Norwegian Fjords-please help pick the itinerary

[MTV43]

Hi,

 

We are just thinking about Norwegian Fjords for this coming July.  We just look at a few options and greatly appreciated for inputs to help making the decision.

1) Princess has 7 day from Southampton with the following ports of call: Stavanger, Olden, Hellesylt, Geiranger, Bergen back to Southampton

2) Holland America Line from Amsterdam with the following stops: Eidfjord, Scenic cruising Hardangerfjord, Cruise Sognefjord, Alesund, Bergen

3) Costa line 9 days from Amsterdam with the following stops:Bergen, Hellesylt, Olden, Stavanger, Bremerhaven Germany

 

Questions:

1) How rough the north sea? does it matter much between crossing the sea from Southampton or up/down from Amsterdam?

2) We sailed Princess twice and were happy with its cuisine. How is Holland and Costa compared to Princess?

3) We are keen of landscape photography, so looking for destination with great photo opportunity.

4) Are any other cruise lines?

 

Thanks in advance for your reply!

[Ine]

Northtsea can be a hit or miss, although the 3 times we sailed to Norway from Amsterdam it was extremely quite and smooth.

Since Princess is the one that docks in Geiranger, that would be for me the one to book. The most beautiful sailing into and from Geiranger through the fjord. In Geiranger you can book a bustrip  the Panorama exclusive  to  3 awesome viewpoints. https://www.geirangerfjord.no/upload/pdf/2018 Bus Tours.pdf

HAL sails to Eidfjord which is also nice but Geiranger is much more interesting.

I am not a fan of Costa.

Edited January 19, 2019 by Ine

[kitkat343]

I prefer princess to Hal, but would sail Hal again if the itinerary is better.  We chose our itinerary for flam and geiranger, but also found that olden was an unexpected highlight.  The loen skylift opened 3 days prior to our arrival, and will offer you many amazing photographic opportunities.  Geiranger is also quite beautiful, but please note that the road up to the mountain opens between mid May and early June based upon when the road is clear and the big annual avalanche occurs.  

 

We were on cunard, which was a nice line except for how seriously they take formal night (lots of their passengers love this, but we needed to schlep a lot of stuff for a 2 and 6 year old to go to Norway so formalware was a bit of an overkill for us). If you are looking for other options, cruisetimetables will show you all cruises that visit a specific destination. 

Edited January 19, 2019 by kitkat343

[kaisatsu]

16 hours ago, MTV43 said:

1) Princess has 7 day from Southampton with the following ports of call: Stavanger, Olden, Hellesylt, Geiranger, Bergen back to Southampton

2) Holland America Line from Amsterdam with the following stops: Eidfjord, Scenic cruising Hardangerfjord, Cruise Sognefjord, Alesund, Bergen

3) Costa line 9 days from Amsterdam with the following stops:Bergen, Hellesylt, Olden, Stavanger, Bremerhaven Germany

Are you sure that Costa sailing doesn't stop in Geiranger? It seems extremely strange to sail all the way to Hellesylt and then skip the famously scenic stretch between Hellesylt and Geiranger. Also, I'm only seeing one 9-day sailing on Costa out of Amerstam in July. The July 6-15 that matches the itinerary you listed, but also including Geiranger and Andalsnes.

 

 

The Princess and Costa itineraries (assuming the Costa sailing does go to Geiranger) are fairly similar. The addition of Andalsnes on the Costa trip is nice, but the Princess itinerary is one of the best 7-day Norwegian coastal trips I've seen in a while.

 

The HAL trip is a bit different in that it's focused more on fjord cruising and smaller less-visited ports. That could be a draw for some people, but if you're looking for the traditional "must-see" places or ports with long-standing cruise call infrastructure, the other two itineraries would fit better.

 

The North Sea can be choppy, and it's not uncommon to hit a few bumps en route to Norway from either the UK or continental Europe. It doesn't happen on every trip, and I wouldn't consider it an issue unless you're extremely prone to seasickness. If you tend to have moderate issues with seasickness in rough waters, it's probably worth taking a few precautions. Talk to your doctor about motion sickness medication, and remember to take it before you start to feel the symptoms. But honestly, while these seas do tend to be a bit choppier than the Caribbean, it's not extreme -- especially on a full-size cruise ship with stabilizers. I might not recommend the ferry crossings, but the motion is much less severe on a larger ship.

 

Re: Costa, I can't recommend them. Compared to other cruiselines, I found the food just fine. The only differences I noticed in that area were owing to its Italian roots: the espresso was better and the salad was served at the end of dinner. (In fact, the only cruise I've ever been on where the food was disappointing was my Princess sailing in East Asia, where they flew in all of the foodstuffs from halfway around the world. Hopefully they've since figured out the logistics for that!) My problems with Costa were that everything just felt a bit disorganized. Tender tickets stood out as utter chaos, where they made announcements, but the staff handing out the tickets were disorganized, confused, and not following the procedures being announced. The quality of shipboard entertainment struggled from the multilingual passenger makeup, and there was always a general feeling of not quite knowing what was going on. We only traveled with them once (they were the only line sailing the region we wanted to visit), and we were pretty sure we wouldn't choose them again if there were other options.

 

[kaisatsu]

I've also cruised the Norwegian coast on Cunard and Royal Caribbean. I enjoy the ultra-formal nights on Cunard but admit that the packing logistics were challenging (especially since we sailed all the way to Svalbard and were planning a lot of active port adventures). I'm sure we scandalized several of the upper-class passengers when we came back on board in Geiranger covered in mud from our back-country mountain adventure! Royal Caribbean in Norway was pretty much the same as my RCCL experiences elsewhere. I actually think their food is a small notch above Princess, but I like Princess's ships and staff better.

 

However, I'm not seeing either offering a Norway sailing in July. Besides Princess, HAL, and Costa, the only other short sailings I'm seeing are MSC, P&O, Pullmantur, and Cruise & Maritime Voyages. I've heard a few disappointed accounts of MSC sailings, and I don't know much at all about the others.

Edited January 20, 2019 by kaisatsu

[MTV43]

Thank you all for your replies!

Kaisatsu, you ease my concern regarding the rough sea.  We sailed Hawaii islands and the sea was rough though, we wobbled out of the dinning room but were fine.  I heard stories that people held on the stairwells and threw up, it must be a stormy weather.

With Princess sailing, are any port tender?

 

Thanks

[Ine]

Geiranger will very likely be a tenderport. There only is one small dock but often more ships are in port. Since Geiranger is at the end of the fjord it will be a smooth tenderride.

Edited January 20, 2019 by Ine

[MTV43]

Based on your suggestions, I search cruisetimetables and find few more choices.

P&O has at least 3 sailings in July with similar itinerary like Princess, except 1 port Flam instead of Hellesylt/Geiranger but the price is nearly 1/2 less than Princess.  I find P&O online booking is not as user friendly as others, has few price ranges with different limitations but no direct contact representative to ask question unless I call UK.  Travelocity does not list P&O.

The travelers here have wealth of information, I appreciate any inputs about P&O and its booking/cancellation policies.

 

Thanks a lot!