Europe - Northern Europe Cruise Reviews

Greenland is one of those edge-of-the-world places that rank high on bucket lists. Unlike Antarctica, which has become overrun with "small ships" disgorging thousands of tourists during their summer season, Greenland still retains its air of remoteness, and a primary reason for that is that very few expedition ships sail to more than one (or two) places in Greenland. Hurtigruten, along with Silversea and Seabourn (the latter luxury liners only make one or two stops in Greenland), are the only ships that come to mind as running a Greenland itinerary. Unfortunately, Hurtigruten Expeditions leaves a lot to be desired particularly in terms of strategic planning of the itinerary. Given Hurtigruten's history and specialty as an Arctic ship line, we found it very surprising and disappointing that alternate plans had not been made in the event that weather - such as ice, something absolutely to be expected in this itinerary - would prevent us from making scheduled stops. This resulted in us spending almost 6 days at sea, when the original itinerary called for only 4 days at sea, in the crossing from and back to Reykjavik. For a 16 day cruise, that is a considerable number of days at sea, and, more importantly, the missing out of at least 2 scheduled stops because head office and/or the expedition team along with the Captain, failed to properly make alternate arrangements for replacement stops long before the sailing even took place. As an example, we were on the second of four scheduled sailings to Greenland. The first sailing (which departed 16 days prior to our scheduled departure) also failed to stop at the first 2 scheduled ports, and the last 2, because of ice. The second sailing, which we were aboard, same story. One of the expedition team members, whom I befriended, also informed me that for the third sailing, those 4 scheduled ports were once again skipped. I don't know about the final sailing but I sure hope that head office, the Captain and the expedition team by now have figured out how to have a Plan B, and a Plan C in place for passengers who paid a fair amount of money to experience Greenland, and not just the Crossing of the Denmark Strait.

Great cruise, loved Celebrity and Norway! Thanks so much!

Just another excellent experience on Oceania. We've already booked another cruise.

Overall we enjoyed the cruise ship and most of the excursions. The staff was for the most part great, only a few exceptions. Communications on port changes and timing of excursions for that port could have been better.

Beautiful ship, great itinerary. The staff was amazing and the entertainment was wonderful.

Celebrity Silhouette 7/5-7/17 was our best cruise yet! We’ve done many cruises and each one gets better, but there’s nothing like this ship! Everything was perfect, from food to drinks to shows to dancing to 5-star service! This cruise has an incredible vibe! Highly recommend! 10/10 service! I wanted to mention a few names here who went above and beyond and made us feel like we are a part of their family! Reagan, Julio, Pankaj, Sanjay, Mangal, Bipin, Pradeep knows as panda at the ocean bar, John, Nikhil, Melvis, Anmol, James, Silver, Shuvam Almar, James, Sudheer, Morris chef, Morris at the ocean bar, Badal, Glory, Rhuan, Salino, Naik, Pratap, Karl Michael, Savio, Gracian, Josephine, ocean, Mariel, Tracy, Jackson, Pratap, Dilip, Rajesh Nella at the teen club!!! And the best Captain Nigel and the best cruise director Eddy!

This itinerary was very different than what we had experienced before on cruises. We were delighted that ports were not inundated with trinket touristy gift shops. We felt we really did get a feel for each countries culture as best we could in the short time we visited.

Great cruise. Read excursions carefully as you may be on the bus for quite a while.

Forced to swap itineraries based on international conflict. This was a solid adjustment. Ports were similar but different in their own way. Standard service from Royal. Enjoyed the cruise overall.

It was a shame we had to miss two ports due to high wind and high swells, but we understand we all need to be safe. Otherwise, the ports we did visit did not disappoint.

A wonderful experience overall. The staff and crew were very friendly and courteous. I great vacation.

I couldn't see Greenland, which I wanted to see, because Holland America canceled and changed the schedule. According to the letter from Holland American, the weather in Greenland was changed due to ice conditions for the safety of our customers. However, it was 8 degrees Celsius (46.4 F), which is typical summer weather in Greenland, and there was no unexpectedly heavy ice conditions as Holland American said. If we had not sailed to Greenland from the beginning and only went to Iceland, we would have taken a plane to Iceland instead of taking the cruise. That would have been more cost-effective and time-efficient. This time, Holland American should provide grounds for why we couldn't go to Greenland due to technical issues and provide compensation for this. Not only me, but also the other people who were on board said that they had no idea about the schedule change before boarding. In conclusion, I forgot to trust Holland American and my vacation was ruined. I am just glad that I was able to return home safely and in good health.

When we boarded, we were informed that there had been an itinerary change due to unsafe ice conditions in Greenland. Initially, we were very sad about this change because we wanted to see Greenland. We were provided alternate ports, though, including the Faroe Islands. These ports were a wonderful addition to our cruise. We appreciate the captain making the decision to keep us safe and allowing us time at other locations. Some other ships simply had more sea days, but our captain did the work to make sure that we could go to more places.

If you want a cruise that is off the beaten path, this is a good option. This is a trip for someone who wants exposure to wild areas, small towns, scientific education and doesn't mind changes in itinerary (or weather.

Loved this cruise!! Going to Iceland was great and loved the ports. And Scotland is always a joy.

Wonderful cruise Iceland spectacular, Scotland beautiful. Visited the Culloden Battlefield somber experience, In Edinburgh its was the 900th anniversary of the Edinburgh Castle and saw King Charles there for the ceremony.

All in all rather disappointed in this cruise just because of all the little things that went wrong and there seemed to be no backup plans for the weather induced changes. Also very annoyed at the Marriott situation even though the premises was clean and neat; it was 6 minutes from the airport and if we wanted to get back to Reykjavik for the day the cab fare was $125 USD each way. Really: who thought up this plan?? I'm sure I will not hear back from anyone in management about these happenings; I tried to call Customer Service but apparently you can't talk to a human being - everything has to be done by email. With all the money invested in your cruises I would think courtesy would prevail and a real person would be available to handle a passenger's concerns.

We went on this cruise for the views of the fjords and we were not disappointed. The views were fantastic. The ship was good and similar to other Royal cruises with the corporate focus.

Cruise was very good for us and the weather was nice

I really enjoyed visiting this part of Europe and appreciated not having to worry about what I was going to eat or where I was going to stay. It's a great way to get a taste of different countries and having the comfort of yummy food on the ship and also wonderful shows after your trip into town. I love traveling with NCL and look forward to going on future cruises with them!