What's going on....?

What's going on with Hurtigruten? https://www.hurtigruten.com/pages/practical-information/sailing-plan/. I have never seen this many cancellations....really bad weather or change in ownership? Just wondering. I have been a huge Hurtigruten fan for years and find this worrisome.

What's going on with Hurtigruten? https://www.hurtigruten.com/pages/practical-information/sailing-plan/. I have never seen this many cancellations....really bad weather or change in ownership? Just wondering. I have been a huge Hurtigruten fan for years and find this worrisome.

Smbruner started a thread about the cancelation of his voyage on the Midnatsol for Jan 29. Had something to do with changing the engines to prepare for the expedition voyages it will be doing.

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I'm only seeing two ships cancelled at the moment (Finnmarken and Kong Harald). Technical cancellations are not rare in the winter, the ships are scheduled often to miss one rotation for the annual maintenance and this maintenance can be delayed. If there were more cancellation, it might be due to the very current strong winds. What has changed in recent years (but that was before the new management, I think) is the amount of cancellation of specific ports due to weather, as they are not taking any risks that would lead to tourist passengers losing their plane connection. This is particularly true for the Northern ports and the locals have been complaining about this.

I'm only seeing two ships cancelled at the moment (Finnmarken and Kong Harald). Technical cancellations are not rare in the winter, the ships are scheduled often to miss one rotation for the annual maintenance and this maintenance can be delayed. If there were more cancellation, it might be due to the very current strong winds. What has changed in recent years (but that was before the new management, I think) is the amount of cancellation of specific ports due to weather, as they are not taking any risks that would lead to tourist passengers losing their plane connection. This is particularly true for the Northern ports and the locals have been complaining about this.

Planned annual maintenance shows up in the written schedule, "technical" usually means a problem.If a port is missed due to weather you can find that information listed as such (this often happens, especially in winter, and usually affects a number of ships). Three ships, including Midnatso, l out for technical, mechanical problems just seemed unusual, IMO.

Yes you are right, I forgot about Midnatsol (didn't she resume sailing?). What I meant was that maybe one rotation for maintenance is not enough. Hopefully it is just a temporary fluke.

I hope Finnmarken gets better soon as I am to travel with her in just a month!

Smbruner started a thread about the cancelation of his voyage on the Midnatsol for Jan 29. Had something to do with changing the engines to prepare for the expedition voyages it will be doing.

The Hurtigruten representative I met yesterday said it had had two shiny new propellers installed.

Three ships, including Midnatso, l out for technical, mechanical problems just seemed unusual, IMO.

Midnatsol was delayed in getting back into service after a part was late in arriving from Germany. I understand that the need for the part only arose at the very last minute.

I think Kong Harold's maintenance has overrun.

I hope Finnmarken gets better soon as I am to travel with her in just a month!

I hope so too! After your return, please post your thoughts how things have changed , if true, with the new ownership. It has been 2 years since I have sailed with Hurtigruten, and I am curious. Many thanks!

I'm only seeing two ships cancelled at the moment (Finnmarken and Kong Harald). Technical cancellations are not rare in the winter, the ships are scheduled often to miss one rotation for the annual maintenance and this maintenance can be delayed. If there were more cancellation, it might be due to the very current strong winds. What has changed in recent years (but that was before the new management, I think) is the amount of cancellation of specific ports due to weather, as they are not taking any risks that would lead to tourist passengers losing their plane connection. This is particularly true for the Northern ports and the locals have been complaining about this.

I can add to the list: MS Spitsbergen. We were scheduled to sail on the inaugural voyage on May 8 and were informed, quite recently, that due to the incompletion of the ship, that the May sailings were canceled. It has been a nightmare trying to make new arrangements for a June sailing, especially air reservations. Our saga is worthy of it's own thread!

Wow, this is really bad. It seems that similar issues have arisen with most of the ships that underwent internal refurbishment this winter/spring (MS Nordkapp's return to the line is also delayed).

Is your sailing in June also on MS Spitsbergen? Did you receive any compensation or help from Hurtigruten in this matter?

Wow, this is really bad. It seems that similar issues have arisen with most of the ships that underwent internal refurbishment this winter/spring (MS Nordkapp's return to the line is also delayed).

Is your sailing in June also on MS Spitsbergen? Did you receive any compensation or help from Hurtigruten in this matter?

We have transferred our reservation to a June departure but obviously are concerned that there might be other problems given that it is a new ship.

The whole experience we've had with Hurtigruten, from the initial contact through to the cancellation, has not been satisfactory. First of all, they should have known long before we were notified that the ship wasn't going to be ready. Trying to get answers to any of our questions proved to be not only frustrating, but nigh impossible. We made the original booking ourselves, but decided we couldn't handle all the aggravation and handed it to an agent. Unfortunately the agent, while competent dealing with other cruise lines, was totally unprepared for H's booking department. It also didn't help that she takes regular leave from her job and was absent when the cancellation came in. In sum, between H and an agent who seems to be unable to help us, it has taken the joy out of any anticipation we may have had for this trip.

We were verbally informed by a member of H's staff that we would be fully reimbursed for the airline tickets we had purchased for the cancelled cruise and faxed all the relevant receipts to the company. As of now, despite repeated requests for an update on how the ticket issue is being handled, we have heard nothing back. We are several thousand dollars out of pocket and have no idea how to proceed.

We are scheduled for a sailing on the Fram later this summer, but after this experience we are going to have to seriously consider whether to go ahead.

We have transferred our reservation to a June departure but obviously are concerned that there might be other problems given that it is a new ship.

 

The whole experience we've had with Hurtigruten, from the initial contact through to the cancellation, has not been satisfactory. First of all, they should have known long before we were notified that the ship wasn't going to be ready. Trying to get answers to any of our questions proved to be not only frustrating, but nigh impossible. We made the original booking ourselves, but decided we couldn't handle all the aggravation and handed it to an agent. Unfortunately the agent, while competent dealing with other cruise lines, was totally unprepared for H's booking department. It also didn't help that she takes regular leave from her job and was absent when the cancellation came in. In sum, between H and an agent who seems to be unable to help us, it has taken the joy out of any anticipation we may have had for this trip.

 

We were verbally informed by a member of H's staff that we would be fully reimbursed for the airline tickets we had purchased for the cancelled cruise and faxed all the relevant receipts to the company. As of now, despite repeated requests for an update on how the ticket issue is being handled, we have heard nothing back. We are several thousand dollars out of pocket and have no idea how to proceed.

 

We are scheduled for a sailing on the Fram later this summer, but after this experience we are going to have to seriously consider whether to go ahead.

Dealing with Hurtigruten US has been an abomination. They even blow off my T/A. I, too, am now very weary of our upcoming expensive H cruise.

Check out some of the recent CC reviews of trips on the Fram.....I hope this was only a small number of negative feelings, not an indication of the future.

As can so often happen, the 'office staff' don't measure up to the 'experience staff'.

On all of our Hurtigruten trips, coastal as well as polar, the crew/expedition team have been exceptional.

Try a post on their Facebook page: it may give them the public nudge they need!

Dealing with Hurtigruten US has been an abomination. They even blow off my T/A. I, too, am now very weary of our upcoming expensive H cruise.

I am very sorry to hear that. For the record, this has absolutely not been my experience with Hurtigruten France, where people have always been very professional, efficient and helpful. And I agree with digitl also. Hopefully your sea experience will make you forget the "land" experience (or at least soften it). Let us know how it goes? Which trip are you taking?

Check out some of the recent CC reviews of trips on the Fram.....I hope this was only a small number of negative feelings, not an indication of the future.

If you are referring to the Greenland trip, we were on it and there were two groups on board who caused problems.

The first was a large group of Chinese and their interpreters who were simply unwilling to accept that they could not do as they wanted, an attitude which, unfortunately, has become quite a common experience across the cruise industry. It wasn't a Fram 'thing' and, after an instruction for their leader and interpreters to appear in front of the Captain and Expedition Leader, things improved somewhat.

The second group comprised people who did not understand the nature of an 'expedition' cruise. They seemed to think that if the itinerary they had been provided with some 12 months before said we would be at a particular location at a particular time then that would happen!

We were all told at the very first briefing that the ice was particularly bad in places we had hoped to visit and so plans had had to be changed but they were unable to understand/accept the news and so questioned decisions from then on. This was despite being told that the reports of the bad ice had come from another ship which had been struggling to get through the it and leave the fjord for several hours.

The part time Admirals even found it difficult to understand that if there is heavy ice and fog between the ship and its next port of call, and the Norwegian Met Office doesn't produce ice charts at the weekend (!), then it is necessary to sail around that ice and fog. Of course as soon as the ship was pointed in the general direction of Iceland rather than Svalbard they announced that we were returning to Iceland!

This was the only one of our four cruises on Fram to date (we have another Antarctic trip on her coming up in November) where there have been issues like these and the crew and expedition team dealt with them well.

Digitl: Thanks for you personal observation. I have read of the problems with groups of Chinese passengers on other trips. It sounds as though it was handled well by Fram. I agree that there is a difference between "cruise" and "expedition"; spending 3 hours watching Orca whales in a feeding frenzy is an Expedition; shopping at a port is a Cruise. Different strokes for different folks. Will be anxious to hear about your Antartica trip!

Our ship got cancelled a few days before the cruise with no compensation or help getting to Trondheim so not sure what is happening but never again...

Sasha, I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but posting a complaint in every discussion on this forum is not going to help. Maybe open your own discussion with clear facts if you want to get some appropriate help.

Thank you SarniaLo,

I tried to post but keep getting an error message. I have also found some people with similar experiences which I can relate to and got some sound advice on what to do next. I will try to post again in a separate thread again. :)

Sasha, I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but posting a complaint in every discussion on this forum is not going to help. Maybe open your own discussion with clear facts if you want to get some appropriate help.

Agreed!

And in one of the other threads sashaa0@hotmail.co.uk is unable to name the ship which 'got cancelled'. Odd, I think I would...

Dear digitl,

I don't think it is unusual to forget the name of the ship or hotel that you ended up never staying in. As it was supposed to be a present from my mother for my birthday I wasn't organising it. I'm just trying to help her get some compensations due to very short notice of cancellation as well as a late refund. I have checked just now and it is MS Lofoten. I tried to open a discussion separately but keep getting an error message. It seems like there are quite a lot of people who have been in similar situations as me but you are right, I should provide more details of my trip which I will do when the issue with an error is dealt with.