Due to Covid pandemic of 2020 and 2021 as most if not all trips have been cancelled respectively post-poned, I have done 2 trips to Svalbard this year.
The vessel for this trip was the MS Virgo and the tour organizer was wild photo. MS Virgo is a very nice and well refurbished vessel. After having travelled before on the MS Origo and MS Fraya I have to say that the MS Vigo is the one I prefer most. Limited to 12 passengers it provides a good setting andnice infrastructure for a trip around the Svalbard archipelago. It offers a very nice observation lounge, where the passengers can sit and chat and work on their pictures, or look out to watch the fascinating landscape, like the ice, the glaciers and of course spot for wildlife.
The trip was very nice, the crew was great and nice co-photographers made it very enjoyable.
Of course, the king of the arctic deserves his title as the most desirable and looked for wildlife in this area of the globe, and I can confirm that the sightings are rare.
There were quite a good number of walrus sightings and that helped to compensate for the fact that we had seen only 2 different polar bears in good camera shooting distance.