Anyone been on a Fjords cruise?

[chicaguapa]

They're quite a bit cheaper than the Med and you can go from Southampton without having to go for 2 weeks. But I wondered if maybe the scenery gets a bit samey and if there's much to do at the ports?

I'm also concerned about the weather as it doesn't look very warm in August, not that we're bothered about sunbathing or being around the pool. But I'd like it to be bright and uplifting and not grey and miserable.

Thanks.

Watching with interest as we've just booked for May. With a 4 year old. Current phobia = norovirus

I've also booked one for May mainly as we usually visit the med so thought It would make a nice change. My boys are young teenagers so they can have the run of the ship and we can watch the wonderful scenery.

I would highly recommend kayaking (with a local company). You really get a feel for the silence when just propelled by a paddle, and the awesomeness of the scenery being at water level. We did 2 day, 1 night trip. Camping on a beach in the middle of the beautiful fjords and eating our meals (all done by the guide) in meadows full of flowers. It was fab.

DZoH and I took MIL on one in May/June 2011 as her 90th birthday present. It was fantastic.

We went with Cruise and Maritime from Hull. They only have small ships so we didn't overwhelm the small towns (well, hamlets really) that we called at.

The scenery is spectacular and we were never bored looking at it.

The only excursion we booked was called Norway in a Nutshell and started with ride on the Flam Railway followed by lunch and then a coach trip across the snowfields and down into another hamlet in a different fjord where the ship was waiting to collect us. It was a truly memorable day.

We did have rain the day we called in Bergen but otherwise was mostly fine. It wasn't sunbathing weather but we were generally comfortable in light jackets.

We'd love to go again.

We went in the June half term last year on P&O Azura. It was gorgeous. We went to Stavanger, Flaam, Bergen and Olden. We were very lucky with the weather, it hardly rained at all (and Bergen has rain 275 days of the year on average) and was (just about) warm enough to swim in the pool. If you go on P&O, Ventura has a covered pool which would be better for the Fjords. There's plenty to do given than you're only really in port for 6 hrs or so. Have a look on Cruise Critic which has loads of information.
We also did the Flaam railway trip but booked it ourselves so didn't do the rest of the Norway in a Nutshell excursion, but it was stunning and well worth it. In Stavanger we mooched around and went to the oil museum which the children (10 & 7) really enjoyed, in Bergen we went up on the funincular railway and visited the fish markets, a fascinating little museum of the Hanseatic Society and Bryggen which is a World Heritage Site. In Olden there are a couple of really good excursions you can do but we just took the little Land Train. The ship is moored right in the Fjord here and at Flaam, and it's amazing. If you go on P&O or RC they have great kids' clubs too.

DoubleMum what sort of temperature was it and what type of thing did you wear when on excursions. I was thinking 3 quarter lengths, t shirt and cardigan or was colder than that?
Thank you.

For the fjords you need to be prepared for any weather as it could be really hot (June onwards) or it could still be snowy in the early part of the season. Plus if you go up high on an excursion there will be snow. But for that particular week, yes those clothes would have been OK except up the mountain, and there was a very cold wind in Stavanger. In Olden we came back to the ship early as no excursion and the children wanted to go to club, and sat and sunbathed on our balcony. But in 1st week of June that's definitely the exception.

Thanks. We're looking at the bank holiday week in August, but like you say, that doesn't guarantee the weather.

We'll be going with RC as we can leave DC on board while we go ashore. Last year we couldn't get DS out the kids club and he wasn't particularly interested in exploring. That way everyone gets the holiday they want and we don't have to drag the DC round where they don't want to go.

This is for 2014 anyway. Just waiting for the itineraries to come out so we can get cheap kids prices.

We did the Baltics in that week in August, and had both rain/grey days and sun. We didn't go to Norway on that one but Copenhagen and Helsinki were both (very) rainy, Stockholm was sunny light jackets kind of weather.

DoubleMum I am also going on a Baltic cruise for the middle 2 weeks of August. When you went were you able to sunbathe or swim on the at sea days or was it to chilly for that. I have only cruised on the Pacific side of Mexico and the med so am trying to get as much info as possible and I don't know anyone that has done the Norwegian Fjords or Baltic cruise. Thankyou.

Fluffy I have to admit for us it was fairly cold until after St Peterburg - Tallinn was scorching. The children did swim but I wouldn't have (DH had to though!). I've read other trip reports where they had good weather though, especially in St Peterburg, I think we were a bit unlucky with the weather there.
It's very port-intensive in the middle and I worried it was too much for the children, but they say going to Russia is one of their favourite places. Personally I thought Tallinn was lovely and would really like to go back to that area.

Thankyou DoubleMum.

*St Petersburg, doh. Not sure why I wrote the same thing twice!