Norway cruise next summer, tell me everything!

[WYorksTemp]

Chatting about where to go next August and suddenly DH said "I've always wanted to see the Norwegian fjords and we've never been on a cruise!" and neither of us know anything about both these things, so I am throwing myself on the mercy of MN.

• What are the must-see destinations/ must-do excursions in Norway?
• Can we set off from (say) Hull, or do they all depart from Southampton?
• What cruise line?
• Is there a family-sized cabin for 2 adults and 2 late teens, or do we need 2 cabins?
• Is the food nice and sufficient, or should we bring supplies?
• Most importantly, how much is it (roughly) for a week?

Many thanks in advance!

We went in May from Southampton with P+O. Not school holidays. We loved it! We had a balcony cabin which could sleep 4 but there were only 2 of us. It would be tight with 4 but not impossible. You don’t actually need to spend much time in your cabin there’s so much going on. We paid around £3k I think. That included a free coach transfer from Manchester.
You don’t need any extra food to take - you could put on 2 stone in a week there’s so much!

Hello,

Recently went on a cruise with P&O on Britannia having not cruised for over 20 years. We are going half Norway, half other ports in Baltic/North Sea next year.

i would say

1. there are so many different ports in Norway on Fjords cruises. We are going to Stavanger, Olden, and Andalsnes with a couple of cruise bys. Have also heard Flam, Haugesund and Alesund are great too.
2. I don’t think there are any leaving from Hull, but Ambassador sail from Tilbury, and there are a few departures from Bristol and Liverpool (and Dover, but maybe I dreamed that). Other than that, Southampton it is!
3. This is the million dollar question. It really depends on what you want. I think the ship is just as important. Some ships are huge and very family oriented, others are much smaller and may be adult only. There are thousands of opinions out there, including loads of cruise bloggers and vloggers so you can see the ships before you go. You may want to stick with the UK cruise lines, because they tend to have everything in GBP and include gratuities.
4. They will have family cabins but be careful about configuration. They may have a sofa bed which blocks access to your balcony, or Pullman beds that come down from overhead. Again, cruise lines will have deck plans showing what’s what and there are websites with the photos and videos of cabins. And again, YouTube may have specific cabins. I’d recommend a lower deck, midships to start with as you will feel less movement in rough seas.
5. There will be plenty of food! There’s usually a shop open for snacks if you want to buy them (but expensive) but the buffet is often most times of the day so you can always pop up and grab something.
6. Again, will very much depend on the ship and type of cabin. Iona from P&O is the main one that goes to the Fjords in the summer, and inside cabins / sea view start from about £800 pp. However, to get the coach transfer included, you’d need select fare on P&O which adds a bit to the fare. You can choose from coach transfer, parking in port, or some on board credit. You will find that a lot of cabins are booked up for next year as most cruises are launched 2 years ahead of time and there are often bigger discounts when they open bookings so people can book well ahead.

Loads of fb groups you can join which offer information about ships, cruises and all the minutiae you can think of!

We have been on several cruises, but I've never been tempted by the Norwegian fjords because I assume that (a) they all look roughly the same (beautiful, but all similarly beautiful), (b) the towns where you land will mostly be small and not have much to see, and (c) you have to cross the North Sea, and neither of us are fans of waves.

In August of last year we went on a Baltic cruise, starting from Copenhagen, and that was fabulous. We visited seven countries (it would have been eight according to the original itinerary, but St Petersburg is a bit out of favour at the moment), and there was a huge variety of ports and scenery. Plus the sea was very flat.

We went with Azamara which is "cheap luxury" - small and quite upmarket, but understated and a lot less expensive than Regent or SilverSea. But you can go with TUI Marella (which I have heard called "Butlin's on Sea" — I have no idea how [un]fair that is), MSC ("Eurobutlin's on Sea"), and Aida ("German Butlin's on Sea"), through the big American brands like Royal Caribbean and Disney, then P&O and Cunard if you want "naice" and British, all the way up to Four Seasons (not quite as expensive as your own yacht). Some have great entertainment and stuff organised for kids — Azamara's entertainment was minimal and there was zero laid on for kids, but that's fine by us.

you shouldnt need to take any extra food with you! In fact my tip would be because Norway is v expensive, take some ziplock bags with you so you can take stuff from the breakfast buffet with you off the ship for the day.

We've been twice to Norway on a cruise.
We've done Royal Caribbean and Princess. Both fab.
RC more for kids and teens.
MSC we did the med, butlins at sea. Was terrible.
Flam is amazing, worth trying to get a cruise including Flam.

@samarrangeMarella are fly cruise only so don’t go to Norway. It’s all Med cruises.

My goodness, so much information, thank you all!

Sounds like there is a huge range of options for itinerary and cruise line. Feels a bit daunting Also seems like we are late to the party for bookings, we usually book our summer holiday 6 months in advance so it never occurred to me that we should have started looking two years ago!

I think we would prefer a smaller quieter cruise, we and DC are not very (um) socially buzzing.

Would it be better to ask a travel agent to look into this, or to book direct with a cruise line?

Have a look at taking the Hurtigruten instead (so fly to Bergen and join there for the trip up the coast).

www.hurtigruten.com/en-gb/about-us/voyages/why-cruise-with-hurtigruten

One of my favourite cruises is Norway... it is beyond beautiful. shame our luggage was lost for a week

Small ship. We went where other ships could not go. It was August and the weather was beautiful, everything about it was something else.

I live in Norway, so don't know much about the big companies, but if you really want to see the Norwegian coastline and be able to get off and have a look around, I would check out the Hurtigruten. Locals use it as well as tourists. You get some hours in the bigger places, shorter stops elsewhere, and you can also get off for a night and get the following day's ship. You don't have to do the whole voyage (Bergen-Kirkenes), if you don't want to.

We went on P&O Iona last year and absolutely loved, there was plenty to keep us and two teen boys occupied for a week. Food was pretty good and very plentiful. Absolutely loved the Fjords, stunningly beautiful and we enjoyed the ports a lot too.

This summer went on a ‘Scandinavian’ cruise included Copenhagen ( busy but a great place to visit), Oslo ( loved it) and two Norwegian ports this was with Princess (‘Sky’) which was definitely a step up in service and food fantastic. Smaller ship but never felt crowded.

If you want guidance you could give Iglu or Bolsover travel agents a call they will be able to help you decide which cruiseline will be a good fit.

Would it be better to ask a travel agent to look into this, or to book direct with a cruise line?

It depends entirely on how much effort you want to put into planning it. Some people enjoy that. We always book direct.

Also, don't worry that you have "missed the boat" (ho ho). If you can be a tiny bit flexible with dates there are lots of late bargains, because an empty cabin is a loss maker for the cruise line.

Start with cruisecritic dot com and you will get all kinds of ideas and links.

We did the fjords with Fred Olsen. Their ships are smaller and aimed at the more mature travellers so not much for kids. They also go from a variety of ports eg Newcastle, Liverpool, Rosyth.

We did a cruise to the fjords this August with my 12 year olds. We shared an interior cabin which was adequate and comfortable but certainly not luxurious in anyway.

We stopped at Haugesand, Kristiansand, Maloy and Flam. Flam was breathtaking, it was spectacular in every way. The only downside was the cruise ship docked in the port, it looked grotesquely out of place in such a perfect environment.

This was our first and last cruise. I dislike AI and this was AI on steroids - so much food and alcohol and a lot of people spent all day sitting in the various bars drinking non stop. It really was not my type of holiday. All 3 of us were really sea sick too despite taking sea sickness tablets. I felt the same nausea that I did when pregnant - this really spoilt a big chunk of our holiday.

I loved Norway and the dc have asked to go back but it won’t be by cruise for us. Many people love cruises and AI but of you’re not that type of person, it won’t be for you.

I found I spent very little, less than £200 in Norway in a week as there was just so much overindulgence on the ship that spending at port wasn’t necessary.

it was a really affordable cruise, MSC and £1450 for the 3 of us.

You’ll be fine taking your time and researching. Theres masses of availability especially in the summer holidays when the ships are all up and running Maybe not if theres an exact cabin you want but theres plenty out there.

You will want a balcony for the fjords. All the ships advertise their inside cabin price so use the cabin type filter on a big search website like Iglu. You’ll be able to see what ships go where what week. Then you can research a few you like.

Always go through a travel agent ( online it in real life). Cruise ships give them discounts which they pass on. Going direct us a bad idea - cruise companies tend to ignore individual complaints and focus on upselling you.

I really like MSC. Ignore the Butlins comments- all cruise ships have a large element of this I think.You will also have posh guests and first timers if every demographic.

We did the same with Sky this summer.... in August. We loved it.

I went with DH to Norwegian Fjords about 20 years ago. I went back about 4 years ago. We went from Southampton. At the time it was with Thompson. Do not take any additional food cruise ships have a wide variety of food almost nonstop starting with breakfast between 7 and 10.30 then morning snacks from 11am, lunch from 12-2, afternoon tea from 3pm-4pm, dinner starting from 6pm-9pm and late snacks like pizza up to midnight. You could not possibly be hungry on a cruise. Most people put on a few pounds over the course of a week or two. You don't need to dress up but I wore a nice dress each evening and DH wore a suit. We didn't take any DC. I would get 2 cabins with 2 teens, they could share a cabin. It would be very squashed if both teens in with you and you'd have no privacy so difficult to have sex. I recall in Norway it is expensive. The entertainment every evening is usually very good and book it as soon as you get on board as there are often limited seats. The first 2 days are at sea so I took this opportunity to do some exercise in gym as otherwise I'd have piled on the pounds. I went in October and March and both times it was very chilly, so take warm clothes. You can get a blanket to wrap around you on board if you want to sit on your balcony in late evening. Most cruise lines have a teen club. Take your swim costumes as most ships have warm jacuzzis you can sit in to relax. Norway is stunning. The air is crisp and clean. Take some medication like indigestion tablets, diahoea capsules, headache tablets just in case because they are extortionate on board ship. DH and I have been discussing going again because we are not so good in hot places so it suits us to be in a cooler environment.

You would be best to go to you tube and search for “fjords cruise” - you’ll find vlogs of just about every type of cruise and ship you can imagine.

Look at Hurtigruten or Havila. Small ships, great food, gorgeous scenery. You'll get to see the Lofoten islands too.

On the cruise groups I’m on, quite a few people are not very complimentary about iglu, they’ll help you all you like until you book then theyre not really interested. A lot of people like Bolsover but we booked thru cruise.co.uk after a recommendation of a consultant to speak to and he was and is great. P&O do a price match to travel agents but again they can be hard to get hold of.

A TA might be able to work out which ships or lines would be right for you. We loved Britannia which is smaller than Iona and apparently has the best ratio of space per person on P&O. We went in term time so there were fewer kids and we are not big socialiser/drinkers and it suited us just fine.

One piece of advice is to consider what might be considered extra on each line. Most lines sell drinks packages, which vary wildly in cost. We worked out for us that it was a waste of money and we just paid as we went (tho we had a big wodge of onboard credit to use). Buying a drinks package would have costs us over £1000. Also, wifi packages can be expensive. Luckily, when you’re doing the fjords, you’re generally in Norwegian waters so if you have roaming to Norway included you can use your data. But at sea (ie crossing the North Sea), maritime calls, texts and data are ridiculously expensive. Also, some dining venues may charge extra, and may need pre-booking. A few activities may also be chargeable. Excursions are bookable extras and cruise line ones tend to be expensive but guarantee you’ll get back to the ship or it will wait for you (and we left some people behind in Stockholm because they didn’t arrive back until we were leaving, having waited half an hour). However in a lot of Norwegian places, you’re quite close to towns and trips might not be needed.

Iglu has the widest search engine for cruises through. Easiest to
filter so you get a quicker idea if prices and what’s going where.

I use Cruise1st or Cruise Nation but they sell on cabins. Better prices but not all cabins . Cruise 1st actually had the larger balconies ( on the corners) for £300 less than Princess were quoting for regular ones. Shop around always.

Also worth booking a balcony and then an inside opposite it to reduce cost. You get the advantage of the balcony plus the privacy. of a second room. Inside rooms are pitch black. You sleep really well in them but obviously nice to have light in the day.

On P&O 4 adults/teens in a cabin is doable but pretty cramped. 2 cabins would be much nicer, depending on the ages of your kids you might have to book it as one adult in each cabin but can switch around when you're there.
There are few interconnecting cabins but if you have two balcony cabins next door the balcony divider can be removed.
Or an inside cabin opposite to reduce costs.
I'd recommend at least one balcony cabin for the views and to feel like you've got some private space.

It's a great holiday for all ages!

People book crazy early so book asap to get good choice of cabins. It's worth paying the slightly higher fare to choose your cabins.

Thanks again for all the additional tips everybody!

We've been doing a lot of online research since yesterday and there aren't that many cabins left on some of our possible dates - now we're thinking we might book now for summer 2027 to get a better choice. We're probably only going to do this once, want to get it right! Feeling very excited about this...

Excited for you @WYorksTemp we got lucky and only booked ours 8 months before with a decent cabin (which was supposed to be obstructed but wasn’t) but that was a term time cruise. Hope you find something you love.