HavilavoyagesReviews of havilavoyages.com

Hurtigruta har man lov og ta med seg dyr, da får man en lugar som er tilpasset til det behovet. De burde gjøre som Hurtigruta. Vi har lyst mange ganger og dra på tur med katten. Hurtigruta får 5 stjerner for service og jeg kan ikke gi noen stjerner til havila.

Havila voyages is trying to compete with Hurtigruten with modern ships. Therefore, they must face this comparison. We travelled the Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen route with Havila voyages in June 2024 and with Hurtigruten in February 2023. We would like to summarise our findings before we go into detail. Havila voyages is unfortunately just an inferior copy of Hurtigruten and lags miles behind in all respects. Apart from the cabin! It started with the check-in: without any indication, the check-in was started an hour later. Then, one floor up, you had to queue again for ages to get a mealtime for lunch and dinner. This meant that if you were not one of the first guests, even if you booked a balcony cabin for €7000, you would only get a bad time and a bad seat. In our opinion, those who book an inside cabin are not entitled to a window seat. There was also little emphasis on safety. I didn't see anyone watching the safety video! Havila voyages boasts about its economy concept. This means that no food is thrown away unnecessarily. Unfortunately, bread rolls from the previous day also taste old there. The food at lunch and dinner is boring and of average quality at best. No typical local food and hardly any variety. Even the fine dining restaurant is only of average quality. Apart from that, there are only two different menus. Meat or fish! The selection of drinks is large and good. Be careful with the beverage package on offer. There is no overview of the consumption, and we suspect that we consumed less than was billed. The balcony cabin we booked was very modern and, in contrast to Hurtigruten's superior outside cabin, very spacious. The expedition team does the bare minimum but provides no further information about the area. E.g. "We're about to drive into the Trollfjord." That's it! So, if you don't need a large cabin on your cruise, Hurtigruten is much better than Havila voyages. Addition: On the Geirangerfjord + Trollstigen excursion, you should take the German/English bus, as the guide (Dominic) was great and the lady on the other bus, Norwegian/English, was probably very borderline.

Am 09.05.24 wurde meine für dem 13.05.24 (Abfahrt) geplante Reise von Havila wegen technischer Probleme storniert. Ich habe kurze Zeit danach um die Erstattung gebeten, da ich trotzdem auf eigene Faust nach Norwegen reiste und das Geld benötige. Bis heute habe ich KEINE Rückzahlung erhalten und werde von Woche zu Woche vertröstet. Ich habe diese Reise im Januar gebucht, nie eine Leistung erhalten und laufe nun meinem Geld hinterher. Ich kann dieses Unternehmen wirklich nicht empfehlen!!!

Fin båt men… Hvorfor skal det ta så sinnsykt lang tid for å sjekke inn?!! Det skal skrives under tas bilde og et jæ*** mas! Dette må vi aldri når vi tar Hurtigruten. Og man får en følelse av at vi som bare skal fra havn til havn egentlig bare er til bry. Tungvindt og dyrt å få seg en matbit/kaffe er det også,her skal det også skrives under! Det står to personer "på vakt" bak disken å passer på så du betaler før du i det hele tatt får nærme deg mat/kaffen. Man får en følelse av å være en innsatt istedet for en gjest. De har mye å lære fra Hurtigruten!

In November, 2022, I booked a 16 May 2023 cruise with Havila, not knowing that Havila was selling tickets for cruises for which they had not had ships delivered. Subsequently, I booked all of my accommodation for Sweden and Norway. In late February, 2023, my travel agent advised that the cruise was cancelled. The only comparable cabin I could obtain for another cruise was more expensive. Havila not only charged me the difference, but at the maximum rate. Between that and having to amend airline bookings and cancel and rebook accommodation, this cost me in excess of AUD$5K, apart from the great stress involved. No offer of compensation was made by Havila. While in Sweden in May, I suffered a severe hay fever attack, as did many of the locals. Tests by a GP in Oslo confirmed that it was not Covid – apart from the fact that I had none of the symptoms. Medication managed the symptoms. On the 7th day of the 12 day cruise, I finished the medication and the next day, the same symptoms returned. I was so ill, I stayed in the cabin. Apart from an initial and 2nd Covid test (both which were false positives) and taking my blood pressure, no care was afforded me. I informed the staff that I did not have Covid, as I was suffering with the exact same symptoms, from several weeks prior. I simply had a reoccurrence of hay fever. I was not able to go to the restaurant for the luke warm meals that they served. Unless I rang for food, no one checked on me. At one stage, I did not phone for over 24 hours and no one checked on me, despite how ill I was. Twice, I asked that electrolytes be obtained and this was ignored. One night when the ship was in open, rough seas, I had a bad fall and hit my head and body on both sides, when falling to the ground. The phone was too far from the bed to get help, so it wasn’t until the next morning in calmer seas, that I could phone to let them know I’d had a bad fall and hit both sides of my head. No care was offered. On returning to the final port, Havila allows crew off first, cleaners to come on board, 2nd, and finally, the paying passengers may disembark. This astounded me, despite the previous shocking lack of care that I’d received. Another passenger informed me that her cruise had also been cancelled and Havila told her to keep track of expenses and they’d be reimbursed. No offer had been made to me. On arrival back in Australia and regaining my health, I commenced the tortuous process of trying to obtain reimbursement from Havila, the same as what they’d offered the other passenger. Direct emails to Havila were ignored, so I had to enlist the assistance of their Australian agent. Even she had difficulty obtaining responses. I provided them with requested copies of invoices, to substantiate my claim. All I requested was for reimbursement of the extra airfare charge and the extra 3 nights accommodation I had to purchase, because I could not obtain flights, to fit in with the change of dates. This was approximately ½ of the expenses that I’d incurred. After months of dragging this out, they only refunded the AUD$1.2K for the airfare and told me to claim insurance for the rest. No discussion, despite having asked for accommodation invoices, previously. Insurance will only reimburse for cancellation for natural disasters. My disaster was booking with Havila. From the initial attempt to book, their deceit in not reimbursing me to the extent previously advised, their very slow responses, or no responses to queries, to the trauma of the cruise, it was my worst travel experience in over 50 years.

I am sad to write this review as I have had many good voyages with Hurtigruten on this route and looked forward to a trip with its modern competitor. The voyage was on the MS Polaris from Trondheim to Tromso (07/12 to 09/12). The ship looked great when we walked up to it. Modern and clean. Note; no one helped us with our cases up the steep gangplank!. Check in was straight forward and on initial impression our cabin was modern and well designed, but after a while we perceived a strong smell of sewage. Could not find anyone to complain to. We walked around the deck with friends. The walkways were encrusted with ice that looked like it had not been cleared for days. A terrible health and safety issue. When booking in for our meals we were told that there were no options but the early breakfast Apparently another ship had broken down and there was no choice. The restaurant did not seem that full to our small group of 4. The food; I get the idea of reducing waste - well done but it was bland and not much choice. A real shame as this was a golden opportunity to highlight local produce. Its the poorest food I have had on a Norwegian ship. We were lucky to see the Northern lights on the first night. We had to take very great care as the deck was still covered in ice. Second day - Room was not cleaned neither were my friends room. No one around to complain to. The ship appeared to be late for every port. Maybe I have been lucky in the past in Winter with very bad weather on this route where I could set my watch by arrival times. This meant that our Viking evening was completely spoiled as there was hardly anytime at the venue. A shame as I had booked this having had great experiences before. That night we enjoyed a cup of gluck wein but decided against being on deck. There were still ice cubes from the arctic crossing ceremony on deck and also still a lot of black ice! The next day we left and I can say that we were glad to leave. There was a feeling of an unhappy crew which I can only surmise was due to the management (always seemingly absent) Try this company if you want to. The ships are new and environmentally friendly. Personally I will never travel with them again. My overall impression was that the management did not care less about their passengers. Forgot to say in my original review that everytime we had a shower, the bathroom flooded (in harbour not in rough sea). Same thing happened to our friends in their cabin. I suspect that the company does not read any of these reviews or otherwise I should have got some response. Pity I cannot give 0 stars. Date of experience: December 2023

They booked us the wrong day Excursions and were unable to change this unboard. Day Excursions are much cheaper to purchase once on board, and they shouldn't be paid for before sailing. Also upgrades are far cheaper on board. Always book the cheapest cabin and upgrade once onboard.

Our trip on Pollux got canceled 3 days in and we had limited options. We elected to start over if Havila would get us back to Bergen to keep our original flight as we were planning the round trip. The customer service in dealing with this was terrible as they didn't communicate anything. Upon return I've submitted a couple receipts for transportation they said they would cover and they now say they will only cover 1. In additional we lost 3 cruise days but they choose not to cover any of this. Due to the risk of having to deal with customer service, I do not recommend Havila.