Best Itinerary For Scenery

[MichaelandGeri]

Please post your opinions of which itinerary is the best for scenic viewing. Walking distance is not really an option for me but my husband wants to see the Norweigen Fjords, but then we are also considering a Baltic cruise. Which cruise line does it best between Princess and HAL and what do ya'll recommend for being able to enjoy some scenery from the balcony? TIA

[eh2zed]

Please post your opinions of which itinerary is the best for scenic viewing. Walking distance is not really an option for me but my husband wants to see the Norweigen Fjords, but then we are also considering a Baltic cruise. Which cruise line does it best between Princess and HAL and what do ya'll recommend for being able to enjoy some scenery from the balcony? TIA

I am not aware of any Baltic cruise that goes to fjords but HAL has a North Cape cruise that goes up the Norwegian coast to Bergen, Stavenger and further north. This is the cruise to see fjords and scenic cruising. Nevertheless, our Baltic cruise is still our overall favourite

[Ine]

Cruises to the Baltic donot really cruise through the fjords. They sail to places like Helsinki, St. Petersburg etc. Maybe some make a stop in Oslo.

If you want to cruise the fjords, you better take a cruise to Norway and/or Northcape.

I know HAL, Celebrity and Princess offer cruises to/from Amsterdam and Great Britain.

 

Sailing to e.g. Geiranger, Flam and/or Olden etc.through the fjords is great.

[LucyH]

Walking distance is not really an option for me but my husband wants to see Norwegian fjords, but then we are also considering a Baltic cruise.

 

I have to agree with the other posts. The great thing about the Baltic cities is that they are so different from each other but the view from out at sea is much the same everywhere. The land is pretty flat.

 

In St Petersburg, the crowning point of the cruise for most people, the view from the port can be downright depressing unless you are on one of the smaller vessels that can sail a little way up the River Neva.

 

There are pretty islands along the south coast of Finland but the shipping lanes are well out to sea. And like St P, Helsinki parks its larger ships in the commercial port.

 

The only exception, where you get a staggeringly good view from the ship. is on the approach to Stockholm. It's a four-hour journey through a dense archipelago - narrow channels, craggy cliffs and great forests, sprinkled with cottages and summer villas.

 

But on the rugged coast of Norway, you'll get that all the time.

 

-Lucy

[kaisatsu]

The Norwegian coast is lovely, and as mentioned above, sailing through the fjords is some fantastic scenic cruising. Because the fjords are so deep, you sail surprisingly close to shore even on the larger ships. Itineraries that would actually sail through the fjords usually include the ports of Geiranger (at the end of Geirangerfjord), Flåm (Sognefjord), and Olden (Nordfjord). The Lofoten Islands are extremely pretty as well, though you can't see the best views from the ship.

 

Most of the other Norwegian coastal cities have picturesque sail-in/outs. However, sea days aren't always particularly interesting, since ships tend to stick to open water, with nothing to see (except oil platforms, which I thought were kind of interesting).

 

In port, the major cruiselines offer limited mobility sightseeing excursions, but if you're especially keen to see as much as you can from the ship, you might consider the Hurtigruten coastal ferry. http://www.hurtigruten.us/ The ships aren't as luxurious, and the trip is expensive, but you hug the coast the whole way. Since it's essentially a port-to-port ferry, it docks in dozens of towns all along the coast, and the longest stops (in the major cities) are at most a few hours. In between, you get plenty of views of the entire coastline!

 

Last year, we did Cunard's "Land of the Midnight Sun" cruise, which sailed up the coast and on to Svalbard, and these are some of the photos I took from the ship itself:

Sailing out of Bergen

Sailing into Gravdal/Leknes (Lofoten Islands)

Anchored at Longyearbyen

Sailing through Geirangerfjord

Sailing through Sognefjord from Flåm (on a different trip)

[MichaelandGeri]

Oh wow beautiful pictures!! Thank you everybody for your input. I finally did figure out that we do not want a Baltic cruise this time around. My husband is looking at a Princess cruise. Dang those pictures were beautiful kaisatsu. Thank you again everybody!