Havila's Polaris and Pollux now apparently working coastal route

[Flyinby]

I couldn't find this posted here, but was curious about whether the Polaris and Pollux had started their routes, along with Havila's other two ships that have been doing the route for some time.  According to marinevesseltraffic.com, the Polaris has left Kirkenes and the Pollux has left Finnsnes on the way to Bergen.  So it looks like all four of Havila's ships are now "online" and working ships!  After all the obstacles, this is great news.

 

I didn't see anything about it on Havila's site, other than them being listed on their routes for booking, so I suppose they could just be training, but they were both supposed to start operating in mid-late August, so I'm guessing they did.

 

Now I have to decide which one to take for our next coastal voyage...the familiar Capella and its crew, or one of the newer ones...

[oakridger]

Yes, they had both started the route as of the end of August!  I watch some reviews and pictures on the Havila Facebook groups.  So far things seem to be going smoothly!  Already several Aurora Borealis sightings along the coast.  

 

Will you go on a winter trip?

 

~Nancy

[Flyinby]

On 9/22/2023 at 1:24 AM, oakridger said:

Yes, they had both started the route as of the end of August!  I watch some reviews and pictures on the Havila Facebook groups.  So far things seem to be going smoothly!  Already several Aurora Borealis sightings along the coast.  

 

Will you go on a winter trip?

 

~Nancy

There are most always some glitches with new ships, good to hear things are going OK. That's great about northern lights already!

 

I'm still deciding on the winter trip, been on the verge of booking it a  few times.  We have a Costa Rica trip in December, and a Zurich to Paris river trip in April-May, so would have to squeeze it in early February (I like having time to 'normalize' between trips).  Most likely will book it soon, using the 'flex' so it can be changed if necessary, but I don't expect I would change it.

 

I must really like Norway...I also want to do a 'midnight sun' version, but probably not a single round trip...maybe halfway, stop for a few nights up in the arctic circle, then return, possibly part way by train.  Will wait to hear your upcoming trip report, since there's no way to fit that one in until at least 2025.

[oakridger]

I will definitely report back here during/after the Castor trip.  There isn't a lot of information here on Cruise Critic about Havila so I will offer my impressions to help all you folks who have helped me and others to decide on what to do in Norway.

 

~Nancy

[UDChE89]

Feel free to ask me any questions.  I was originally supposed to be on Polaris but had to rebook onto Castor this past January.  Took my mother with me and he had an absolutely fantastic time.  We only experienced very minor issues but they weren’t a big deal.

[Jacqueline]

From my research, the northern lights are active around the equinoxes, so right about now. I thought it had more to do with hours of daylight (darker nights) but it’s more closely related to solar flare activity.

[grayjay]

Right now as hopefully throughout the whole of 2024 there is supposed to be high solar flare activity.

Just a few days ago northern lights were not only seen as far down as Northern and Eastern Germany ( which is very rare!) but even down to Austria which is absolutely unusual.

We're keeping our fingers crossed like mad because we'll do the coastal voyage in October and hoping for clear nights and lots of spectacular greens....