Iceland & Norway vs. Land of the Midnight Sun itineraries?

[junglejane]

We are looking at a cruise to Norway for 2024. We usually cruise on Princess but would consider other options. We've looked at Princess's 2023 itineraries as examples, and are looking at the "Iceland & Norway" versus "Land of the Midnight Sun." Any feedback on which is better? Other options we should consider for a Norway cruise?

[CruiserBruce]

"Better" is totally subjective. 

 

Now having sailed Norway, Iceland and Greenland, I would put Iceland and Greenland ahead of Norway for scenery. JMHO.

[carlmm]

Could you spell out the itineraries? Would help those people who are not familiär eith Princess' terminology.

[junglejane]

Yes, here are some of the sample 2023 itineraries which I assume will be similar to 2024. These are all 14 day cruises:

Iceland & Norway:

5/13/2023 Sky Princess

7 Ports Southampton (London), England | Skjolden/Sognefjord, Norway | Olden, Norway | Alesund, Norway | Akureyri, Iceland | Isafjordur, Iceland | Grundarfjordur, Iceland | Reykjavik, Iceland | Southampton (London), England

 

OR

6/3/2023 Sky Princess

8 Ports Southampton (London), England | Bergen, Norway | Flaam, Norway | Olden, Norway | Alesund, Norway | Akureyri, Iceland | Isafjordur, Iceland | Grundarfjordur, Iceland | Reykjavik, Iceland | Southampton (London), England

 

Land of the Midnight Sun:

 

6/17/2023 Sky Princess

8 Ports Southampton (London), England | Bergen, Norway | Molde, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Honningsvag (for North Cape), Norway | Tromso, Norway | Lofoten Islands (Gravdal), Norway | Alesund, Norway | Olden, Norway | Southampton (London), England

 

OR

7/26/2023 Island Princess

6 Ports Southampton (London), England | Haugesund, Norway | Andalsnes, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen), Norway | Honningsvag (for North Cape), Norway | Tromso, Norway | Southampton (London), England

 

OR

8/19/2023 Island Princess

8 Ports Southampton (London), England | Bergen, Norway | Flaam, Norway | Olden, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Honningsvag (for North Cape), Norway | Tromso, Norway | Lofoten Islands (Gravdal), Norway | Skjolden/Sognefjord, Norway | Southampton (London), England

 

[junglejane]

We are also willing to consider other cruise lines. The majority of our cruises have been on Princess but we have in the past done several on Celebrity, and once each on Royal Caribbean, HAL and NCL.

[junglejane]

6 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

Now having sailed Norway, Iceland and Greenland, I would put Iceland and Greenland ahead of Norway for scenery. JMHO.

This is useful feedback. I see that there are itineraries that emphasize Iceland & Greenland and others that emphasize Norway. 

[carlmm]

16 hours ago, junglejane said:

Yes, here are some of the sample 2023 itineraries which I assume will be similar to 2024. These are all 14 day cruises:

Iceland & Norway:

5/13/2023 Sky Princess

7 Ports Southampton (London), England | Skjolden/Sognefjord, Norway | Olden, Norway | Alesund, Norway | Akureyri, Iceland | Isafjordur, Iceland | Grundarfjordur, Iceland | Reykjavik, Iceland | Southampton (London), England

 

OR

6/3/2023 Sky Princess

8 Ports Southampton (London), England | Bergen, Norway | Flaam, Norway | Olden, Norway | Alesund, Norway | Akureyri, Iceland | Isafjordur, Iceland | Grundarfjordur, Iceland | Reykjavik, Iceland | Southampton (London), England

 

Land of the Midnight Sun:

 

6/17/2023 Sky Princess

8 Ports Southampton (London), England | Bergen, Norway | Molde, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Honningsvag (for North Cape), Norway | Tromso, Norway | Lofoten Islands (Gravdal), Norway | Alesund, Norway | Olden, Norway | Southampton (London), England

 

OR

7/26/2023 Island Princess

6 Ports Southampton (London), England | Haugesund, Norway | Andalsnes, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Longyearbyen (Spitsbergen), Norway | Honningsvag (for North Cape), Norway | Tromso, Norway | Southampton (London), England

 

OR

8/19/2023 Island Princess

8 Ports Southampton (London), England | Bergen, Norway | Flaam, Norway | Olden, Norway | Trondheim, Norway | Honningsvag (for North Cape), Norway | Tromso, Norway | Lofoten Islands (Gravdal), Norway | Skjolden/Sognefjord, Norway | Southampton (London), England

 

Allright, from the first two options I would choose the second as Bergen and Flam give a broader Norway experience than the first option, Bergen being an important and historic city, Flam being the tiniest village with the change to enjoy great scenery.

 

Same argument would hold for the third of the three "midnight sun" options, yet the second one has the big advantage of including Spitsbergen, if and that is an if you actually will have a port day and not only a sail by.

 

More tricky is the question wheater to choose Norway only, which means you get to see the North Cape, or Norway and Iceland. Personally I would say that Iceland is more spectacular.

[junglejane]

Thank you for the helpful feedback. Since we plan to book a 2024 cruise, it's helpful to get specific recommendations on what ports to look for when the 2024 itineraries come out. I didn't realize until I started looking how many possible options there are.

[edinburgher]

it took us several itineraries in the Norway/North Cape areas to cover all the places we wanted to visit as we never could find one itinerary which covered everywhere.

 

Someone mentioned Spitsbergen which is very very special, that is if you are actually porting there, and only smaller ships used to be able to do that.

 

As for Iceland/Greenland, we had to do 2 which covered the Greenland sections with a little bit oif Iceland, and an iceland "in-depth" to fully cover our wish list.

 

Maybe best if you plan more than one Norway/ Midnight Sun trip over a couple of years and another couple to cover the Iceland/Greenland areas.

Edited September 14, 2022 by edinburgher

[junglejane]

8 minutes ago, edinburgher said:

Maybe best if you plan more than one Norway/ Midnight Sun trip over a couple of years and another couple to cover the Iceland/Greenland areas.

This sounds like good advice. Thank you.

[Capt_BJ]

Viking Ocean

Iceland & Norway’s Arctic Explorer

 

[junglejane]

Thanks @Capt_BJ We were also looking at this one:

[Capt_BJ]

did that one ... enjoyed very much ...... that's why we're doing the second .. going further north!

 

And really like Viking having experienced a BUNCH of others . . . 

Edited September 15, 2022 by Capt_BJ

[junglejane]

@Capt_BJ We've never done Viking before but are ready to try it. If we do the one with Orkney and Shetland Islands (Into the Midnight Sun), we would have to do it on 5/31/2024. The other dates are all in June and don't work for us and they don't seem to offer it in July or August. Do you think 5/31 is too early or okay?

[CCJack]

Oh boy, every itinerary you list looks awesome, you can't go wrong !

 

We went on a 7 day Cunard cruise to Norway out of Southampton.

 

On a separate trip we went on a 12 day Celebrity cruise to Iceland and Ireland out of Amsterdam.

 

Some thoughts:

 

These two trips have been my favorite 2 out of about 20 cruises or so to various places, like I said you can't go wrong.

 

If forced to decide between the two, I would say I would prefer Norway over Iceland.   The sail in to the fjords in the early morning was spectacular and I think more beautiful than Iceland.   

 

Iceland has its own uniqueness however, especially all of the volcano and geothermal activity , etc.

 

I agree that Bergen and Flam would be don't miss ports in Norway.

 

Although we did not go to the Northern part of Norway, I think this would be really worth seeing.  I am a bit of a geography nerd and so going to the farthest North latitude would be  an adventure and something worth doing.

 

I did like leaving from Amsterdam better than Southampton.   Amsterdam is such an interesting city and you can walk to your ship from some downtown hotels, where as Southampton is of course a journey away from London.  This depends on if you have already been to London or Amsterdam and if you have a desire to see the other, etc.

 

Have fun planning, happy to answer questions if I can.

 

 

 

 

[junglejane]

Thanks @CCJack. We've previously been to London, Southampton, Greenwich, Edinburgh and Amsterdam. We've also done the British Isles twice and Baltic once, but never been to the Orkney Islands or Shetland Islands. So between the two Viking itineraries it's sort of a question whether we want to see Iceland or not. The Iceland itinerary also has Narvik, Norway as an additional port. Neither Celebrity nor Princess have their 2024 summer itineraries out yet.

Edited September 16, 2022 by junglejane