We had always wanted to do the Norwegian coast and my parents took the journey probably 40 years ago and loved it. Our Swedish friends, who we travel with, suggested we take this trip and we jumped at the chance. We understood this is not a cruise but a trip on a supply ship. We had taken the same type of trip before on the St. Lawrence so we fully understood the difference between cruise and working ships. We loved Bergen, leaving from Bergen, easy check in. The ship has been refurbished with great viewing space from all public rooms and areas inside and out. Supremely comfortable. We knew our cabin would be small and very similar to the one we had on the St. Lawrence but designed well with good storage, nice, but small bathroom, great water pressure and hot water, and exceedingly clean. The activities were informative lectures, small talks on various places we passed, fascinating, excellent tours ( expensive but they are the only game in town). The crew on the ship were polite, helpful and very friendly. The passengers were a true mix: Brits, Germans, French, Swedes, Americans, Asians etc. Languages were always in Norwegian, German and English and most of the time French as well. The ages were predominately 50-80. We loved being with other cultures and using our other languages. The visuals were supreme, incredibly beautiful, the towns were typical coastal towns, lovely and interesting. The ship was amazingly timely.

Why then only 3 stars? One word “food”. Let me preface this, I dislike buffets but these were especially challenging. They pride themselves on coffee and tea all day. The coffee was undrinkable and the quality coffee, which you pay for, was not available until 10 am.

The lunch buffets were recycled food from previous days and dinners. Salt was the preferred spice, every thing was over salted. Read more