Norwegian Fjords - Seeking Opinions

[kstetser]

We are looking at the following cruise on Disney.   We have a 20% off voucher for missing a port last December and need to decide by Monday if we are booking.   I'm reading these ports may not be ideal but not why.   We like nature and hiking.  Usually don't do ship excursions.   Never been to Norway.  We would likely do a land vacation in Europe (somewhere) before or after the cruise.     Would love to hear pros/cons and anything else you might recommend or warn against.
 

7-Night Norwegian Fjords Cruise from Southampton

August 19 - 26, 2023   Saturday - Saturday

·       Amsterdam, Netherlands

·       Skjolden, Norway

·       Nordfjordeid, Norway

·       Sandnes (Stavanger), Norway

Edited April 30, 2022 by kstetser

[hallasm]

You're right - not the most exciting itinerary - quite small cities (excluding Amsterdam) with very limited activities and scenic views  - might be an option for a tour to Lysefjorden and Pulpit Rock from Sandnes. Also no deep fjord cruising.

[CruiserBruce]

7 days from Southampton doesn't give you a lot of time to go very far.

[hallasm]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

7 days from Southampton doesn't give you a lot of time to go very far.

All scenic fjords into Geiranger, Flåm or Olden is within reach from Southampton or Amsterdam at a seven day Cruise - also Bergen and Ålesund.

Anyway, Skjolden is at the end of a Long fjord.

[JohnAllen75]

Nordfjordeid has some nice options. Both by ship excursions and to do on your own. 

 

You can reach Geirangerfjord and Loen skylift by bus from Nordfjordeid..(ship excursion) 

 

www.fjordex.no

www.portofnordfjordeid.no

 

 

 

[kitkat343]

21 hours ago, JohnAllen75 said:

Nordfjordeid has some nice options. Both by ship excursions and to do on your own. 

 

You can reach Geirangerfjord and Loen skylift by bus from Nordfjordeid..(ship excursion) 

 

www.fjordex.no

www.portofnordfjordeid.no

 

 

 

Geiranger was a really lovely visit.  The panoramic bus takes about 3 hours to visit all the sites.  https://www.geirangerfjord.no/panorama-exclusive-bus  .  We visited the Loen Skylift from Olden, and that's truly amazing (maybe an hour or two at the top of the skylift, more time if you want to hike or eat at the delicious but unsurprisingly expensive restaurant on top).  I don't know about the logistics of doing both on the same day from Nordfjordeid.   JohnAllen might have meant you can visit one or the other from Nordfjordeid.    Geiranger, Flåm, and Olden were our three favorite highlights of our 7 day cruise from Southampton.  Flam has the beautiful railway.  Our cruise didn't visit Ålesund, but that's another destination people on this board really seem to love.  

 

 Also, be careful with Disney - I know nothing about this cruise, but know from previous cruises that sometimes Disney has shorter port times than other lines (we take independent tours and Disney drives the tour operators nuts when they have shorter days because the Disney people need shorter tours and then get mad at the independent operators when they realize everyone else gets to visit more places and have longer tours).  I have young kids who would love Disney, but their itineraries seem to have issues compared to other lines on at least the cruises we've compared so far, so we haven't sailed with them yet (maybe if they sail out of NY, which happens periodically we could take a cruise just to be on Disney, but if we were going to fly all the way to Norway with a 2 and 6 year old we really wanted to see the highlights of Norway).

[hallasm]

21 hours ago, JohnAllen75 said:

You can reach Geirangerfjord and Loen skylift by bus from Nordfjordeid.

Might be best as ship excursions- otherwise require a rental car - driving to Olden is one hour and Geiranger is two hours each way.

[JohnAllen75]

3 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

JohnAllen might have meant you can visit one or the other from Nordfjordeid.    

 

 Also, be careful with Disney - I know nothing about this cruise, but know from previous cruises that sometimes Disney has shorter port times than other lines 

 

True... Only time to visit one of these.... 

 

The two Disney arrivals in Nordfjordeid this year have port time for 10 and 8 hours....