Hurtigruten Suspends Operations

Hurtigruten has become the latest cruise line to voluntarily halt operations until the end of April in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Hurtigruten has spent the last several weeks encouraging guests to postpone their booking free of charge and returning current passengers to their home countries. The expedition cruise company will suspend all global expedition through April 28, while all Norwegian coastal cruises will be suspended through April 19. Hurtigruten has also paused all U.S. operations for 30 days.

“To temporarily suspend operations was a difficult decision to make. And it’s an emotional moment for me and the entire Hurtigruten team. But I firmly believe it is the only responsible decision in the extraordinary crisis the world is currently facing,” says Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam.

Hurtigruten has been gradually pulling its custom-built ships from operations to ensure a safe pause to operations. There have been no confirmed or suspect cases of coronavirus aboard any of the cruise line’s ships since the outbreak began in December of 2019.

The cruise line is offering a Hurtigruten Future Cruise Voucher in the amount of 125% of the amounts paid for guests who have been booked on a canceled voyage. They will also receive a 10% discount on any future Hurtigruten cruise from July 1 to December 31, 2020.

Any guests booked through September 30, 2020, may also rebook to any Hurtigruten cruise with no rebooking fee for departures from July 1 to December 31, 2020.