Review of Emerald Princess: Midnight sun and summer solstice June 2016

Hi All,

I thought I would write a review of my cruise aboard the Emerald Princess on the 18th June 2016. For this trip I travelled with Fiancée and his parents from the UK and it was our first time travelling to Norway. I have broken down my view into the ports we have stopped at, I hope you find it useful :)

Stavanger

This was the first port of call on this cruise, after a day at sea and we woke up to heavy rain. But like all Brits we are used to rain and had come prepared. For this port we had pre booked a scenic cruise of the Lysefjord with Rodne Fjord cruises, which lasted about three hours and cost 380 NOK. Unfortunately, the weather meant we couldn’t see all the scenery as it was very overcast and going out on the top deck meant we got very wet and windswept. In spite of this we all managed to enjoy ourselves and I could tell on a clear day the scenery would be stunning. In future I probably wouldn’t bother pre booking this excursion, I would wait and see what the weather is like on the day. The excursions to the Lysefjord are very easy to find the ship docked right next to the boat excursions and there was plenty of availability on the day. Unfortunately, because of the weather we didn’t explore the town centre.

Flam

Flam is a lovely port to visit everything is within easy walking distance and the town is surrounded by the most beautiful scenery. For this port I had pre booked tickets for the Flamsbana mountain railway, my advice is to organise this trip before you embark, as all except the first train were fully booked. This meant you either had a mad dash first thing to get on the first train or to go through the ship. It’s something to consider that the excursion organised through the ship is three times the price and the only extra thing you get is a hot chocolate and waffles at a local hotel. Everyone in my group enjoyed the journey the scenery was stunning, although overcast as the train climbed that didn’t matter. My top tip for this trip is to get there early so that you can get seats on the right side, this side has the best views. Stay on this side on the return journey as the train does not turn round on the return journey. Overall I am glad I did my research and organised this trip myself as speaking to several passengers who had booked through the ship feedback was less than positive, as the carriages they were in were crowded. Compared to us we had plenty of spare seats on both journeys, which was slightly baffling as the trains were apparently sold out. Later in the afternoon we explored Flam. there isn’t very much to do there, unless you like souvenir shops. Although we did find that the tourist information had excellent Wi-Fi. In the evening my finance and I spent an hour and a half at the front of the ship as we sailed back through the fjord, again stunning scenery.

Olden

Olden was the third port of call on our itinerary, for the port we were very fortunate that a member of our cruise critic roll call had arranged a 40 seat coach to take us to the Briksdal glacier. The cost of this worked out at around £14 each for a return journey and saved the hassle of trying to get the public bus. The other bonus was our driver was very happy to make several photo stops along the route. The scenery driving towards the glacier was beautiful and the drive along Lake Lovatnet was stunning. This is definitely worth visiting in person as I don’t think my photos with do justice to how amazing the landscape is. The journey to the glacier took about 40 minutes from the port and we had roughly three and a half hours to visit the glacier. At the glacier the coach drops you at the visitors centre and then there is a 1.5 mile hike up to the glacier. There were several steep up hill sections to get up to the glacier and it took us about an hour to hike to the glacier, but we did make several photo stops on our journey. There is the option for those with mobility issues to take a troll car up to the glacier but there is still a 10-minute walk over some uneven terrain from the drop off point to the glacier. Again in the evening we enjoyed sailing out into the fjord, with high mountains with snow-capped peaks and small villages and isolated houses doting the landscape as we sailed.

Trondheim

Trondheim was the first port where we didn’t have any prearranged excursions, although I had done some research prior to sailing and had made my own DIY itinerary. However, I hadn’t factored in the fact that the King and Queen of Norway were in port for the day. They were attending a service of thanksgiving at the cathedral, celebrating 25 years since their coronation. I had planned to visit Nidaros cathedral and Archbishop’s palace (home to the crown jewels). However, the crowds surrounding the cathedral made this impossible. But all was not lost, instead we walked over the old town bridge and climbed up to Kristiansen fortress. On the way we spent a few minutes watching locals using a bike pull to help them get up to the top of a steep hill. It took us about 15 minutes to walk from the old town bridge up to the fortress, but the views from the top are worth it. There isn’t much else to see at the top but there is a small exhibition about a 17th century siege of the city. On the way back down we stopped for photos at Nidaros cathedral but didn’t go in. As we were heading back to the ship we noticed a TV crew and a growing crowd outside the Stiftsgarden palace. We stopped there for a few minutes and found out from a local policewoman that the royal family were going to be on the steps of the palace for a photoshoot. So we decided to wait and see what happened, unfortunately what we thought would be a good place to stand got blocked at the last minute by a personal security vehicle. So our photos weren’t great but that didn’t matter as it proved to be quite educational speaking to the policewoman about Norwegian culture. Overall we really enjoyed Trondheim everything was within walking distance and there was a lot of lovely shops that seemed reasonably priced. On the way back to the ship we watched the royal party sail back to the royal yacht which was moored behind Emerald Princess.

Honnigsvag

Honnigsvag was the northern most port of call on our itinerary and the stop for the North Cape. Again for the port we decided to organise our own excursions. This was very straight forward to organise by going through the Nordkapp visitor’s website. On their website there was multiple excursions to choose from, we decided to go on a whale and nature safari. You also had the option to take a bus up to the North Cape visitors centre, tickets were also available on the day. If you are planning on taking the bus to the north cape visitors centre, it’s worth pre booking as there was a large queue for tickets first thing. But there is a regular bus timetable throughout the day. On the day we were collected from the port, along with other passengers on a different excursion. For the first part of the excursion, we all travelled together to a small fishing village to learn about village life. Our guide Monika was very informative and following this we were taking to another village to continue with our wildlife safari. The rest of our group went on to the north cape visitors centre and to visit local Sami people. For our boat safari we were the only 4 people in the group, but we were made to feel very welcome by our guide Jonathon. My soon to be in laws had a bit of a shock when we arrived, as we were told we needed to wear insulated floatation suits. The reason soon became apparent as we were guided to a RIB. It was a good job we had the suits as the boat had a maximum speed on 90km/hour and we would have been frozen without them. Although the trip was advertised as a whale and nature safari we didn’t see any whales, however we did see plenty of other wildlife. We all knew it would be unlikely that we would see whales, so we weren’t to disappointed about it. We also managed to see the north cape on the trip by sailing below it, I think we probably had the best view out of everyone on our cruise as fog had set in at the top. We could not fault our guide Jonathon, he made sure to stop for any wildlife and would tell us when to hold to on tight if he was going to increase speed. Overall we could not recommend the trip enough and we even got to hold king crab that he kept when we returned. On our return to Honningsvag we decided to go into the town, unfortunately being a Saturday the majority of the businesses were shut and with the weather not being the best we decided to return to the ship. In all honestly there isn’t a lot to do in honnigsvag itself, so you do need to organise an excursion to make the most of your time there. We stayed later in port that day until 9pm and we all hoped we could see the midnight sun. Unfortunately, the weather remained cloudy and we couldn’t see the midnight sun but all was not lost as my fiancée managed to spot some whales from the ship.

Tromso

Our next port of call was Tromso which is the third largest settlement within the arctic circle with majority of the city being on the island of Tromsoya which is linked to the mainland via Tromso bridge. The ship docked outside of the city centre and required you either to get a local bus outside the port or use the princess shuttle bus which was $10 return. The shuttle bus dropped us outside the Radisson Blue hotel in the city centre. For this port I wish I had done more research regarding bus tickets as a 24-hour pass cost 110 NOK. Considering a single ticket was 50 NOK this is probably the most cost effective way to travel around the city and there were plenty of buses around. I also found out later that you can buy bus tickets in the local supermarkets this again was cheaper than buying tickets on the bus, 100 NOK for a day pass and 36 NOK for a single journey. For the day we had a decided to visit the artic cathedral and take the cable car up Mount Floya. For this we decided to take the 26 bus which collects you in the city centre and drops you outside the cable car station. It is walkable to the cable car station but will probably take you about 45 minutes but on the return bus journey it was nice to see parts of the suburbs. When we arrived at the cable car there was a massive queue, unfortunately we had arrived at the same time as several princess coaches. This meant we had a to wait around an hour to get up to the top of the mountain and it cost 180 NOK for a return trip. We also noted that being on a princess excursion didn’t fast track you to the front of the queue and they had to wait along with everyone else. The other reason it took so long to reach the top was that the cars can only take 27 people at a time. However, it was worth the wait once we got to the top as the view of the island and surrounding mountains was breathtaking. My advice in future would be to go in the afternoon to avoid the queues or you could be like the locals and attempt the steep climb yourself. In the afternoon my fiancée and I decided to visit Tromso botanical garden, this is within walking distance of the port and is free to visit. The gardens are very pretty and a nice way to spend an hour or so, we also got to the see the Tibetan blue poppy which was in bloom. Overall Tromso was worth visiting and can easily be visited independently. That evening the good weather continued and we stayed up until midnight and watched the midnight sun set.

Lofoten Islands

The Lofoten islands is an archipelago located within the arctic circle and is famous for its landscape and picturesque fishing villages. For our day in the Lofoten islands I had arranged to hire a car through Avis, but you do need to organise sooner rather than later as there is only a limited number of cars. By the time we came to hire our car the only option left was a 9 seat people carrier but this didn’t matter as we managed to find 2 other couples through our roll call to share the cost with. It was very easy to organise I simply emailed the Avis office in Leknes to reserve the car and arranged for them to drop off and collect the car from the port. On arrival the car was waiting and it seemed that we weren’t the only group who decided to hire a car. The total cost for the car was 3386 NOK split between us, which when you consider Princess was charging $280 each for a 6-hour excursion it was a very cost effective way to see the islands. The roads are very easy to navigate with most of the villages just off the main highway, to make travelling easier we brought our European sat nav with us. The weather for the day was superb, bright sunshine and absolutely beautiful scenery, we first decided to travel to the southernmost village of À and travel back north to the port. The villages on the way were stunning and we stopped multiply times for photo opportunities, this is something that you just cannot do in a coach with 40 other people. The other villages we stopped at included Reine, Ramberg and Nusfjord. The beach at Ramberg is worth stopping at just for the crystal clear blue water and white sandy beach, you could mistake the scenery for the Caribbean if you didn’t know you were in Norway. The other village I definitely recommend visiting is Nusfjord which is a restored fishing village which is very pretty but the highlight is the 5-6 miles off the main road you need to travel to get there. The scenery is wonderful and you could make several stop for photos along the way. Overall it was a wonderful day and so easy to organise, although if you don’t hire a car there was a local bus company offering 2 hour excursions on arrival.

Aalesund

Our next port of call was Aalesund and again we had perfect weather, blue skies all day. Aalesund was completely different to any other of the ports we had stopped in, the architecture is in an art nouveau style but just as pretty. Today my fiancée and I decided to climb the 418 steps to the top of mount Aksla, it a short walk from the ship to the base of the steps. Once you reach the top there is a small café and viewing platform, and a park with walking trails. It was worth going to top to enjoy the panorama but in total we were only there an hour and that including climbing up and down. My fiancée’s parents decided to take the tourist train that takes you around Aalesund which cost 180 NOK for a 70-minute journey. The tourist train also makes a 10-minute stop at the top of mount aksla, so you don’t have to make the climb to enjoy the view. You can get on the train right outside the cruise terminal and there is a stand where you can buy tickets you can also get tickets for the HOPO bus just outside the cruise terminal as well. Following our climb of mount Aklsa we walked around the town, took advantage of some free Wi-Fi and returned to the ship. My fiancée returned to walk around the town in the afternoon and I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and spent the afternoon reading up on deck.

Bergen

Our final port of call was Bergen; on arrival it was raining but luckily by the time we walked into town the skies had started to clear. As there were several other ships in port we were docked slightly out of town, and we had to catch a shuttle out of the port. From there it was about a 10-15 minute walk to the centre. As the weather had cleared we took the opportunity to use the funicular to the top of Mount Floyen, which cost 90 NOK return. We spent around 45 minutes at the top of the mountain, again with a stunning view, and then decided to walk to the Bryggan. These buildings were fascinating and it was fun weaving in and out of the buildings finding lots of different shops and businesses. As we only had half a day in port our time was limited and we headed back via mandatory souvenir shops and a local market. It proved to be fortunate that we headed back when we did as the weather had started to deteriorate. Everyone in my group agreed that it was a shame we only had half a day in Bergen as they were much we wanted to see but we didn’t have time.

Final thoughts on Emerald Princess

Overall everyone in my group was very happy with the service aboard emerald and we all had a fantastic holiday. As with all experiences there are certain things that you do notice and this cruise was no exception. We could not fault our room steward Andy who was very attentive and our cabin was always clean and tidy and the staff were very helpful and kind. We decided to opt for an inside cabin, my partner and I couldn’t justify paying nearly double the price for a balcony. But that is a personal choice much like we organised our own excursions because we couldn’t justify paying princesses prices when you can organise you own excursions for often a third of the price. Our cabin was big enough for our needs and the new bed that everyone has been talking was very comfortable. Our cabin was on deck 10 forward, in future I would avoid having this cabin as each evening you could hear the music from the theatre three decks below, luckily the music always finished by 11pm.

The food was of a good standard overall but there were a few areas that they could improve on. In general, we ate breakfast and lunch in the horizon court and this was of good quality and had a good selection. My only note was that at peak times such as breakfast and lunch it could be difficult to find a table. Most of the evenings we ate in the main dining room where the quality of the food was good, although there could be a bit more variety in the menu. The buffet dinner also has a good selection of food if you don’t fancy sitting down to a 3 or 4 course meal. Normally they would have the same soups as the main restaurant and have a good selection of food that did match what the restaurant had on that evening. The only other note on the food was that the desserts could be better, a lot of them had a non-descript sugary flavour. Ironically the tastiest desserts were often the sugar free ones and the crème brulee in the main dining room was delicious. There was also a Burger Grill and Pizzeria/Ice-cream bar, the Burger grill was great as it had a variety of burgers and hot dogs and a selection of other things associated with these. Pizzeria had a cheese and pepperoni pizza option every day and another which changed daily. Ice Cream was available as a small tub or in a cone, but only vanilla or chocolate in a Mr Whippy type texture, but you could find more flavours in the International café for additional cost. My fiancée decided to have a soda and more package which he could have unlimited soda, mocktails, milkshakes and hot chocolate for £5.64 a day. This was very cost effective considering a mocktail was $5.50 plus a 15% gratuity.

Embarkation and disembarkation in Southampton was well organised and straightforward, there was a minimal wait from arrival to passing through security and boarding the ship. Our luggage arrived a few hours later. On disembarkation we waited in the lounge to be called and once off the ship we were guided to warehouse and collected our luggage. Our car parking company was waiting outside the terminal and our car was there waiting.

The entertainment on the cruise was in general well planned with plenty of variety. Two stand out performances, where the magic to do show and the singer Tereza Caceres. Due to the weather outside a lot of activities took place in doors there were plenty of quizzes and games throughout the day and evening so it was impossible to be completely bored. The main problem on sea days was that the public spaces could be very crowded as it was too windy to sit out on deck for too long, but I did find there was peace and quiet in the skywalkers lounge.

Everyone we met on the cruise was lovely and friendly, although my fiancée and I did note that the majority of the other passengers were retired. Not that is a negative thing but we did notice a lack of younger people on this cruise and anyone we thought was similar in age to us (25 and 33), was usually crew :). As I said this was just an observation as we had many engaging conversations and fun evenings with our fellow passengers. But we did miss people of our own generation and we did note that a lot of the entertainment was tailored towards them. There was a varied mix of nationalities on board with Brits, Americans, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders and a sizeable number of Chinese passengers and everyone mingled with each other.

Overall we couldn’t fault the cruise and the comments above are minor things really and it didn’t stop us enjoying our holiday. Although speaking to a few passengers they seemed to think princess cruises standards had dropped, from what I gather cruise lines over the last few years have been making cuts to what is included within the price. Having only cruised once before with P&O, it is difficult to comment on how cruise lines have changed, but it does seem that changes have been made to make cruising more accessible to more people. This means that you only do have to pay for things such as drinks, speciality dining etc and you do notice that you are encouraged to buy unnecessary extras. But if you consider what you would get for a 3-4* package holiday the price we paid was just as comparable for a two-week holiday. You also have to factor in for a package holiday you don’t get to wake up in a different city each day and the quality of the entertainment is much better. The question is would I sail with princess again, yes I think I would. But it would be dependent on the itinerary and price and I would like to experience other cruise lines for comparison. We were also very lucky on this cruise that we had a really active roll call and several members made large contributions by organising a meet and greet, spreadsheets and other activities. This allowed us to be much more independent on our holidays and in the long run saved us quite a few pennies. Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our holiday and definitely recommend visiting Norway, you are made to feel welcome by the locals and the scenery is absolutely amazing.

Hi mslubylu

Thank you for your review, overall a very nice cruise, I thought it would have been nice to have had a naturalist onboard to give us some info on what we were cruising by, we had this a few years ago,

we booked very late and good a very low rate for an partly obstructed view we normally take insides so we can cruise more but for £80 more very happy with what we saw from our window,

as to noise we were on deck 8 will not do that again,

passenger mix was not like any other of my 20 plus Princess cruises lot more Brits and a lot older

yours Shogun

Thank you for your review.

Hi mslubylu

 

Thank you for your review, overall a very nice cruise, I thought it would have been nice to have had a naturalist onboard to give us some info on what we were cruising by, we had this a few years ago,

 

we booked very late and good a very low rate for an partly obstructed view we normally take insides so we can cruise more but for £80 more very happy with what we saw from our window,

 

as to noise we were on deck 8 will not do that again,

 

passenger mix was not like any other of my 20 plus Princess cruises lot more Brits and a lot older

 

yours Shogun

Hi Shogun,

Not sure if you fly to cruises but we have just bagged a bargain on the Crown ra next April, £549 inc tips for a 14 night transatlantic.

hi antsp

e mail me at my dog shogun at yahoo dot co dot uk

we can chat

yours Shogun

Thanks for your review. We will be taking this cruise next June and appreciate the information you have given on the ports. Will there be any pics to share?:)

Thanks for your review. We will be taking this cruise next June and appreciate the information you have given on the ports. Will there be any pics to share?:)

I'm sure you will have an amazing time, it's a wonderful cruise :). I will add some pictures in the next few days, let me know if you want any more info.

Were you able to use credit cards at all the DIY locations or did you have to have NOK in cash?

We were also on this cruise and enjoyed it very much. I would like to make a few comments regarding Flam. We opted to take the boat/bus trip on the Naefofjord and Aurlandsfjorden. As the private boats were sold out we booked the Princess tour. We were not sorry. We took the bus over to Guvangen, stopping at a very nice summer hotel for a snack, then onward to Gudvangen. There were about 40 on the bus and only about 80 on the fjord boat trip back to Flam. The tour guides were excellent, and the scenery, WOW.

I would also like to mention that the sail-a-way from Flam is spectacular, some of the best scenery on the entire cruise. It takes about 3 hours to exit the fjord with high snow covered mountain peaks on both sides. We opted to watch this and not go to the DR that evening.

Were you able to use credit cards at all the DIY locations or did you have to have NOK in cash?

We paid online prior to sailing for the fjord cruise, flam railway and wildlife safari. For the car hire we reserved the car and then gave our card details on the day.

We paid online prior to sailing for the fjord cruise, flam railway and wildlife safari. For the car hire we reserved the car and then gave our card details on the day.

Okay, thanks

Thanks for the review.

Nicely written, thanks!

Thank you so much for your very detailed review. We are doing this cruise in June 2017 and have already started researching alternate ways to explore the various ports. Not being experienced big-ship cruisers, in fact we have yet to do our first one in Dec 2016, we appreciate all the comments and suggestions you made. I know who to ask if I need more info.

Hi All,

 

Lofoten Islands

 

The Lofoten islands is an archipelago located within the arctic circle and is famous for its landscape and picturesque fishing villages. For our day in the Lofoten islands I had arranged to hire a car through Avis, but you do need to organise sooner rather than later as there is only a limited number of cars. By the time we came to hire our car the only option left was a 9 seat people carrier but this didn’t matter as we managed to find 2 other couples through our roll call to share the cost with. It was very easy to organise I simply emailed the Avis office in Leknes to reserve the car and arranged for them to drop off and collect the car from the port. On arrival the car was waiting and it seemed that we weren’t the only group who decided to hire a car. The total cost for the car was 3386 NOK split between us, which when you consider Princess was charging $280 each for a 6-hour excursion it was a very cost effective way to see the islands. The roads are very easy to navigate with most of the villages just off the main highway, to make travelling easier we brought our European sat nav with us.

Hi mslubylu,

How was the rental experience with Avis? Did you talk with anyobe aftwr that used a different company? Did you do delivery and collect at the port and was that easy?

I am having a hard time finding reviews of the different companies online to compare.

Thanks for any input.

Thanks for your review.

Nice review thank you.

Tony

Hi mslubylu,

 

How was the rental experience with Avis? Did you talk with anyobe aftwr that used a different company? Did you do delivery and collect at the port and was that easy?

I am having a hard time finding reviews of the different companies online to compare.

Thanks for any input.

Hi,

Just noticed this comment, have been away from CC for a while, so you may have already found a car. It was really easy to hire a car I just emailed Avis Leknes directly for a quote. By the time I booked the car the only one available was for 9 people but this worked in our favour as we spent the day with 2 other couples driving around the islands. It was really easy to collect the car, the rep was waiting just outside the port, we filled in some paperwork, paid him and were given the keys. We collected the car around 9:30 and returned it at 4pm. I think the cost of the car hire was around £35 pp which was so much better value for money.

Unfortunately I didn't speak to anyone else who used another company, but I definitely recommend hiring a car. I know that fellow passengers who went on organised tours where quite disappointed. It was vey pricey for a 2-3 hour tour, with the car you can see so much more and you aren't constrained by a big group.

Hope that helps.

My husband and I travelled to Norway last year on the Emerald Princess and we really enjoyed ourselves. I would definitely recommend doing your research before you go. We found organising our own excursions easy to do and we both felt that we got so much more out of our holiday than if we had gone on ship organised trips. My top tip is definitely hiring a car in the Lofoten Islands. it is beautiful there and its very easy to get around. I have included a link to a review I posted once we returned from our cruise which you may find useful.

http://boards.cruisecritic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2374773

Glad you posted the above message on the Northern Europe board. YES!! YES!! Appreciate this great review from our UK friend. Your trip and report brought back some wonderful memories from certain of the great locations that both of us were able to enjoy so super much. Excellent reporting and beneficial details. Agree 100% for "doing your research before you go". That is very important in unique and varied areas such as here along this coast of Norway. Just to help make the points for some of the key highlights shared, below are some added "eye candy" samples from my photo files for this scenic areas. Many more on the full live/blog.

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 207,803 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

Going down into Gjesvaer, near the North Cape, here was a harbor scene/mountain scene. At the bottom right are some of the wooden fish drying racks.:

Here is a view of the North Cape as we approached and the clouds started to clear and the sun broke through showing a great blue sky. The ship did a full 360-degree rotation to allow all on the ship, whether on the top deck as we were or in their rooms on both sides, to be able to see this wonderful spectacle of the North Cape. Notice the detail for this massive rock formation at the top of Europe?:

Here’s a close look at these historic Bergen Hanseatic merchant warehouse building fronts, people taking pictures, etc. Super loved the charm, character, history and beauty in Bergen.:

Right near the Hanseatic merchant warehouse area is the Bergen Fish Market with lots of options to buy food to eat on site or just watch, enjoying the “show” as people ask questions and buy the various fresh fish items.:

We went to the end of the road as our “adventure” in the dramatic Lofoten Islands with our rental car. We stopped in a village called “A”. In their alphabet, this “A” has a small “o” above the letter. This is a simple name for a charming fishing town with spectacular scenery. We brought along box lunches from the ship and dined on a picnic table on the wooden dock with water and sights all around us. This was our dining view with the busy and noisy birds providing entertainment!!:

At Flam, there are some great fjord, dramatic mountains, waterfalls, etc. Below is just one picture/highlight from this day in the Sognerfjord that is rated as the best in all of Norway for these views and doing a spectacular train ride up the mountain, seeing the valleys, waterfalls, etc.:

I was on the same cruise as the OP last June and your lovely pictures brought it all back. I would go again tomorrow - well, maybe not tomorrow given the snow and lack of daylight at this time of year, but you know what I mean!