Hurtigruten suspends West Africa...

Itineraries amended as the result of instability in the region

Hurtigruten Group is amending fleet deployment while suspending planned sailings to West Africa for safety reasons.

Sailings had included visits to Dakar in Senegal and Banjul in The Gambia, together with the Bissagos Islands off the coast of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

A company statement read: "Due to increasing levels of instability in the region, HX has elected to pause its operations for the upcoming season to ensure the safety of our guests and crew."

Currently part of Hurtigruten Group's HX fleet, MS Maud will make a temporary return to the flagship sister brand Hurtigruten to "fill the void left by the upgrade programme", and will only return to HX in 2026.

Group chief executive Daniel Skjeldam said: “Hurtigruten is undertaking the most significant environmental upgrade in the cruise industry. The diverse fleet capabilities of the Hurtigruten Group gives us the opportunity to temporarily move MS Maud from HX to Hurtigruten.”

Passengers booked on any impacted sailings have been contacted directly or will be contacted by their travel agent, the company said. A full refund or 125% future cruise credit will be offered depending on the itinerary.

Those on selected Antarctic sailings on MS Maud have been transferred to sailings on the hybrid ships MS Fridtjof Nansen, MS Fram or MS Roald Amundsen.

If HX is unable to find a suitable replacement cruise it will protect agent commission on money received, a company spokesperson said.

During her secondment, MS Maud will run scheduled sailings from April 2024 as part of planned British Isles itineraries, before heading to the Arctic for the summer, and then offer Hurtigruten’s Norwegian Coastal Express voyages from 1 November.

MS Maud previously operated on the Hurtigruten’s Norwegian coast sailings, but joined the HX fleet three years ago.

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