Hurtigruten - 11 day menu offerings

[Hezu]

4 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Seasonal. August and September - might be available October In North Norway.

- very tasty and aromatic berries - flavors of passion fruit, and apricot.
 

And of course, the seasonality only applies to the fresh berries, preserved berries could be found also other times of the year.

[Travel2?]

Starting in Kirkenes; hopefully we'll get a taste up North!

[Splinter]

If you want to get a taste of cloudberries before your trip, IKEA has cloudberry jam in their food section.

[QShip]

On 10/11/2019 at 2:05 PM, Bella0714 said:

@Homerody: We did see more NL, five times in all, including one night when they went on for over four hours (we were off the ship by that time and in Lofoten).  Then, back on board the Finnmarken, we saw another beautiful display while sailing out of Svolvaer towards Stamsund. The captain was kind enough to turn off the ship's front lights. That was a beautiful display, too. We got very lucky with Northern Lights and fall foliage.

 

Enjoy your trip. We were on two Hurtigruten ships on this trip (Nordnorge and Finnmarken), and although they were very different, we loved both of them. The staff is top-notch. I also recommend trying the ala carte dining room one night, too. The food was really fine.

Bella0714

You say you were on two ships on your cruise.  I am curious why and how that worked.  Did you have a layover to stay a few days along the way, or did you possibly schedule an up and a back instead of the round trip 11-12 day cruise?  We are wondering about an up and a back with a few days in Kirkenes.

Edited January 19, 2020 by QShip

[Bella0714]

3 minutes ago, QShip said:

Bella0714

You say you were on two ships on your cruise.  I am curious why and how that worked.  Did you have a layover to stay a few days along the way, or did you possibly schedule an up and a back instead of the round trip 11-12 day cruise?  We are wondering about an up and a back with a few days in Kirkenes.

We went from Bergen to Kirkenes on Nordnorge. We booked that separately because the UK site was having a sale. That was on Nordnorge. We stayed on Nordnorge, booked port to port, down to Svolvaer. That was for an unspecified cabin, but they let us stay in our original cabin. Then we spent a week in Lofoten and booked port to port for two nights to Trondheim. From there, we took a train to Oslo. 

[QShip]

Bella0714

Thanks.  Sounds a bit more complicated than we want to handle for our first trip to Norway.

[Bella0714]

2 hours ago, QShip said:

Bella0714

Thanks.  Sounds a bit more complicated than we want to handle for our first trip to Norway.

It was pretty easy, and Lofoten is worth a stop of more than a few days. Booking port to port on Hurtigruten.no is easy, too.

[hallasm]

4 hours ago, QShip said:

We are wondering about an up and a back with a few days in Kirkenes.

An alternative to a return voyage could be train from Oslo to Bergen with a stop in Myrdal/Flåm for a 'Norway in a Nutshell' tour - some days in Bergen followed by a voyage from Bergen to Kirkenes - stay few days in Kirkenes and then flight back to Oslo for some days. Personally I do find the 11 night 'Too much of the Same' - I have either done the 6 nights northbound or shorter  'port to port' voyages. My next Hurtigruten voyage will be from Svolvær to Kirkenes.

[thehucks]

Hello.  Thank you for all of the wonderful information posted here!  After looking over the itineraries for Hurtigruten's coastal voyages, I would love to take my family of four (kids would be 18 and 16) on a cruise.  My only concern is this:  of the four of us, three have food allergies.  Two are allergic to gluten, dairy, fish, and shellfish.  I'm only allergic to gluten and dairy.  Is this cruise line able to accommodate allergies like this?  I can't have a starving 16 year-old boy on board 🙂  Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

[hallasm]

51 minutes ago, thehucks said:

Is this cruise line able to accommodate allergies like this?

Breakfast and lunch is buffet and I have seen gluten-free options available - Most dinners are a set menu - some buffet dinners.

Fish and shellfish menus are quite common in Norway.

I’ll suggest that you do contact booking@hurtigruten.com and ask - also once booked you should contact the reception at the ship you’re sailing in advance in order to ensure that they are aware of your special requirements.

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, thehucks said:

Hello.  Thank you for all of the wonderful information posted here!  After looking over the itineraries for Hurtigruten's coastal voyages, I would love to take my family of four (kids would be 18 and 16) on a cruise.  My only concern is this:  of the four of us, three have food allergies.  Two are allergic to gluten, dairy, fish, and shellfish.  I'm only allergic to gluten and dairy.  Is this cruise line able to accommodate allergies like this?  I can't have a starving 16 year-old boy on board 🙂  Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

 

First, how serious are the allergies?  Do you need to keep an EpiPen with you at all times, like with peanut allergies whre anaphylactic shock can occur (which is life-threatening)?

If so, I'd contact the Seattle office of Hurtigruten to discuss with them.

 

On our coastal roundtrip 2 years ago, there were four others at the table next to us.  Between the 6 of us, there seemed to be quite a few food allergies, and all were handled very well.

 

The protocol is to check the dinner menu at about lunch time, and if there are any food items that are not okay (or even that you just don't like!), speak with the manager there, and discuss a substitute. We all found them very easy to deal with.  But none of us had to deal with the "food must not even touch the plate" or any cross-contamination concerns.

In my case, we had notified Hurtigruten when we made our reservations, so I didn't even have to check every day - although I did just in case I didn't like something.  (But the food was truly wonderful, and I say that as a picky eater!)

 

As mentioned elsewhere in a response, breakfast and lunch are buffet style, so you can choose what you want, and avoid the rest.  However, buffets might be potentially troublesome if even slight cross-contamination is a concern, because obviously the kitchen staff/servers would not have real control over that once the food is "out".

 

I think most places are quite alert these days about food allergies, including contamination.  [Even in Japan, with some of the very elaborate food preparation and presentation - *and* with language issues - my food allergy was handled very well, and they had substitutes already placed for me.]

But again... this wasn't a life-or-death potential anaphylactic shock problem, which is obviously more serious (even though my situation could land me in the hospital).

 

Enjoy the trip.  We hope we can return some day. It was wonderful!

 

GC

[thehucks]

Thank you, hallasm and GeezerCouple!  Appreciate the advice and will contact the cruise line directly.

[hallasm]

15 minutes ago, thehucks said:

Thank you, hallasm and GeezerCouple!  Appreciate the advice and will contact the cruise line directly.

You’re welcome - amazing journey - when do you plan to go?