Stunning scenery - improvement opportunity regarding service
Hurtigruten Svalbard (HR SV) is a good company which owns quite a bit in Svalbard including Svalbard tours, the fabulous restaurant Huset and Radisson Polar hotel.
The tour started out with an interesting bus trip and afterwards we were dropped at the ship to check in. We were advised to go to the restaurant to have tables allocated to us. Here we were greeted by a rude Lithuanian lady who claimed she was English. She managed to reduce some of the guests to being treated as children. She claimed to be English but her accent clearly gave it away. Her behaviour only occurred the first day so I assume that someone had a word with her because she was super friendly afterwards.
All the 5 guides on board were lovely however they could have been more proactive with the guests. As advertised online, it would have been great with more lectures on board. For example, the lack of information resulted in some passengers being told off while on land for waving away attacking artic terns rather than simply holding an arm vertically, walking too far away from the guides or stepping on moss.
Food was generally very good. Breakfast and lunch buffet absolutely amazing. Dinner was good except for the dessert which 2 of the 3 nights we were served chocolate mousse with a distinct unpleasant taste of floury premix. There were always free coffee and tea and a fabulous fruit bowl. The bar had very reasonable alcohol prices and sometimes we were so lucky to have glacier ice in our drink. That was a real bonus. Fabulous idea.
We were very disappointed about our room because it was not as depicted on the pictures online however, we have raised this with Hurtigruten uk whom we booked the cruise through.
The daily walks are not strenuous. Most walking distances were about 300 meters with only one being longer at about 3km. One day we walked 300 meters and then spent 1.5 hours looking at a glacier.
I can highly recommend bringing very good binoculars and cameras because, unlike shown on their website, you do generally not get close to any animals. There is a minimum distance that you have to stick to. Despite this the scenery is absolutely stunning.
There is room for improvement for the Svalbard cruise however, despite the small hiccups on the cruise, I can highly recommend Hurtigruten Svalbard. Just be aware that the room you see online may not be what you are get.