Northern Lights on 2024 Alaska Cruises Guaranteed?

[memoak]

42 minutes ago, tothemall&beyond said:

The only cruise lines of which I am aware that have any type of Northern Lights Promise (guarantee) are Hurtigruten and Havila which offer it on 11 night roundtrip voyages of their coastal ferries from Bergen (Norway) up to Kirkenes and back to Bergen.

You do know this is about a theater presentation and not nature ?

[tothemall&beyond]

53 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

True. But Princess offers their Northern Lights cruise with a follow on TA back to Ft Lauderdale, while visiting some pretty cool ports along the way. 

With the guarantee NL cruises you referenced, do you get your money back if you don’t have the time or funds to stick around to go on their next NL’s cruise?

 

But the Princess cruises also do not get as close to land, to some very cool ports along the Norwegian coast, and the gorgeous vistas as the coastal cruises do. We did the 11 night roundtrip coastal voyage in mid-December 2022 and it was absolutely magical and wonderful in every way. We also did not have to pay ANY extra for wifi, unlimited 24/7 coffee, gratuities or port charges.

 

As to the NL Promise, there's no refund, but you don't stick around for the next cruise either. You get to take a free one-way sailing (Bergen to Kirkenes or Kirkenes to Bergen) for the following aurora season. 

Subject to the following 'Terms and Conditions' in 2024/25

• This offer applies to all new bookings of voyages of 11 days or more along the Norwegian coast aboard The Coastal Express and The North Cape Line (previously The North Cape Express). It applies to voyages departing between September 20, 2024 and March 31, 2025.

• A Northern Lights occurrence is defined as a sighting from the ship that is recorded by the ship’s deck officers and that is announced to passengers on board. Announcements are made to your cabin or via another channel decided by the deck officers. An occurrence can last anything from a few minutes to a matter of hours, and the ships decision as to whether the Northern Lights occurred is final.

• We announce occurrences of the Northern Lights on board the ship and you have the option of announcements direct to your cabin or suite. We hope that you will experience seeing the Northern Lights whilst on your voyage with us of 11 days or more, but we cannot be held responsible if you don’t.

• We promise that in the event of there being no Northern Lights occurrence as defined above, you will receive a 6-day southbound or 7-day northbound Coastal Express voyage, departing between September 20, 2025 and March 31, 2026 in an unspecified inside twin cabin on a full-board basis free of charge. You may upgrade to another grade of cabin subject to additional costs and availability. Please note that upgrading to suites with this offer may not be available.

• We reserve the right to withdraw or amend the offer at any time. Please check at the time of booking as to the current status of the offer. The offer must be claimed and booked within 28 days from your return date. A choice of departure dates will be given.

• The offer excludes flights, transfers, all onboard expenses, excursions, and luggage handling. The offer does not apply to re-scheduled or cancelled cruises. Bookings are non-transferable, non-changeable, and have no cash value. This offer is not combinable with claims for compensation, refunds or price reductions.

Edited June 24 by tothemall&beyond

[tothemall&beyond]

21 minutes ago, memoak said:

You do know this is about a theater presentation and not nature ?

I do - but the OP apparently did not and asked the question about NL guarantees, so I answered.

[frugaltravel]

7 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

You'll have to keep an eye on the Patter as this was how the Sign Up period was advertised.

 

 

Was this in Juneau or Skagway?

 

Did you go to the Puppies in the Piazza? If so, do you know which musher was there? I think Ryan Redington was doing that for a while. Not sure if he still is. 

[Ken the cruiser]

7 minutes ago, frugaltravel said:

Was this in Juneau or Skagway?

 

Did you go to the Puppies in the Piazza? If so, do you know which musher was there? I think Ryan Redington was doing that for a while. Not sure if he still is. 

The sign up for the "Voyage to the Stars" Planetarium event was set for 5-5:45 pm in the Library on May 4th after everyone was back onboard from visiting Skagway. The event was the next day.

 

Not sure who Ryan Redington is. We passed on going to see the Puppies in the Piazza. But on May 12th after dinner, we went to a special 7 pm North to Alaska lecture in the theater featuring Libby Riddles, the woman to won the Iditarod sled dog race and really enjoyed her presentation! I believe she also did the Puppies in the Piazza thing earlier while she was onboard. I could be wrong though, since we didn't attend that.

  

[suzyed]

On 5/23/2024 at 12:24 AM, Ken the cruiser said:

You are correct. This is explained in the second paragraph in that promotion.

 

This new immersive Voyage to the Stars experience is part of the cruise line’s award-winning North to Alaska with Princess program set to debut for the upcoming 2024 cruise and cruisetour season that strengthens the overall guest connection in the Great Land. This year Princess guests will step inside a planetarium in the Princess Theater for a front row seat to the “Northern Lights” presentation showcasing the beauty and wonder of this phenomenon featuring live imagery, designed to engage adults and kids alike. 
 

In fact, we went to the planetarium show they had on stage on our 1st leg of our Alaska B3B which we just disembarked from today, and it was pretty enjoyable. However, we also saw the Northern Lights on the 2nd leg of our cruise, which I just reposted some enhanced photos of at the end of my Live From thread a few minutes ago at post 423.

 

 

However, if you really want to improve your chances to see the Northern Lights, Princess offers a Northern Lights cruise every October that cruises to a few Norway ports, Alta and Tromso, above the Arctic Circle that are known for folks seeing some awesome ones that time of year. In fact, they just posted their 2026 Northern Lights cruise! 
 
https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=8630

 

Yes, that was the one we went on...sailed on the Sapphire.  We saw very faint NL in Tromso but spectacular NL in Alta!!   We took an excursion that was an hour away from the ship and away from the city/ port lights!

[ecs66]

I think that God is the only One who can "guarantee" a northern lights show

 

Also, I recall from when I lived there that if the trip is in summer it's not very likely they'll be seen; it's too light.  The darker the better.

[Ken the cruiser]

12 hours ago, suzyed said:

Yes, that was the one we went on...sailed on the Sapphire.  We saw very faint NL in Tromso but spectacular NL in Alta!!   We took an excursion that was an hour away from the ship and away from the city/ port lights!

Cool! That’s exactly what we wanted to hear. Sure, the weather can definitely play a factor. But we’re figuring the potential is definitely higher for seeing them in October than most any other time, especially cruising around up in that part of the world. Were you also able to see them at times from your balcony while cruising around up there at night?

 

When we were in Alaska last month, the potential was pretty high most nights for seeing the NL around 11 pm as we cruised between ports. Unfortunately, it was cloudy most of those nights, except for May 10th when we got super lucky making the “hunt” on those previous nights that much more worthwhile in the end, as we were ready for that 15 minutes of viewing and picture taking! 😁

[suzyed]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

Cool! That’s exactly what we wanted to hear. Sure, the weather can definitely play a factor. But we’re figuring the potential is definitely higher for seeing them in October than most any other time, especially cruising around up in that part of the world. Were you also able to see them at times from your balcony while cruising around up there at night?

 

When we were in Alaska last month, the potential was pretty high most nights for seeing the NL around 11 pm as we cruised between ports. Unfortunately, it was cloudy most of those nights, except for May 10th when we got super lucky making the “hunt” on those previous nights that much more worthwhile in the end, as we were ready for that 15 minutes of viewing and picture taking! 😁

We didn't have a balcony on that sailing...we had OV.  When we returned to the ship after we saw the NL in Alta, you could very faintly see them from the deck and as a matter of fact they were a bit more visible looking through our phone cameras but still very faint.

We had an astrophysicist onboard who gave a talk for several days leading up to seeing the NL and what the perimeters were in order to see them.  He accurately predicted the exact day that we saw them!! It was really amazing!

Edited June 25 by suzyed

[suzyed]

9 hours ago, suzyed said:

We didn't have a balcony on that sailing...we had OV.  When we returned to the ship after we saw the NL in Alta, you could very faintly see them from the deck and as a matter of fact they were a bit more visible looking through our phone cameras but still very faint.

We had an astrophysicist onboard who gave a talk for several days leading up to seeing the NL and what the perimeters were in order to see them.  He accurately predicted the exact day that we saw them!! It was really amazing!

Just a hint....typically the light pollution in port will make it difficult to see if the indeed show up.  So if you can book an excursion away from the port you have a better chance of seeing a good show.   We had actually booked a hotel for the first of two nights we were in Alta but cancelled it when we found the tour we eventually went on and we are so glad we did!