FredOlsen Norwegian Fjords

[FeltCarrot]

Has anyone recently done a Norwegian Fjords cruise? We are thinking later this year with the possibility of seeing the northern lights. DH and I are late fifties but I have heard that will make us the young ones on a cruise like this!

I would research the best time to go. I know people who had such poor weather they could not see the local scenery, let alone the northern lights!

Agree, best time to cruise is not usually best time to see the northern lights. I would arrange separate trips for each.
Fred is a very nice cruise line but it is definitely very British and older style. I prefer more modern, American lines (e.g. celebrity).

I did a Fred Olsen to the fjords in 2017 .. September so no northern lights. As a cruise company they were great.
Small ship, no children good talks, drinks quite cheap,in fact we had bought a drinks package and needed to drink quite a lot to make it worthwhile. I went with a female friend and we were sat with 4 other ladies each night which was fine. Food was varied and good and the best bit for me was it left from rosyth which is about half an hour's drive for me.

Probably need to go a bit later in the year for the lights. It did rain frequently but I expected that.

We are thinking of going October/November. Probably wouldn’t bother with the drinks package either as we are not big drinkers.

Having never been on a cruise before, any tips on best cabins? We definitely don’t want an internal one but don’t want to pay £3pm for a balcony.

Also, looking to sail from Newcastle.

Outside cabin it is then! You'll be fine without a balcony on a cold weather cruise but will still be able to see some scenery and roughly what the weather is like.
Check what's above and below your cabin, you don't want to be below the pool deck or the buffet for example, as they rearrange furniture early in the morning. Ideally you will have cabins above and below. You get least movement mid ship and it's usually a convenient location so that's an area we often aim for if sailing in potentially rough seas.

Anyone who suffers from motion sickness would be best with a low deck in the middle.

Difficult. The fjords are best in the spring/early summer, when the waterfalls are flowing, whereas for northern lights you want the winter months with long nights. Not been on a Fred Olsen in a while, and I was definitely the youngest onboard when I went in my late twenties, but it started my love affair with cruising.

Did you book OP?

We did! Going in October. Just have to go and buy lots of warm weather gear now!

It’ll be cold though! Norwegian Fjords in October?

That’s the whole point! I want to go when it’s cold! 🥶😂

Yes, just wondering g why you need warm weather gear? Hope you have a fabulous time!

How did it go?

Really enjoyed it. The weather wasn’t playing ball though, it was quite cloudy at night so we only got to see the Northern Lights by going on an excursion in Alta in to the forest. Lots of snow in Alta and Tromso and a beautiful sunny day in Alesund.
i would love to do it again, I enjoyed the relaxed vibe on the ship but DH found the sea days a bit much!

What was it about the sea days that your OH found hard? How did you find the cabins and was it full of very elderly people with mobility issues?

DH does a lot of triathlons, so he could go to the gym he missed swimming and running. I quite enjoyed sitting with a book or being out on deck seeing the amazing scenery (when it wasn’t misty!).
Our cabin was really comfortable, supposedly had an obstructed view but it was only the top of a lifeboat we could see so didn’t obstruct the view as such.
There was areal mix of ages, a few teens with families, couples in 50-60’s, and older. So the myth of everyone in their 80’s wasn’t true!😂
We mainly kept to ourselves and managed to get a table for 2, occasionally shared at lunch which was fine too.

We were also a bit snobby about the entertainment at first but it was actually very good, a mix of comedians, classical guitarist, the usual dance group etc. The crew also performed one evening which was great fun.

This is good to hear. We are doing the fjords next year. I want to go MSC yacht club but DP is a bit more energetic and wants to do the Hurtigruten thing.

Did you book any excursions in advance? I am not sure what to do about all that. Don’t want to take the ships excursions.

We booked the Northern Lights tour in Alta before we went. Other trips were available to be booked on the boat but they did get booked up quite quickly.
In Tromso we did our own thing and seemed to be following the tour bus around, arriving just as they were all leaving!