Thinking of doing a Norwegian Fjords cruise...have questions

[estebofarr]

We are going on the Celebrity Barcelona to Venice in May.

 

Kathy, I would love you to e-mail me anything you have about the Med. My e-mail address is EsteboFarr@aol.com. Thanks,

Janis

 

Dressagegal, Are you saying the Sea Princess is going to the fjords in June of 07?

[Albannach]

I can't believe I didn't see this one before. I won't get into the debate about which of the original two cruise options is better; we've recently come back from 2 weeks in the fjords, and the alternative which took in Shetland and Iceland was a very close second choice. However, these are my thought on your possible ports.

Stavanger - docked right alongside the old town and less than 5 minutes walk from the city centre. Lots of interesting shops, though being Norway the prices are quite high. We decided against anything indoor so wlaked about 2 miles out of town to a big public park with a lake in the middle - perfect size to walk round and back to the ship.

Gerainger - wow! This wa when we really entered fjord country. The village itself won't keep you occupied for very long but the surrounding area is sensational. If you're reasonably fit you can walk up to the Flydall Gorge viewpoint (a photo stop on most of the bus tours) in an hour, and on the way back down you can detour to one of thousands of impressive waterfalls but this one you can walk in behind. On the way up there's a cafe / restaurant which was deserted while everywhere down in Gerainger was packed with two cruise ships. An option is the weather is not as good as we had is the fjord visitor centre. Again, a lot of organised tours stop here but you may prefer to go independent and pend as long as you like. Gerainger is definitely a place I want to go back to and stay more than a day.

Trondheim - I'm sure it's a very nice place but we went on a Sunday an everything was closed (except MacDonalds and Burger King). Check the dates on your itinerary! There's a village called Hell which is a popular rail journey from Trondheim. If this is your thing, the railway staton is walkinig distance from the usual cruise dock. Loads of our passengers got the courtesy bus to the town centre and had to wait for the tourist office to open to get diredctions back to the station.

Tromso - if you believe that cities have a personality, Tromso is a young and happy city. I don't know why, that's just how it felt. Check exactly where you will dock; bigger ships usually have to go to the commercial docks which are several miles from the centre, no problem if your ship has arranged a shuttle bus but a nuisance otherwise. You'll never see averything you want to see in a single day so don't even try. We walked across the bridge to the Arctic Cathedral then kept on to the cable car station. The cable car takes you about 1,300 feet up the mountain and gives specatcular views back across the city and Troms island to some of Norway's highest peaks. Our taxi driver siad that students travel from all over Norway for the Tromso night life but sadly we nly had an eight hour pass.

Honningsvag - the sail in is spectacular. Nearly everyone takes an organised tour to Nordkapp / North Cape. On the way you pass a "Sammi Camp" whose authenticity is maybe questionable, but the goods on sale in their souvenir shop seemed less tacky than a lot of places. The North Cape visitor centre is a strange place, blatant exploitation (it costs how much for a certificate to say you've been?) to deeply moving. Take a sweater and a windproof jacket - you're on top of a 1,000 foot cliff and there's nothing between you and the north pole. North Cape is not the most northerly point in mainland Europe, it's not even on the mainland, but that didn't seem to matter. Our cruise included a midnight sail past the cape (time to within about 5 seconds) in broad daylight, which was a magical experience.

Bergen - like all the bigger places we visited, this would be a perfectly nice place to spend several days. Unfortunately it gets about as much rainfall as all the other places added together. The good news is that unlike Trondheim it's open on Sundays. Bryggen is the old quarter, originally from the middle ages but most of it had to be rebuilt after a fire. The fish market is a big attraction, either to wander around or to sample the wares from one of the stalls, but if you find the thought of killing whales or seals for meat offensive, you might be better going elsewhere.

We didn't get to Spitzbergen but it's definitely on my list of places to go before I die. Magdalenafjord - is this just cruising time or a shore stop? We had several days during the two weks when we sailed to the head of a fjord, turned rounds and came back out by a different route.

Final thought for anyone doing a fjords cruise - unless it's definitely out of your budget, go for an outside cabin, preferably with a balcony. Leave the curtains open at night (the seagulls won't be offended). I guarantee that most mornings you'll be outside gawping at the scenery within 30 seconds of opening your eyes - I was.

[SF]

Thank you so much for sharing your cruise experience with us. Norway sounds so beautiful and I can't wait until we sail and visit some of her ports. We decided to do the Iceland, Norway and British Isles cruise mainly because we want to visit Iceland but also because the date worked out better for us. In 2006 the Fjords were in June and our cruise sails the 1st of July.

 

Would love to hear from any others that have done either of these cruise itineraries.

[estebofarr]

WOW, what a great review! It sounds so great. I wonder how soon the Sea Princess will be open for booking this cruise?

 

I hope SF that you will give us a review when you come back and post it here as well.

 

Janis

[SF]

Janis,

 

Yes, I'll be happy to write a review but I'm sure we'll have plenty others until we sail next year (seems so far off). I can't wait until the present cruisers on Sea Princess return and start posting their reviews.

[estebofarr]

I looked into the Princess website for June 2007 and it would only let me go to May 2007. I would like to investigate it further. I've been telling friends but can't give them hard information. Has anyone had better luck?

Janis