QShip

We are looking for a North Australia cruise, East to West or West to East, for Winter 2021-2022.  Having difficulty finding anything that does not include NZ or Asia.  Experienced cruisers, do not need a butler. Would appreciate suggestions, warnings, anything at all.

Thanks everyone, will be good information for when we rebook. 

What we are really interested in though is how and how long to receive the amount of the credit?  Cannot really plan without knowing the amount.

As part of our decision to take a voucher we will apparently receive a 25% 'cruisecredit'.  It is not at all clear what this means, but we are presuming we will receive an onboard credit to spend on the ship of 25%  of our original fare, rather than any adjustment to the new fare (other than the 10% discount on the new voyage).

Since my last post I received two more responses from Hurtigruden.  The prior reply appears to be a general response, the last two directly address my original questions:

1. (7-15-20)

hallasm

Thanks for your reply, I have sent a specific message to 'booking'.

Due to the pandemic mess I expect they have changed some of their procedures and permissions.  Will post their reply.

Our departure is scheduled for Sept. 29 on Kong Harald. 

Has anyone tried to transfer cabin/cruise to a third party?

We have a Hurtigruten cruise planned for late Sept.  We are concerned that we will not be allowed to travel from the US due to Norway travel restrictions.  Hurtigruten has not yet informed us of any change in the status of the cruise,  so we presume it will depart as scheduled.

I sent Hurtigruten an email asking about the status of the cruise and about transferring our cruise to a third party.  I received no response.

So...

1.  When can we expect Hurtigruden to advise us on the status of our cruise?  If we want to change our cruise date to 2021 what is the latest date we can do so?

2.  If we decide we can no longer take the cruise at all can we transfer it to a family member or other third party?  If so, how is it done?

3.  Is there any chance of a refund, or will we be limited to changing departure date?

I am pleased at the ongoing interest and great information on this thread.  We still have our slot to leave Bergen around 9/28.  Hope it happens!

I wonder, is there a way, and would it make sense, to ship baggage from Oslo airport to the ship so one does not have multiple 'bag drags' and the inconvenience of having the bags on the train.  Would there be a security problem?

18 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Same itineraries on all web but there might be different packages like flights and/or hotels and excursions included. Also some themed voyages (astronomy or photo) are not offered at all webs - at the .no site you can also find ‘havn til havn’  (port to port) where you can chose parts of the voyage from specific ports.

 

So far Hurtigruten does expect to be back at normal schedule for Coastal voyages May 21

Thanks, Hallasm.  It is obvious I did not make myself very clear.  What I am interested in is whether Hurtigruden is making the same cancellation offers to those who booked on .no to those who used other sites  such as .com to arrange their cruises.

We have a 12 day BKB scheduled for late Sept, booked through Hurtigruden.no.  Have not, of course, heard anything about whether it will go or not, but curious if there is any difference in the Hurtigruden offers between the .no site and other sites?

When we recently traveled to New Zealand we learned that medical care there is at no cost to everyone, including non-resident travelers.  What is the situation in Norway?  We have passage booked for late Sept.  The trip was put on a credit card that includes trip cancellation coverage, but no medical.  We are looking at medical and medical evacuation insurance, but are unsure just what we need.

• We are looking at the Kong Harald for 9/29/20.  The ship description shows an Expedition team on the ship, but there is no specification of our desired date.  From the write-up of the ship it looks like the team is permanently onboard, so we think we will just proceed with that assumption.

I am planning a 12 day up and back for the fall.  We particularly want to be sure our ship has an expedition team on board.  Are they on all ships?  If not, how can we tell if a ship has one or not?

For trying to decipher my inartfull question you did very well.  We are looking at a Coastal Voyage, and needed information on the wine package.  You provided it.  Thanks.

We think we would like the drink package, but do not need one for each of us.  Will they allow one package for the cabin, shared at dinner?

Planning a ferry up and back for late Sept-early Oct.  Can we expect to be able to go into Geirangerfjord, or is that late enough that weather may be an issue?  If we miss it going up is there still a chance on the return? Are all of the ferries able to go into the fjord, or are some too large?  Is there a port stop in the fjord, and, if so, about how long in port?

I think one thing that contributes to the lack of participation is that there does not seem to be any way to run a Search function within the 'other cruise lines' category.  If one could find individual cruise lines, or, possibly ships, CC members would have an easier time finding their roll call and participation would increase.  I have tried to use the general search function, but it just goes to general overall responses, which does not help.

I am going to try to work with Cruise Critic to improve the search function so one can find individual cruise lines, or maybe even ships within the 'other cruise lines' catagory.  It is not particularly easy to find their technical help, but, so far so good. Will let everyone know how it goes.

Would not hurt to have other CC members also ask for a specific search function, or complain.  It would help all of the smaller cruise lines, not just Hurtigruten (and up CC revenues due to more participation!).

Thanks, it is good to know it can be done.  It may be that others have trouble finding it also, so it is little used.  Don't know if I will try it or not.  Still working on basic arrangements.

Perfect, that is just the kind of information I was hoping to get.  Looking forward to more.

On another, but related topic, most conventional cruises have a roll call that allows passengers to get to know one another before the cruise, arrange for joint excursions, and exchange ideas and tips.  I do not see any of that in the Hurtigruden cruises.  Any idea why?  Thought I might try it once we are booked, but when I look at the roll call section Hurtigruten is not even listed.  Maybe that is why.  Think there would be any interest if I can figure out a way to do it?

Planning an up and back on the Nordlys.  We are looking at an outside Polar cabin.  Does anyone have any guidance on particular cabins to try for (or avoid)?  I expect information on her sister ships would also apply.  Port or starboard probably does not matter, since we will not be able to change at the turnover.

Though it is only tangential to the topic, I have also found that Norwegian Air prices are different in dollars vs. euros.  From the states round trip in premium the dollar quote is $185 more than in euros.

5 hours ago, hallasm said:

The VPN will not improve the use of Translate. You’ll need to use the ‘parallel page option’ - should be straight forward. 
You might get some communication in Norwegian by e-mail, but if you write in English to booking@hurtigruten.com the reply will be in English.

You are absolutely correct, but it did give me a chance to learn about VPN's, so all was not lost.  Have tried a lot of translate add-ons, but none allow me to get around the .no impeding the later pages in their site.

Hallasm and Sarnia: Excellent guidance, thank you very much.  Had not yet found Norway in a Nutshell and it looks like a very good way to accomplish what we want. May even allow us to follow Clo's suggestion.

Clo: I have been looking at Norwegian Air and would like your opinion.  Their reviews are all over the map, with some very happy and some not so much.  Many of the complaints deal with indifferent, or even rude, customer service. What was your experience, and how recently did you fly?  Is it worth paying for their premium product from the U.S. (it looks like it would not apply to the shorter European leg)?

Update:  Have set up a VPN and it does not seem to make any difference.  When I use the vpn and log in from a European server I still get the price differences.  When I use the vpn and log in from a Norwegian server I got the lesser prices, the pages are still in Norsk, and I cannot use Google Translate after drilling down 4-5 pages.  It is possible to use other translators, but very cumbersome.

I think the only way to do it is run a parallel page in English, but other suggestions would certainly be welcome.