SarniaLo

The Norwegian government has asked Hurtigruten to reduce its current traffic to the ports between Bodø and Kirkenes (as it was during the spring). This way the two ships currently in service will call in port every three day, insuring the vital transport service that these communities need during winter. This is to be effective from Oct 24th and until further notice, but expected to last for some time, unless the other 13 affected ports in the South protest.

I can currently only find info in Norwegian : https://www.nrk.no/nordland/hurtigruten-skal-kun-seile-bodo-kirkenes-pa-kystruten-bergen-kirkenes-1.15197856 which can be Google translated but I'm sure it will be picked up by English-speaking medias soon.

This is not very good omen for the future of the coastal service... And definitely bad news for everyone booked with Hurtigruten until the end of the year. But good news for local Northern communities I think.

Usually when they have available cabins you can get an upgrade at boarding but not for free, you have to pay something (less than what it would have cost you originally, but still).

I have been upgraded for free a couple of times on a port-to-port journey, I had booked an unspecified inside cabin and got a cabin with a view. But I have their frequent travellers card. I've never been upgraded on a full round trip. 

However all this was pre-Covid and I don't know if their policy have changed about that especially if the ships are less full.

Offical info on Hurtigruten's website : https://global.hurtigruten.com/practical-information/coronavirus-update/sailings-and-cancellations/

22 hours ago, Oslo Dutch said:

The Norwegian Government has now allowed entryto all EU/EEA citizens except Sweden, UK , Portugal and Romania.

 

Do you have a link for this, as I can find nothing on the official websites (except info that the list of countries authorised from July 15th will be released on July 10th). Many thanks!

I think this trip is only for German passengers. I guess the hope is that Germany will be on the "allowed" list into Norway from July 15th and Hurtigruten can then introduce port stops.

If Hurtigruten can't give you this confirmation (have you asked them?) I doubt that anyone on this board can. Especially in these times when we are not even sure what will be allowed next week, let alone next year.

19 hours ago, Nitemare said:

Agree with the others.  If you are on a big ship (over 200 passengers) you will get views of Antarctica, but you won't be getting off.  And it is questionable what ships will even be allowed in those latitudes going forward with the new Polar Code.

 

Not strictly true. It is possible to land from ships up to 500 passengers, but the landings spots allowed for ships carrying between 200 and 500 passengers are limited. And because of logistics (always less than 100 people ashore at the same time), time ashore from those ships is limited and usually they can only do one landing per day (weather permitting). For instance the two newest Hurtigruten ships (MS Roald Amudsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen), both hybrid ships, will be allowed in Antarctica under the new Polar Code, and carry up to 500 passengers, and passengers can land.
But agree with you that, for me, as far as a ship in Antarctica is concerned, the smaller the better 😉 .

Except in Stanley, where you get some excursions, you do have to go with the flow in the Falklands if you land on smaller islands. You get ashore and walk around and see the wildlife, there isn't much you can organize in advance there. You can pick excursions in Stanley, from the ship or DIY. Spots are usually limited so it can be a good idea to book in advance if you want to do an excursion. If you want to DIY, then be sure that the excursion is cancellable last minute, as it is always possible that the ship will not dock in Stanley on the expected day (weather conditions prevail). Stanley is nice (but quick) to visit and has a lovely and informative local history museum.

On 6/14/2020 at 6:39 PM, hallasm said:

As I see information at the web only expedition cruises with MS Roald Amundsen and MS Fridtjof Nansen have been canceled - for example, there are still scheduled trips with MS Fram, MS Nordstjernen and MS Spitsbergen (might very well change)

Yes exactly.

And I've heard (from people who work in Svalbard) that Hurtigruten has been one of the operator pushing hard to allow for cruises to Svalbard to resume this summer, and they are now actually allowed, for ships carrying less than 250 passengers, so I very much expect them to try to run some cruises at least.

Of course only the nationalities allowed in Norway will be allowed to enter Svalbard, so as of today June 15th (and at least until July 20th), that means people from Norway (of course), Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Greenland and Faroe Islands (and the Swedish province of Gotland, strangely enough). Whether that's enough people to fill up ships, I don't know. It's possible that people will be allowed from less-infected European country (such as Germany) from July 20th.

This is the press release about this from the Norwegian government (see last paragraph about Svalbard) : https://www.regjeringen.no/en/aktuelt/norway-opening-up-for-more-leisure-travel-to-and-from-the-other-nordic-countries/id2706368/

Cruises companies have received guidelines with sanitary measures, and I have understood that one of the measures is operating the ship at half-capacity only to allow for physical distancing on board, but I don't have a link, so don't quote me on that.

On 6/11/2020 at 6:09 AM, Sue from Canada said:

 But isn't 2022 the last year that ships can sail to Antarctica? 

That's only for some ships, not all of them. Hurtigruten's ships comply to the regulations allowing them to keep on sailing to Antarctica (mostly regulations about the type of engine and fuel). That concerns mostly bigger ships that do "cruise-by".

On 6/13/2020 at 10:48 AM, grayjay said:

As of yesterday, all expedition voyages to Greenland, Iceland and Spitzbergen have been cancelled for this season by Hurtigruten.

Were did you see that? I do not see this exactly like this on Hurtigruten's webpage and cruises for ships of 250 passengers or less are actually allowed in Svalbard from July 1st, so I'm surprised at least by the cancellation of Svalbard cruises. To be fair that's only for the nationalities allowed in mainland Norway, which currently are only people from Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Greenland and Faroe Islands only, so I suppose if you are not from one of those countries then indeed it works as if all cruises are cancelled. But' I'd be curious to know if Hurtigruten is still trying to run some trips in Svalbard. Currently those in July and August are not shown as cancelled : https://www.hurtigruten.com/practical-information/coronavirus-update/cancelled/departures/

That is not up to date : https://www.utl.is/index.php/en/about-directorate-of-immigration/news

Restriction to members outside of EU/Schengen may last at least until the end of June.
Currently it's possible to enter Iceland from within Europe if you comply to 14 days quarantine, and testing at the airport is to be developed from June 15th : https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2020/06/08/up_to_2_000_tests_a_day/

Many practical questions still remains (such as : what happens if more than 2000 people arrive on a given day?).

As far as I'm aware, there have been no cases in Antarctica. Also Greenland is currently free (the few that got sick have recovered, and the disease has not spread), and there have been no official cases in Svalbard at all (although they are not testing much). There are a handful of places with no current active cases, most are small island with low density population : https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries (sort by "active cases"), but indeed very few places that have not known the virus so far.

Hurtigruten (as most companies) is currently short on staff as they have laid off a very large part of their employees. They probably have to handle thousands of similar claims for refund or rebooking. Time spend reading and replying multiple emails from the same customer asking the same question is time they cannot spend on actually processding the claims.

I think this message was sent automatically to all people who have requested refunds because there were some heated discussions on social media from people stating they required communication from Hurtigruten with confirmation that they were indeeed processing refunds, and an indication of a timeline. Some people were even urging others to send emails to the CEO.

I appreciate that this email is written in a very direct way and without florishes, but that is also a bit the Norwegian way. If they say that they are handling it, I think they are.

Best of luck, I understand this is quite a stressful situation to be in.

The Christmas market in Champs Elysees has been discontinued a couple of years ago (MeHeartCruising it's possible you were at the last edition). The main Christmas Market is now in Tuileries, but it's not 100% guaranteed it will happen again this year. There are some smaller markets around town usually.

These are difficult times for everybody and companies are trying to their best towards their customers and their employees in a situation that changes almost by the hour. Actually, I can't see now any reference to numbers on the webpage (I may not be looking at the right place).

I don't see what the customer is losing when they will recoup 100% of their trip money plus some.

They are now extending this rebooking offer to voyages up to September 2020, which is a sign that they probably don't see this situation going away any time soon (nor am I). Honestly, if someone's only problem when we come out of this is that they didn't gain as much by cancelling early their Hurtigruten trip, they should consider themselves lucky.

It seems that 2 ships will still be running a shortened route between Bodø and Kirkenes to maintain some traffic in the ports of Northern Norway : https://e24.no/naeringsliv/i/BR1Q69/hurtigruten-stopper-14-av-16-skip

Hurtigruten will stop operations along the Norwegian coast starting today and until April 19th (and expeditions trips cancelled until April 28th). The ships will be gradually taken out of service in the upcoming days.

https://global.hurtigruten.com/practical-information/coronavirus-update/

Not very surprising since foreign travellers can't come into Norway and Norwegians are asked to limit travel, but I wonder if that ever happened before?

RA is currently at anchor outside Punta Arenas. Passengers are still on board but not allowed to disembark, so Hurtigruten is trying to find an solution for them. Fram is currently in the Falklands and Hurtigruten may be trying to arrange for passengers to be flown back from there, since they are not allowed in Montevideo which was the original ending of the trip. Maybe RA will join them?

Midnatsol was allowed to disembark passengers in Ushuaia on March 15th but the following cruise was cancelled.

And apparently Fridtjof Nansen has just disembarked passengers in Portsmouth and will now cease operations.

People currently cannot travel into Norway, most ports and airports are virtually shut down so currently it's not possible for a foreign passenger to board a Hurtigruten ship, but the ships are still running as a local public transport service.

I follow some Hurtigruten passengers FB groups and I have to say I'm extremely impressed by the level of professionalism and communication shown by Hurtigruten at that time. When the travel restriction was put in place by the government, with very little notice, Hurtigruten had 11 ships full of passengers from all around the world and 24 hours to get them back home before the airports started to shut down. They got the ships to the nearest port with a major airport and managed to find a solution for everybody. They have put in place a generous rebooking offer : https://presse.hurtigruten.no/pressreleases/hurtigruten-introduces-risk-free-rebookings-2981318, and I believe they are proactively reaching out to all their passengers travelling in the upcoming week/months with this offer. Possibly why people are not so much worried, because information is forthcoming.

The expedition ships in Antarctica were still running but some of the latest journeys have been cancelled also because of travel restriction by Antarctica and Chile. The new Fridtjof Nansen is on her first showcase journeys, which are more or less going on, but with some itineraries disruption, maybe the ship with the most uncertainties at the moment.

I hope this is the right place to put this (official) information for visitors to Norway, otherwise I'll take it elsewhere :

Effective immediately, and until March 26th, a 2 weeks quarantine is required for every person arriving in Norway from outside the Nordic countries (including Norwegian national traveling abroad, and even retroactive to people who arrived in Norway since Feb 27th) : https://www.fhi.no/en/news/2020/norwegian-directorate-of-health-implements-the-following-today---from-6-p.m/

Norway is now on lockdown and a 2 weeks quarantine is required for every person arriving from outside the Nordic countries (including Norwegian national traveling abroad), effective immediately (and even retroactive to people who arrived in Norway since Feb 27th) : https://www.fhi.no/en/news/2020/norwegian-directorate-of-health-implements-the-following-today---from-6-p.m/

If you have a trip to Norway plan for this month, this is a clear sign that you should postpone.

This is the full link for Hurtigruten's "risk-free rebooking" offer mentioned by Hallasm : https://presse.hurtigruten.no/pressreleases/hurtigruten-introduces-risk-free-rebookings-2981318

Usually there is a tourist map available at the excursion desk (or near the reception), at least for the main cities.

When I first started travelling with Hurtigruten, each passenger was given a small booklet about the journey with a few pages for each day : brief historic outline, some local information, the towns visited, the main landmarks along the way... It was a very helpful guide for the trip and I've learnt a lot from it. Then they stop giving it, and now it's still possible to buy it on some ships (in the shop), for about 60 NOK. It comes in different languages. I don't know if it has been updated recently, but it can be a worthwhile investment. It may look a bit like this :

She's a sister ship to Roald Amundsen, so about 500 passengers on expedition trips.

Even more reason to get medical travel insurance when you come from the US 😉

I actually don't think anyone should travel internationally without medical insurance (but that's me).