SESerSerena

Not sure that I'm still in time for this, but here's what we found. The mirror was indeed a cabinet with shelves. Looked very tiny at first glance, but wow..it actually wasn't. I managed to fit all our toiletries in it, and they weren't a few. We used the two small glasses for toothbrush/paste and for some other mini things. As for the shower shelf, there isn't one unfortunately...BUT we sort of transformed the toilet seat (closed, of course) into one as it is so close to the shower. For info, the bathroom didn't flood once during our showers. Everything worked well...drains, pressure, temperature of the water, shower head.

We did the RIB boat in Bodo for Saltsraumen and the North Cape Plateau. Loved them both! The RIB boat was a hoot in general..a lot of fun...plus we got to see the Sea Eagles (grown ups and babies learning how to fly), the tides at Saltraumen were definitely showing (and we felt them all 😅) and we got to see the beautiful colors and twirls, and our guide was extremely nice and through the whole tour he shared a lot of interesting historical and cultural facts about Norway. The scenery was simply amazing from the boat/water level perspective. The North Cape tour was great also. We were lucky to have a beautiful, warm and sunny day. The ride up on the bus was scenic and made interesting by our guide. At the plateau you have enough time to walk around, take pictures, but also I suggets going into the visitors centre and watching the mini-film shown in the theatre. Absolutely breathtaking. The views from each side of the plateau....oh my!! Just for info. Some of our new acquaintances from the ship took the "revised" version of the Geiranger tour (due to Trollstigen being closed). Didn't love it. They said it was too much of a bus ride and in general a long day (it's an 8 hours excursion). The food at the nice restaurant at the top in Andalsnes partly made up for it, but the clouds during the trip made the scenery not really what it should have been so they felt it would have been better to experience Geiranger fjord from the ship as we did.

I'll answer these two having had a recent experience.. 3) We did the 7 days BK voyage...once we got to Kirkenes I did NOT want to get off the ship! They had to force me! 😄 If you have enough days, do the round trip. There are places we saw during the night, that we wished we could have seen in daylight. Some of the stops that are done on the return trip are sooo worth it too. I really wish we could have continued.. We didn't get bored for a minute, never even took out of the luggage the books, card sets etc that we had brought along to be entertained. The days are very "active" afterall, even on board. There's always something to see, stories to hear, food to try, excursions to plan, people to talk to, etc. Really never felt redundant at all. 4) We couldn't pick a month as our work holidays were pretty much fixed, and temperature wise, sea motion wise, crowds wise, etc I felt August worked out great. BUT if I had to redo it, I would choose to go at the end of june/beginning of July....mainly for the many more hours of daylight (for example, reaching Lofoten in broad daylight would probably have been even more incredible with the full colors showing), perhaps the for midnight sun, or even for the puffins (unfortunately, they were all gone already). I'm exaggerating, of course. August was great. Very warm everywhere, close to no rain. Couldn't have asked for more. I was just being picky or trying to be helpful.. 😄

Here's me hoping I can help a little! 1.The library is in fact more of a bookcase/bookshelf placed in a corner of a very cosy and welcoming lounge area of Level 3 of the ship. On our Castor, it was located near the "kids corner", toward the Bow/observation deck of the ship. It was very well stock with books in different languages and on different subjects. 2. In the beginning, we also thought of doing just the 6 hours train ride from Oslo to Bergen, but the fact that it was going to be on a weekend meant that there were less "solutions" time wise...we soon figured out. So in the end we flew one day early and did the Nutshell trip. 3. We used a taxi in Trondheim because I had left my mobile phone on board and realized it when we were midway through our walk into town. So we walked back to the ship to pick it up, and then hired a taxi so we wouldn't waste anymore time going back and forth. We found more than a few available there at the dock, so no problems there. Cost wise, I would say it was reasonable for Norway. We asked the driver to take us to the other side of town, farthest place, to be able to then enjoy the walk back. It cost 15€. About 15-20 mins ride. We enjoyed the whole experience so much, I'm sure you will too!! 🙂

Hello everyone, just wanted to say once again THANK YOU for helping and "directing" me to what could be the ideal cruise holiday for us! We did the BK on Havila Castor, after the Nutshell tour from Oslo that you suggested. It was the most wonderful first experience on a cruise ship to get the sense of what it's like. We could only spend good words about Havila, the fjords and Norway in general. Already thinking about the next one, obviously.. 😄

Oh thank you, THANK YOU for telling me about the porter for the luggage during the Nutshell tour! We almost gave up on it because the thought of doing it all with the luggages and carry ons etc just wasn't a fun thought! We managed thanks to you!! ❤️ Aaaaaand we are booked on Havila for August 12! There was a problem with the payments on their website last night so we spent all night and part of this morning holding our breath, hoping the reservation would still be there! 😄 Is the trip to the North Cape worth it? We are talking about the "plateu" one, right? I'm now going to do some research on what we can do at the other stops. The excursions are expensive so I guess we can only take the few ones that come really recommended and deemed "unmissable"!

I'm so excited about Tromsø especially, I'd considered doing BKT just because of the amount of interesting things there seem to be in or around it. For the Lofoten, I've been reading that it might be better to stay on the ship and cruise through them rather than do an excursion and spend time on a bus. Would you agree? The excursion you mentioned is it doable on the Northbound, where you actually approach the Lofoten in the evening? NOTED for the Flåm "detour"...checking out the Hanseatic Hotel right now. Just one silly technical question about Havila: I see they have a beverage package but from the price I take it it's for alcoholic drinks mainly. What about soft drinks? Are they served on board?

Yes, your comments were more than helpful! You made me stop for a second and think again about why we had thought the german and british companies would still work for us. And I went back to MSC to check what they had to offer and see if it would convince me...rather than to just discard it because "somebody told me something". On that note...have you ever cruised with MSC? How was your experience? And if you had to suggest a cruise line and destination to someone based on your experiences, what would it be? (Blatantly asking for tips so I can plan my next one with sliiiiiightly less rush! :D) Thank you!

Your post made me dream with my eyes open! Yes, I think you got me exactly. We ARE interested in the Fjords, but Norway is so big and multi-faceted...I would regret not trying to find a way to see a bit of everything. I can come back to cruise the Fjords again and more in depth, but I think this time I want to see as much as possible, the variety of the territory and the lands. It blows me away that it takes that many hours to go just from Oslo to Bergen, imagine thinking of reaching the Russian border.. I think I am sold! 😄 Have you done one of the Voyages yourself? Was it a good experience? Is there anything you would absolutely recommend we do?

Ahh thank you for clearing that up! I was very confused about the whole "scenic cruising" concept, especially with the port names listed after that. I just didn't want to risk assuming the bigger ships would go into the Fjords but finding out later that the proper cruising through it would have to be arranged in a different way. I think we will manage to take the Havila Castor for the Northbound Voyage, and then adding Flam and Bergen with the Nutshell. It will be very fast as we don't have many days, but we will attempt it! For Havila, could you suggest some excursions to take into consideration? Would you do them all with Havila or try and arrange them on your own?

Thanks for your tip on how to decide on which one of the Fred Olsen cruises eventually fall on. I have been trying to figure out if there would be a way to reach the "missing Fjord" somehow on either of the cruises...but I think maybe it's too much of a stretch. Understood about the coastal voyages being just that - coastal - so thank you for making me think again and a bit harder about it. What pulls me toward those is the possibility to see SO MUCH of Norway as a country, rather than just the Fjords part. BUT...is that the best way to enjoy Norway, I ask myself!? Or is it better to do what everyone does...see the Fjords and go home amazed by them...as that is already more than enough!? Such a tough choice! I am looking at including the Nutshell experience...but it seems not to fit into our schedule, due to the flights not being there on certain days. I'm sad about it.. Do I really want to leave without having seen Flam?!

Hi Hallasm! Thank you for welcoming me! 🙂 You know, I discovered the coastal voyages through your posts last year actually! You made me dream about this kind of trip from the way you described everything...that's why I started looking into it. Hearing you mention that it is not necessary to do the roundtrip to enjoy it, makes me reconsider having decided on not going at all and picking the other type of cruise instead.. I just thought the time we have at our disposal wouldn't be enough, and that leaving the round trip incomplete would be a shame. Do you reckon we would still get to see all the most interesting stuff by doing the voyage northbound only? Which stops would you recommend most? Which excursions to take? Hurtigruten or Havila? Sorry for the many questions, it's just that in my head you are some kind of guru for this!! hahaha Anyway, for the best Fjord experience, I take it the two Fred Olsen options are the most inclusive. But is there a way on one or the other to include the Fjord that's missing? Like, would you manage to reach Flam or Geiranges from one of the stops along that way?

Oooh I didn't know! What puzzled me about the P&O cruise was that there was so much "cruising by" in the itinerary, but isn't Iona actually a big ship? How would it cruise by so many things? How far into the fjords?

We liked those, we were keen on them...but we couldn't change our work holidays to fit the dates. 😞 Also some NCL or Azamara we had to discard purely because of not matching dates. Too bad!

Thank you for your reply! We had done a bit on research on the cruise lines mentioned, and having lived both in the UK and in Germany we felt that the language challenge would yes be there - as we wouldn't be speaking in our mothertongue anywhere at anytime - but a challenge that we would take up somewhat happily. Also the fact that Fred Olsen and Aida would be traditional british/german cruises, with british or german traditions and food and such, didn't actually scare us off....nor the fact that a smaller ship doesn't have the thrills or special amenities of the bigger ships to be entertained by. We didn't consider Costa or MSC only due to the fact that all of our friends who cruised on them didn't come back with great feedback to give...i'm not sure why. 😞 Plus in the 2 weeks we have, their dates didn't quite match. Would you recommend any other cruise line that we haven't thought of or may not know?

Hello everyone! We're a couple from Italy in their 40s trying to arrange their first cruise.. We have left it way too late, I know...for several reasons 😞 so just trying to figure out what would be best for us with what's still available. The original idea was to do a Norway cruise with Hurtigruten or Havila to get the full sense of what the country is like, but unfortunately we can't stay away from home that long to do the round trip...so we are looking for a different solution...and here come the doubts about the Fjords cruises. We aren't being too selective about cruise lines, as we don't have previous experiences to base on, we are mainly interested in the itinerary. So which of these would you reckon is the most interesting/scenic/comprehensive? Fred. Olsen options: AUG 14 DOVER 1 DAY SAILING AUG 16 CRUISING MAURANGERFJORD & FUREBERGSFOSSEN AUG 16 CRUISING HARDANGERFJORD AUG 16 EIDFJORD AUG 17 BERGEN AUG 18 FLÅM AUG 18 CRUISING NÆRØYFJORD AUG 19 OLDEN AUG 19 CRUISING NORDFJORD & INNVIKFJORD 2 DAYS SAILING AUG 22 DOVER or AUG 15 LIVERPOOL 2 DAYS SAILING AUG 18 CRUISING NORDFJORD & INNVIKFJORD AUG 18 OLDEN AUG 19 ÅLESUND AUG 20 ÅNDALSNES AUG 21 GEIRANGER AUG 21 CRUISE BY THE SEVEN SISTERS WATERFALL AUG 21 CRUISING STORFJORDEN AUG 21 CRUISING BY STRANDAFJELLET MOUNTAIN 2 DAYS SAILING AUG 24 LIVERPOOL Royal Caribbean: Copenhagen, Denmark Aarhus, Denmark Oslo, Norway Kristiansand, Norway Haugesund, Norway Olden, Norway Alesund, Norway Bergen, Norway At Sea Amsterdam, Holland P&O Iona: Southampton, England At Sea Stavanger, Norway Olden, Norway Innvikfjorden, Norway (Cruising) Nordfjord, Norway (Cruising) Hellesylt, Norway Geirangerfjord, Norway (Cruising) Sunnylvsfjorden, Norway (Cruising) Storfjorden, Norway (Cruising) Haugesund, Norway At Sea Southampton, England AIDA Cruises: WARNEMÜNDE SEADAY KRISTIANSAND BERGEN VIK EID FIORDO SEADAY WARNEMÜNDE Or if you have any other suggestions, also based on what excursions we could add at our ports, please feel free to advise us. Thank you so much in advance!!