Coastal Voyages - Which Nationalities to Expect.

[BORDER REIVER]

We have chosen to do the 11 night Bergen - Kirkenes - Bergen trip next year and were wondering what mix of people we might meet. We enjoy meeting new people and making friends, but sadly, as was the case here in the UK in the 1960's, foreign language teaching was either non-existent or limited to basic French or Latin. I appreciate that most Europeans have a better grasp of English than many UK residents, but with my basic French lessons having been over 40 years ago, I do find it embarrassing to have to ask other nationalities to converse in English.

As our trip is one of the ones that Hurtigruten advertise as being UK flight-inclusive, I would imagine that there will be a fair number of UK passengers on board.

I read a cruise report recently where the passenger had been on a walking tour and the guide had only spoken in German.

It is embarrassing to only speak one language, but we do and would hope that we will be able to understand announcements and tour guides.

Are we likely to have any problems with this?

[SarniaLo]

From my experience on 4 coastal voyages (in winter and spring), you find a fair bunch of English-speaking nationalities (mostly from UK, but also sometimes from as far as Australia!), a lot of Germans (and Austrians), Scandinavians (Denmark, Sweden, some Norwegians also do the occasional round-trip, and of course the local passengers), and a few French-speaking passengers (French and Swiss mostly). I've also seen people from Spain and a small group from South Korea.

 

On board, the annoucement are in Norwegian, English and German, very rarely French. I don't speak Norwegian and I usually consider that English will be the common language on board (Scandinavians usually speak great English). French people (who I must admit are often lacking in language skills) usually travel by themselves and thus will have at least basic English (or should have). Sometimes Germans travel in group, with their own guide, and it happens that they don't speak English that well.

 

During my 2010 Christmas trip onboard the MS Polarlys, half the passengers (over 100 people) were elderly Germans, all from the same group, with their own tour guide/translator and a lot of them didn't speak English, so interacting with them was a bit of a problem for the other passengers.

 

As for the excursions (and the activities on board, or the meeting to discuss what will happen in the upcoming days and so on...), they are usually done in language groups. What I have seen most often is one german-speaking group, and one norwegian/english speaking group (which often ends up being english speaking only, since as I said most Norwegians speak very good english). It may happen that there are not enough English-speaking passengers on one excursion to warrant for an English-speaking guide, but it never happened to me. The daily programs are also printed in three languages (sometimes also in French). Most of the staff speak English as well (the only one that I met who couldn't was a cleaning lady in Kirkenes, who just came on board during the stop to help clean up the ship).

 

So in a nutshell : if you speak English, you should be fine! ;)

[RSF Cruiser]

My experience on only one coastal voyage (Dec'12-Jan'13) was similar to SarniaLo's. About half the passengers were from Germany, with most of them traveling as a group, and then a few from various other places. Just about everyone spoke English (I'm from the US and can't really speak other languages, either). Announcements were in Norwegian, German, and English. Language was never a problem.

 

I've traveled twice in Norway to rather remote areas, and although I was with Norwegians, who certainly made the language differences easy, just about everyone we came in contact with spoke English. I even learned a few Norwegian phrases. On excursions, when there were multiple nationalities/languages, the tour guide would speak in English.

[BORDER REIVER]

SarniaLo & RSF Cruiser - thanks for your replies which were a big help. We can hardly wait for the time when this cruise will happen and are so excited, planning everything, with questions to ask being written down and dealt with. We've got our flight times now and realise that a night in Norway isn't necessary, so we're going to book hotel rooms here in the UK next to our local airport, for before and after our holiday.

[digitl]

Our experience has been the same as that of SarniaLo: you won't be short of conversations or information in English, either on board or on a trip, whether it be from a native speaker or from someone with English as a second (and usually very competent) language.

 

It may be worth checking your itinerary as some trips are advertised as having a Hurtigruten guide on board. If that's the case, and you get one like we had, they will probably offer a casual walk into town in some of the ports where there isn't time for anything more complicated. Our guide was really good and walked us around towns pointing out things of interest, explaining the local history and geography, and generally making the trip come alive. And there was no charge!

[BORDER REIVER]

Our experience has been the same as that of SarniaLo: you won't be short of conversations or information in English, either on board or on a trip, whether it be from a native speaker or from someone with English as a second (and usually very competent) language.

 

It may be worth checking your itinerary as some trips are advertised as having a Hurtigruten guide on board. If that's the case, and you get one like we had, they will probably offer a casual walk into town in some of the ports where there isn't time for anything more complicated. Our guide was really good and walked us around towns pointing out things of interest, explaining the local history and geography, and generally making the trip come alive. And there was no charge!

Thanks digitl, the short town walks sound good if there is a guide on board.

For me, conversation with others can sometimes be difficult (and fun). I have to try and remember to try and speak English in a form that others will understand. My Northumbrian dialect is often a problem in some parts of England, although people from Scandinavian countries have less difficulty understanding me.

My late mother was once mistaken for a German - by a German lady.

What fun.