newcruisers70

Happy to do this. However imho the best way to do it - and what we are going to do - is get rental cars and do self drive tours. Its very easy to do that in Iceland, and frankly it is considerably cheaper too once you have more than 2 people. It is also nice to have control over your tour and not be subject to the group timetable

Lots of good perspectives here, and I agree that a cruise is an ideal way to see the Norway fjords, and there may be only another year or two where that will be easy (or before prices get much higher as capacity drops when non electric ships are banned). Iceland is absolutely beautiful too and a land trip there could be a good option. However there are reasons why a cruise may be preferable to a land trip in Iceland depending on personal preferences. We just did a 14d Norway cruise with our 11y old and have booked a 14d cruise next summer on Holland America that does 5 days in Iceland, 1 in Norway and 3 in Scotland, and while the key attraction for us is the Iceland stops, we are also keen on stops in Stavanger and Shetlands. To address your specific questions: 1. There will almost certainly be kids 2. Must see ports for a family: Depends on what the family really likes! Key for Norway/Iceland is will the kids be really impressed and happy with the stunning natural beauty or not? If so then Geiranger, Flam, Reykjavik and Akureyri top the list for that imho. But another consideration - especially for the kids - is do they mind spending a long time in cars/buses on day trips? The really amazing day trips in Iceland that I have done are pretty much half or full day trips, so if your kids dont want to be on a 4hr+ tour, then..... You can certainly do full day tours in Norway too, but you can also do great shorter ones in Norway, not so much (in my experience) in Iceland. 3. We had a similar concern with our recent Norway cruise, especially as our son wanted to go 'someplace warm'. But he ended up loving it, and we even ended up at the same port twice (Eidfjord, because we did two 7d cruises back to back), but we did two completely different things on each of the days there (a tour to a waterfall one day, and a hike around the area the other day), so it wasn't an issue. In our experience, our kid's enjoyment of the cruise ship experience was probably more important to a happy time for him than the specific Norway experience. Re: Iceland, I have done both a land trip to Iceland and a cruise, so have a little perspective on this. You can't go wrong either way, but why might a cruise be better than a land trip to Iceland? Specific issues that may be relevant for your situation with kids: 1. Do they love being on the cruise ship, or if they are first timers might they love it? Our 11y old son loved being on board, especially the Sports Court, but also other activities such as music shows and entertainment. 2. Is being able to stay in one room the whole time a plus for you instead of moving hotels every few days? If so, thats a big advantage for the cruise option.

We just did Eidfjord and Kristiansand and both were great. As others have already mentioned, in Eidfjord a tour to Voringsfossen is great if you like waterfalls. There is also a nice ~2hr hike (the yellow route) through the forest, by an old Viking burial ground, and to a great view point above the town and harbor. It does require some uphill hiking. Maps are available in the Tourist office right by the cruise port. Kristiansand: The Movik fort is a WWII site that has the 2nd biggest land based cannon (with a range of 55km) in the world, which the German's put there to defend the coastline and close the Skaggerak straight between Norway and Denmark to allied ships (another one was placed on the Denmark side). The whole site has been turned into a museum and is very interesting, especially for history/military buffs. There is a public bus every 20 minutes between the fort and Kristiansand, and is easy to do to/from the cruise port.https://www.kristiansand-norway.com/attractions/kristiansandkanonmuseet.html

Thanks for your review. You are right, food is a very subjective thing. However 🙂 I will push back a little bit on your observations. We were on the same cruise (and the one the week before), and found many positives and some negatives re: the Lido experience, but imho it was possible to plan around and 'avoid' the negatives and have an overall great experience. For example, the food lines were only long at specific times, avoid those (predictable) times and there were no or minimal Iines. This cruise had a huge proportion of Spanish (at least Spanish speaking) guests, who tend to eat late, and this exacerbated the normal 'its more crowded during the last hour of breakfast' dynamic. The crepe station lines were often long, and made worse by people holding places in line for other family members, but the omelette stations were always quick and efficient. Orange juice availability was spotty, but there was always at least one station with it, so if you really wanted it it was available. We never saw long (or any, really) lines at lunch, and only once at dinner. A few of the servers did give out curiously small portions, but were happy to give second or third servings if asked. Frankly at times this was a positive, if one wanted to try a little bit of several different dishes. Overall we found the food quality to be good, at times very good (the fish dishes were normally very good, especially at the MDR, and the cooked items at the Asian station in the Lido also stood out), and occasionally excellent (the Arctic char). My previous cruise was on Celebrity immediately pre-covid, and imho the food quality on these two HAL cruises was in line with that, which was a pleasant surprise considering the general 'things are much worse post-Covid' tenor of a lot of the comments on CC. I agree with you about the Entertainment shortcomings. There is some very good music, but it is all packed together in the evening. For a ship that really promotes its music concept, its a bit strange that there is nothing during the daytime, even on sea days. Other cruises I have been on have had things like solo guitarists, pianists or string quartets sprinkled throughout the day at various lounges, but there was none of this on these cruises. I understand that the classical music is returning, but again, only in the evening. Adding a couple of solo musicians (a guitarist and pianist) to play during the daytime would be a big (and inexpensive for HAL) plus.

We were just on the Nieuw Statendam, and Geiranger was one of the stops. The cruise director said that was the NS' last ever trip to Geiranger due to the new environmental restrictions. Even though officially those do not go into effect until January 2025, she said that there are currently discussions to impose them earlier.

Does anyone know if it is required to have non-marking soles for shoes worn on the sports court? (Some sports shoes have black soles)

100% agree with those above like Lissie who recommend flying direct between Amsterdam and Copenhagen rather than taking the train, especially for a first timer in Europe who is traveling solo. The train journey between those two cities requires 2 transfers in Germany, and the trains in Germany are (surprisingly) unreliable at the best of times, and have been a disaster this year. I took a train trip there in February this year that was supposed to involve one transfer, but due to track maintenance works (which are happening all of the time) which caused a long delay on the first leg (even though it left on time), I missed my connection and ended up taking SEVEN different connections (including several local city commuter trains...) to get to my destination, FIVE hours later than originally scheduled. I would say that 33%+ of the train trips I have taken in Germany over the years that involved transfers have had missed connections and the need to figure out a new itinerary. As you also describe yourself as a type-A person who likes to plan down to the detail, I suspect you would really want to avoid that risk, and having to figure out on the fly where to go to get info on a new itinerary (and which line to wait in, etc etc.) - especially, again, as this is your first time in Europe. Amsterdam and Copenhagen are wonderful cities with tons to do and are also a lot more interesting than any of the cities (like Hamburg) that you might stop at between on a train.

We have a few questions about the sports court rules/schedule on the Nieuw Statendam and appreciate any knowledge! 1. Is there a shoe requirement, such as 'non-marking soles'? 2. I know there are basketball hoops, and now pickle ball courts. Are there soccer mini-goals? 3. How do they handle it when people want to do different things at the same time? Is there a schedule with 'basketball only' or 'pickle ball only' or 'soccer only' times? Or is it whoever gets there first determines what is played? 4. Can you bring your own ball (like a soccer ball to kick around, even if there are not soccer goals), or is that discouraged? Thanks!