Pullmantur Zenith Norway cruise
 

I'm looking at a Pullmantur Zenith cruise along the coast of Norway. I see some really ugly reviews in CruiseCritic. Anybody here care to refute or support those reviews? I'd really appreciate some help!

Romelle

The Zenith is an old cruise ship that started with Celebrity back in the early 90's. We cruised on her in 1993 and weren't all that impressed even back then. From what I've heard from fellow cruisers she has not aged well and may be at or near the end of her useful life.

Hello Romelle, I wonder if you had any other feedback about Zenith to the Norway coast with Pullmantur, as we are looking at that trip ourselves. They offer a unique itinerary, which we think might pair well with a stint on Hurtigruten to the North Coast. We have doubts because we don't speak Spanish, among other things. I would love to hear from you about what you learned in your investigations!

Other than Randyk47 below, I didn't get any additional feedback. No PMs. I ended up booking a Hurtigruten 10-day all along the Norwegian coast for this coming September. I'm excited about it.

I think next year I'll give Pullmantur a try anyway. I'm not particularly fussy. Happy to just see lovely scenery and get to wander coast-line towns. Love the motion of the boat when going to sleep. Happy to have someone else cook and clean for me, even if both the food and the quarters are simple. I'm liking the Bergen to Berlin 7-day, and then back again to Bergen for another 7-day. Also liking some of the Mediterranean ones and the Canary Island ones. Decisions, decisions ....?

I did book the Hurtigruten one directly with the company. For the Pullmantur, I'd most likely go through www.vacationstogo.com.

I don't speak Spanish either, but don't think that would be a problem. From years of wandering about, I can piece out enough of many languages to get by. Many years ago I took a 2-week 1/2-days class in Italian that sort of helps with the Romance languages. With manners words (hello, please, pardon me, thank you, etc), numbers, sign words (stop, north, no, etc), a bunch of food words and a guide book, I've always been fine in most any language.

Hi Romelle,

Thanks for your speedy reply! I had posted a query similar to yours on Cruise Critic about a week or so ago, and had a couple of replies but not the kind of personal in-depth feedback I had hoped to find. From my perspective, it does sound like excursions could be the issue with language -- like you, I have had some training in Spanish and learned French long ago, so for the day to day getting along matters, I have few concerns. People who want to communicate about the basics can usually manage to make that happen! But the fine points of narration on a tour are another matter, and for the typical destinations of the fjords cruises it doesn't seem like there lots of private tour companies, like the ones that abound for St. Petersberg, for example, so going off to book an English tour for the right timeframes might not be a reliable strategy. So that's a concern of mine.

And then for my husband, who likes things quiet, especially after 9 pm, a concern is that Pullmantur passengers might be partying and boisterous. We have heard that kind of warning about Costa and MSC cruises -- people usually say many Americans are uncomfortable with those lines because they are "too Italian" and when pressed, the issue politely mentioned is the late dining hour, as an example! And something about waiter service. But it's unclear if the expectation for Pullmantur in the fjords would be a noisy, partying ship atmosphere! Not sure how I can find that out.

Have you tried YouTube? Maybe there are some videos there that will give you the kind of feeling you are seeking.


The above is a general one. But I think I'd also dig deeper there and try things like "Pullmantur partying" or "pullmantur english excursions" or ??

There is an amazing amount of info there. I've even watched tricky knitting stitches until I got it. Once I was wanting to walk from my hotel to a cruise ship port, and found a video somebody had taken of them doing exactly that.

Does Pullmantur offer any of their excursions in English?

I checked online to see who the agents might be for Pullmantur in the USA, and that led me to Vacations to Go, where I was transferred to the section that works with them. From the rep there, I learned that when pax book with Pullmantur, they are asked about their language preference, and then can be seated with people speaking that language at the reserved dinner times, so that was good to know. About the excursions....the rep told me that all are in Spanish and only at the last minute might there be an English version arranged IF it happens that enough English-speakers have signed up. So my take-away is that if the kind of tour we want to do at a particular port involves narration, we'll need to arrange it privately to be sure to have a good experience. So that means researching land tour operators for the Norway fjord stops. Finally, thinking of those plumbing problems and sewage overflows that so many CC reviewers posted, I asked when the carpeting was last replaced. The rep could not find that info, but offered to check with Pullmantur and call me back. I will post that when I hear!

Your question about when they have replaced the carpets is excellent. I hope you post any answer you get here.

As far as the later "fashionable" dining hours, the ships also do the buffet meals, so one can dodge those late seatings.

I cannot specifically comment on the Norway cruise, but I took the Zenith when it cruised for Croisieres de France in 2016 (CDF is no more - the ship went back to Spanish parent Pullmantur). I took the Pullmantur Horizon in 2017. Old, but both got the job done. If you're worried about restrooms, use the public restrooms except when you go to bed. We never had a problem with backup, ever.

The language thing is only a barrier if you allow it to be. We took CDF when neither of us could speak French, and we had a great time. The Mr. doesn't speak a word of Spanish, and he got by just fine on Pullmantur, thank you very much. The waiters assigned to the international tables speak English, as does the International Hostess and most of the bartenders. The daily bulletin is published in small numbers in English, or you can make a bilingual friend on the trip.

Be daring. Make it a vacation to remember. It isn't the destination; it's the journey.

Sorry to be checking in late...

Here is a link to the Hurtigruten line on www.CruiseCritic.com

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=821

We recently did the Hurtigruten RT Norwegian Coastal, in March.
We weren't quite sure what to expect, as we usually travel a bit upscale at this stage of our lives.
It was AMAZING, such a wonderful surprise.

We went in hopes of seeing Northern Lights (success!), and March also allowed plenty of daylight time, to see that magnificent landscape. We are definitely considering another cruise with Hurtigruten, but haven't decided just where yet.

You might also want to double check CruiseCritic for the Roll Call for your particular cruise. However, the Roll Calls for Hurtigruten don't tend to be all that active sometimes, perhaps because they are under "other cruise lines" and there isn't a specific "Hurtigrtuen Roll Call" section (??).

Enjoy!

GC

Pullmantur cruises/ships don't have great reputation around here. Ships are known to be in poor shape.

Pullmantur is where Royal Caribbean and Celebrity send their old ships that they don't want anymore. Haven't been on a Pullmantur cruise but I know when Royal Caribbean took back Empress from Pullmantur to use on Royal Caribbean's Cuba run, the ship was in really bad shape and was in dry dock longer than expected so they can bring it up to "Royal Caribbean Standards". So based on that, I wouldn't be surprise by the reviews and feedback on Cruise Critic. Cruise Critic is really reliable, more so than what travel agencies rep tell you.