Roald Amundsen Cruise Reviews

[donaldsc]

We are booked on the Roald Amundsen Alaska trip out of Nome AK for next summer.  Ignoring the strong chance that the cruise may be cancelled, I just got through reading the reviews of the ship, cruises and cruise organization on CC and I have never seen so many bad reviews for a ship and cruise on CC.  This will be one of the more expensive cruises that we have taken but we picked it because the ports that we are supposed to visit sounded great.  

 

However, based on the bad reviews that I read, I am beginning to get cold feet.  I have been on expedition trips before so I know that you should not expect the amenities that are on a big ship but that has always been counterbalanced by great places to visit and highly trained professional cruise staff.  Many of the people who had been on other Hurtigruten cruise wrote very negative reviews about this ship and also the non-professionalism of both the ship and expedition staff 

 

I have a few months before final payment is due but I don't want to spend so much money for a bad cruise.

 

Any thoughts from anyone who has cruised on the Roald Amundsen.

 

DON

[jonikal]

Hopefully things will have improved since we were on the Amundsen's first sailing from Nome to Vancouver in Oct, 2019.  We submitted our comments to Hurtigruten and cruisecritic in reviews,.  Not mentioned, however, was our disappointment with the food offerings which lacked variety as compared to other Hurtigruten ships, such as the Fram.  As with most first time events that don't always work out as they should, one can only hope that the problems have now been resolved.  

[mrmoviezombie]

My reading of them was they were all problems with the initial northern sailings. If you look at the next Antarctic season reviews, there are people that are happy with the ship

[donaldsc]

51 minutes ago, mrmoviezombie said:

My reading of them was they were all problems with the initial northern sailings. If you look at the next Antarctic season reviews, there are people that are happy with the ship

 

I realize that the problems mentioned might have been initial teething problems but this season's Antarctica cruises have been cancelled and I have to make final payment by March 2021.  I am not sure that there will be any new cruises or reviews by then and there probably can do anything about the apparent over crowding.  

 

I really really want to do this cruise but I may put it off until next year.

 

Thanks for the comments.

 

DON

[mrmoviezombie]

There are reviews of the Dec 2019/Jan 2020 Antarctica cruises.

https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/getreviews.cfm?action=ship&ShipID=1265

 

Doesn't matter what they do, overcrowding will not be a problem of at least a year or two.

 

We are booked on the Nome->Halifax northwest passage next year.

Edited November 10, 2020 by mrmoviezombie

[Bella0714]

My wife and I sailed on Hurtigruten from Chile to the Falklands and back to Chile late January 2020. The ship is beautiful with big, open public spaces. The staff couldn’t have been more helpful and informative. Everything, including the landings, went seamlessly. The expedition staff clearly loves what they do and are extremely knowledgeable and passionate. We didn’t love the food, but I think that was because on a cruise such as this one, all of the food is frozen. There are no ports where they can stock up (unlike in Norway, where we thought the food on Hurtigruten was very good).

 

Rooms are extremely spacious, even the ones not on the deluxe levels. My only two problems with the ship were the lack of a wraparound promenade deck and the poor visibility out of the front window of the explorer lounge at the top.

 

We would go back to Antarctica on the Roald Amundsen in a heartbeat, although we would prefer a smaller shop, such as Fram, for more and longer time on shore.

 

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[Paul S]

I can support Bella0714. DW and I sailed on Roald Amundsen in February 2020 Punta Arenas-Antarctic-Falklands-Punta-Arenas, which I believe was the last uninterrupted sailing of the season. We had been apprehensive having read the early reviews, but loved the ship, and found everybody friendly and helpful, and the captain and senior officers were often seen round the ship and happy to chat. We were in a suite, and ate most days in Lindstrom, which we thought very good, but enjoyed the food in Aune when we ate there. 

 

On every trip there are always niggles, and most of ours related to the organisation of travelling and transfers Santiago - Punta Arenas and then back at the end, which could have been much better handled. A tip for LATAM flights to and from the port - the food is dire, so if you have the opportunity to buy something beforehand and take it with you, do so.

 

Some supplies didn't get loaded in Punta Arenas, but it didn't really affect the passengers other than that some wines and bar drinks weren't available (though there were plenty of alternatives) and some items were missing from the shop, most noticeably camera cards.

 

Though nobody said this explicitly, putting together snippets we heard around the ship my suspicion is that it wasn't really ready to go on the initial sailings, but there was pressure to go ahead because of the number of missed sailings. I guess it's always a bit of a risk to go on the first few departures of a new vessel, especially one as technically complex as this.

 

To back up what I said about loving the ship, we've booked another expedition on Roald Amundsen for January 2023!