small cruise ship thru Norwegian fjords

[rpgould]

First time using this forum.  My wife and I are looking for a small cruise ship (less than 1000 passengers) to cruise the Norwegian fjords.  7--9 days.  To depart anytime June--August 2019.  Not interested in luxury or entertainment.  More interested in seeing smaller ports like Geiranger, Flam, Olden, or Sogneford than larger ones like Oslo.  Given the shortness of time, we would prefer the entire cruise to take place in Norway.  Thank you.

[chengkp75]

I'd say your best bet would be Hurtigruten, which operate ships that are a cross between a small cruise ship and a ferry.

[jocap]

Two lines which might suit you: Fred Olsen, and Cruise and Maritime. Each line uses small, older ships- in fact the Marco Polo, C&M, is one of the oldest cruise ships afloat.

We've been with Fred Olsen to Norway, out of Newcastle in the NE of England, which isn't far from Norway, so on the first day you can see the beginning of the fjords in the afternoon. The ship out of there is the Balmoral, which might be too big; the other 3 are all under 1,000 passengers. I'm not sure of C&M's sizes.

Both sail from several ports in the UK and Ireland.

Fred O seems to include Bergen, but I think that will be the only large town. A very comfortable line, and there is entertainment, but much of it is home made- on deck games, quizzes etc, although there's a show at night. We enjoy the line, and the food is excellent, but it's very different to cruising on the large, newer ships.

 

[rpgould]

Thank you both for your responses.  Your suggestions--Hurtigruten, Fred Olsen, and Cruise and Maritime are possibilities worth looking into.  If anyone else has any ideas, please offer them.

[MJC]

We've had our eye on the Windstar one, 208 passengers:  https://www.windstarcruises.com/cruise/northern-europe/norways-famous-fjords/

[Hlitner]

You have been given some good advice.  The problem is that you are asking for a short cruise on a small (not luxurious) ship that spends nearly all of its time in Norway.  Hurtigruten certainly meets all of that although the line is pretty expensive for what it offers.  But it is the true Norwegian line (they are the mail boats and supply boats to Norway) and they are in and out of many small Norwegian ports.  Olsen and C&M tend to be very "Brtiish" and their itineraries are not quite as interesting as some of the Hurtigruten ships.  I will admit to having been a fan of C&M's Marco Polo, but that was over twenty years ago when she was part of Orient Lines.  That ship was actually built in 1965 so she is now over fifty years old (one of the oldest cruise ships still at sea).  The last time we saw her was in Bergen and she looked to be in very good shape.  But keep in mind that C&M is what most of us would call a "budget" British line which might be a bit of a shock to cruisers used to the big modern vessels we see in the Caribbean.

Hank

[ColdCruise]

4 hours ago, jocap said:

Two lines which might suit you: Fred Olsen, and Cruise and Maritime. Each line uses small, older ships- in fact the Marco Polo, C&M, is one of the oldest cruise ships afloat.

 We've been considering the same type of small ship Norwegian fjord cruise and are considering C&M (also referred to as CMV, Cruise & Maritime Voyages) or Hurtigruten.  

We sailed on C&M's Marco Polo for a 21-day Greenland cruise in 2017 and quite enjoyed the ship, although 21 days is probably our limit for a cruise. The ship was well maintained with generally excellent crew (our cabin steward was super!), some of the food was a bit unusual in the buffet (very creative use of ingredients, not always to good results) but the seated meals were very good. As a small ship (850 pax, we were at 80% capacity I was told), so there were limited diversions at sea, but she's an excellent ship for port-intensive cruises. We are looking at another Marco Polo trip next year.

Hurtigruten is interesting and when I first started checking them out a couple years ago,the prices were considerably less than current offers. My only hesitation is time in port - because they're ferry/mail/supply ships, often they arrive in port at odd ours (middle of night) and don't really stay long enough to explore. So I would carefully inspect the itinerary details, unless your satisfied with watching as you cruise by scenery and a lot of ports where you can either only have a short walk, or have to take a ships tour which will meet the ship at the next port.

I will recommend, if you want to look at CMV, that you use a UK proxy from the US as the promotion offered on the UK and US site are often NOT comparable. I've also had issues with follow up in the US. 

 

It it would be interesting if you post what you decide. Good luck.

 

[Heidi13]

As mentioned previously, Hurtigruten is probably you best option. As a 2nd option, I would check out some of the Norway cruises from Viking Ocean.

[donaldsc]

A bit longer than 9 days but Azamara.  Ships are the refurbished R class ships and hold about 680 passengers.  We have done many cruises on Azamara including one up the Norwegian coast.  They do really great cruises.

https://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/find-a-voyage#dest=EUROP&country=Norway&sort=date-asc

DON

[paul929207]

We did the Fjords on the Pacific Princess in June. It was a 16 day cruise round trip Dover. Ship holds 680 passengers

[rpgould]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.  At this point we are considering 2 options:  

 

First choice is Cruise and Maritime's Columbus ship which is a round trip from Amsterdam and cruises Sognefjord, Nordfjord, and Geirangerfjord with stops at Flam, Olden, and Bergen.  It holds 1400 passengers which is a little more than we hoped for but it would work perfectly since we are thinking of also spending a week beforehand in Amsterdam and environs.  Prices also look great.  The downside is that it leaves 8/27 and returns 9/4 and my wife needs to be back at her teaching job by 9/2.  I also wonder if we would overdose on 3 fjord tours.

 

The second choice is Fjordtours "Sognefjord in a Nutshell" which is 4 days anytime with the possibility of add-ons.  These seems to include some bus and train travel.  But I have been unable to get information such as capacity of the ship or ferry, whether these are day trips with nights spent on land in a hotel.  Is anybody familiar with Sognefjord in a Nutshell?

 

We have ruled out Hurtigruten because it seems to be a coastal itinerary rather than a fjords itinerary.  

[hallasm]

Norway/Sognefjord In a Nutshell is a great way to explorer Norway by train, bus and tour boat but it is not a cruise. You will stay at hotels for the nights. Many different providers of the tours - most offerings are Individual traveling.

Hurtigruten is primarily a Costal Voyage, however you will sail through Storfjorden to Geiranger and also Trollfjord.

Norway in a Nutshell from Oslo to Flåm by train and To Bergen combined with Hurtigruten from Bergen to Kirkenes could be an alternative.

 

[ColdCruise]

16 hours ago, rpgould said:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.  At this point we are considering 2 options:  

 

First choice is Cruise and Maritime's Columbus ship which is a round trip from Amsterdam and cruises Sognefjord, Nordfjord, and Geirangerfjord with stops at Flam, Olden, and Bergen.  It holds 1400 passengers which is a little more than we hoped for but it would work perfectly since we are thinking of also spending a week beforehand in Amsterdam and environs.  Prices also look great.  The downside is that it leaves 8/27 and returns 9/4 and my wife needs to be back at her teaching job by 9/2.  

You could disembark in Bergen, take the train to Oslo and fly home from there. You’d only miss a sea day and a stop In London.

[rpgould]

Decided to follow ColdCruise's advice and take the Cruise and maritime cruise leaving from Amsterdam and disembark in Bergen.  We still get a day in Bergen before flying back to Boston and we get to go to the places we most want to see.  Thank you everybody.

[Tom47]

On 10/31/2018 at 8:11 PM, rpgould said:

Thanks everyone for your suggestions.  At this point we are considering 2 options:  

 

First choice is Cruise and Maritime's Columbus ship which is a round trip from Amsterdam and cruises Sognefjord, Nordfjord, and Geirangerfjord with stops at Flam, Olden, and Bergen.  It holds 1400 passengers which is a little more than we hoped for but it would work perfectly since we are thinking of also spending a week beforehand in Amsterdam and environs.  Prices also look great.  The downside is that it leaves 8/27 and returns 9/4 and my wife needs to be back at her teaching job by 9/2.  I also wonder if we would overdose on 3 fjord tours.

 

The second choice is Fjordtours "Sognefjord in a Nutshell" which is 4 days anytime with the possibility of add-ons.  These seems to include some bus and train travel.  But I have been unable to get information such as capacity of the ship or ferry, whether these are day trips with nights spent on land in a hotel.  Is anybody familiar with Sognefjord in a Nutshell?

 

We have ruled out Hurtigruten because it seems to be a coastal itinerary rather than a fjords itinerary.  

We cruised with Hurtiigruten in 2009, Bergen r/t.  We flew in 2 days before our group to do Norway in a Nutshell day tour(train/fjord cruise).We recommend both.

[ColdCruise]

On 11/20/2018 at 8:17 PM, rpgould said:

Decided to follow ColdCruise's advice and take the Cruise and maritime cruise leaving from Amsterdam and disembark in Bergen.  We still get a day in Bergen before flying back to Boston and we get to go to the places we most want to see.  Thank you everybody.

I hope you both enjoy your trip!