P-L-B

Probably not when you think about the few hours of daylight we will have, all the better for Aurora spotting!:D

Good point, forgot about that. (y)

There are two possible dates and various times being offered for the 'In Search of the Northern Lights' on our cruise.

Thursday 16th November 14.00, 19.00, 21.30 and 22.30

Friday 17th November 19.00, 20.00, 21.30 and 22.30

Now, If only I had a Crystal Ball to find out the best day and time for sightings. :D

BTW. Is the 14.00hr tour on the 16th a little early? :confused:

Yes, we are looking forward to our Northern Lights Cruise in November.

Thanks, Sharon for your interesting blog, photos are great !! :D

Just to add I've been doing some more research on the excursions on tripadvisor.

 

Looking at the top three excursions and matching the reviews up with dates it seems that there are lots of people reporting snow in late November and early December (and the huskies tour can run even without snow apparently - although not as cool, I know).

 

Also re the northern lights excursion, the location they take you depends on weather forecast and cloud coverage and where the guides think best. So you might book with a company on Tuesday and end up in a field 15 mins from the ship but on Wednesday you end up 60km away up a mountain. Apparently it can change between tours on the same evening (e.g. 6pm you get taken to a field, 9pm you get taken to a golf course or wherever). They just go where they think there is the best chance to view.

 

If you look on tripadvisor it's easy to see who p&o use and they get overwhelmingly excellent reviews.

 

 

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OK, thanks for the information.

I will head over to tripadvisor and take alook. (y)

The guide comes onboard & tells you where he plans to take you to get the best possible chance of seeing the lights & gives a bit of info about photographing them, what to wear etc. A bus then picks you up & takes you to the destination. We went to place not far out of Alta but enough to be away from light pollution. There were camp fires & benches to sit on & also a lavvu where u could keep warm & get hot drinks. Then its just a case of sitting it out & enjoying the show! It lasted 4 hours so warm clothing is required. We had a brilliant display but it all depends on the conditions on the night.

Thanks for the very useful information.

Good to know you get some little luxuries whilst out. :D

Could someone please explain what to expect and what format it takes if booked on the ‘In Search of The Northern Lights’ excursion.

I believe someone comes on-board to explain things and what’s going to happen but I would appreciate any practical advice and your experiences of doing this excursion.

You may well see the lights from the ship from Tromso north BUT, they will be greatly diluted in appearance by the light pollution from the town, even if they turn the exterior lights off on the ship. These two photos illustrate the difference between on board Oriana at Tromso and at Kautokeino on the Northern Lights tour where it was pitch black.

 

 

Wow!!

Appreciate your advice and the photos.

Hope we are lucky enough to see a similar display on our cruise. :)

We had been hoping for this tour too. Its annoying as I had contacted the tour operators before booking the cruise because it is one of the main reasons we were booking and they assured us that they always work with p&o and if there was not any snow they use carts instead and did husky carting but that we had to book via p&o.

I have emailed p&o to ask and will email the husky people we spoke to before and let you know -if they are doing carting/sledding independently we will be booking via them.

We were also interested in the reindeer sledging but this is also missing.

Yes, we are also disappointed. :loudcry:

Appreciate the offer to update us on the situation. :)

Appreciate all the comments.

Regarding the ‘In Search of the Northern Lights’ excursion.

Ultimately it will have to be down to us to make the decision but at £135.00 X 4 :eek: and without any guarantee of seeing anything we will have to give it some serious thought before we book.

There again some would say it’s a fair price to pay for a once in a lifetime experience. :)

General consensus seems to be that it's possible but unlikely

 

 

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OK, thanks for the feedback.

We will just have to wait and see I am sure we will make the most of the experience whatever happens. :)

Ours is 2018 sorry I should have said (nothing like a bit of forward planning lol).

 

I've just posted on the tripadvisor Alta forum and the Cruise Critic ports of call forum asking about whether typically they have snow at that time of year (early Dec).

 

The North Cape does apparently (according to the interweb) but that's 200 miles further north. From what I can see online Alta will have snow but can't see if it's enough for activities like dog sledding or snowshoeing etc.

 

Will let you know if I hear anything from those forums.

 

 

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Thanks, that would be great :D

Someone please say it isn't so?

 

On the p&o website they have typical excursions listed under the ports for the November cruise for those ports that show those activities. I know not all extrusions are always offered but listing them as typical for that cruise implies snow aplenty. I just assumed December in the Arctic circle would we snowy (ours leaves 28th Nov so most of it is December) ❄️☃️

 

 

 

 

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Yes, we were all looking forward to the opportunity of a Dog Sledge Ride :(

BTW, are you on a P&O Northern Lights cruise on the 28th Nov I did't think there was one?

Hi, Thanks for the reply.

Did you happen to see the lights on your previous visit?

Yes, I was wondering if it may be a seasonal thing regarding the availability of some of the shore excursions.

Did you do the ‘In Search of the Northern Lights’ excursion if so did you think it was worthwhile?

Thanks for the other information information, sorry posted this before reading the other previous post's :)

We are all looking forward to our Northern Lights Aurora cruise in November but checking the current list of shore excursions in our cruise personaliser there appear to be two excursions of possible interest to us that are not listed.

The ‘Tromso Husky Adventure’ and the ‘Alta Husky Adventure’both involving a dog sledge ride.

Is it possible that they may be added to the shore excursion list closer to our departure date.

Anyone done/recommend any of these excursions.

Also, the ‘In Search Of The Northern Lights’ excursion is expensive(four of us) and we were wondering if we would be better to take our chances and view from the ship. I understand that the captain announces any possible sightings that may occur during the cruise.

We have been to Andalsnes and Stavanger before but not Tromso or Alta. We normally like to explore on our own where possible and we were wondering if that would be possible in Tromso and Alta. Does the ship dock close to the sights of interest etc. or are shore excursions our only option.

Any advice/recommendations would be appreciated.