Anyone been on a cruise? Especially to Norway? Bonus points if you have coeliac disease

[WeAreNotCookingTheSpoon]

So am considering a cruise to the Norwegian fjords. Possibly with L&C though happy to consider other recommendations. Would like it to be child free ship I think.

Any recommendations of which are the nicest stopovers as some cruises seem to have different ones. How much excursion money/extra money are we likely to need? Never cruised before so no idea. We don’t drink so not fussed about a drinks package. Do people buy a WiFi package or is it not really needed as I guess once you hit the Norwegian coast there is 4g???

also worried about cross contamination from a coeliac pov. Is it buffets in which case eating would be a nightmare? To make things harder am vegetarian. Would the ship cope with a vegetarian coeliac as don’t want to starve or spend the week throwing up.

I went on the P&O Norwegian Fjords cruise on 10th August. It is the most amazing experience I've ever had. I'm at work at the moment but will post a further response later to answer some of your questions ☺️

Thank you.

I meant p&o in my OP, no idea why it’s autocorrect to L&C. Can’t edit it now! 😁

Not coeliac but cruised to the fjords last week on P&O’s Iona and absolutely loved it. Stopped in Stavengar, Olden, Ålesund, and Haugesund.

First time cruisers and really enjoyed. Happy to answer any questions you have, if I can.

I have been on a cruise to Norway with Cunard and loved it. We did not spend any extra money on excursions except one place when we chose to do a boat trip.
There was a separate area for gluten free and dairy free food for milk, bread and cereals mainly in the self service restaurant. I am also a vegetarian, there was plenty of choice and the food was excellent. We don’t drink much so didn’t buy the drinks package … we simply paid for the drinks we had.
The Wi-Fi package was expensive (about £100 for both of us) so we waited until we went ashore to use our phones. Although occasionally we could get online onboard too.
You will have a fab time, we loved Norway and are planning to go back.

Thank you, any recommendations for excursions?

Thanks. Good to know about separate gf areas. I’ll check Cunard out.

I have never been on a cruise that didn’t have separate g/free counters at the buffets

I have always been happy with the choice available in the main dinin g rooms (silver service) and speciality restaurants, too. Have been on about 10 cruises with four different lines

The Briksdals Glacier in Olden is a must. We didn’t book the troll cars and should have as the walk up is quite tough. We directly booked a coach trip via Olden Adventures as the excursions through P&O are expensive.
if you time it well, you could do the Loen skylight on the same day.
Olden was magical.

For Stavanger, we did the Hop On/Hop Off bus (booked directly online) and got off near the Three Swords and had a short walk to see them. It’s a pretty city and easy to walk around so we covered a lot on-foot.

Ålesund, we booked the HO/HO bus via P&O but probably should have booked directly as it’s cheaper. We went to the Aquarium which was lovely. There’s also a lovely brewery right by the dock (called Molo) that had lovely drinks and nice pub-type food. We had a late lunch there before getting back on the ship.

Haugesund is quite industrial and a lot of people seem to not like it, but we did. Booked a bus transfer via P&O but actually, you’d walk into town in 15/20 mins. We got the bus in but walked back. You can do a trip to the Rising Tide Statues which is like to have done, but didn’t book on time.

The ship is huge and loads to do. To be fair, we did throw quite a bit of money at our holiday so ate in a lot of the add-on restaurants but the included restaurants were very good. We went for the deluxe drinks package, more so for the ease of just ordering what we wanted (I like premium spirits and cocktails, my husband loves craft beers) so not sure if we got value out of it, but certainly gave us plenty of options.

Didn’t bother with a wifi package as liked the idea of not being tied to our phones. We had decent 5g/4g when on land.

I went on a p&o cruise 🚢 from Southampton to Norway and back.

It was on the Iona. The cabin was lovely. Modern and more spacious than I was expecting. Nice bathroom with good water pressure. We had a balcony which we used a lot.

The food options were vast. Lots of restaurants. Some with a small uplift but most had free options on the menu.

It also had 3 main dining rooms, buffet and a market place type place.

There were lots of gluten free options available across all the dining places. All were clearly labelled.

Also lots of nice bars.

My parents cruise regularly with P&O, my mum is gluten & dairy intolerant. I believe P&O have separate kitchen areas for food prep for allergies. She's also had a kitchen tour. You can eat from the buffet or restaurants, if it's the restaurants you have the menu the day before and chose what you'd like to eat for the following day. As soon as you book the cruise you notify them and they'll sort things out.
We've cruised a long time ago and we have a cruise to Norway booked, we have DC with a nut allergy so I feel your concern!

Sorry, me again.
I didn't get the drinks package. But you can take your own wine and soft drinks on board.

We did have some nice cocktails and drinks. Our on board spend was £120 in total (we also used our on board spend allowance of £70).

The drinks prices on board were good value and cheaper than uk pubs.

We didn't get the WiFi and I didn't miss it. (I was surprised by this). Used my data at port and managed to pick some up in the fjords.

Most cruise lines will be able to accommodate any medical needs for food. Make sure you tell them before you cruise. In the main dining rooms they normally will bring the menu the evening before for the next day and they will tell you what they can make gluten free etc........ and you order the evening before. Yes it does take some spontaneity out of eating out but they do take allergies etc...... very seriously.

I tick all these boxes and happy to answer any questions.

I did Fred Olsen. Was great. Drink was cheap enough to just buy as we needed. We had bought a package and had to drink a lot to get money's worth.

4G worked in the fjords well so didn't need WiFi.

Not coeliac sorry.

So if you don’t get a drinks package do you have to pay for all drinks, inc soft drinks? Is tea/coffee included?

sounds like we will be fine with gluten free no matter which cruise line.

is a balcony worth paying extra for?

are there any tips for discounts, free upgrades, deals, etc? Is it best to book direct through the cruise line or is it cheaper elsewhere?

if you want to do cheaper excursions how do you find what’s available? Just google the name of the port/town and excursions?

We did a fjords cruise with Celebrity this summer. The ship was smaller than Iona and felt less crowded and the food was superb..far better than the food on Iona imo. We went on Iona the previous October.

Water, tea and coffee were included and we carried on a couple bottles of fizz to drink on our balcony. Kids carried on cans of soft drinks.

We stopped at Stavanger where we did a RIB trip, Flam for the railway, Geiranger where we e-biked and Haugesand where we hired a car and did our own road trip for the day.
I think a balcony is worth it for the fjords - so much of the trip is the scenery.
I always book excursions separately. It works out much cheaper. Go to trip adviser, see what activities you fancy and book them up.

The ships are good with intolerance and allergies. There's a gf section of the buffet typically and the sit down restaurants are gf options including veggie and vegan - you do have to tell them so many days before you leave though. The major cruise companies have this information on their websites. Cunard has gf afternoon tea options too

With Cunard and p&o you can take drinks for your cabin onboard (bottle of wine each for instance) tea and coffee is provided in cabins and there's some drinks in the buffet (eg still lemonade was free on Cunard). You get juices with breakfast and hot drinks after each meal included. P&o drinks are cheaper than Cunard but the later is basically London bar prices. I never buy the drinks package as I'd "get my money's worth!"

And you can buy ashore of course ... the American brands are pickier about this though

Thanks everyone. So with Norway once you hit Norway do you sail up the coast close enough to see stuff from the ship? In which case I guess in a righthand cabin with a balcony you see the scenery on the way up and then in a left hand cabin on the way back.

Flam us one of the must do ports.

Look up Gary Bembridge. He's a very well travelled, non chavy cruiser who does excellent you tube videos. He has several on Norwegian ports and many on the various cruise ships.

Its not so much the cruise line as the ship itself. Avoid Norwegian Epic 😁.

Thanks, will look him up and avoid that ship.

It doesn't matter what side of the ship your balcony is on. The fjords are essentially huge water filled valleys so you'll see the views from both sides. Norway were planning to ban all zero-emission ships from 2026 but I think that has been pushed back to 2032. Either way, its probably better to do soon than later if this is the case.

There's a lot of vloggers on YouTube who have made content around the drinks packages on various cruise lines. Certainly on P&O you would struggle to get value out of a drinks package - it's also worth noting that if you are travelling with another adult they'd also have to take the same drinks package. Which is extra poor value for us as DH barely drinks.

I'm a coeliac too and have been researching a Fjord cruise. YouTube is definitely helpful along with Facebook forums.