Tag Archives: Norway

Tom Cruise & Mission Impossible Crew Rent Two Hurtigruten Cruise Ships

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The Hollywood star and his production crew are reportedly anchored off the coast of Norway.

There’s no mission impossible for Tom Cruise and his crew, even filming a blockbuster movie during a pandemic…

Helping to get filming safely wrapped up, Hollywood star Cruise and the Mission Impossible production crew have reportedly hired two Hurtugrten cruise ships, MS Vesterålen and MS Fridtjof Nansen.

According to Norway Today, Hurtigruten’s new ship MS Fridtjof Nansen is acting as a hotel ship for the 400 crew members, who have been housed on the ships during filming in August and September.

The ship is said to be anchored off the coast of Hellesylt, a small village in Norway, allowing the crew to get on with filming and avoid any further delays to production. Production on the new Mission Impossible 7 movie was put on hold in February due to the pandemic but has now restarted.

MS Vesterålen | Hurtigruten´s ships | Hurtigruten

While they didn’t confirm if Cruise himself was staying on the premium expedition ship, Hurtigruten did confirm the rental to Norway Today, revealing they rented the two ships out to the company Truenorth. Truenorth is currently working on the seventh Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise.

According to the Sun newspaper, Cruise himself picked up the bill for the rental for August and September, which came in at an impressive £500,000.

MS Fridtjof Nansen is currently docked at Hellesylt, with its use as a hotel ship confirmed by the Counsellor of Stranda municipality.

It is not known what MS Vesterålen is being used for, but there is speculation that the ship will even appear in the upcoming blockbuster.

Hurtigruten is currently operating a limited amount of cruise sailings due to Covid-19, allowing the ships to be used for private rental and filming.

MS Fridtjof Nansen was due to sail a handful of sailings around Iceland and the European Atlantic coast, but they have since been cancelled by the line.

Cunard Cancels Cruises Into 2021 and Makes Sweeping Deployment Changes

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Queen Mary 2
Queen Mary 2

Cunard will be extending its pause in operations from November 2020 until March 25, 2021 for its ship Queen Elizabeth; until April 18, 2021 for Queen Mary 2 and until May 16, 2021 for Queen Victoria, the company announced.

Cunard president Simon Palethorpe said:  “We are so sorry to all those guests who were due to sail on any of the cancelled voyages and for the disappointment this news will cause. After very careful consideration and reviewing the latest guidance, we simply do not feel it would be sensible to start sailing again with our current schedule so we have reviewed future itineraries.

“Queen Elizabeth has returned to the UK and with ongoing uncertainty over the re-opening of many ports and countries, it is sadly not practical to continue her planned itineraries for 2021.

“Therefore, in addition to the pause in operations, all of Queen Elizabeth’s sailings due to depart between March 26, 2021 and December 13, 2021, in and around Australia, Japan and Alaska, will be cancelled.

“These voyages will be replaced with a programme of shorter duration European holidays ranging from three to 14 nights, departing from Southampton. These will start at the end of March 2021, with a series of scenic voyages around the coast of Cornwall, the west coast of Ireland and the Scottish Isles. There will also be short breaks to Amsterdam which will include an overnight in the city, as well as voyages to northern and southern European destinations including Norway and the Iberian coast, with several of these itineraries featuring overnight city stays.

Fincantieri | Queen Elizabeth
Queen Elizabeth

“Queen Elizabeth’s new program will be completed with a series of seven and 14 night voyages in the Mediterranean, sailing from Barcelona. It is an exciting new programme which I am sure will have great appeal.”

All new itineraries onboard the Queen Elizabeth will be available to book from September 29, 2020.

Palethorpe continued: “Additionally, recognising the immense disappointment of those onboard Queen Mary 2’s curtailed World Voyage this year, and the cancellation of her World Voyage in 2021, we are delighted that Queen Mary 2 will sail a classic World Voyage in 2022. This will replace her scheduled sailings departing January 3, 2022 to April 3, 2022, including the voyage to South America.”

The new 104 night adventure will depart from Southampton on January 10, 2022 and include calls to Greece, Dubai, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Australia and Bali before returning to Southampton via Abu Dhabi, Oman, Italy and Portugal. The ship will sail through the Suez Canal both on the outbound journey and on return. It will be bookable, either as a full world voyage or as one of six sectors, from September 8, 2020.

“Given the current uncertainty, the complexity of our scheduled World Voyage with our international mix of guests visiting many countries and continents, each with its own evolving travel regulations was a very real factor in our decision making.”

German Cruise Line AIDA Delays Service Resumption, Pending More Approvals

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German Cruise Line AIDA Delays Service Resumption, Pending More Approvals
AIDA Perla
he German cruise line AIDA cancelled its planned resumption of service this weekend over an approval technicality.
The line, which is owned by Carnival Corporation & plc., has implemented new health and testing protocols that had caught 10 crew members who were positive for COVID-19 after they boarded two AIDA ships but before any passengers came aboard.
The hold-up for AIDAperla and AIDAmar, leaving on short cruises August 5 and August 12, though, came because the country of Italy, where the ships are flagged, had not given approval for the ships to sail, the company said in a release.
“Contrary to our expectations, the final formal approval for the start of the short trips from August 5, 2020, by our flag state Italy is still pending,” the release said. “We assume that we will receive the last formal approval by the flag state Italy in a timely manner.”

While COVID-19 is not cited in the release, the spectre of coronavirus hangs over international ships coming back into service, after virus outbreaks among passengers and crew occurred last weekend

 in two separate corners of the world.

In Norway, Hurtigruten faces an investigation after 36 crew and five guests have tested positive for COVID-19. And in French Polynesia, passengers on Paul Gauguin are quarantined on the ship and getting tested, after the ship’s doctor found a positive result with a guest. Both lines had resumed sailing with reduced capacity and improved health and safety requirements; Paul Gauguin and French Polynesia both require passengers to present a negative COVID-19 test before boarding or entering the country.

Norway Says No To Cruises After Hurtigruten Coronavirus Outbreak

AIDA, too, has implemented strict health and safety guidelines for its resumption. Those guidelines, in fact, had detected the COVID-19 cases among the crew before sailing resumed and passengers could be exposed.
No cases had been detected among crew coming on board AIDAperla, which was the first ship in the fleet to have a scheduled cruise. The incidents had been reported on AIDAmar and AIDAblu on July 22, well before those ships were slated to cruise on August 12 and August 16, respectively.
Current policies call for all crew members to be tested for COVID-19 in their home countries before flying to Rostock, Germany, and getting on board the ship. The crew members then take a second coronavirus test while they are secluded on the ship.
Once the 10 infected crew members were detected, they were taken off the two ships and the remaining crew members were contained to the ship in isolation and underwent a third round of tests, the line said.