Norwegian Fjords--HAL vs Princess Itineraries Summer 2019

Hello all! I’m mulling over a summer 2019 NorwegianFjords cruise with my husband and son who will be 9yo then. I like the idea ofcovering a lot of ground (via sea!) on a cruise to visit beautiful naturalhighlights. We’re going to Alaska on HAL (Noordam) this summer as our firstfamily cruise, and if all goes well, this 2019 cruise will happen. Are welikely to have rough seas?

Please advise on the following itineraries/lines, which I’venarrowed down to based on our work schedule. What are the pros/cons? I noticedthat Princess Suites have a privacy curtain, which would be nice after my son’sbedtime.

Also, will aft be worth it for views vs side or just toorough? Assuming we may do a 7 day cruise (we may not have time/$ for 14-day),and a suite is a must (even at the cost of a shorter cruise). It’s okay if theship doesn’t have a ton of evening activities; covered pool for families wouldbe nice; and we won’t use kid’s clubs; we like to spend time together in andout of our room (when not in ports). Good food is welcome!

Sapphire Princess 7-day Norwegian Fjords in a Penthouse,Owner, or Grand suite: RT London; Stavanger, Bergen, Hellesylt/Geirangerfjord,Olden/Nordfjord

HAL Nieuw Statendam 7-day Norse Legends in a Signature orNeptune Suite (Pinnacle is way too costly): RT Amsterdam Eidfjord, Bergen,Skjolden, Alesund

HAL Nieuw Statendam 7-day Viking Sagas: Oslo, Kristiansand,Haugesund, Eidfjord

(If we can afford the $ and time, we may consider HAL’s 14day Voyage of the Midnight Sun, which adds Haugesund, Flam, Trondheim, andHonningsvag in addition to what Norse has.)

Anything else we should consider? Iceland cruise instead? We've never been to this part of the globe! Thank you for sharing your expertise!

The seas can't be predicted. They could be rough, they could be calm, likely they will be somewhere in between. Book any cruise for the destinations, not seas. You are on a ship, after all. It moves.

Sapphire will be about 15 years old then. N. Statendam will be about 6 months old, FYI.

JMHO, but after 5 Princess cruises, and 11 HAL cruises, including to Norway, we book HAL.

The seas can't be predicted. They could be rough, they could be calm, likely they will be somewhere in between. Book any cruise for the destinations, not seas. You are on a ship, after all. It moves.

 

Sapphire will be about 15 years old then. N. Statendam will be about 6 months old, FYI.

 

JMHO, but after 5 Princess cruises, and 11 HAL cruises, including to Norway, we book HAL.

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Based on the itineraries alone...

This Viking Sagas itinerary leaves a lot to be desired. HAL's other Viking Sagas departures appear to include Flåm, but this one doesn't really hit any of the major fjord cruise highlights at all. If you're looking for a fjord cruise, this is not it. Oslo typically makes more sense (both culturally and geographically) on a Baltic cities cruise than on a Norwegian coastal cruise, and the area around Kristiansand is significantly different from the fjords of the west coast. While Kristiansand and Haugesund are both nice little towns, I suspect few people would rank either among their favorite ports in Norway. It looks like the other Viking Sagas 2019 sailings on Nieuw Statendam call at Flåm and Stavanger instead of Eidfjord and Haugesund, which makes a lot more sense. This particular itinerary is kind of strange. It might be interesting to someone who has already visited the usual ports (more than once, since I still find new things to see/do) but I wouldn't recommend it for someone planning just one cruise to Norway.

So I would choose between the Sapphire Princess and the Norse Legends trips.

Both of them visit Bergen, which is nice. The HAL trip cruises the Hardangerfjord to Eidfjord and Sognefjord to Skjolden. It also visits Ålesund, which is a popular choice for fjord cruise port calls. The Princess trip cruises the Geirangerfjord to Geiranger and the Nordfjord to Olden, and then spends the remaining day in Stavanger.

Personally, I would choose the Princess trip, because I think the scenery cruising through Geirangerfjord is more dramatic, especially through the final stretch between Hellesylt and Geiranger, where the fjord is quite narrow, so the walls of the fjord are towering high above the ship. Additionally, Geiranger and Olden have traditionally had a lot more cruise calls than Eidfjord and Skjolden, so there's a lot more infrastructure and information to help you plan your time there. And since it looks like the call in Stavanger is from 7am to 4pm, that would give you enough time to do the Preikestolen hike if that's something you're interested in.

For me personally, prior to sailing we limited ourselves to a cruise that visited geiranger and flam (my boys love trains). Geiranger has a lot of amazing scenic fjord views which are easily accessible by bus, and flam has the wonderful flam railroad and my kids (6 and 2) and our whole family really loved visiting a goat farm there. Olden was the unexpected highlight of our cruise - the new loen skylift had opened just a few days before we arrived and was spectacular. The briksdal glacier is a nice second excursion that day. The glacier itself has been hit hard by global warming, but the drive there is beautiful, there are golf cart troll cars that can take you most of the way to the glacier and then there is a manageable hike that is quite lovely to the glacier (my 2 year old made it all the way there). There’s a small cafe near the gift shop at the entrance, and you can get your son some very yummy waffles (they’re best fresh).

The only thing to note that I was a little disappointed in was how dependent the attractions in Norway were on the weather. We’d been much luckier with weather on our Baltic cruise, plus some highlights were indoor museums. In Norway if it’s really rainy/ foggy you aren’t really going to be able to appreciate as much of the incredible beauty of the country. The good days were incredible, but the bad weather days were tough since our kids were so small cabs couldn’t transport them because we didn’t have car seats and we were stuck walking in cold, rainy weather. We’ve done Alaska cruises and would certainly believe Norway is worth seeing, just when your kids are old enough for cabs.

Oh and the Bering sea tour was a really interesting way to learn about the crabbing industry in Alaska. We could walk there from where the coral princess docks, so no need to pay for that excursion through the cruise line if you dock close to their boat.

CruiserBruce, indeed can't predict how the seas will be, and how much the ship will move, but I've read that there are some areas of the world where rough is more likely, such as transatlantic, transpacific, further from coast lines. Just wondering what the Norway area may be like. Which Norway itinerary would you recommend for a first-timer?

kaisatsu, I am disappointed that HAL doesn't have Geirangerfjord and Olden--I was looking forward to experiencing a new ship. But I don't want to miss out on the best itinerary either. Viking Sagas looked less interesting to me vs Norse Legends, but having never been, I didn't want to rule it out on my own so thank you for your thorough explanation! I wasn't aware of the difference between southern Norway/Baltic areas vs fjords. At least the Sapphire Princess will be in dry dock in early 2018, so maybe our ship experience will be enhanced. I don't want us to miss the sights you described! Sounds amazing.

kitkat343, wow, sounds like Geiranger and Olden have much to offer for families with young kids. Thank you for sharing these tips! My son will be 9 then, so hopefully cabs can accommodate a booster seat? He does indeed enjoy waffles! We are stocking up on warm rain gear for our summer Alaska cruise--looks like this will come in handy in Norway as well, so maybe we can enjoy the days with rain somewhat still. We haven't booked anything for Ketchikan yet, so I'll look out for the Bering Sea Crab if we aren't too busy shopping that day (it's our last port before Vancouver) :-)

By the way, any thoughts on aft vs port/starboard side? I am waiting to see how we fare vs sea-sickness during our Alaska cruise (we'll be around midship). But was wondering which location cabin we should consider for Norway barring upset tummies...

Aft decks can sometimes, depending on winds, get a diesel smell from the smoke stack, above. I would suggest for the Norwegian seas and the winds, go for a midship on that cruise.

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Norway in general has seen an explosion of tourists following the release of Frozen. Quite a few new attractions have opened in recent years to help children and less mobile cruisers access the beautiful viewpoints (there's also the relatively new Geiranger skywalk).

If you arrange for cabs or tours ahead of time, under Norwegian law they are required to provide car seats. You might want to see how portable the bubble bum is if you are carrying it around with you (its a blow up car seat). There are also HOHO buses, but our kids were little and its hard for them to wait. In Geiranger there are bus tours you can book that will take you to all the scenic viewpoints.

Also, you can post this on the Alaska forum, but please note that all of the Alaskan ports are really small. I'm not sure you can spend all day shopping in Ketchikan, but someone else will have a better sense of that on the Alaskan forums since it was a long time since my Alaska cruise and we didn't spend much time shopping. The Bering sea tour is 3 hours long so you can do another excursion (or shop) in the afternoon.

Hi Cruise4Sunshine, we'll definitely go for midship then. It's too bad the Sapphire Princess, which has the better fjords route, has grand and owner's suite only in the aft, and both under the terrace pool on top of that. I like your tagline quote!

kitkat343--I'm definitely going to look into the Bubble Bum inflatable booster--my son will be ready for a booster by then. Impressive how a movie can have an effect, even cartoon ones! I think after Nemo lots of people wanted certain tropical fish...

Possibly the suites in the forward part of the Sapphire will be good for you? Better than aft for seas. Between decks10-12 there are 5 to choose from.

Pooh

This past August we did a 14 day Norwegian fjord and North Cape Cruise through Princess. It was fantastic. I was so happy we made the decision to do this longer cruise. We were blessed with fantastic weather and calm seas through out the trip. Our cruise included stavanger, flam, Tromso, Trondheim, alesund, Bergen, Geirangerfjord, Honningsvag and lofoton Islands. I figured this may be our only Norwegian Cruise so I wanted to see as much as possible. Norway is a beautiful country..so clean and the people of Norway are so friendly. No matter which cruise and cruise line you choose, you trip will be a trip to remember!. My advice...spend your money on a longer cruise..even if you have to get a smaller room

Have fun!...wish I was planning to go again!

survivorfan, what were your favorite places in the northern parts of Norway? (we had to go on a 7 day cruise since we had a 2 year old and didn't know how he'd handle traveling but in the future I'd love to get back to Norway)

It seems like the cruise lines change up their exact routes each year--this year HAL has some more desirable Fjords routes (on their newer ships anyway), and next year Princess does. So we may see how the 2020 schedules shake out. And yes, looks like we'll avoid aft either way.

#1survivorfan, that itinerary--wow! we'll definitely go for as long as possible. Seems like a very port-intensive, family friendly place to go! You have a lot of Princess cruising experience. Have you been in balcony rooms? I'd like to know your pros and cons of sailing with them :)