A couple of questions about Norway cruise

[nikoo.s]

Hey all,

 

Does anyone have any experience cruising the fjords around May time? On the Virtuosa is it likely to be busy on board (it's out of school time so I would assume it wouldn't be too bad)? Also it departs from Southampton and I assume wouldn't pick up many , if any, people in Norway so my guess is that the majority of passengers would be British? Would love to have a bit of a mix of nationalities but I assume it wouldn't be the case for this itinerary! 

 

Thanks 🙂

[talljules1]

We've cruised to Norway in May before (but not yet on MSC). The weather in Norway is always changeable, and it is sensible to pack layers, including an outer waterproof layer. Expect it to be cold, with snow on the mountain tops. On our 2022 Norway cruise it was bitterly cold - around 1C, with a little snow fall. The scenery, though, is amazing. All 3 of our Norway cruises (Celebrity, NCL, Celebrity) have been from Southampton, and have had a mix of passengers from the UK and USA/Canada. Norway is one of our fav destinations, which is why we're going back again this year.

[perakcruiser]

Careful. There is one week school holiday in may. I don't know if everywhere or only in the Catholic countries as it is a religious thing. The one after Easter 😄 But in this week all ships will be packed. All other weeks on May are not busy at all.

 

In the Norwegian ports MSC does not let people embark so this will probably a big British majority except this one week I mentioned.

[CruisingFox27]

1 hour ago, perakcruiser said:

Careful. There is one week school holiday in may. I don't know if everywhere or only in the Catholic countries as it is a religious thing. The one after Easter 😄 But in this week all ships will be packed. All other weeks on May are not busy at all.

 

In the Norwegian ports MSC does not let people embark so this will probably a big British majority except this one week I mentioned.

There's a school half term week at the end of May, dates may vary across the county but will apply to all of England. And probably the rest of the UK. 

[no1talks]

1 hour ago, perakcruiser said:

"In the Norwegian ports MSC does not let people embark..."

Thank you for mentioning this. I've wondered if the Mediterranean style of embarkation/disembarkation is used on other MSC  itineraries. 

 

[showingdiva]

44 minutes ago, CruisingFox27 said:

There's a school half term week at the end of May, dates may vary across the county but will apply to all of England. And probably the rest of the UK. 

 

29th May - 2nd June 2023.   Applicable to English and Welsh schools only.   Not in Scotland or Northern Ireland.

[kernow]

On 12/6/2022 at 7:53 PM, nikoo.s said:

Hey all,

 

Does anyone have any experience cruising the fjords around May time? On the Virtuosa is it likely to be busy on board (it's out of school time so I would assume it wouldn't be too bad)? Also it departs from Southampton and I assume wouldn't pick up many , if any, people in Norway so my guess is that the majority of passengers would be British? Would love to have a bit of a mix of nationalities but I assume it wouldn't be the case for this itinerary! 

 

Thanks 🙂

We did the Fjords on Virtuosa in May last year, going again this year the same week (May 12th). I did a live thread at the time which you will find if you search but to answer your questions, no pick ups apart from Southampton, ship less than half full (although expecting there to be more people this year) and most passengers British although announcements were also in Portuguese which YC director told us happens when there is more than 100 native speakers (in this case Brazilians). There were a couple of people from the US in the FB group and we heard a few Australian accents onboard too.

[perakcruiser]

8 hours ago, CruisingFox27 said:

There's a school half term week at the end of May, dates may vary across the county but will apply to all of England. And probably the rest of the UK. 

Ok, I was talking about this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecost

 

 

 

[RudiRatlos]

8 hours ago, no1talks said:

 I've wondered if the Mediterranean style of embarkation/disembarkation is used on other MSC  itineraries. 

It's used also on baltic (Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Kiel, Warnemuende) and western european cruises (Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Southampton, Lissabon). 

[perakcruiser]

34 minutes ago, RudiRatlos said:

It's used also on baltic (Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Kiel, Warnemuende) and western european cruises (Hamburg, Rotterdam, Zeebrugge, Le Havre, Southampton, Lissabon). 

Also in the Middle East. 

 

And also on other Norway cruises with starting points in Germany or Denmark.

 

And Brazil.

 

Even the Caribbean cruise I did with MSC had embarkation almost at every port, but this has changed I think. 

[kernow]

1 hour ago, perakcruiser said:

Ok, I was talking about this: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentecost

 

 

 

The Fjord cruises in May depart on 12th or 19th, neither of those are likely to be main school holidays.

[Raj.K]

Due to the coronation of King Charles in early May, UK is likely to see an increase in tourism. Some of these tourists are also likely to combine their travels with a cruise.

[nikoo.s]

Thanks for all the replies! Our cruise is May 19th to 26th so hopefully won't be too busy as we just miss the half term holiday, but we will see. We had originally booked this cruise for June 10th but it got moved when the ship changed from Grandiosa to Virtuosa.

[perakcruiser]

6 hours ago, kernow said:

The Fjord cruises in May depart on 12th or 19th, neither of those are likely to be main school holidays.

Good, I one time crashed with no idea into this Pentecost holiday week in central Europe without knowing, that was not good.