Member Savings Tour & Trip Reviews

My travel buddy and I flew to Spitsbergen from Oslo. Before our cruise we stayed overyight at the Radisson Blu Hotel. Nothing fancy, just a place to wait for the ship. The staff was helpful and friendly. I'll start with my only real complaint about my Fram experience: the check in procedure. We all seemed to arrive by bus from our hotels at roughly the same time...then we proceeded to our assigned deck, where I stood in line for one hour to be checked in - really, to provide them with my credit card information. The check-in process needs to be streamlined and improved. Other than that, the crew, the ship, almost everything and everyone met or exceeded my expectations.

If we didn't want to purchase a drink package we were able to have water with each meal, and the food was VERY good. Our cabin was small but acceptable for the week we were on board. One of our excursions - a hike - was really more of a forced march. The terrain was so rough I couldn't enjoy the scenery because of the necessity to look where every step was taking me. The pace was far too fast for the conditions. Before we began our cruise I hoped for just one decent polar bear sighting. Of course, with wildlife there are never any guarantees.From the ship we saw a total of seven polar bear! I was thrilled to come home with five VERY nice photos of them.

We also spent an hour on land watching a large group of walrus. Gliding through the heavy ice was a thrilling experience. Because of ice conditions our route was changed and a couple of landings were not possible but we knew we were at the mercy of the weather and ice. In the end, because of the ice, we didn't just circle Spitsbergen - we went around Svalbard! Of course everyone should investigate any company and specific ship and itinerary before purchasing a cruise, but I will heartily recommend Hurtigruten and the Fram to experience Spitsbergen.

My family including our 17 year old son sailed from Kirkenes to Bergen in August. The ship was the size we expected - a smaller passenger ship, billed a "coastal steamer". Our son had his own cabin which gave all of us plenty of room - and him space to do his own thing.

Highlights that passengers will enjoy is meeting other passengers, mostly European, who welcome conversation particularly with young people like our son. The food was invaribly healthy, plentiful and delicious - quite a distinction from a Caribbean cruise we took on a floating city. Hurtigruten is definitely and thankfully not that!

We also enjoyed the frequent stops at various towns and small ports along the way. At Hammerfest we took a 2-3 mile hike up over the hill overlooking the town. At another town, we were surprised to see vintage American cars of the 1950's and 60's tooling around town. If there was time I would go for a run as soon as we tied up enjoying discoveries as I ran through Trondheim and other lovely communities.

The Richard With needs some updating but nevertheless is comfortable. For those who want entertainment, this and we presume other Hurtigruten ships have little, their belief being that the scenery and the other passengers are entertainment enough. Fair enough but a movie once or twice would have been a fair diversion we might have enjoyed with other shipmates.

The test of a company must surely be how they respond when things go wrong and Exodus Travel failed this test miserably. After I had an accident on my trip that resulted in several broken bones in my right hand in addition to a blow to the head and other general scrapes and bruising, I was offered no assistance at all. The local subcontractor to Exodus just left me at the Hotel after I returned from Hospital. I asked them to arrange an additional night at the Hotel while I sorted my travel arrangements as I needed to return home for surgery and they didn't even do that. I was left in pretty bad shape to sort things out, without even an offer of assistance.

The trip up until this time was good, well organised and run. It was unfortunate that I crashed on the last day after the guide neglected to call a large hole in the road and according to Exodus apparently he never acknowledged pointing out holes was his responsibility! The response from Exodus has been very disappointing and says a lot about their culture and how you can expect to be treated if there are any issues.