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Airport - Bergen transfer details are at https://avinor.no/en/airport/bergen-airport/to-and-from-the-airport/bus-and-taxi/bus

The bus costs NOK100, runs every 20 minutes and the journey to the centre of Bergen takes 20 minutes (though it can take longer at some times of day!).

As others have suggested, go for the longest trip you can afford and include the Falklands and South Georgia. All of our Antarctic (and Arctic) trips have been on Hurtigruten's Fram: she offered (for us) the best compromise on cost and comfort along with itineraries which suited us.

Each trip has been booked as soon as the brochure has been published, so almost two years before the sailing. That has produced good prices with Early Bird discounts and low flight costs as we could book as soon as flights were released. Last minute didn't make too much sense as the savings would be reduced by significantly higher air fares and we would not be able to have the choice (if any!) of itinerary and cabin that early booking offered.

If you need to reduce cost, don't pay-to-sway! Cabins lower down in the sjip are almost always lower cost than those higher up and, in less calm weather, the ship's motion is much less noticeable. Add to that that you are hardly ever in your cabin.

Bluff Cove Lagoon is excellent and leaves you more time in Stanley than would Volunteer Point.

Have a look at Hurtigruten's Fram. It uses Polarcirkels for landings and they are much easier to access than zodiacs. On one of our Antarctic trips they even got a passenger in a wheelchair ashore!

You will see wildlife from a drive-by but even if you treat an expedition ship as a drive-by you will be much closer to the water and to land.

Go for the expedition ship option and give yourself the opportunity of landings.

It is unclear to me why some people simply cannot accept what other have to say. Surely they can let other readers come to their own conclusion. We certainly do on the positive comments, why not on the neutral or negative comments. After all, HAL is not anyone's first borne child or deity. It is simply another corporate entity that belongs to a large conglomerate.

 

It rather defeats the purpose of the page if posters turn it into a mutual admiration society based on HAL being perfect in every respect.

 

I believe that anyone who has cruise a few times or is a regular cruiser understands that there can be issues with certain ships, certain cruise lines, certain cruises at any given time.

 

If a poster believes that HAL is the be all and end all of all cruise lines and that everything is perfect all of the time then I believe that the vast majority of cruisers, HAL or otherwise, will have to suspend logic in order to subscribe to that belief.

The above.

What am I missing here?

You are missing a careful reading and understanding of my original comment.

It really is difficult to understand why you would want to spend so much time in trying to undermine a genuine comment about a genuine experience.

You had a problem. The staff worked with it and tried to remedy it. I am sorry your experience with HAL ships could not give you exactly what you demanded at any given time.

I didn't *demand* anything. We have cruised with HAL many times. Sometimes things go wrong. Sometimes I comment on it. I fail to understand why you should involve yourself in my comments with your 'no-one should criticise HAL' agenda.

The issue wasn't about us feeling too cold. The cabin was cold and this was confirmed by crew using a thermometer. As I explained earlier, the thermostat was at maximum for several days and the cabin remained cold. On that basis, there was an air conditioning problem which was eventually fixed when the cabin became warmer. In the words of the Front Desk, 'we have this problem in several areas and are working on it'.

Why my simple observation regarding the temperature in our cabin should be doubted by anyone who was not there, and then attempted to be explained away as a problem of perception and/or a lack of objective measurement is beyond belief.

Worried about hot or cold? Absolutely not. After five expedition cruises in polar regions and many others in hot climes, temperature is not a worry.

Perhaps your perception of cold and hot is outside that of the rest of the population and we can get it right. Either way, there is little point in continuing with this: you are trying to tell me how I, my wife, and the Front Desk's thermometer perceive hot and cold, and what the conditions were in my cabin on those days. Something you clearly cannot do.

Do continue to take your 'delicate instrument' on your cruises to help decide how you should be feeling.

Saying a temperature is "cold" or "hot" is subjective. I wish you had stated the temperature, the location and the humidity. That is context.

No, cold or hot is relative. Are you always this pedantic? Do you always carry a 'delicate instrument' on a cruise to record conditions in your cabin? Has your 'delicate instrument' been calibrated? Some of us are able to decide for ourselves, with absolute confidence, if a cabin is cold or hot without going to such lengths.

Again after taking the cabin temperature dutifully every day on our last Veendam cruise, 75 degrees was either cool or warm in subjective perception depending on both humidity and outside temperature. I suspect the front desk did whatever they could besides tell you to put a sweater on.

 

I am sorry you had this complaint because you do want to be comfortable and have systems work to your own personal comfort level, but when people post a subjective termperature complaint but don't put it in context or objective terms, it is frustrating to everyone. You may well have been in the established temperature range and there was honestly nothing more they could do about it.

I do know the difference between a warm cabin and a cold cabin and our cabin was cold. This was not 'subjective': the Front Desk checked the temperature with a thermometer and confirmed that we were not alone. As for putting it in context or being objective: I did say that the thermostat was turned up to maximum. I also said that the issue persisted for at least six days which means that it was eventually fixed. That 'everyone' would be 'frustrated' at an accurate report is difficult to believe. What is frustrating is to see a response that makes so many unwarranted inferences.

But as others have mentioned, buckets in the hallway, plumbing and ventilation issues happen on every ship, and on every cruise line. It's not just the Veendam.

On our recent trip on Veendam, despite having the thermostat turned up to maximum, our cabin was cold and remained so for at least six days despite daily reports to the Front Desk. It's not that the issue was present, it was the lack of a positive response that disappointed.

I'm wanting to remain healthy & well on vacation.

As do all of us, but your thread title is unacceptable.

What really ‘made’ our cruise was Barry from Boston in the Mix Piano Bar.

Simply too loud and over excited.

I am also going on the assumption that the folks in the kitchen and dining room can/will not serve you food at the perfect temperature. Always.

We disembarked Veendam last week and cool food in the MDM was a constant issue.

How long did you stay watching and were you using your camera at the same time?

We were out for well over an hour. I was using a digital camera but it was a DSLR, so had a viewfinder and not a bright LED screen.

Does the Zaandam just stay on the west side of the peninsula or does it do anything on the east side. It appears that it goes as far down the west side as the Palmer station. The west side does appear more interesting.

In Antarctica nothing is fixed. It's all 'We hope to...'.

On our most recent Antarctic trip on Fram we received our follow-up data by email a few days after we returned home.

If Customer Services don't help (and Hurtigruten's land-side operation is nowhere near as efficient as their on-board operations) then try their Facebook pages.

Naturists?Their packing will have been so much easier, but they must have been a very hardy bunch!

We have seen them in the UK, Norway and Greenland.

In the UK and Greenland they were green with some silver, in Norway they were green, silver and red. The intensity of the colours in all three locations could be quite faint at times and we could scarcely see them, but in Norway and Greenland they could become so bright the response was simply 'Wow'!

Suites expensive? It's like flying Business Class.They pay for the rest of us to sail/fly Economy!

We were on deck or in bed when we were in port so the quieter starboard cabin worked for us.

The notion that the coastal ships are car ferries may not be helpful. We have seen plenty of cabbages, potatoes and tyres loaded and unloaded, but very few cars.

As I suggested on the other thread you have subscribed to, though there is little noise in the night, it might be best to book a cabin on the starboard side away from the port side loading door.

Finnmarken is not one of Hurtigruten's 'expedition' ships. Fram is their true expedition ship and Midnatsol is being used as one.

The coastal ships berth port side to shore so, to reduce any noise, you need to book a cabin on the starboard side. That said, we found the noise during the night to be minimal and we slept well unless the Northen Lights put in an appearance and we had asked to be notified when they did.

How much difference is there in what you see N vs S from the ship?

Search for Hurtigruten's timetable (make sure you get the one relevant for your sailing dates), decide on which ports are important to you, and check on whether or not you will have sufficient time in them.

We tend to prefer forward views when possible, but that should be great in the big observation area. Is there comfortable seating there?

Yes.