snow and storms. So we tend to not booking anything beforehand with an outside operator.

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...)

On 2/25/2023 at 9:32 AM, hallasm said:

Thank you for the update. When is your voyage and is it one way or return?

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.

22 hours ago, Robjame said:

I can sympathize with you. That seems wrong. For a Oceania-cancelled voyage, it would seem good business to offer the client the identical cruise at the price paid.

Do airlines do a similar thing with cancelled flights?

 

“You paid in full on a booking you made in mid 2020?”

There are several reasons to do this and, according to our TA, it is not completely unusual. Booking own air at the best price is the obvious one and paying the cruise with a card to accumulate points to do so. Avoiding fuel surcharges being added to the unpaid price is another.

With strong advance 2023 and 2024 bookings - and according to a recent newswire  item that 40% of bookings are 1st time O customers - good business to O is status quo.

As for airlines - my recent experiences have been positive. (Except for a non US airline that is dragging their feet on a refundable fare).  If I cancel I get  what the rules say - if anything.  If they cancel I've been offered an operational upgrade by gate agent, easy and free change to a nearby airport, and in one instance even sent me  to a competing airline (but that last one was an arduous process....)  

 O's response is to cancel is very interesting.  Compares to Viking - they say sorry we changed the itinerary and here is a OBC to make everything better.

My feeble brain says both companies have figured out where their bookings are strongest, and with strong demand for smaller ships,  and previous customer loyalty - the marketing types at both companies have figured out what their respective markets will bear and crafted policies and itineraries that address their finds and projections.

10 hours ago, jonthomas said:

Clearly says "or within 30 days of returning home"

 

even if 4 years old, would not have been suggested to me on the Riviera on March 28, we returned home on april 4. 

 

but yeah ok....

Based on my customer service experience with O (both first level and executive) I'd prepare for disappointment.

I really hope @jonthomas that YMMV.

On 3/26/2022 at 9:14 AM, YoPhilly said:

I did a 4 night Australis cruises through Overseas Adventure Travel pre-COVID.  The ship, the crew, the meals - all excellent.  It seemed to me that passengers booked through a tour operator had priority in boarding the zodiacs for excursions so you may want to keep that in mind.  Worked well for us, as our group was always first off the ship.  I would do that cruise again in a heartbeat.

For our Jan 2022 Australis sailing - we were independent travelers and we were mixed in with an OAT tour group that was on board and other independent travelers (based on language - English or Spanish).  There was no separate priority embarkation, disembarkation or  zodiac excursion seating for the OAT group.  The OAT group did stick together and their guide for most of the trip.  (At times when the tour group split up for easy or hard walking excursion option for a particular excursion - the guide generally stuck with the larger group in his tour)   At meal times, however, the OAT group  were seated together.  Independent travelers had a choice for tables for 2, family groups, or sit with other English speaking passengers.

@Nanaandpapax12 - Thanks for a very helpful post.  Much appreciated.

Which airport?  There are two airports one mostly for domestic -(closer to port) and one mostly for international?

In Jan 2022 for a private transfer from international EZE to port was quoted for $22.

If you don't mind sharing details and logistics of embarkation, some questions:

Was embarkation in Galapagos via RIB (or some type of smaller boat) or dock?

Which ship or yacht did Avalon use?

On the Delfin cruise - you left from Iquitos, right?

Can you discuss the trip from airport to Delfin and the embarkation process (how passengers got to Delfin from airport - combination of bus and boat?

Thanks so much.