Tag Archives: Norwegian coastal cruises

After restarting in June, some Hurtigruten crew test positive for Covid-19

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The Roald Amundsen, the Hurtigruten ship launched last year. The crew on the ship have tested positive for Covid-19.

Hurtigruten, one of the first cruise lines to resume service this summer, has reported a Covid-19 outbreak on one of the cruise ships that has been operating coastal Norway itineraries since June.

The line said that 36 of the 158 crew members on the ship, the Roald Amundsen, have tested positive for Covid-19 and that 120 are confirmed as negative. The ship is currently docked in Tromso, Norway, with no passengers on board.

Hurtigruten said it is in contact with all passengers that were on board the Roald Amundsen’s July 17 and 24 departures and that 209 passengers from the first sailing and 178 from the second will self-quarantine in line with Norwegian health authority regulations.

The Roald Amundsen cancelled its scheduled cruise to Svalbard that was to leave on July 31. The next cruise with the ship is not planned until September.

Of the 36 confirmed cases, 32 are from the Philippines. The rest are Norwegian, French and German nationals.

The line said that four crewmembers were isolated last week because of illness symptoms that were thought to not be related to Covid-19. They were then routinely tested before being admitted to hospital in Tromso on Friday.

Hurtigruten claimed to be the first line to resume sailings this summer when the Norway-based line launched domestic Norwegian coastal itineraries in mid-June and then added one sailing from Hamburg, Germany, all with limited capacity and enhanced hygiene protocols in place. It said it would ramp up operations from four to 16 ships by the end of September because demand has been so strong.

Hurtigruten said that all crewmembers are closely monitored and screened daily and that non-Norwegian crew are quarantined before boarding the ship and non-European crew need to undergo two negative Covid-19 tests before leaving their home country.

Norwegian Cruise Line’s premium all-inclusive fare ‘sparks rise in agent support’

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Norwegian Bliss Topside.

Norwegian Cruise Line has promised to never undercut its travel partners after revealing a surge in smaller agents selling its cruises since the introduction of its premium all-inclusive fare.

Nick Wilkinson, vice-president and managing director UK & Ireland, the Middle East and Africa, hailed the efforts of the trade at a media event for new ship Norwegian Bliss in central London.

He went on to link the last year’s move to premium all-inclusive pricing to a spike in agent support.

He said: “Premium all-inclusive has been an incredible success. It has opened doors to more and more agents feeling confident knowing what they’re selling with Norwegian.

“The [number of smaller agents working with Norwegian] is in double-digit growth. To me that is driving the success that we see in the market place.”

In December, NCL offered a new low-cost Just Cruise fare to run alongside premium all-inclusive to helps its sailings rank higher on online travel agencies’ searches.

He added that premium all-inclusive gave agents “the simplicity” they needed to do their job, before revealing that trade sales make up 85% of NCL’s distribution.

“[Travel agents] are our ambassadors,” he said. “They make the difference. That is why we make sure they are protected. They have a really difficult job. We will never undercut our travel agents. They are our lifeline.”

Explaining NCL’s recent decision to make New York its homeport in 2019/20 rather than a UK port, he told Travel Weekly: “The UK market is the number one market outside the US you have to look at when you are designing deployment from a global perspective.

“You have to look at what your demand is from each of those areas.”

He said it was understandable the UK market wanted “the newest, brightest, biggest” vessel but said, thanks to the Norwegian Edge renovation programme, “all our ships are exceptional”.

The 4,004-passenger ship will sail weekly seven-day Alaska cruises each Saturday from Seattle during its inaugural season.

From November, during its first winter season, the vessel will operate seven-day eastern Caribbean cruises each Saturday from PortMiami.

Hurtigruten touts five-day sale as year’s best

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By Tom Stieghorst

Hurtigruten, the specialist in Norwegian coastal cruises, is holding a five-day sale with fares on 2014 voyages discounted by up to one-third.

The sale, from Feb. 4-8, will provide the best prices of the year, Hurtigruten said.

In an email to agents, Hurtigruten said best bets for potential passengers on its cruises are past Alaska clients, past European river cruisers and small-ship fans.

Norwegian coastal cruises stop at 34 ports and are available in six-, seven-, 11- and 12-day lengths. Hurtigruten said an example of the savings is a peak season six-day cruise in August that starts at $1,595 per person this week, compared with the standard rate of $2,381.

In addition to cruising along the coast and fjords of Norway, Hurtigruten offers “explorer” cruises to Greenland, Iceland, Antarctica and Spitsbergen.