"Hurtigruten er ikke cruiseskip men arbejdende kystpassajer- og fraktskip. Og seiler på en rute, hvor halve strekningen er nord for polarsirkelen!"
This was the situation before the arrival of the 90ies fleet about we are actually in discussion. In the last 3 decades the old historic "Postschiffroute" connecting small villages with small towns at the norwegian coast inkluding some local passengers and freight-transport it has changed up today to a 99% cruise-route with a high number Pax from Germany, Swiss, Austria, USA, Asia etc. - they have a worldwide marketing similar as the Jungfraujoch-train in Swiss which is mostly only used by rich asians today (to expensive for the most germans/europeans). And nearly the only freight onboard the Hurtigruten-ships today are the cars from german tourists which are booking sometimes one-way only and go by car to/from Kirkenes the other way. This is also the reason for the cutting of the port-times. In the 80ies/90ies in many ports was the stop some hours - also needed for loading of local freight.
But now in the most ports it is a mini-stop of some minutes only similar as the Tax-Free-Stop in Mariehamn or Langnäs from Viking Line and Silja Line. On the ships is all "perfect" for german tourists, f.ex. there are special lessons from nature-experts in german onboard and furthermore are especially german "Reiseleiter" onboard also which already start the package-tour onboard Color Line Kiel-Oslo, help the tourists in the train to Bergen etc. .
The number of norwegian locals using the ships in a kind of a ferry or bus on a short piece of the route is less then 1 % today - also because of "1000s" of new bridges, tunnels and better and faster ferry-connections between the Fjords and the Coast-Islands. If there are f.ex. going onboard 4, 5, 6 people in Bodö and leaving the ship in the Lofoten some hours later it is less than 1% of the cruise-people onboard.
So Hurtigruten is really a cruise today - with the possibility to book short passages of the route also separately.
From the economical side this XXXL-technical renovation of the oldest 90ies ships is crazy, but maybe Hurtigruten has so much money that this is not a problem (???), the same with to have now for 21 month (= 3 x 7) a ship less in the fleet. As said - if the renovation is finished the ships are 30 years old what is a normal ship-lifetime. Many other big cruiseships from the 90ies are already now as scrap in Aliaga or Alang. The better solution would be to prepare now in 2022/2023 a new green ship-concept for the future, order f. ex. 2 new ships (+ options for ca. 3 more) this in end 2023 and then in 2026/2027 would be the first new GREEN newbuildings going in use.
Then the RICHARD WITH, KONG HARALD, NORDLYS etc. are 33/34 years old and could be sold anywhere and Hurtigruten would have the most modernst newest greenest ships - and newer than the 2021/2022 built "konkurrenz-"ships from Havila. Little later inkluding the options in 2030 the 7 ships Hurtigruten-Coastline-fleet could be 5 newbuildings, 1 old renovated ship from the 90ies for "historic-ships-lovers" and the Trollfjord from 2002.
But now these old ships must be in use very long time more because of to justify the extremly high actually financial investments only for win the race to be "the greenest of the greens" against the Havila Slogan
"Die umweltfreundlichsten Schiffe entlang der norwegischen Küste".
Havila Voyages neue und umweltfreundlichsten Schiffe entlang der norwegischen Küste
www.havilavoyages.com
By the way maybe an interesting actually pricecheck, all prices per person in a double-inside including all meals:
- 14 days Kiel-Nordkapp-Kiel including in the most ports ca. 8 hours stay (via Bergen, Geiranger, Kristiansund, Lofoten-Leknes, Tromsö, Nordkap, Florö, Göteborg) with the fresh renovated VASCO DA GAMA € 1654,- starting 29.9. (booking via Kreuzfahrtberater.de).
- 11/12 days Havila-Voyages Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen € 2882,- starting (exampel) 30.9. with HAVILA CASTOR ((+ additional costs for a flight or ferry to Bergen, available cheap f.ex. from Hamburg via Gdansk from € 16,- one-way))
- 11/12 days
Hurtigruten Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen inkluding Color Line Kiel-Oslo-Kiel and the Bergen-train and 1 hotelnight € 2979,- starting different days in march (not possible to book later than march actually)
- 11/12 days
Hurtigruten Bergen-Kirkenes-Bergen in sept. € 2111,- ((+ additional costs for a flight or ferry to Bergen, available cheap f.ex. from Hamburg via Gdansk from € 16,- one-way))
So Havila and Hurtigruten offers both similar very high prices, but Hurtigruten is cheaper inkl. "early-booking-special" - but both are much higher than "normal" much bigger cruise-ships. The normal cruise-ships has less stops at the coast - but the people has much more time to explore the country at the stops, in these exampel with VASCO DA GAMA f.ex. 27 hours in Tromsö and mostly ca. 8 hours in the other ports, 9 hours on the Nordkap-Island. Without Nordkap "normal" cruises with Costa, Aida, MSC etc. are much cheaper, so maybe the best solution for people who want invest ca. 2800,- € for the norwegian coast is to book 2 trips each ca. 12 days, one including Nordkap (as in the `VASCO DA GAMA exampel) and the second for ca. 1100,-/1200,- Euro only with other stops (f.ex. inkluding Molde, Alesund, Trondheim also) = much more "double" holiday-time for the nearly the same money as only 1 trip with Hurtigruten or Havila.
Extra-point: "Normal" cruises ships starts directly in Kiel, Bremerhaven or Amsterdam - no flight or ferry/train needed and cheaper prices onboard for drinks than with Hurtigruten.
And: All Hurtigruten-prices in my exampel inkludes only a very small 2-beds cabin 8-11qm with 2 single-beds.