Hurtigruten Deploys Extra Ship In Spitsbergen

Captivated by the BBC’s Frozen Planet documentary that everyone is talking about? Fancy a trip to the frozen north next summer to see more of the landscape and wildlife of Spitsbergen? Polar experts Hurtigruten have just announced they will be sending an extra ship to the region next summer to meet the substantial increase in interest it is experiencing following Prince Harry’s Arctic expedition and current Frozen Planet TV programme.

Between June and August 2012, Hurtigruten will send MS Nordstjernen up to Spitsbergen to travel the west coast of the island for a total of 21 five and six-day itineraries. This nostalgic ship is well known in the Svalbard Archipelago having sailed there between 1994 and 2009 and, for many, exploring this frozen landscape and reaching the 80th parallel on a traditional ship is a perfect combination. Hurtigruten’s newest ship MS Fram will continue to sail the summer in Spitsbergen also.

Spitsbergen lies just 1,200km from the North Pole and is home to the King of the Arctic – the Polar Bear. On the journey through the light polar nights in the north of the archipelago, guests visit interesting settlements including the Russian coal mining town of Barentsburg and the Ny Ålesund research station, as well as excursions to fascinating glaciers and landscapes. In favourable weather conditions, the ship reaches the 80th parallel. An encounter with polar bears is one of the highlights of the trip, alongside walruses, arctic sea birds and of course the Midnight Sun.

POLAR ENCOUNTERS VOYAGE – From £1,614pp - A five-night ‘Polar Encounters’ voyage to Spitsbergen on selected dates in June, July and August costs includes four nights full board on the ship, one night’s B&B in a Longyearbyen hotel plus landings, sightseeing in Longyearbyen and accompanied by an expedition team (prices based on two sharing; flights are extra and can be booked via Hurtigruten from £844pp).

For bookings, click this link to visit the UK's leading adventure cruise specialists, The Cruise Line Ltd.

Picture: Nina Bailey

The World's Most Northerly Train

(Continuing my day-by-day look at my epic Arctic voyage with Hurtigruten)



Welcome to the world's most northerly settlement at Ny Alesund, with what must be the world's most northerly train. Now just a museum piece, she rusts away quietly after pulling wagons of coal to the port for some thirty years.



Another day of fabulous scenery and fantastic history and wildlife, too. Reindeer, brent goose and ivory gull were all spotted today, with us cruising close to some incredible glaciers.



I wish had more time and space to tell you about this wonderful place but I guess you'll have to wait for it to appear in World of Cruising next month!

This place is surrounded by signs warning you not to go outside the settlement as polar bears are around. All the houses have shovels and skis by the doors, with 4x4s parked outside.



You can find out more at www.hurtigruten.co.uk or, to book, visit the adventure-cruise specialists of The Cruise Line Ltd.

How Can He Bear It?!

(Continuing the day-by-day look at my recent Arctic cruise around Spitsbergen with Hurtigruten)



Quite an eventful day today as we saw our first polar bear swimming beside the ship. I'm not really sure who was looking at who!



It's also great to see so many old faces from our recent Antarctic trip with Hurtigruten, and the Fram is as lovely as ever.



The scenery is truly spectacular up here and the bird life amazing. Longyearbyen is a tax-free zone so we have stocked up on booze and goodies for the flight home. Still strange to have no night time, though; the bar bill is starting to mount up already!



For more info on the cruise, visit www.hurtigruten.co.uk or contact the UK's adventure-cruise experts of The Cruise Line Ltd.

Blogging from the Arctic

From Steve Newman in Longyearbyen



Well hello! Here we are in Spitsbergen deep inside the Arctic Circle. We board Hurtigruten's MV Fram in about two hours so I'm writing this in the hotel. It's snowing! But the scenery is fantastic - wild reindeer are grazing outside our hotel but we can't go out to the end of the road as there are polar bears about!



Amazing last night sitting in the bar at 1am with the locals in broad daylight. Well, we have a meeting with the expedition staff now so I'll write again tomorrow (Internet connection permitting) and hopefully have some pictures for you.



(NB: Pic added from Hurtigruten via World of Cruising editor)

148 Countries Tune In To Hurtigruten!

Reports show that 148 countries around the world tuned in via TV, the live stream on the internet or via embedded players to watch the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation’s (NRK) 134-hour non-stop live coverage of a voyage with Hurtigruten from Bergen to Kirkenes. Broadcast June 16-22, the show has also been accepted by the Guinness Book of World Records for the Longest Live TV Documentary.

The show, on national TV channel NRK2, brought a sense of euphoria to the country. In total, three million Norwegians watched the show, representing almost three quarters of the country’s population and produced record-breaking ratings for NRK2. In addition, 2.9 million watched the streamed voyage online, almost half of these from outside Norway. The UK was the fifth most popular country for online viewing figures.

Social media across the globe also joined the frenzy. During the TV show, Hurtigruten was the trending topic on Twitter, at one time with one tweet every six seconds. The show’s Facebook-site ‘Hurtigruten minute by minute’ received 65,000 ‘likes’ during the five-and-a-half day voyage.

Kathryn Beadle, managing director at Hurtigruten said: "Nobody could have imagined just how popular this show proved to be. Along the coast, crowds turned up in every port to welcome the ship and boats joined in to escort her along the way. The impressive figures clearly show the incredible interest there is in Hurtigruten’s voyages along the Norwegian coastline and the global fascination there is for NRK’s innovative concept – Slow-TV.”

Hurtigruten, established in 1893, has been en-route ever since and is an important part of the Norwegian infrastructure and one of Norway’s best-known travel brands. The classic coastal route is known as the world’s most beautiful voyage and this was exactly what viewers from all over the world were able to see. All of Norway’s beauty was shown live on TV including Geirangerfjord and the western fjords of Norway, the crossing of the Arctic Circle, the Lofoten Islands, North Cape and the midnight sun. The broadcast resulted in all-time high visits on Hurtigruten’s websites around the world and all-time high ratings for NRK2. Coverage can still be enjoyed at www.nrk.no/hurtigruten/.

Find out more about the classic Norwegian coastal voyage at www.hurtigruten.co.uk or, for bookings, contact the UK's leading adventure-cruise specialists of The Cruise Line Ltd.