Hurtigruten

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Mervyn and Trish
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Hurtigruten

#1

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

Has anyone ever been on a Hurtigruten trip, in particular one of their winter ones looking for the Aurora Boreralis?

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Jack Staff
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Re: Hurtigruten

#2

Post by Jack Staff »

We're looking into that that as well at the moment. See you on board!
Testiculi ad Brexitum. Venceremos.

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kaymar
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Re: Hurtigruten

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Not much response, chaps but we are looking at Hurtigruten as well, so I thought I would give it a nudge.

Small ships, tiny cabins, no entertainment, but there must be some good points!

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Stephen
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Re: Hurtigruten

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Post by Stephen »

kaymar wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 14:27
Not much response, chaps but we are looking at Hurtigruten as well, so I thought I would give it a nudge.

Small ships, tiny cabins, no entertainment, but there must be some good points!
Coming home by the sounds of things ;)

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GillD46
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Re: Hurtigruten

#5

Post by GillD46 »

One of my husband's ex (business) partners and his wife did. They said it was functional, but they did get to see a limited light display on one evening.
Gill

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Mervyn and Trish
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Re: Hurtigruten

#6

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

Yes that's the issue for us. We'd love to see the Aurora but is it worth a week or two with minimal facilities and maybe see little activity. Hurtigruten do offer the promise of a free trip if you don't see the lights on one of their longer trips. But there seem to be strict t's and c's and a flicker spotted from the bridge at 3am by a man with good binoculars would seem to be enough to qualify as a sighting.

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david63
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Re: Hurtigruten

#7

Post by david63 »

I think that any cruise to see the Aurora Boreralis will always be "hit or miss" because there are no guarantees but I suspect/would hope that the cruise lines do go at what are considered the most likely times to see them.

We have booked to go on Aurora in March 2019 (I know it's a long way off) to try and see them and on that cruise there are two overnight port calls so we might be in with a chance - knowing our luck it will probably be a five second burst half way through dinner one night.

Just out of interest does anyone know at what time you are likely to see the Aurora Boreralis?

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Re: Hurtigruten

#8

Post by Mervyn and Trish »

I heard 7.30 was favourite. So you'd be best to opt for second sitting!

But seriously if you're in the zone of 24 hour darkness I'm not sure it matters. But I may be wrong.... just this once

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kaymar
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Re: Hurtigruten

#9

Post by kaymar »

kaymar wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 14:27
Not much response, chaps but we are looking at Hurtigruten as well, so I thought I would give it a nudge.

Small ships, tiny cabins, no entertainment, but there must be some good points!
And you sleep on sofa beds it's flippin' freezin' and the excursions cost a fortune (£300 per head for a 2 hour snowmobile ride).

Maybe we won't bother. But then again.............................

Surely somebody has some good first-hand experience


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Re: Hurtigruten

#10

Post by Quizzical Bob »

david63 wrote: 29 Sep 2017, 15:04
I think that any cruise to see the Aurora Boreralis will always be "hit or miss" because there are no guarantees but I suspect/would hope that the cruise lines do go at what are considered the most likely times to see them.

We have booked to go on Aurora in March 2019 (I know it's a long way off) to try and see them and on that cruise there are two overnight port calls so we might be in with a chance - knowing our luck it will probably be a five second burst half way through dinner one night.

Just out of interest does anyone know at what time you are likely to see the Aurora Boreralis?
They can appear at any time but you need a dark sky to see them properly. In general, summer is no good because it's all daylight, winter is bad because it's too cold so that leaves later in autumn and early in spring. On top of this you need a solar storm or Coronal Mass Ejection to provide the high-energy particles that cause the lights. They are deflected by the earth's magnetic field and enter the atmosphere in a circle around the magnetic poles. A ship is not necessarily the best platform because of any light pollution. In my opinion a land-based holiday to a dark area that specialises in viewings would be best. You need somebody on aurora watch to wake you up if anything happens.

We have just returned from a Princess cruise from Southampton to New York via Iceland and had a good display of them just after leaving Reykjavik. They were to the north of us and we were sitting comfortably in our chairs on the balcony at the time. They didn't last too long and there was some later cloud cover that didn't help but an impressive display nonetheless. It would have been a lot better if the ship and everybody on it had turned off all unnecessary lighting. I shall try to post some images later.

https://www.exploratorium.edu/learning_ ... ethem.html
Last edited by Quizzical Bob on 02 Oct 2017, 13:18, edited 1 time in total.

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oldbluefox
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Re: Hurtigruten

#11

Post by oldbluefox »

Nice to see Quizzical back and posting again :wave:


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Re: Hurtigruten

#12

Post by Quizzical Bob »

oldbluefox wrote: 02 Oct 2017, 14:17
Nice to see Quizzical back and posting again :wave:
Thanks.

(Don't get used to it 8-) )

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