All in all,  I have to admit,  our quest for the northern lights cruise was disappointing and frustrating. 

I’m ready for this part to end and go on to our next adventure in Portugal. I must say this has been the most discouraging trip so far, but with very little we could have done to change that.

First you already know we missed 2 days at the beginning due to a Luftansa strike. When we got to Oslo it was very cold but we did get out a little to explore. I had a migraine the 1st full day, so Emmett Adventured without me to the sculpture gardens.

Then you already know about the weather, snow mostly for the first 3-4 days in the Arctic. Then in Tromso, the excursions were canceled due to avalanche danger, so no Northern lights there either. After Narvik we saw a glimpse of green between the clouds but nothing like we had hoped to see.

Traveling south thru the Norwegian sea and then North sea, the swells were high as was the wind, so our Capt slowed down a bit. Consequently we will make it to Amsterdam late….too late to catch our original flight so we had to rebook ( of course at a higher price) on a later flight.

So, you see why I’m ready to move on to the next adventure.

I’m sorry I didn’t ever hear of all the troubles this particular itinerary had had this season, before we joined it, or I might have planned differently.

According to the cruise director, none of the cruises had made the route exactly as planned. A couple cruises were caught in Tromso or Alta for 4-5 days, a couple missed at least 1 port, Narvik & Amsterdam 2x, for instance. One missed the embarkation port and folks were flown to their intended port. This 1 is only late for Amsterdam but all the time excursions have missed their appointments so people are just getting 2 hours to visit Amsterdam on their own. We just missed our intended flight to our next destination, so just an extra expense.

Had I known of all these troubles, however, I think I’d just have down to an Arctic city, like Alta or even Fairbanks, and stayed for a week! Or so. The North Atlantic weather was quite against us this trip. However we planned the right year, even the right month, top of the solar Max 11 year cycle and at the spring equinox when sightings are usually great.

“The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry”