mocrimlaw

Our ship (NCL Jade in August 2017) is stopping at Haugesund, and I am having trouble finding anything much on what to do there. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Anyone have a recommendation for a private guide with car in Klaipeda? I want to go to the Hill of Witches on the Curonian Spit - I know there is a ferry but it seems the Hill os a long ways from the ferry. I also want to have a guide for a drive & walk through the town as I have can't walk long distances and I am slower due to severe arthritis in my feet. All I see are group guides, and some of them say you have to be not walking impaired. Thanks!

We are arriving in Oslo on the cruise at 4pm. Cruise continues on to end in Southampton but we are getting off here to fly to Stockholm. Could we make a flight at 7:10pm or is that just asking for stress? I guess this is a 2 part question - can we make it to the airport and will we have a delay due to getting off the ship early, if anyone knows? Thanks!

Thanks for all the beautiful pictures and great commentary on Copenhagen, Terry! I will be deciding soon on how long to stay there as our cruise ends there, so this will be really helpful.

I am a criminal defense attorney and DUI/DWI's are a real problem when traveling to Canada. There is a process you can go through to be able to go there, and if you google it you should find it easily. It is easier after 10 years, so yours should be easier. I looked into it for someone whose DWI was 8 years old, and it required quite a lot of paperwork, 9 months in advance of the trip, and if I remember right about $200 in costs. He did not have 9 months until the trip so I never followed up on it, but I remember it seemed to be easier after 10 years.

Does the Haven on the Had have a retractable roof or cover over the pool area? - Thanks!

Thank you all -- no, haven't heard of any issues, just wanted to be sure before booking!

Anyone know any reason this is not a good room? We were on 8049 on Sirena and liked it but have never been on Nautica. Thanks!

I assume it is at least a little rougher in the aft cabins than mid-ship, but I wonder how much rougher it is - can you really tell the difference? This is on the Jade, if that matters. Trip will be Norwegian fjords, and I keep reading that the aft facing balconies are great in the fjords, but worried about seasickness. I use a patch which generally works well, but I really don't like it when the sea is rough. It was so rough in the Mediterranean this May that they cancelled Amalfi because they couldn't use the tenders, and our tender in Sorrento was really tossed around the day before and was quite scary. That night the ship really rocked all night long. Not sure how much worse it would have been if we had been in an aft cabin?

I am a little worried about the forward or aft cabins - aren't they much more prone to making you seasick? I would hate to spend more money for a suite forward or aft and then be sick. I do wear a patch which generally works for me.

We are going to be on the 8/9 cruise on the Norwegian Jade leaving from Southampton and going to Stavanger, Hellesylt, Geiranger, Flam, Alesund, Haugesund and Oslo. Any thoughts on which side of the ship would be better for this itinerary? Thanks!

We are planning on the 8/9 Nautica cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen, stopping in Talinn, St Petersburg, Helsinki, Riga, Klaipeda, and Warnemunde (for Berlin). Anyone have thoughts as to the best side of the ship for the ports in this itinerary? Thanks!

Wel, we talked about the options last night and have decided that we will take the 8/18 Oceania Baltic cruise that allows us to go to Moscow from St Petersburg on Day 2 of 3 in St Petersburg. Prior to that we will take the NCL cruise to see the fjords, leaving 8/9 from London and ending in Oslo - the cruise ends in London but we can get off in Oslo and skip the last sea day. Then we will fly to Stockholm to pick up the Oceania cruise, which ends in Copenhagen. We just decided an escorted bus tour was too much bus for us compared to being on a cruise and only unpacking once. The NCL cruise goes to Stavanger, Hellesylt & Geiranger, hopefully offering the great road trip Terry in Ohio took, Flam so we can take the train, Alesund, which looks so pretty, Haugesund (haven't found out much about that), & Oslo. It does skip Bergen, which is too bad, and we will miss Balestrand, which I wanted to see, but of course you can't do everything. Terry's pictures of the Lofted(sp?) area look stunning, so maybe we can come back and do that northern trip another time. So many places we want to go! It will be interesting to go from NCL to Oceania, because seem like totally different experiences - NCL looks kind of garish but lively and Oceania pretty refined. Have never tried NCL but we loved Oceania to the Mediterranean, but I'm sure we will love them both! Hope to see some of you on our travels and thanks for the help with planning!

Ha ha - I totally understand, Nadeki - when we drove through northern Italy the ONLY bad part of the trip was that every time we got in the car our stress level went through the roof! We are a very relaxed couple and we honestly never argue but on that trip we really snapped at each other in the car and some of the roads and situations we got into were truly terrifying - like being on a 4-lane road in Florence going the wrong way during rush hour -still not sure how we got out of that one!

Terry - our priorities are similar to yours - we are generally very independent and I do not mind planning and we have never taken or really considered an escorted tour as we don't like the big bus idea - but I also am not keen on dragging our luggage on and off buses, trains and boats if we do it ourselves. The hard part of the cruise option is that I am trying to coordinate the fjord cruise with the very limited Oceania Baltic cruise schedule which has the 3 days in St Petersburg option so we can go to Moscow on the middle day which is not a Thursday when the Kremlin is closed. So the fjord cruise has to start or end within a few days of the Oceania cruises and there are only a few of those. NCL seems to have just changed some of their cruises from the brochure, making things harder to plan - one of them that says it starts in Hamburg in the brochure now starts in London - hard to plan things far in advance like I prefer to when they change things so drastically!

Wow, Terry - as usual your commentary and pictures are incredible! That 8 hour trip sounds great. I am currently debating between an NCL cruise (essentially Alesund to Oslo) and an escorted tour to many of those places. I keep changing my mind as to which would be better. The escorted tour would help with the transportation between boats and trains and the luggage, while still allowing us to see a lot of the inland countryside and not having to plan very single leg of the trip ourselves. The cruise would of course be easier but I was wondering how much of the inland part we could see - your post lets me see that maybe I could see a lot from the cruise. Any thoughts on this? We are not too keen on renting a car after not enjoying that experience in northern Italy. Maybe it's better in Norway?

I agree, it is really confusing. I am a really detailed planner, and we did the drivers through Italy in May and loved it, but I think Norway is different story. On that cruise, I think they just go cruising through Heliysilt, because they are only there for one hour. Beware also, that the brochure for NCL is DIFFERENT than the website! I called them yesterday about this because the online brochure says one cruise (on 8/9 on the Jade) leaves from Hamburg and the website itself says it leaves from London. Also, the picture shows Bergen as a stop, but the actual cruise description says Haugesund, a totally different place ( I confirmed it is really Haugesund where it stops, not Bergen). I think Norway is harder because of trying to coordinate trains, boats & buses, and there are no roads to some places due to the fjords. I have been seriously considering an escorted tour rather than trying to plan it myself, which I have never done before (because then the tour buses fill in the transportation gaps).

Hi - I am researching a Baltic cruise with added on Norway and I came across your posts about doing the same thing in 2013. Can I ask you how it worked out? What did you end up doing in Norway and would you recommend that? If you want you can reply to me by email at crimlaw@ecentral.com. I didn't mean to interrupt this thread but do not know another way to reach you. Thanks!

Terry - as always, thanks for your suggestions. I would definitely like to take the trip up the entire Norway coast but it doesn't fit into this particular trip. My plan is to take the 10 day Baltic cruise on Oceania that has 3 days in St Petersburg, allowing us to go to Moscow on the middle day. I am deciding between June & August as the other dates have the middle St Petersburg day on a Thursday when the Kremlin is closed, so I don't want to go there then. But i want a few days - up to 6 we can do - ini Norway. I can't find a cruise that goes where and when I need it to or I would just take another cruise and tack it on. So I am considering an escorted trip (just because of all the transfers) or on our own and I am leaning toward Bergen, Flam, Balestrand, and Geiranger. Then maybe another time we can go all the way up. Does that sound like a reasonable plan?

Thank you for the link - your videos are great!

We were on our first Oceania cruise in May on Sirena from Rome to Athens. The only "bad" thing to me was that originally we were supposed to go to Istanbul, but they decided not to go, but that decision seems to have been good one in light of later events. We absolutely loved everything about the ship and the cruise. We loved both specialty restaurants and we enjoyed all the entertainment. We hosted a small meet & greet which Oceania helped me set up and it was great. The seas were too rough to go to Amalfi and some people were upset with that but it was a safety decision which I supported. We met the most wonderful people who I think will be lifelong friends now. We had a Penthouse suite because I wanted the extra room. The butler was great but we really didn't use him at all as e are pretty self sufficient. I can't think of even one thing we didn't like and I am already planning our next Oceania cruise.

I am trying to nail down a maximum 7 day excursion in Norway to add on to a Baltic cruise. Everything looks so good, I can't decide which to leave out. Bergen, Flam, Geiranger, Balestrand - all look like must-dos, but so does Alesund. Anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks!

Anyone know how much of a pain it would be to have to carry our cruise luggage on the Norway in a Nutshell route? Rick Steves says just put it overhead on the trains, but we will have one large suitcase, which we need for the Oceania cruise part of this trip. We can't lift it overhead.

Thanks PNW and Sarnia. I am planning to book the cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen (10 days)next August. So I thought I could fly to Oslo from Denver, stay a night in Oslo, then travel to Bergen with one night stop on the way along the Norway in a Nutshell route, then take the Hurtigruten from Bergen to Trondheim, and fly from there to Stockholm to get on the ship. Does the sound reasonable? Should I plan a night in Bergen too? I see the ship leaves at 8pm.

Brazilgirl - I am very interested that you said independent travelers board before the groups. Someone on TripAdvisor said the groups boarded first and the independent people had not much choice for seats. Is that not correct?

Another good idea I was unaware of - thank you!