Report on Aurora Northern lights cruise Nov 2023

[TigerB]

Thank you @pete14 for the great blog. A northern lights cruise is on our bucket list, so I will continue to read with interest.

 

Gervase Phinn was on one of our recent cruises but I missed the first two talks, so didn't bother with the remainder. Hopefully, he will be on a future cruise and I will make a point of seeing him. On our Arvia cruise in January was a retired West Mids DCI, I can't remember his name just now, but he was also very engaging and had the audience hanging on his every word.

 

Sorry to hear about some of the food, and hope it improves as your cruise progresses.

 

With hearing about your deccies going up, and on Iona too, I'm going to message our daughter who is currently on Arvia, to see if theirs have gone up too.

 

I wait in anticipation of some cracking photos (from your lad of course) of the northern lights.

[pete14]

10 minutes ago, Educator69 said:

Cheers Pete and friend! Any info on location of docking to the towns would be really helpful. Knowing whether we need to rely on shuttle buses or can come and go much more freely would useful, especially in Alta as we are there the longest. There is a trip on our port call in Haugesund for Nordic walking but it had all sold out. However, I found the route of the walk, which is doable independently, but was wondering how far from the town the dock was. 

In Andalsnes, you come off the ship and you are in the town. In Tromso, you will almost certainly dock in the commercial dock so to go into the centre, you will need the shuttle bus. It takes about 10-15 minutes and drops outside the Radisson Blu hotel nearly on the quayside. I will let you know about Alta tomorrow but I am pretty sure a shuttle is needed.

We are in Haugesund in a few days but I would be surprised if a shuttle was required. 

[Fionboard]

40 minutes ago, pete14 said:

When in Tromso do what the Tromsonians would probably never do on a Monday morning.

 

Beer o'clock somewhere! 

[Selbourne]

1 hour ago, pete14 said:

When in Tromso do what the Tromsonians would probably never do on a Monday morning.

 

We WILL get value out of our drinks package 🤣 

[Selbourne]

53 minutes ago, Educator69 said:

Cheers Pete and friend! Any info on location of docking to the towns would be really helpful. Knowing whether we need to rely on shuttle buses or can come and go much more freely would useful, especially in Alta as we are there the longest. There is a trip on our port call in Haugesund for Nordic walking but it had all sold out. However, I found the route of the walk, which is doable independently, but was wondering how far from the town the dock was. 

You need to use the shuttle in Alta, but it’s a good and frequent service. 

[pete14]

23 minutes ago, Selbourne said:

We WILL get value out of our drinks package 🤣 

Sadly, this was in a bar on the quayside in downtown Tromso that didn’t recognise the drinks package. The receipt below is for 2 40cl glasses of local brew.

 

 

[pete14]

Who doesn’t like food pictures? These are Fromm the Glasshouse this lunch time

 

[TigerB]

It's all very well having the cheffy plate decorations, but I would be asking where my mushy peas were.🫢

 

BTW - I note that before you left on your cruise you must have had lessons from @Interestedcruisefan on photo orientation.😂

 

 

[pete14]

5 minutes ago, TigerB said:

It's all very well having the cheffy plate decorations, but I would be asking where my mushy peas were.🫢

 

BTW - I note that before you left on your cruise you must have had lessons from @Interestedcruisefan on photo orientation.😂

 

 

The peas were beneath the fish. Whole ones, which I prefer, not masquerading as guacamole as a certain politician once said. 
 

As for photos, I take no lessons from anyone, which is why they generally don’t work, although the ones above seem OK. The problem was that the plates weren’t all round, especially those not made in the Potteries.

[Educator69]

BTW the Christmas Aurora Northern Lights is now showing sold out. I’m hoping this means we’ll find out if our offer upgrade was successful very soon. Not bothered if it isn’t. Thank you for all the port information. 

[Presto2]

Hi Pete, just wondering how much day light you are getting. We are hoping to go to Lapland again but when we normally go its Feb half term and light from 8.30 - 4pm ish. Don't want to go in half term any more though - silly money - so trying to work out the best time option for day light 🙂

[pete14]

44 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

Hi Pete, just wondering how much day light you are getting. We are hoping to go to Lapland again but when we normally go its Feb half term and light from 8.30 - 4pm ish. Don't want to go in half term any more though - silly money - so trying to work out the best time option for day light 🙂

According to Horizon, today in Tromso, sunrise was 9:56 am and sunset 13:01 pm. 

[Presto2]

2 minutes ago, pete14 said:

According to Horizon, today in Tromso, sunrise was 9:56 am and sunset 13:01 pm. 

Good grief that's not a lot of day light at all. Am guessing it gets worse as you get closer to December.

You are 2 hours ahead aren't you now?

 

[jeanlyon]

2 hours ago, pete14 said:

Who doesn’t like food pictures? These are Fromm the Glasshouse this lunch time

 

Do you still have an evening meal after that lot?!!

[jh1809]

Glad you're having such an enjoyable cruise, Pete. "I know select dining is not cheap..." That's the only thing in your reports that I would disagree with. I think it's amazingly cheap. You wouldn't get a meal in a typical High Street Indian for what Sindhu charges, and of course Sindhu's quality is fat better.

[Stokiegolfer]

I agree Sindhu restaurant is brilliant, on Ventura great selection of food and carafe of wine enjoyable with friends we made on there, each of the three cruises to the Caribbean.

[pete14]

3 hours ago, Presto2 said:

Good grief that's not a lot of day light at all. Am guessing it gets worse as you get closer to December.

You are 2 hours ahead aren't you now?

 

I think shortest day is Dec 21. If not, someone will correct me. We are only one hour ahead although on a cruise, it hardly matters. P&O could invent Pando time on a 18 hour day of 75 minutes in an hour and it wouldn’t matter.

[Presto2]

3 minutes ago, pete14 said:

I think shortest day is Dec 21. If not, someone will correct me. We are only one hour ahead although on a cruise, it hardly matters. P&O could invent Pando time on a 18 hour day of 75 minutes in an hour and it wouldn’t matter.

It was 2 hrs when we were in Lapland so it is Pando time  ...... enjoy.

[pete14]

After the beautiful Glasshouse lunch, we had pre booked the Beach house this evening so were duty bound to go there despite not being hungry. I have to say I had the best cooked 10 ounce fillet steak whilst having the facility to keep the chips etc hot as well. Pete junior had the same (which he cooked all on his own) whilst Mrs Pete chose a sizzler with giant prawns. As Pete junior had to attend a teams meeting at 7:30, we had no choice but to sit in the Crows Nest so we didn’t disturb him. Either that or a local group from Tromso in the theatre or Mission Impossible in the cinema. No contest. 
 

For Junior’s teams meeting, he had to tether his computer to his phone because the ship’s internet seems to be down again. We have already had a day refunded because it wasn’t useable, maybe another visit to reception will be in order tomorrow. There is so much good about this cruise for the few niggles to spoil but it is frustrating that they do not seem to be able to rectify them. The internet was sold to us as being something it is not, hopefully when starlink is introduced, the problem will disappear but it shouldn’t have been advertised as a much better service before they can offer it.

 

We leave for Alta at about 1:00 am after the Northern Lights chasers get back.

Edited November 20, 2023 by pete14

[jh1809]

1 hour ago, pete14 said:

After the beautiful Glasshouse lunch, we had pre booked the Beach house this evening so were duty bound to go there despite not being hungry. I have to say I had the best cooked 10 ounce fillet steak whilst having the facility to keep the chips etc hot as well. Pete junior had the same (which he cooked all on his own) whilst Mrs Pete chose a sizzler with giant prawns. As Pete junior had to attend a teams meeting at 7:30, we had no choice but to sit in the Crows Nest so we didn’t disturb him. Either that or a local group from Tromso in the theatre or Mission Impossible in the cinema. No contest. 
 

For Junior’s teams meeting, he had to tether his computer to his phone because the ship’s internet seems to be down again. We have already had a day refunded because it wasn’t useable, maybe another visit to reception will be in order tomorrow. There is so much good about this cruise for the few niggles to spoil but it is frustrating that they do not seem to be able to rectify them. The internet was sold to us as being something it is not, hopefully when starlink is introduced, the problem will disappear but it shouldn’t have been advertised as a much better service before they can offer it.

 

We leave for Alta at about 1:00 am after the Northern Lights chasers get back.

I think the trouble with the Internet is because the further north you go, the lower in the sky the satellite providing it will be, and hence the weaker the signal, as the satellite has to be in a geostationary orbit above the Equator.

[terrierjohn]

1 hour ago, jh1809 said:

I think the trouble with the Internet is because the further north you go, the lower in the sky the satellite providing it will be, and hence the weaker the signal, as the satellite has to be in a geostationary orbit above the Equator.

Starlink should cure this problem, they dont use geostationery satellites. Not sure how they operate but suspect there are a string of them in the lower orbit position, and you connect to the nearest one to you at the time.

But I am sure we will have a few experts able to tell us exactly how they differ, and why this improves internet speeds.

[davecttr]

39 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

Starlink should cure this problem, they dont use geostationery satellites. Not sure how they operate but suspect there are a string of them in the lower orbit position, and you connect to the nearest one to you at the time.

But I am sure we will have a few experts able to tell us exactly how they differ, and why this improves internet speeds.

I think the Starlink satellites are all in a lower orbit including about 200? which are in polar orbits so there should be several in range even in Norway

 

starlink.com has a map of coverage and a section on boats

[RJHNorthyorks]

On 11/20/2023 at 12:40 AM, molecrochip said:

P&O do provide port information, just not in paper form.

 

One of your pre-cruise emails will have had the link to download the document to your phone/tablet/laptop.

 

It should be available on the myholiday website soon too.

 

https://www.pocruisesguides.com

I actually research ports myself but always find ships port information talks and info additionally helpful. 
we asked at shore excursion’s and we’re told P and O no longer provide port information and we certainly haven’t come across anything on this cruise that comes close to our experience on other cruise lines. 

[RJHNorthyorks]

11 hours ago, pete14 said:

After the beautiful Glasshouse lunch, we had pre booked the Beach house this evening so were duty bound to go there despite not being hungry. I have to say I had the best cooked 10 ounce fillet steak whilst having the facility to keep the chips etc hot as well. Pete junior had the same (which he cooked all on his own) whilst Mrs Pete chose a sizzler with giant prawns. As Pete junior had to attend a teams meeting at 7:30, we had no choice but to sit in the Crows Nest so we didn’t disturb him. Either that or a local group from Tromso in the theatre or Mission Impossible in the cinema. No contest. 
 

For Junior’s teams meeting, he had to tether his computer to his phone because the ship’s internet seems to be down again. We have already had a day refunded because it wasn’t useable, maybe another visit to reception will be in order tomorrow. There is so much good about this cruise for the few niggles to spoil but it is frustrating that they do not seem to be able to rectify them. The internet was sold to us as being something it is not, hopefully when starlink is introduced, the problem will disappear but it shouldn’t have been advertised as a much better service before they can offer it.

 

We leave for Alta at about 1:00 am after the Northern Lights chasers get back.

Son bought a days internet to watch the GP but as it was down they also refunded him. 
I have a package so presumably need to request a refund as nothing has appeared on my account. 

[RJHNorthyorks]

As previously said this is only our 3rd P and O cruise chosen for the itinerary not the cruise company. Most of my travelling companions are Celebrity and Azamara fans so there is quite a bit of comparison going on. 
Having said that everyone seems to be enjoying the trip. We are all into quizzing and there are certainly plenty of quizzes. The entertainment team are good. We’ve been to a couple of shows - Roy Locke was very good although I think he left the ship yesterday.
We are mainly eating freedom style in Medina. Generally we are finding the food quite good and sometimes very good. One of our group is a vegetarian and most evenings she has had a reasonable choice. 
Out of the blue I had received an email saying this was a Christmas cruise. The decorations have gone up and the ship looks very pretty. 
 

In Andalsnes we took a ships tour to the Rodven ( stave church) and then to the Troll Wall. Interesting and good to view some of the amazing countryside whilst travelling around. The shop and visitor centre were closed although there are some information boards and the toilets were open. 
After the tour we caught the gondola from right outside the ship up the mountain.  Excellent walkways at the top and it was wheelchair friendly. The views were stunning. There is also a restaurant/ cafe at the top that we didn’t use it. 
After that we had a wander around the town but didn’t really find much to see. The railway carriage chapel seemed shut. There is a mountaineering museum next to the dock but we didn’t go in.
 

In Tromso I had booked a private tour with Tromso Arctic Reindeer - Reindeer feeding and Sami Culture. We caught the free shuttle bus from the ship which dropped us outside the Raddison Blu Hotel. The Reindeer people picked us up outside the pub next door to the Raddison Blu for a 25 minute drive with commentary to the camp. 
We really enjoyed this trip. There are 300 reindeer at the camp and a series of Sami huts each containing a roaring fire and hot drinks. We were given unlimited amounts of reindeer food and went off across the field amongst the reindeer to feed them - great fun. 

The scenery was absolutely stunning and we watched the sun going down over the mountains. It felt very cold but we were OK as we popped into the huts for hot chocolate. 
We were served a very tasty lunch of reindeer stew ( there was a veggie option) and had a 30 minute presentation about Sami culture. 
I didn’t think this trip was wheelchair friendly but there was a man in a wheelchair and the guides were very attentive and he was able to take part in everything.

On our return to Tromso we had a wander around. It’s a really pretty place and by 2 pm it was dark so everywhere was lit up. We bought gifts for grandkids , had an expensive coffee and snack and I fell over on the ice ( uninjured) before heading back to the ship for the 4pm quiz ( joint 1st but lost on the tie breaker). 

it really is treacherous under foot and good snow boots are essential. 
Last night 4 of us went to the organ recital in the Arctic Cathedral which was very enjoyable. Mr Google tells us it is not a Cathedral but a Parish Church and therefore not the most northerly Cathedral.

On our way to Alta now. Not sure what we will do there although 3 of our party are going to the Tirpitz museum which is only available through an organised tour in Winter.