elfelfelf

14 hours ago, hallasm said:

 Leaving  by Wednesday, however only for the 6 nights to Kirkenes. Then I’ll stay for some additional nights in Kirkenes - might enhance my chances for sighting.

A few passengers reported seeing Northern Lights during excursions out of Kirkenes. We had reasonably clear skies there. 

15 hours ago, hallasm said:

 

Northern Lights Occurrence is defined as a sighting from the ship which is recorded by the ship’s deck officers and which is announced to passengers on board.

As far as I'm aware (after talking with other passengers and the expedition team) there was no announcement during our voyage. Im keen to see if Hutigruten confirms this, and follows through on the offer. 

Otherwise it might suggest it's a meaningless promise.

2 hours ago, hallasm said:

The program is called "Northern Lights Promise" and as I understand the terms and conditions only applies to voyages booked from Hurtigruten directly - not if booked through an agent.

Unfortunately, the temperature is higher than usual this winter and thus less snow and ice - also more clouds. During the last days the Auroral activity has been rather high, but with the many clouds impossible to see.

I'm sure that the refund of the excursions will be solved by your travel agent.

 

Ah thank you. I wasn't confident that I got the terminology correct!  We booked through the Hurtigurten UK site.

I'll follow up with them tomorrow about the refunds. 

Your right about the cloud cover! The Aurora activity was definitely increased in the past 3-4 days, though we always tended to be just at the  edge of the area (according to the three apps I was following!). Actually last night was the first time I got a probability alert over 20%! We had a lot of cloud cover though. 

Hi everyone,

I'm in Bergen, having just disembarked from a 12 day classic voyage on MS Finnmarken. 

There were many positives about the voyage:

- excellent food

- relaxed, casual vibe

- no need to dress up for dinner - walking around in outdoor gear is the norm!

- comfortable cabin (mini suite on Deck 6)

- multi lingual staff who generally spoke excellent English

- stunning scenery.

However there were also some disappointments:

- three of our pre booked excursions we're cancelled- the lofoten brewery, dog sledding (not enough snow), and snow mobiling (ice too thin).

- as we had pre-booked out excursions (paid before embarking), we were not refunded immediately- we've been told the expedition team must submit their report to head office first, and this is communicated to the travel agents. Those who booked on board received direct refunds the same day.

- we have no documentation proving the excursions were cancelled - we only received verbal confirmation from the expedition team and the said it was NOT company policy to provide this in writing.

- we did not see the Northern Lights (as far as we know, there was NO confirmed sighting by the ship during our voyage).

My question is: has anyone had experience with the Hutigruten Northern Lights guarantee? We have nothing in writing and only the word of expedition team members.

Thanks.

Elf