Visit the Svalbard Museum
Visit a large colony of Kittiwake which nest in a canyon
Seeing Bearded Seal and Polar Bear.
Visit to Barentsburg, the only inhabited Russian settlement in Spitsbergen, or to Colesbukta, an abandoned Russian coal mining settlement.
What travelers are saying
"Horrible horrible customer service! Or should I say non-existent?!
As a world traveller, I have encountered all types of crappy, parroting, cookie-cutter, idiotic answers from customer services over the last decade; however, I have never EVER had a company ghosting customers let alone one whom we have paid tens of thousands of Euros!
The pre-booking phase was just fine and smooth, the laid-back attitude of welcoming on the ship without x-ray machines and asking for passports was amazing. But the nice part ended there. The meals, lectures and general service was mediocre at best. The more important thing is the missing of Kvitoya, which was the main point of the cruise for us. Basically the captain did not want to go there, they used the weather as an excuse because the way the expedition leader put it was: “It would be very uncomfortable and we'd be missing a day and a half of activities.” !
So it wasn't that the weather made it impossible, it was a “choice” by the captain.
Mind you, it's no longer possible to visit Kvitoya from January 2025 on due to new regulations, so there is no way to make up for this. So it is a huge huge loss for us.
Then, comes the worst part. They wrote a logbook with NO MENTION of missing Kvitoya at all! The only place you find Kvitoya in the logbook is in the name of the voyage! Incredible...
Then of course comes the even more incredible part:
As Kvitoya was the highlight and the main reason why we booked this voyage, we asked for a partial refund. Mind you, the cruise without Kvitoya is much cheaper than what we have paid for.
And what did they do?? They basically did not answer at all!
After two weeks, I wrote reminding them our request. We were told that we'd be getting an answer, but within 6 weeks. So we waited six weeks, nothing. 7th week, still nothing. In the end, I wrote again and got an apology from the reception desk “for the inconvenience”! Still 5 more days passed and the Arctic Director deigned to answer. It probably would have been better if he hadn't! It was an indignant answer saying how rightful they were, how it took time to “investigate” (as if they're investigating a murder case!), that the trip was overall successful apart from not getting to Kvitoya (Duh! That's the point of the voyage, it's in the name: “Around Spitsbergen and Kvitoya”), apologizing “nevertheless” (implying there was no need for an apology but he was still apologizing!) and offering us a 20 % discount on a future trip stating specifically that it was valid only for “non-discounted” voyages, that is basically trying to sell us yet another trip which would get money in their pockets, not compensating us the least! Not even offering the difference between the voyage without Kvitoya, that is the one we paid for and the one we got.
I naturally replied with a refusal of their offer, and legitimately criticized the response. Well... It's been a week now and no answer. So basically, we are ghosted!
Never in our lives did such a thing happen that the customer service did not get back to us after 2 months, not even with small companies let alone a company who has charged tens of thousands euros! And being ghosted??!
STAY AWAY from Oceanwide!
It's easy to be a good company when things go fine. The calibre and quality of a company shows in the proactive way they solve problems and Oceanwide failed miserably on this!"
