Norwegian Cruise line Hurtigruten offers Northern Lights promise

Scandinavia, Travel / By / Arctic Circle, geomagnetic storm, Hurtigruten, North Pole, solar flare, The Northern Lights /

A Norwegian cruise line company is to offer passengers a free trip if they don’t see the Northern Lights while on one of their Arctic Circle voyages.

northern-light-cruise-hurtigruten-norway

Hurtigruten is the first company to offer the promise for travellers wanting to see the natural aurora borealis phenomena that is often unpredictable to find and can be easily hidden by cloud cover.

There is never any guarantee to be able to see the spectacular sky light show. Hurtigruten are confident with the Northern Lights experiencing the end of an 11-year phase known as “solar maximum” when the lights are more vivid than usual.

Philip Price, Hurtigruten’s interim managing director, said on TravelWeekly.co.uk: “This isn’t a gimmick; we’re so confident in what we do that we’re offering this promise.”

The deal is valid to any passenger booking an 11-night “Classic Round Voyage” around Norway between October 1st and March 31st next year. They must book before November 30th this year to be offered the deal.

If the lights do not show, travellers will be given a choice of boarding Hurtigruten’s seven-day “Classic Voyage North”, or the six-day “Classic Voyage South” between October 1st 2015 and March 31st 2016. Flights into Norway to begin either trip are not included in the deal.

This week, scientists predicted a rare solar flare could prompt a particularly brilliant Northern Lights show. A geomagnetic storm is expected on Friday after a sun spot erupted early this week, said CBC News.

The Northern Lights are caused when gaseous particles collide. They can be seen from many places on Earth but are visible nearly every night in the Arctic Circle, nearer to the North Pole.

Dan Winther
Follow Dan
Latest posts by Dan Winther (see all)