Guest Speakers - Norwegian Fjords

[Sea42]

We just booked a 14 day Voyage of the Midnight Sun cruise for 7/2022. In the pre-Covid days, did HAL provide interesting speakers for this cruise? We have sailed in Alaska previously and were happy with the guest speakers and I'm hoping that there would be similar, interesting lectures offered.

Thank you for any previous experience you can share.

[jakkojakko]

We did couple of norwegian cruises, including this one, in the last decade. There were no guest speakers on board. Commentary in the fjord came from HAL's cruise director or exploration's team.

But who knows what they will do when cruising resumes.

Edited March 9, 2021 by jakkojakko
Typo

[Sea42]

5 hours ago, jakkojakko said:

We did couple of norwegian cruises, including this one, in the last decade. There were no guest speakers on board. Commentary in the fjord came from HAL's cruise director or exploration's team.

But who knows what they will do when cruising resumes.

Oh, that's very disappointing. On our Alaska cruises we not only had commentary but guest lectures who were involved in bear research, the gold rush and the history of human settlement of the area.

[KirkNC]

Typically speakers like you are looking for are only on selected cruises like Alaska, Antarctica or Grand Voyages.  They do pop up occasionally on other cruises.  The inconsistency is irritating.

[kazu]

9 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Typically speakers like you are looking for are only on selected cruises like Alaska, Antarctica or Grand Voyages.  They do pop up occasionally on other cruises.  The inconsistency is irritating.

 

To add to the list - Panama Canal, Hawaii, Tahiti, Marquesas cruise.

 

We have had excellent speakers on the Prinsendam (now sold) on several cruises.  

[Sea42]

6 minutes ago, KirkNC said:

Typically speakers like you are looking for are only on selected cruises like Alaska, Antarctica or Grand Voyages.  They do pop up occasionally on other cruises.  The inconsistency is irritating.

Well, I'll just add a couple of non-fiction books about Norway to my Kindle and I'll be all set. It's not as engaging as a good speaker but it will do.

[Sea42]

7 minutes ago, kazu said:

 

To add to the list - Panama Canal, Hawaii, Tahiti, Marquesas cruise.

 

We have had excellent speakers on the Prinsendam (now sold) on several cruises.  

Our South Pacific cruise (not on HAL) had excellent speakers. One gave a series of talks on Eater Island as we made our way there from Chile, another gave several lectures on the history of human exploration in the Pacific. They really add to our enjoyment of the places we visit

Edited March 9, 2021 by Sea42

[Mary229]

I absolutely detested the constant prattle as we sailed through Prince Christian Sound, count your blessings.   I do love the talks but not the commentary.

[KirkNC]

The funny one is Antarctica where you are hoping to see wildlife and they are blaring on the speakers.  It’s not very conducive to wildlife sightings.

 

By the way, my previous answer was concerning commentary on the decks, not lectures in the theater.

Edited March 9, 2021 by KirkNC

[Vict0riann]

I don't remember any guest speakers, either, on our Voyage of the Midnight Sun.  We had good tour guides, though, and they told us a lot about the places we were visiting.

[aliaschief]

The bottom line is that none of us know what future cruises will be like. The only thing we can be sure of is that the return to cruising will be different from previous cruise experiences. 
 

In time we hope the Hal experience will return to some normalcy. 

[Sea42]

23 hours ago, Vict0riann said:

I don't remember any guest speakers, either, on our Voyage of the Midnight Sun.  We had good tour guides, though, and they told us a lot about the places we were visiting.

That is disappointing. With 4 sea days and 4 cruising only days there seems to be plenty of opportunity for day time speakers. But I do agree, a good tour guide can be a great asset to our port stops.

[StLouisCruisers]

I don't know if this means anything at this point in time, but in 2016 we did a Norway cruise which included 14 ports in Norway in addition to Copenhagen as well as beginning and ending in Ijmuiden, The Netherlands.  This cruise on the Prinsendam included a maritime speaker, Tom Anderson.  A friend of the captain also came along on this cruise, Bard Kolltveit, and he was affiliated with the Oslo Norwegian Maritime Museum.  He also dabbled in art and made black ink drawings of the Prinsendam in the various ports of Norway.  They made copies of his drawings and gave one to each cabin.  We have 8 different drawings. I found his name on the daily "Today on Location" which I have filed away.  He gave excellent lectures, too.  However, someone like him would probably only be on board if you had Captain D. D. and I know that captain works for someone else now.

 

Anyway, you never know what kind of lectures they may have planned for your cruise.  I hope you enjoy it though!  We love Norway!

[Sea42]

4 hours ago, StLouisCruisers said:

Anyway, you never know what kind of lectures they may have planned for your cruise.  I hope you enjoy it though!  We love Norway!

We're very much looking forward to it, it looks beautiful!