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Norwegian Coastal Voyage

MS Polarlys

Your Rating:
Reviewed by:Pam Massey
# previous cruises: 10+
Date of Trip: November 14, 2002
Itinerary: Scandinavia

This was a 4 night voyage search of the Northern Lights, aboard the Hurtigruten Ship M/S Polarlys with Norwegian Coastal Voyage from Tromsx to Bergen. Although others aboard did see the Lights on a couple of evenings in the early hours, we had long since retired for the night!

M/S Polarlys [Polar Light] was completed in 1996. Built at Ulstein verft, Hatlx, Norway, for Troms Fylkes Dampskibsselskap, Tromsx and the Hurtigruten [Coastal Express]. At 11,341 grt, a speed of 18.5 knots, 123m long, 19.5m wide, 50m high and with a draft of 4.9m she carries 691 passengers in 482 berths with 50 car spaces. She is a Cruise-Ferry carrying passengers [tourists as well as local people on their everyday business], mail & supplies up and down the Norwegian Coast, from Bergen to Kirkenes on a 12 day round voyage, calling at 34 ports along the way. Ports called at during the night one way, are visited during the day on the return journey. We flew to Tromsx from London and after a meal in the Radisson SAS Hotel we joined Polarlys just before midnight.

She is spotless throughout and warmly decorated with many sculptures, paintings and other forms of art all around her public areas. Polarlys is not a cruise ship; so don't expect Casinos, Glitz, Bingo, Art Auctions, Shows, Massages, a Hair Do, multi choice gourmet dining or Chocs on your pillow. I have only given a 3* rating here purely because of the lack of these additional amenities in comparison to those on 'cruise' ship. However, they are not missed nor required. The overall 'experience' of the voyage is a 4+ rating.

The Norwegian Coastal Voyage is described as "The World's Most Beautiful Voyage". It is truly an experience not to be missed. As a working ship, at each port of call, passengers boarded & others disembarked. Cars were loaded on/off and it was quite mesmerising watching the forklift truck drivers loading and unloading the supplies in super quick time. Sometimes we were in port for no longer than 15 minutes, at other times we had a few hours.

The gangway and loading ramp are both automatic folding into the side of the ship. No waiting around for gangways to be put in place. There are retractable steps at the top of the gangway to overcome the differing water levels, and incorporates a wheelchair lift.

Embarkation - what a breeze. You carry your bags onto the ship when the disembarking passengers have walked down the gangway, as soon as the ship docks, and pick up your card-key at reception. Cabins numbers are not allocated prior to boarding on mini-voyages, just the category confirmed. On the half or full voyages they are. No check-in lines, no security. If required, help is available with your bags. When going on or off at the ports of call, no checks, just do as you like, but make sure you are back aboard 10 mins before departure. No one is going to know you're not there; well they wouldn't wait for you anyhow. We were given a little green piece of paper to show we were a passenger if questioned, but were never asked for it.

Disembarkation - if we wanted our cases to be taken ashore for us, we had to leave them near a lift by 10am. Cabins had to be vacated and key cards handed in by midday. We then sat in one of the lounges just watching the passing scenery until arrival at Bergen at 2.30pm. So nice not having to get cases packed the night before departure and get up early the next day.

There are 3 public lounges all of which were very nice:- The Panorama Lounge affords superb views of the passing scenery with large panoramic windows forward and to the sides. Monitors show the ship's position. The room is kept dark for maximum viewing, except for a small area at the rear. No drinks or food served in here, nor smoking allowed.

The Midnatsol Club/Bar is more lively with lots of chrome, a dance floor and the lights to go with it. A band played here one evening. This is also the room where coffee is served after dinner.

The main stairwell is glassed with balconies [decks 5,6 & 7] on each side giving good views; an 'atrium' in reverse. There is only one lift here and a second towards the stern. The Fjorden Arcade with swivel chairs runs along deck 4 starboard from the Atrium to the Polarlyset Restaurant. Here there is a small Games Arcade and Children's' Play Area.

The Hurtigruten Observation Lounge & Bar has lots of small sculptures and art objects around the comfy viewing chairs. At the rear of this is the small Library, in which people mainly watched the skiing championships on the TV, but there are 2 small glass cabinets containing some English books, and an electric fire in the hearth.

Works by several artists are displayed on board, including Kere Tveter, Hanne May Scheen & Nicolaus Widerberg. The interiors are bright but not overly so, with some lovely carpets, which have tiny Viking ships' in them. There are also some ship models including one of previous Hurtigruten, Lyngen and one of Polarlys herself. A large framed poster shows images of all the past and present Hurtigruten ships.

Announcements are made in 4 languages, but no calls to bingo:) All are interesting and informative about the sights we are about to pass by. There is a Tour desk situated on deck 4, with various tours available in some ports. These are reduced in number during the winter months. There is a laundry room is on deck 3 with 3 washers & driers, tokens available from reception. Also an iron and board. Although there is a 'hospital' on the ship, there are no medical staff as you are never far from land. Appointments can be made for you ahead of arrival with a doctor or dentist. The crew are trained in first aid if required.

There is a walk around prom on deck 5, an open deck aft on deck 6 and a Sun Deck on deck 7. Yes some people did wrap themselves in a blanket and sit outside.

Breakfast is buffet style in the Polarlyset Restaurant between 8 & 10am. A nice airy room, with a second seating area [which wasn't always open] with windows looking out aft. Cereals - mainly of the muesli type & cornflakes. Drinking yoghurt to go on top and/or milk. Plenty of cheeses, cold meats and fishy things, herrings and others, which I have no idea what they were. Lots of breads/rolls and for toast too. Variety of crackers, biscuits, crisp breads & semi sweet biscuits-jams etc. Ready made omelettes of 4 different types & porridge. Juices & coffee/tea. Both hard & soft-boiled eggs were available every morning. Bacon, eggs and other hot items were available on some days.

Lunch on our trip wasn't included [it is on longer voyages] so we ate in the Lokalen Cafi. A traditional Norwegian 'Cold Table' / Carvery was available if required at 205 NOK. Other passengers said it was very good.

Dinner was served at 7pm in the restaurant [during high season there may be more than one sitting]. It is a set meal, usually with no choice, of meat or fish with potatoes and veg. [Vegetarians & other special diets are catered for with prior notice]. The evening menu is placed outside the dining room doors early afternoon. If there's nothing to your liking on it, see the Head Waiter to arrange an alternative.

Meals are not included for port-to-port passengers. Breakfast is 105 NOK & Dinner 270 NOK. Dress code is informal, though most people changed for dinner into 'smart casual' clothing.

The Lokalen Cafeteria is open 24hrs: serving all sorts of open topped & 'normal' sandwiches, along with quite a variety of hot dishes including soups, fries, pizza, sausages for int'l tastes & 'Specials' during the main meal times. Cakes/desserts, yoghurts, chocs, soft drinks, juices. Coffee, tea, wine & beer is available too. Hot food is cooked to order and brought to you.

We sampled: - 1st night:-Onion soup. Poached cod with boiled potatoes and carrots/swede with Hollandaise sauce. Chocolate 'cake' with ice cream - a small piece of very rich/heavy 'cake' with a large slab of vanilla ice cream with apricot sauce, a blob of cream & a slice of what looked like apple but wasn't. No one at the table knew what it was.

2nd night: - Sea Salad, which was all sorts of shellfish, mussels/cockles/oyster/prawns & others on a salad base. Roast lamb with potato au gratin & veg. Cheesecake, proper baked one, with a blueberry & an apricot? Sauce.

3rd night: - Mushroom Soup [cream of], Poached Salmon with boiled potatoes & veg. Apple compote & pancakes with cream.

You are offered seconds or basically as much of the main course as you want. The food was all very tasty and well presented. Potatoes served in separate dishes to help yourself. Alcohol is expensive; 175 NOK [#16] for 2 glasses house wine & a beer! All drinks are put on a 'slate' and you pay the Head Waiter before 10pm on your last night.

Ship's prices are the same as those on mainland Norway. It is suggested one takes a bottle of duty free for drinking in your cabin. This is acceptable provided you do not take your own drinks into the lounges. There is no waiter service per se; you get your own drinks if desired from the bar.

No tipping, unless you feel someone has done an 'extra' for you. No drinks station for free tea/coffee. This can be purchased from the Cafi, where you can get hot water if you take your own, and the water in the cabins is perfectly drinkable.

Our Cabin, 503, 'large' outside, forward to port. Small, 2 beds, one which was a sofa during the day & the berth which can be folded up against the wall if need be; ours was just left down; both were very comfortable. Duvet & 1 pillow each, but extra pillow & blankets were in the cupboard if required. One double wardrobe, 2 cupboards with shelves.

A dressing table with mirror & small-mirrored cupboards with shelves each side. Cupboard with shelves underneath. Chair & table, 2 electrical outlets. 220v European 2 pin plugs required. The room card must be placed in a cardholder to activate the power in the cabin. Any card will do, if you need to leave your batteries charging, but it must save a fair bit of electricity.

Telephone: Radio with alarm: Announcements can be on or off in cabin. No TV: no Ice buckets: no glasses - but 2 plastic glasses in bathroom.

Bathroom larger than on a lot of cruise ships. Shower has a curtain, which doesn't stick, as the shower is large enough for 2. Soap dispenser - shower gel /shampoo dispenser. Hairdryer [the usual Aliseo 550w wall mounted] & a heated floor [lovely]! Double-mirrored cabinet, 3 shelves each side. No bath mat. One large and one hand towel provided each.

The mini-suites have a double bed, TV and fridge. Standard outside cabins had parallel beds, no table and less wardrobe space. We didn't hear any noise from adjoining cabins, but you do hear the goings on in the early hours when in port. The ramps, and the machinery loading/unloading. Perhaps that was because I was half listening for it though. Dave didn't wake up.

Cabins are cleaned & towels changed each morning, but beds not turned down at night. The cabin stewardesses seemed to be the waitresses in the evenings. There is no room service.

There are no lifeboat drills for passengers since we are sailing in sheltered waters & never have 36 hours or longer continuous sailing.

What shows? That is the scenery you pass and the Northern Lights if you are lucky enough to catch them. A band did board one evening and play in the Midnatsol Bar. We were too busy standing on the stern wrapped in coats, hats, scarves & gloves hoping to see the lights, to sit in a bar. However people did say it was a good evening in there. Quite a party it was outside in the freezing weather until the early hours.

We did have a tour of the bridge. Amazing! So similar to an aircraft cockpit. The Capt. & 1st Officer [or Chief & Safety Officers] sit in 2 chairs with the control panel between them & all the various monitors around & above them. They only have to feed in the next port of call on departure and the ship takes itself.

4 engines, 2 main propellers, 2 forward thrusters & a 5th propeller inside the hull which is only lowered when needed & can rotate 360:. Polarlys can maintain a speed of 7knts using this propeller alone. She can be turned around on herself & we left various ports pulling away directly sideways. There are 2 stabilisers, 3m long and 70cm wide; although as we mainly sail between the coastal islands & the mainland, encountering very little open sea these were not employed during our trip. Glass windows to see below in the docking arms & controls on the arms for use when docking. 63.1 litres of fuel per nautical mile we were consuming & had 280,000 litres of drinking water available on board.

Oddbjxrn, the tour guide on the ship who is very knowledgeable, speaking 4 languages, Norwegian, English, German & French, gave us a lecture on The Northern Lights: Aurora Borealis, which shouldn't be the name as Aurora was the Goddess of the morning & the Lights are only ever seen at night.

There is a fitness centre and separate Ladies & Gents Saunas on deck 2. A key is required for entry from reception. There is also a prison down here:) I hope it only gets used for transporting Baddies, and not for unruly passengers! No swimming pool, no childcare.

Tromsx to Bergen, with 20 ports in-between over 4 nights; although we didn't depart Tromsx until after midnight on the first night, and some of the ports were visited in the dead of the night not to be seen.

The first morning just before arrival at Risxyhamn we sailed through Toppsund Sound & then the narrow & shallow Risxyrenna Channel: a 3 mile-long man-made channel opened in 1922 by King Haakon VII. You are supposed to be able to see the sandy bottom through 'Crystal Clear Emerald Water!' but it seemed a bit murky to me.

Only a 15 min stop in Risxyhamn & then on south towards Sortland, the Capital of Vesterelen. Mainly a fishing village, with a large fleet and processing industry. Then we sailed on through the Sortlandssund Sound with the 1,262 - metre high Mxysalen Mountain on the port side & the change in landscape to the jagged peaks of Lofoten ahead. All beautiful.

We then called at Stokmarknes, a trading post since 1776 & the birthplace of the Norwegian Coastal Voyage. This is where Richard With founded the Vesteraalens Dampskibsselskab AS operating company in 1881. On Sunday July 2, 1893, at 8am, D/S Vesteraalen left Trondheim as the first ship in Hurtigruten traffic, with 11 ports to visit. Capt. Richard With was at the helm. At the Hurtigruten Museum M/S Finnmarken [1956-1993] is in dry-dock. Unfortunately they were having some problems with the electricity supply at the time and we were unable to go aboard. However one could see the ship from the exterior.

From Stokmarknes we sailed through the narrow Raftsund Sound [past Trollfjord] arriving to Svolvfr, the capital of The Lofoten Islands. A fishing village & very pretty - by night anyway:) It is identified by the towering Svolvfrgeita Mountain, which we couldn't see much of, as it was dark. We stopped at Stamsund, one of the largest fishing stations in Lofoten, built into the rock, that evening and then crossed Vestfjord to Bodx arriving at 1.30am. I just viewed from the cabin window. We departed at 4.00am for Xrnes where we arrived at 7am, but only for a 15min stop before travelling down Helgeland the rest of the day.

We crossed the Arctic Circle, marked by the globe and were given a certificate to mark the occasion. Saw the Hestermannen Mountain on the island of Hestermanna & the archipelago of Trfna. [People 1st settled here 5,000 yrs ago.] Onto Nesna an old trading post on the island of Tomma. Only 15mins there before sailing on to Sandnessjxen on the larger island of Dxnna. To the west of here is the Dxnnamannen Mountain, 858metres above sea level, & to the east Helgelandsbrua Bridge, which has a span of some 400m. We berthed right in the centre of town at about 12.30pm and went for a walk through the centre & back along the quay. A number of Norwegian Navy vessels were berthed here. The picturesque Skerries continued. We passed the spectacular Seven Sisters & Torghatten Mountain, before arriving in Brxnnxysund for > hr. A narrow harbour and then headed south again past the 500m yr old red mountains of the island of Leka. In 1932 here a 3yr old girl was taken by an eagle to its eyrie in the mountains, but was fortunately rescued.

Onto Rxrvik where we met another Hurtigruten ship. Over the trip we passed quite a few of the other ships. Trondheim not long after 6am the next morning.. At 8am we set off for a 2hr sightseeing tour of the City, and a lovely one it is. We were taken around most of the city. The new Sports Complex with its 8/9 pools! The old narrow streets. The new broad ones. The River Nidelv, up to look over the City, the old folk-museum with state church & miners & engineers houses dating back 200yrs, made of wood. The Palace with its architecture & 140 rooms. 150,000 people live here, of which 1:6 is a student. The largest scientific/architecture University in Norway is here and we drove through the main campus. The old quays-now modernised & expensive apartments. Stiftsgerden, Gamle Bybro (Old City bridge), bicycle lift - the first and only? one in the world.

The Archbishop's residence & the Nidaros Cathedral (the oldest Gothic building in Scandinavia) where we were given a tour of nearly an hour. A very good guide, who managed to make the place interesting. Vigleland did some work here too; carved the Baptismal font. There are two organs the first being built by Joachim Wagner and was completed in 1741. But it didn't work until 1930 when it was returned to Germany for restoration. It is said that Johann Sebastian Bach played on it when it was being built. We returned to Polarlys at 10am, a little late and as soon as we were aboard the gangway was raised. We passed by 'Monk's Island' to starboard shortly after departure. This was Trondheim's execution ground in ancient times. Benedictine monks built a monastery on the island very early in the 11th century, probably one of the first two monasteries in Scandinavia. In 1658 it was converted into a prison fort, later becoming a customs house. Today this is a popular recreational resort, with good bathing and a restaurant.

Passing through the Trondheim Fjord along Trondheimsleia Channel was very picturesque even though the weather was very misty. The large islands of Hitra & Frxya are linked to the mainland by sub sea tunnels. We passed a couple of lighthouses: Agdenes, which was manned until 1984 before being automated & Terningen. Also saw a third on Grip where only 135 people live. A holiday destination now for people from the mainland - famed for its fishing. Smxla a large flat island (starboard) is surrounded by thousands of smaller islands. Prime agricultural land.

We arrived in Kristiansund for a short stop at 16.30. The harbour is at least 8000 yrs old; the home of dried fish production. About 17,000 people live here & the town is spread over 3 islands around the harbour, which has been there since before the late Stone Age. We only had a 30min stop & it was a fair walk to any of the shops, which although looked as though they may have been open, probably weren't, seeing as though it was a Sunday. So rather than rush about we stayed on board & took a load of photos of the lights on the water. Exceedingly pretty!

After Kristiansund we crossed Hustadvika. Actually felt some movement of the ship here. Arrived in Molde at 20.30 for an hour. The quay was very icy & one newspaper shop open. We had a quick look around and did notice the main (largest) hotel was a Quality. Also espied a Comfort Inn. Determined to see the Northern Lights we all stood out on the stern most of the night. Quite a party. The skies were clear most of the time, and when a few wispy clouds appeared the moon shone through with a strange red glow around it. We arrived in Elesund at 23.34, when the majority of us went to bed. The next morning we discovered, those who had stayed on deck to see our departure from Elesund at 00.45 got to see the Lights at 1am. Nothing dancing or spectacular, just some green stripes: but they saw them. They stayed on deck until 2am but nothing further appeared. After midnight the Lights are supposed to be 'wishy-washy', not strong colours.

We crossed the Stadhavet, which takes about 2 hours, from 3 am onwards, didn't see anything of it. Nor of Torvik or Melxy, and only a little bit of Florx where we stopped for a short while, leaving at 8.15am. We then sailed through the Skerries and the narrow Steinsundet Sound at the mouth of Sognefjord. Past the island of Fedje, Norway's most westerly point and then west to the oil refinery at Mongstad. Past Askxy [starboard] and Radxy [port], and under the Salhusbrua pontoon bridge [Nordhordland Floating Bridge] which spans 1246 metres, with abutments 180m high. Soon after passing under the bridge the fog came down and then we didn't see a lot, but prior to that it had been a beautiful sunny day. We passed many salmon farms in the fjords.

In Bergen we docked to the south at 14.30, it was shrouded in mist so we didn't see too much. We disembarked almost immediately after docking just as a bunker ship was coming alongside. The cases were already ashore and the coach was waiting to take us to the airport. A few people took a small coach to a hotel in Bergen as they were staying on for a few days. The airport is quite a way out of the city, so we saw a fair amount of Bergen on the ride through.

There were Americans onboard doing the full round voyage, the local Norwegians hoping on and off all the time, and around 50 British people doing this 4 night segment. Of the 'tourists', very few were past retirement. There were no very elderley people. Some 20 somethings working their way around the world from Australia, other young couples, a newly wed couple and the majority were around the 30-50 age range. All were friendly and companionable; any would be welcome to dinner. Not one whinger or moaner, ne'r a complaint heard from anyone.