Svalbard

About the trip

I did back to back two-week adventure cruises on the M/S Endeavour. The first trip was run by Lindblad and ended at 9 am, Zegrahm (now taken over by Xodus) departed in late afternoon the same day, a different charter of the same ship. Since I was already on the ship and had a round trip air ticket to Norway, I decided to stay on board and compare the two travel companies. There was an enormous difference between the two, both in terms of staff and more importantly the participants. Lindblad was very nasty to deal with when I asked to alter the final night's hotel accommodation in Oslo since I was going to remain on board. I was transferred to someone higher up (I later found out was a Vice President) who said I was not the kind of customer they wanted and he would cancel my whole trip! Lindblad's passengers were very self-centered caring nothing about their fellow passengers, let their young children run wild, while staff made no effort to control or modify their behavior, and for the most part had traveled little and especially not with adventure cruises. Zegrahm's clientele was well educated and well traveled and a pleasure to be with. I made 7 trips with them over the years. I vowed never to travel with Lindblad again unless their was no other alternative for my chosen destination. I've kept that resolution and used them only once again with acceptable but not outstanding results. Two reasons for visiting Svalbard (or Spitzbergen as it is sometimes called) are to see polar bears and walruses and glacial and mountainous scenery.

Questions?

Reach Burr Preston at burrpreston@hotmail.com

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