We have done some pretty special cruises including Inside Passage, Panama Canal, Mexican Riviera and Tahitian Islands. My wife particularly wanted to see some Polar Bears. We told the Hurtigruten cruise consultant this and wanted advice as to a Stitzbergen cruise or the Greenland cruise. I think we were upsold to a more expensive cruise.
Boarding was a nightmare, the computers were down. Champagne was set out for suite guests, not a thing for the rest of us, not even a glass of water while we waited. The lifesaving demo was a complete farce. After 45 minutes waiting most of us had lost interest.
I was pleasantly surprised by the dinner as I had read the food was average. Things went downhill from there. In 14 days you could count 3-4 memorable meals. On my feedback form I wrote, you are serving $5 meals with $40 bottles of wine. The cook (you couldn't use the word chef) killed the food. Mostly it was cooked to the point of burnt. The battered calamari was like rubber tyres both times it was served. The steaks were charred. The meal on the last night was so salty, no-one at out table could eat it. As previous critics have said, there were a lot of fish dishes. Most were quite bland and the fish tough or full of bones. One traditional fish soup tasted good but the fish could not be chewed.