Secrets revealed: Ultimate Hurtigruten Ship Tour

[@trbarton743]

A good reminder, especially for anyone traveling, you may need a European adapter. I cruise a lot & always have 2 in my equipment bag. Thanks again for another great video.

[@michaelhortin]

A good reminder, I always travel with mine. 😉

[@georevox5638]

What a wonderful video! It brought back so many memories from my several trips on the coastal express route in Norway. The Hurtigruten ships are in their naval design the product of so many years of experience and you pointed out their biggest advantage: the close proximity to the open decks. I only traveled in winter (because of the northern lights, the light at polar night and the magical christmas atmosphere) and my cabins were also located on deck 5. It was so brilliant after the announcement of northern lights via the tannoy to jump into the winter clothes and get out on the promenade deck within a matter of seconds. Something I missed very much on a Havila ship serving the same route. Another bonus of the ship‘s design is that you can easily spot the loading and unloading operations in the ports from deck 5 & 7 as well as my most loved experiance: standing allone in storm and rain right in the center of the bow sectuin under the bridge on deck 5 and watching the landscape go by (and after that a hot shower and then a brilliant dinner😊)

[@michaelhortin]

I'm pleased you enjoyed the video. I am working on one pulling together the whole trip which will go live in a few weeks. I have contemplated a winter trip, but I am not one for the cold and the dark! If you had to choose Havilla or Hurtigruten?

[@georevox5638]

@@michaelhortin I would always choose Hurtigruten over Havila. When I traveled northbound on Havila Capella in April 2022, the ship had only been in service for four months and I expected some teething problems, but Havila's problems went much deeper. The food was excellent but the dining concept didn't work for me at all. The cabins are bigger, the ship is newer and I didn't pay much as the trip was discounted but I didn't enjoy it at all because the ship seems to be designed for pictures in travel brochures but not for its purpose. There is an atrium in the middle of the ship which looks nice but is too small if too many passengers use the stairwell. One of the two elevators was always out of service and so some passengers used the emergency corridors connecting the decks inside the ship. I would consider the hot tubs useless as you have to cross the open deck after taking a shower in the changing rooms. When you sit in the hot tub, other guests can stare at you from the deck above and from the deck around the hot tubs. In the summer there is a bar directly opposite the hot tubs and in the winter the water from the hot tubs pours all over the deck turning it into an ice skating rink. If you want to enjoy the view over the bow you are standing right in front of the windows of the panoramic lounge blocking the view of the passengers inside. The ship was very unstable and I could feel every change of its course. Although the shape of the hull looks very futuristic, the ship was very choppy in the water and was unable to keep to the schedule on my trip. It left Bergen more than 2 hours late and arrived in Ålesund too late for an excursion I was looking forward to. Since the ship was delayed it made no sense to me that it had to pass Havila's headquarters just before arriving in Ålesund. The delays didn't improve all the way to Kirkenes but became even worse as the bunkering capacity for LNG was too small and the ship hat to bunker along the route. The enrichment talks were not of the same quality as on Hurtigruten. The tour guides were friendly but constantly busy rebooking or cancelling excursions. The rest of the crew seemed to me quite frustrated. After the trip I had to call Havila more than once and had to wait a long time for the refund of my cancelled excursions and Havila did not bother to send me a survey to see if I was satisfied or where they could improve. A lot of things will probably have improved by now but the dining concept remains the same and the ships have not been re-designed. Maybe I would think differently about Havila if this was my first yourney on the coastal express route but I traveled on Hurtigrutens MS Norlys and MS Kong Harald before and afterwards and for me the travel experience on both Hurtigruten ships was so much better.

[@davefields3020]

Excellent video!

[@michaelhortin]

Thx Dave 👍

[@johnnierainey5761]

Thanks Michael, my wife and I have taken a great many cruises, all over the world, and have often considered Hurtigruten as an option, without taking the final plunge. We have always imagined the ships to be somewhat spartan regarding facilities and creature comforts, and also lacking evening entertainment. We will be watching this series with enormous interest. This was a brilliant introduction, well done!

[@michaelhortin]

Glad you enjoyed it Johnnie. They are not blessed with lots of entertainment like the big cruise ships, but that is not what they are about. I found the Norwegian countryside and towns more than enough. Lots more to come in this series.

[@sebastianfrost9969]

The lifts onboard were Kone M series, unfortunately on MS Nordlys, that vessel caught fire in November 2011, and all 3 lifts were modernized with new fixtures, and having a better design. The Entire vessel was taken out of service throughout the end of 2011, in order to recover from the Fire Damage. When the buttons were replaced, the passenger lifts, were fitted with Drucegrove Speakers, so to speak out which Deck you were on, and which direction the lift travelled.

[@michaelhortin]

I used the lift once on board for when I left with my big case 😉

[@Sailor_91]

Well to answer your question. The Coastal express was founded in 1893 by Richard With. There has been many different companies true the years , But Hurtigruten was founded in 05/06 after the 2 last companies OVDS and TFDS merged in to 1 , today under the Name Hurtigruten Norway with 7 Ships on the coastal route and Havila with 4.

[@michaelhortin]

Thanks for the answer.👍

[@sebastianfrost9969]

Too bad the Spa areas weren't safe at that time when you travelled with Hurtigruten, but on the vessel I was on, it was safe to have a spa, but only a few of my family members phased their feet in, only to have a nice dip. I could see both pools from Deck 7, whilst outside.

[@michaelhortin]

It was ok some times just not the day I filmed in Tromsø..👍

[@bjornjensen8244]

I'm a little confused here. When you are filming on the promenade deck you are telling us that you do this in Tromsø. I must be living in another Tromsø, because that is not the Tromsø where I live. But great video. Had a round trip on the same ship 5 years ago. Greetings from Tromsø 😀

[@michaelhortin]

Hi Bjorn, Thanks very much for your kind comment, particularly bearing in mind my error. When I first saw your comment, I thought what was that about. I then went to watch the video again, no Arctic Cathedral or Tromsø on screen. Im annoyed with myself, as I check these things a lot. For some reason the blue sky at Tromsø, had merged in my mind with the blue sky when I went to Sortland! I did though stop twice at Tromsø when I was in Norway and on the ship. There is a video already up from my time there on the journey north, and in a few weeks time they’ll be a video, from my journey south when I was there just before midnight! I thought Tromsø was great and hope to return with the channel in the future, maybe for a winter cruise. Hope you’re well Michael

[@bjornjensen8244]

@@michaelhortin Hi Michael, All is well here in Tromsø, and so am I 😀 We have had, and still have, the best summer ever recorded. Good for us so we are in a better shape to meet what is coming. The sun will be below the horizon from november 21. until january 21. Later in september the winter tourists will start to arrive and hopefully there will be lots of northern lights for them to see. We now have 35-40 direct fligths to and from every major european city each week. Pretty crowded here during winter season😄 Wish you all the best from Tromsø