The busiest in the fleet, and a twenty-five metre breach
The Nordkapp carries seven hundred and thirteen departure dates with us, the
largest inventory in the fleet: two hundred and thirty-four in 2026, four
hundred and eight in 2027 and seventy-one in 2028. One hundred and twenty-three
metres, 209 cabins including 10 suites, out of the Kvaerner Kleven yard at
Ulsteinvik in 1996. Refitted in 2016 and again in 2022.
Her history carries a mark few pages mention. On 30 January 2007, in
Antarctica near Deception Island, she ran aground and opened her hull below the
waterline over roughly twenty-five metres. Marine diesel spilled, two hundred
and ninety-four travellers were taken off by a ship of the same fleet. Two years
earlier, in February 2005, a crew member died near Ornes during a lifeboat
drill when the hoisting cable parted. These are documented facts and an honest
page carries them.
Three adapted cabins out of 209
Cabins 331, 333 and 335 are adapted, with automatic doors, and two
accessible toilets sit on decks 4 and 7. On a ship of more than two hundred
cabins that means structurally scarce availability: the request is made early,
in writing, or it is not made at all.
The other ships on the route
The MS Kong Harald shares her generation and her size. The MS Nordnorge is her sister from the
Ulsteinvik yard. The MS Richard With carries nearly as many dates. The MS Nordlys is the one that
suffered the 2011 fire.
This is not a cruise liner, it is a public service route
The Bergen-Kirkenes coastal route has existed since 1893 and today runs
under a state contract, from 2021 to 2030. The contract requires daily calls at
every port, year-round, freight carriage between Tromso and Kirkenes, and a
minimum capacity of 320 travellers, 120 berths and 150 europallets per ship.
Thirty-four calls northbound, thirty-three southbound.
The direct consequence for your trip: the timetable was not built for you.
Some calls last fifteen minutes, eight ports are served in the small hours, and
the ship loads freight while you sleep. That is what makes the charm of it and
also what disappoints anyone expecting a cruise. One more point: the contract is
shared with another shipowner, Havila Kystruten, which provides four of the
eleven ships and alternates departure days. Depending on the date you choose,
you board one or the other.
What is included, and what changes with the ticket
On the full voyage, full board is included: three meals in the main
restaurant, tea, filter coffee and water. Not included are alcohol, excursions,
transfers, flights, and gratuities, which remain at your expense. The same group's expedition brand claims the opposite, with an asterisk whose footnote is not published: check it for the departure you choose.
The port-to-port ticket is a transport ticket: meals are not included and are
bought separately. A cabin becomes compulsory beyond twenty-three hours of
sailing, you choose a category but never a location, suites are not sold that
way, and sales open only six months before departure. On Wi-Fi, caution: the
carrier announces it free on one page, reserved for the higher fare on another,
and excluded in its conditions. Three versions, no promise from us.
The northern lights guarantee, as it is written
It exists, and it has conditions worth knowing before booking. The voyage
must last at least eleven days, depart between 20 September and 31 March, and
above all be bought at the higher fare: the entry fare does not include it.
The point that surprises most: what counts as a sighting. The carrier writes
that it means an aurora seen from the ship, logged by the bridge officers and
announced to passengers on board, and that the ship's decision is final. A faint
aurora, announced at three in the morning while you sleep, extinguishes the
guarantee. If it does apply, it gives a classic coastal voyage the following
season, in a two-berth inside cabin, suites excluded, to be claimed within
twenty-eight days of your return.
Accessibility: what the carrier writes
Wheelchair users are accepted, most public areas are step-free and served by
a central lift. But the carrier requires a companion for safety reasons, and it
states that the crew provides no personal care: no washing, no dressing, no
feeding, no moving between cabin and public areas, no lifting.
The most important sentence is this one: it writes plainly that it offers no
excursions designed specifically for wheelchair users and does not guarantee
ramp-equipped coaches, guests having to board by themselves. No list of
inaccessible calls is published. Adapted cabins can be counted on one hand per
ship.
Booking from Quebec
The contract is signed with a Norwegian company, falls under Norwegian law
and names the court of Bergen. No arbitration clause is provided for, which is
rather good news. The deadlines, on the other hand, are short: two years for a
personal injury claim, one year for any other claim.
Nothing establishes a Quebec licence for this carrier. Your protection
therefore comes from here: Voyages AquaTerra holds a licence from Quebec's
Office de la protection du consommateur, your payments move through a trust
account, and the Compensation Fund for Customers of Travel Agents covers your
file as the law provides.
