Our time in Norway was compressed but we wanted to have an opportunity to see the Northern Lights and figured we needed to get above the Arctic Circle for our best chance.
After consideration of the options we decided to catch a Havila ship from Trondheim to Tromso over three days (two nights).
We chose Havila over Hurtigruten as the boats are much newer and the images of rooms on the booking sites looked much nicer. We needed a room for three.
We arrived at the dock as the Havila Capella was sailing in to harbour and watched it tie up and disembark many people about to do excursions.
We then boarded, got our passkeys and put our luggage in the locker while we investigated the ship.
At 1130 we were seated for lunch and had a nice meal of multiple small plates followed by a small sweet. The food is of a high standard and yes the serving sizes are small, but they are open about this and you can order as many serves as you like.
There are two restaurants.
The main restaurant serves everyone with a smaller “fancy” restaurant available to suite occupants and other passengers can have access on some occasions for an additional cost.
We then moved to our room and then watched a presentation on excursions available tomorrow in Bodo or through the rest of the voyage.
We played cards with a couple we met.
Breakfast next morning was at 7 am then just before 8.00 we sailed across the Arctic Circle – a small sculpture of a globe is on an island at that location.
Walked a lap on the promenade deck (level 9) and it was quite cool.
About 10 am we stopped briefly at Ornes a very picturesque port.
We stopped at Bodo for two hours and took the opportunity to wander around the town centre.
Nice dinner and stunning sunset through clouds and islands.
We stopped twice in the Lofoten Islands.
On Sunday morning we were up early to prep for our final day on the Havila cruise.
Enjoyed another nice breakfast with ‘pancakes’ that are more like our version of ‘crepes’.
After brekkie packed our bags and then did a lap of deck 8 then promenade deck 9 which was very cold at the front.
Little bit cooler this morning.
Stopped at Finnsnes at 11.00 am. Here we got off the boat for a quick walk to the town center.
This was only a 30 minute stop so we rushed back for our last lunch on board starting at 11:30.
We are starting to see more snow in the protected spots on the surrounding mountains as we progress north.
Arrived at Tromso at 1320.
What really amazed me about cruising this leg was that you were protected by fjords for nearly the whole trip. There was something to see on both sides of the ship for most of the voyage. The image below is of the ocean side on the way north.
This was our first ever cruise that involved sleeping on the boat and I must confess this route was probably an ideal first place to experience cruising because you are sailing in such protected waters so there was very little risk of sea sickness.