About our boat, the Hurtigruten

Dear Family and Friends,

I am going to share with you about the unique cruise line, Hurtigruten.  As I said in a previous post, they operate a combination cruise, ferry and cargo ship fleet.  The company has been in existence since 1893.  There are 12 ships operating the same route (Bergen to Kirkenes).  Because it is a ferry and cargo ship it must sail every day.  It takes the ship 12 days to complete a round trip.

The name of our ship was MS Nordlys.  The ships come in different sizes and ours was one of the smaller ships.  It could carry 500 passengers.  

Although this boat is considered a cruise ship, it was different in many ways from a traditional cruise ship.  Our cabin was small, it had two beds (one that pulled down from the wall and the other made into a sofa.)  The rooms were only cleaned if you specifically asked by putting a green card on your door.  Otherwise, no service.  Clean towels were provided upon request, but they do not have wash clothes.  

There was one dining room.  Buffet style breakfasts and lunch and a sit down full service dinner.  When it came to dinner, no menu to choose from.  Just like at home, take it or leave it.  Luckily, the food was very good and they made special meals to accommodate for people's food allergies.

No nightly entertainment like on most cruise ships, but I can honestly say, the views off the boat was entertainment enough.  The ship never went out into open waters so there was always the coastline to view.

The boat made several stops each day and night.  They are on a schedule.  Some stops are for as little as 15 to 30 minutes, whereas a long stop might be a couple of hours.

So, let's take a look at the ship.

Some views of the inside:

On the top deck, was a wonderful lounge with large windows for viewing the scenery.  

A daily schedule was not provided to each room, but you could see a big display in the common area.

Another common area with the dining room entrance in the back of the picture.

There was plenty of open deck for sitting outside.

The dining room was not elegant, but sufficient.

Some lucky folks even had a table with a view.

 As I mentioned, there was no formal entertainment but people spent most of their time looking out the windows, reading, playing games, napping or knitting.

A lot of the passengers are Norwegian like this lady in the picture below.  I asked her if most Norwegian women knit and she replied yes.

Look at the beautiful pattern on the gloves she is knitting.

Although I said there was no formal nightly entertainment.  When we crossed the Arctic Circle we were visited by Neptune.  As part of the ceremony, people lined up to have ice dropped down their back.  

On the return trip, when we crossed the Arctic Circle, Neptune dosed people with cod liver oil.

They also provided information each day in a short lecture about where we would be stopping the following day.

After we boarded the ship and unpacked our luggage in our room, we went to the dining room to have dinner.  

There we found our travel mates, Ronnie and Andre.

The fun was about to begin.

On my next post I will share about some of the stops we made.  

Love,
Nancy