Doh15

When I looked in the T&C it said you will be told the deadline for cancellation when you get on board, but I was wondering if that means that you can always cancel excursions the first day?

I think Quark does some expedition cruise to Greenland too

I agree Viking has some very interesting itineraries but my impression is it skews older— I think someone mentioned there were only a handful of people under retirement age on a recent Norway cruise? May or may not matter to OP. Pre-pandemic Azamara had a Norwegian captain which I think some people felt was a small bonus but he might have moved on?

Sorry I don’t know anything more about it— could maybe ask on the roll call for those cruises but I think they are new this year so May will be the first time anyone’s tried it. A quick look on kayak shows Icelandair sells the route beginning at about $1000 rt (flying a dash-8 prop plane seating at least 40 or so) When I mentioned adding more time “there” I meant Reykjavik— I think the Greenland extension is fixed but instead of flying right home you could stay in Iceland longer if you wanted.

Not exactly what you are looking for but Viking has a Bergen to Reykjavik cruise where you can add on three nights in Illulissat (they fly you RT from Reykjavik, so you could add more time there if you wanted)

In my limited experience I would say Ravello is the nicest— maybe in part because it is less crowded? I might even just do Ravello esp if you have seen Positano before. We enjoyed both Villa Cimbrone and Villa Rufalo— add in some walking around town and a nice lunch at Hotel Villa Maria and that seems like a good day.

The time I would be most likely to use it is when they are offering free (or discounted) airfare as an incentive. If there’s no discount and they are charging you for a deviation etc it becomes less attractive. Sometimes if you are booking far in advance and aren’t sure you will be able to take the cruise it’s nice to have airfare covered by the general refund policy of the cruise and not have money tied up with the airline. Or you can compare what flights would cost on your own as you get closer and decide then (think there’s a new discount airline to Iceland now but who know what prices will be a year from now).

Thanks very much for the response, and the suggestion to consider staying in Flam on the way to Oslo. I'm sure if we book this one I'll be back with lots more questions!

We had a great itinerary booked with Azamara pre-covid with great coastal/fjord stops, and then it went up to the Lofotens, North Cape and Svalbard, but the cruise got cancelled and I've had problems trying to find something similar (especially in mid-size to smaller boat) This new cruise from Viking caught my eye as the closest I've seen. No Alesund, but does stop in Geiranger and we could visit Flam/Naeroyfjord from Bergen (they also do the trip in reverse but I thought it might work better to maybe add a day at the end in Bergen; have already been to Reykjavik so could honestly do without that part of the trip). Also we might have to pick between a land excursion to see the Lofotens and RIB boat to the Trollfjord. Anyway curious what people think of this itinerary or if you have other suggestions-- Day 1 — Reykjavík, Iceland Day 2 — ĺsafjördur, Iceland Day 3 — Sail the Norwegian Sea Day 4 — Sail the Norwegian Sea Day 5 — Svalbard, Norway Day 6 — Svalbard, Norway Day 7 — Scenic Sailing: Barents Sea Day 8 — Honningsvåg, Norway Day 9 — Tromsø, Norway Day 10 — Narvik, Norway Day 11 — Lofoten, Norway Day 12 — Sail the Norwegian Sea Day 13 — Geiranger, Norway Day 14 — Bergen, Norway Day 15 — Bergen, Norway

I know on the Azamara forum there is a sticky thread where people just post cabin reviews, usually using a simple format of Ship - Cabin Number - Month/Year sailed - Would you choose this room again - Is noise an issue - Balcony Size Conclusion/other issue It makes it easier to search, although someone even periodically collects the reviews on a spreadsheet. I wonder if a sticky thread like that might be helpful for this forum?