Norway Fjords Cruse

Thank you all for the excellent detailed information. This is exactly the advice we were looking for. Hattie, thanks for the link to Safarigal's blog. Safarigal, your blog is most interesting and so well written. I followed the blog while you were still on the trip and couldn't wait for each day's posting. Your writing style is so good I went on and read all of your journey's.

We have narrowed our cruise choices down to either the Fjord cruise with a B2B E-W TA (a total of 14 consecutive nights on the QM2) or the Southampton to Dubai (via Spain, Greece and Israel) 19 night cruise. The two are pretty close in price. We are planning this for 2020.

 

Again, thanks all.

Thank you for your kind words :)

Both itineraries sound great - I always love a crossing - westbound used to be my favorite, but having just disembarked from an eastbound one I am totally in favor of that too. Fjords + Crossing sounds like a good plan. Mind you, Southampton to Dubai also sounds great, and you could stay at the QE2 hotel in Dubai at the end to relax before you fly home. Good luck choosing :)

Norway is an interesting place, nevertheless you should be aware that with Cunard you will stay in the south.

Northern Norway (or Nordnorge, as it's called) begins only north of Trondheim or even north of Bodø.

That said: Southern Norway has its charms and Bergen and Ålesund are certainly charming towns. Flåm is more of a railway station plus café and museum than town and Stavanger is the hub of Norway's oil industry. The QM2 never fails and traveling up the Aurlandsfjord tho Flåm should be on every tourists bucket list.

Nevertheless, there are some downsides, particularly in terms of local culture: Yes you will get an impression, but to get close to Norwegian culture an ocean liner is probably not the ideal vessel. Flåm has about 450 inhabitants, so there will be four times as many tourists as locals.

If Norwegian Culture is really the thing you're looking for, a trip on the Hurtigruten will serve you better. The Hurtigruten mail ships travel from Bergen to Kirkenes and they are at the very core of Norwegian identity. Also, they are subsidized by the Norwegian government.Yes, they are less luxurious than an of the Cunard vessels, they do not do any entertainment programme and it's better not to think about Norwegian prices for booze. But they go to remote places where no cruise ship will ever go and they are still used for point-to-point journeys. The ships run on a daily schedule, so it's possible to do stopovers at places like Ålesund or Trondheim.

Also, they do some really badass fjord sailing, like getting up the Trollfjord. Just because they can. (The Trollfjord is about three inches wider than the average Hurtigruten ship.)

Just back from Q Elizabeth to Norway. Great trip. However we did go up to some northern ports: Bodo and Narvik and I'm not sure it was worth the detour. Yes it was north of the arctic circle and so in the land of the midnight sun. However there wasn't any sun, midnight or daytime. The two ports were not that interesting although Narvik does have a fantastic war museum. By contrast the fjords in the sunshine were sensational. I agree you don't get to know the Norwegians much but I guess that applies to most cruises. Maybe Hurtigruten is better from that point of view. However they did a tour from Bergen to a farm where there was a chance to learn a bit about the country by chatting to the farmer

We don't really expect to do anything on a cruise other than enjoy the ship and see the scenery. When we travel, we do it on our own and stay in the smallest places possible. For example, before the cruise we are spending a week in rural Yorkshire. Last year we cruised over on the QM2, than spent our vacation in a small Cotswalds Village, a resort in the Midlands, a tiny village in Wales and in Devonshire farm country. The year before was a village in Scotland, old Edinburgh (couldn't miss the tattoo) and a stone farmhouse in Ireland.

We seldom do the ship's tour unless we're on Regent where they are included. On our upcoming QV Norway cruise the only tour we booked was Norway in a Nutshell because it's an all-day deal and we would not venture that far on our own. What if the bus breaks down? Or the railroad is blocked by a rock slide (as happened to us in Alaska)? Also the tour seemed surprisingly reasonably priced considering it includes two railroads, lunch and a bus trip.

If you want to know how overpriced the ship's tours are, note that the Flam Railway for two hours is $135. And all you get is a reserved car after you walk yourself to the station. On the other hand, buying the ticked directly is only about $98. And if you're 67 or older, half that.

The lunch you get on the Norway in a Nutshell is really excellent and very well organised. Our day in Flam was the only really nice day we had weather-wise, which was a bonus, and the excursion is a good way to see a little bit more of Norway.

Hi- we did a land trip (trains, busses, and cars) to Norway last August and visited several of the towns you are discussing. We loved Norway's natural splendor so much that we are going to return to Norway on a Cunard voyage in Aug 2019.- Flåm is lovely. We did the beautiful Flåm train and we also took a wonderful hairpin-turns bus ride up to the Stegastein Viewpoint. Both were stunning.

- In Bergen, I loved riding the funicular.

- Stavanger is more tricky- it has a neat old town to walk around in, BUT we highly recommend getting on a boat tour and sailing down on the beautiful Lysefjord... most of the boats sail right under Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock)... it was a great excursion.

Just back from Q Elizabeth to Norway. Great trip. However we did go up to some northern ports: Bodo and Narvik and I'm not sure it was worth the detour. Yes it was north of the arctic circle and so in the land of the midnight sun. However there wasn't any sun, midnight or daytime. The two ports were not that interesting although Narvik does have a fantastic war museum.

 

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Many years ago we had a cruise on P&O's Canberra that included a view of the polar ice cap and a day in Narvik. They chartered a train from Narvik to take us into Sweden where he had an excellent buffet lunch at a remote hotel that had a stunning view from the dining room. I don't know if Cunard offers the same or similar tour, but if they did I would love to do it again.

We took our trip on the QE2 in 1993 and must say next to transiting the Panama Canal the Norway Fjord sailing was very special. To make it a real holiday we returned to NYC via TA.

It was one of the most interesting and Photographed holidays we ever took. It was in the month of July in 93.

First time venturing in that area was a true adventure.

We enjoyed our Ports of Call and the touring within them. To mention a few:

Bergen, Stavange, Hammerfest, Trondheim, Geiranger and to the top North Cape which was the topper of the cruise.

Sorry that some of these are not mentioned within the QM2 trips.

We very much enjoyed walking the streets of Bergen and visiting the shops and photographing the town itself.

Our all day ship excursion out of Geiranger was interesting and enjoying a lunch of Poached Salmon with Dill Sauce, Boiled Potatoes and Carrots while dining next to a Waterfall with exquisite mountain top scenery.

North Cape (close to the Arctic Circle) being taken to the Observation Point exactly at Midnight to view the never setting Sun re-rising into the sky.

And of course sailing out of Geriranger and passing the Seven Sister Waterfall.

A vacation never to forget.