Has anyone sailed the 14 Day Northern Isles itinerary?

[Cailey53]

We are thinking of booking the 8/2/2020 14 day Northern Isles cruise RT Amsterdam. Ports include 2 in Norway, Iceland, Shetland Islands, Scotland, and the UK. We have never been to any of these areas, and just wanted some feedback to some that had perhaps done this sailing, and what is a "must do", and how would the weather/seas be in early August. TIA for your responses!

 

Cathy

[iceman93]

We took this exact cruise the summer of 2018.  The weather and seas were fantastic, but of course that can vary from day to day, let alone year to year.  "Must do" is so subjective--we generally enjoyed all the HAL excursions we did plus walking around near the ports where we didn't have an excursion.

[Cailey53]

6 hours ago, iceman93 said:

We took this exact cruise the summer of 2018.  The weather and seas were fantastic, but of course that can vary from day to day, let alone year to year.  "Must do" is so subjective--we generally enjoyed all the HAL excursions we did plus walking around near the ports where we didn't have an excursion.

Thanks iceman93!

[swin26]

We are doing this cruise in August of this year.  Will let you know our thoughts. 

[grsnovi]

This one is on my "to-do-once-retired" list and could be as soon as 2020.

[janmcn]

Love this itinerary....on a similar one right now. Shetland Isles are very interesting...try to book a private tour with Les Sinclair. He’s a great teacher , funny, (stand up comic), etc...everything you’ll see on that itinerary is interesting...done it 3x!

[Balliett]

We expect to be on that Aug 2 cruise to Iceland in 2020.  Based on pricing of the Aug 4, 2019 cruise, the "sweet spot" for the best deal might be booking in mid to late May, 2020.   I want to try out the Nieuw Statendam!  

[Cailey53]

Thanks everyone for the input. I think based on this we will try and book when we are on the NS next month when we are sailing the 14 day Baltic itinerary. We always book so we can re-fare should the price drop. I will keep my eye on the May 2020 date :).

 

Balliet, you will like the NS--we were on her in January for 18 days. They "tweaked" a few things from Koningsdam which we like a bit better. It's a lovely ship and the crew was all great. It's odd, I swear when I first looked at this sailing it was on the Zuiderdam, and when I checked again it was the NS. Happy to sail either one, but we do like the new Pinnacle class ships.

 

Grsnovi--we're in the "retired" group now and loving it--hope you can do this in 2020!

 

Cathy

[syesmar]

Have sailed to some of the ports.  In Lerwick, we walked around in the morning and took a wildlife boat in the afternoon.  Such fun!  (We had to go through immigration on the ship and it took time, ymmv).  From Invergordon, we booked a tour to Loch Ness, Culloden and Clava Cairns; it was excellent.  If the schedule allows you to experience the Tattoo in Edinburgh, do it.

 

In Alesund, I believe excursions are offered to Trollstigen.  We did this recently from Molde, renting a car, and had the time of our lives.  Seems like on a previous cruise, HAL offered an excursion to Geiranger from Alesund, as well, but I’m not sure about now.  Alesund is a beautiful city in and of itself with plenty to do.

 

Have fun!