NORTHERN LIGHTS

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

I have a northern lights trip on my bucket list.  There are limited cruises and Hurtigruten seems to have the most.  How would you rate them pros & cons to the other cruise lines?  

[oakridger]

They are not the same cruise format as a regular cruise line such as Royal Caribbean or Princess in that the ship doesn’t have production shows, big buffets, etc. Depending on the ship the cabins go from fairly basic to larger with balconies and more amenities. Please check reviews on YouTube and here for great info. “Hallasm”on CC has some wonderful videos. Hurtigruten has changed a lot since I was on the Vesteralan back in 2005!!  I absolutely loved our plain, but comfortable small room with a porthole. It had an en-suite bathroom though! 😉. I’ll be back soon, I hope!  

Edited October 17, 2022 by oakridger

[mrmoviezombie]

Do you want to see the northern lights? Or go on a northern lights cruise... those are not the same things.

 

If you want to maximize your chances of seeing the northern lights, then fly to either Fairbanks, Alaska or Tromso, Norway. Spend at least a week there, pick several of the tour operators that will take you out into the wilderness late at night.

 

Your chances of seeing the northern lights from a cruise ship are not great. With a port heavy cruising you are unlikely to be up at the best viewing times. And light from the ship also make it harder to see them.

 

 

 

[ATSEAMYLIFE]

On 10/16/2022 at 11:54 PM, mrmoviezombie said:

Do you want to see the northern lights? Or go on a northern lights cruise... those are not the same things.

 

If you want to maximize your chances of seeing the northern lights, then fly to either Fairbanks, Alaska or Tromso, Norway. Spend at least a week there, pick several of the tour operators that will take you out into the wilderness late at night.

 

Your chances of seeing the northern lights from a cruise ship are not great. With a port heavy cruising you are unlikely to be up at the best viewing times. And light from the ship also make it harder to see them.

 

 

 

Considering both options.  I have looked at the Youtube videos on the glass igloos that might be a possibility.  I was concerned about the lights from the ship.  I have found a couple of "big" ship itineraries that spend at least 6-7 days far enough north; even more north than Tromso that I figured would maximize the chances.  Upside/downside is cruises seem inexpensive compared to land vacations, $800 a night for an igloo or $3000 for 10-12 night cruise.   Plus getting to the cruise port looks a little less convoluted than to an igloo.  We shall see what the future brings.   

[hallasm]

I have seen Northernn Lights at land tours in Iceland and Norway - but still most northern lights when sailing - if a cruise is 5 to 6 days north of Lofoten Islands/ Bodø.

Many Cruise Lines has overnight stops in Alta - possible land excursions.

I think a cruise is a good way to see Northern Lights - I’m planning a Hurtigruten voyage from Bodø to Kirkenes with some days  pre/post cruise in Bodø and Kirkenes - have done this before - did still have the best sights when sailing.

[Flyinby]

On 10/16/2022 at 12:16 PM, ATSEAMYLIFE said:

I have a northern lights trip on my bucket list.  There are limited cruises and Hurtigruten seems to have the most.  

We've booked a mid-February round trip (Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen) with Havila, and I see that now they've added the "Northern Lights Guarantee" that I saw before on Hurtigruten.  I'm excited about the new ships, and optimistic that we'll see lots of northern lights and hopefully get some good photos.  We'll be ready to quickly don warmest clothes and head out if a middle of night event occurs.

 

There's not a lot of info around on Havila; they're relatively new and had some glitches with the recent Russian situation, but it's looking good and starting to get exciting planning for the northern Norway weather in February.  Best of luck with your 'bucket list', we're from CA also.

[hallasm]

3 hours ago, Flyinby said:

they've added the "Northern Lights Guarantee" that I saw before on Hurtigruten. 

Just make sure to  read the Terms and conditions before you get too excited.

 

The promise is only valid for 11 days Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen voyage - you’ll get a new 6 or 7-day voyage in an inside cabin (includes all meals) but no additional travel (flights).

A new trip must be ordered within one month of returning from your original trip.

 

Also it’s very unlikely at a 11 days voyage not to see the lights at all. “The ship determines whether a Northern Lights event has occurred, regardless of weather conditions and actual visibility”  - and time of the night.

 

The Havila and Hurtigruten ‘promises’ are very similar.

[Flyinby]

10 hours ago, hallasm said:

Just make sure to  read the Terms and conditions before you get too excited.

 

The promise is only valid for 11 days Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen voyage - you’ll get a new 6 or 7-day voyage in an inside cabin (includes all meals) but no additional travel (flights).

A new trip must be ordered within one month of returning from your original trip.

 

Also it’s very unlikely at a 11 days voyage not to see the lights at all. “The ship determines whether a Northern Lights event has occurred, regardless of weather conditions and actual visibility”  - and time of the night.

 

The Havila and Hurtigruten ‘promises’ are very similar.

Yes, I noticed that on the Hurtigruten site back when I was booking the voyage.  While it's not really much of a guarantee, I just thought it interesting that Havila had also added it, and figured that it was encouraging given the other comments about shipboard not being a good option for the northern lights.  But we booked long ago with no guarantee, so it wasn't a factor in our choice.  We'll (hopefully) see them if they appear, whether they're awe-inspiring or just a few flashes, and if not may not even bother with the guarantee, unless we can change the cabin  and figure the associated costs are worth it to us.

 

The alternative would be to cancel, figuring we may not see them at all so why take a chance, but I figure it will be an incredible and memorable voyage regardless...if we don't see the lights maybe we'll try again some other time or by some other means, but either way is OK.

[hallasm]

1 hour ago, Flyinby said:

The alternative would be to cancel, figuring we may not see them at all so why take a chance, but I figure it will be an incredible and memorable voyage regardless.

Yes, very memorable voyage - snowmobile King Crab safari, dogsledding and North Cape.

This year there has generally been a high level of activity.  The activity in the solar storms fluctuates over an 11-year cycle that peaks in 2023, so there should be good opportunities by February  - of course this requires that the sky is clear.  We sailed the voyage in January and saw the northern lights every night from Svolvær - each evening 45 to 60 minutes long.  Also several times in one evening.  
Be prepared for it to be very, very cold on the open deck.  At the Lofoten Islands, the light is on the horizon, but later in the trip it is high in the sky, so it will only be visible on the upper decks. Difficult to see from inside the ship.

[GeezerCouple]

16 hours ago, Flyinby said:

We've booked a mid-February round trip (Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen) with Havila, and I see that now they've added the "Northern Lights Guarantee" that I saw before on Hurtigruten.  I'm excited about the new ships, and optimistic that we'll see lots of northern lights and hopefully get some good photos.  We'll be ready to quickly don warmest clothes and head out if a middle of night event occurs.

 

There's not a lot of info around on Havila; they're relatively new and had some glitches with the recent Russian situation, but it's looking good and starting to get exciting planning for the northern Norway weather in February.  Best of luck with your 'bucket list', we're from CA also.

 

We were on Hurtigruten's Trollfjord in late Feb/early March a few years ago, for the full round trip, and "The Lights" were a big part of the appeal.

FORTUNATELY, we had read a lot of comments about how the way the colors of the Northern Lights appear in photos is typically *not* what the naked human eye and brain process.  If one is lucky, the shapes and movement might be there, but I guess one needs to be *very* lucky to get any bright colors visually.

 

Anyway, we carefully chose the timing to be when there was little or no moon most of the trip, and we also chose a time when there would be lots of "night", but also some daytime so we could enjoy the landscape both ways.  And... we noticed that October-ish and Feb/March-ish tended (on average, ahem) to have less cloud cover.  We preferred to see snow, so we chose the later winter timing.

 

Of COURSE... we had cloud cover, and then more cloud cover... and then some more...

We absolutely loved the cruise, and really loved the ship.  (We had not been at all sure about the ship, given the word "ferry", which in our minds instantly brings up images of the Staten Island Ferry, which is a different critter altogether, but we didn't know for sure...)

 

Everything about the trip was wonderful, including that train ride from Oslo to Bergen, which has that other-worldly section (!!).

 

By the return part of the trip, we no longer had our clothing set out for a quick fire-station jump-into-the-warm-clothing if we heard the "Lights!!!" call.  So... late one evening, when we were in bed, sure enough... "the call!"  We threw on our jeans, and bundled up with sweaters and our expedition-level parks, and ditto the boots, and raced up the stairs.

 

The COLD was unbelievable, truly unbelievable, given the wind and the ship's movement.  Unfortunately, the "lights" were of the "mostly gray-ish" type, although the shapes and some movement were unmistakable.  But that COLD...!  I thought my thighs were going to freeze solid, even though the rest of me was nice and toasty warm.

 

Then we noticed that the direction of those gray-ish lights was mostly off the ship's stern, and we had a balcony there!

So down we raced, and then we were mostly protected from the wind, and thus the worst of the cold.

We finally saw some hints of color (as in, "Does over there look a little pink-ish to you?" 🤔).

So, all of that of course counted as "seeing the Northern Lights during the cruise"...

We took an "Astronomy" cruise package, and had a wonderful (and very funny) astronomer.  He took lots of photos and we got a memory stick with all of those, plus he included a bunch of great photos from previous cruises.  It's easy to "think" that those beautiful, colorful photos are what *we* actually saw, but... they are not.  We had such a wonderful time, that it was only a minor negative, despite the fact that it was the Northern Lights that were the underlying reason for the trip in the first place.  That is how beautiful everything was, and how nice the ship was, too. 🙂 

We are considering going back.  We seriously considered those igloos with glass domes, etc. (elsewhere, of course).  But then... we'd need to plan to stay for some time to allow for "luck", and that just doesn't seem as interesting as a cruise.

 

The landscapes were soooo beautiful, we won't mind going back if we ever decide to leave the house again.  (Sigh... 😡 )

 

Have a great time!!

 

hallasm:  Did you see any bright colors, by any chance!?

 

GC

[hallasm]

10 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

hallasm:  Did you see any bright colors, by any chance!?

The color intensity of the northern lights depends on the intensity of the solar storm.  The intensity of solar storms changes on an 11 year cycle and is expected to peak in 2023/24 - so it will be a good time this winter or next.  Also, the period around the equinox in September and March should give higher intensity due to the angle of the earth in relation to the sun.  
I'm planning a Northern Lights trip myself.  Since I don't have that far to travel, I will only do the voyage from Bodø to Kirkenes.
A camera lens is better at capturing colors than the human eye.  However, I saw more green than gray colors, but there was also good intensity on the days we saw the northern lights.  As I said, better conditions next year, so it's the right time to travel.

[Flyinby]

Thanks to Geezercouple for your great account of your experience (and the cold warning!) and to Hallasm for the tips and encouragement.  It will be a unique experience to us, northern lights notwithstanding, just the journey along the coast in winter.  We're flying to Oslo (from US) and taking the train from Oslo to Flam, spending a night, then on to Bergen for the ship, with a full day each in Oslo and Bergen...not much time, but then it will be winter and we have to be realistic about how much traipsing around we'll want to do in the cold.  We'll save that for a near-future spring trip to see fjords and greenery.

I appreciate the realistic assessment of the lights, and we'll hope for Hallasm's prediction to happen a lot during the trip.

For years I went to Yosemite NP in early spring for the "moonbow" at Yosemite falls, and the description of the lights vs. what the camera shows sounds pretty much the same.  We would be looking for faint colors and getting excited, while the camera showed a much more colorful display of the moonbow...and adding a correctly-oriented polarizer would accentuate the colors even more.  Hopefully we'll see the lights so much that I'll have the nerve to experiment with the polarizer effect on them too 8^).