Norwegian Fjords family cruise itinerary help - July 2025

[megmas]

I am in the beginnings of planning a multi-generational cruise for my mom’s 80th birthday in July 2025.  She really wants to go to the Norwegian Fjords and I have found 3 options that work date wise and are all similarly priced.  There will be 8 of us, 4 adults in our 40’s, 2 kids ages 8 and 12 and two almost 80 year olds. The 40 year olds in our party aren’t cruisers (hence my lack of knowledge) but are happy to do this for my mom (but she won’t be doing any major shore excursions as she has a bad knee).  My parents went on the QE2 transatlantic crossing and loved it, so the QE2 is appealing for that reason (my father is not into large/loud resorts and prefers a more refined atmosphere.)  We would prefer to leave from Southampton (as we have family based in London) but want the best itinerary, so if we have to leave via the Netherlands, we can make that work.  The main focus of this trip is to see beautiful scenery a few nice port stops (I don’t think we will want to have to do too many excursions to get to the scenery - like a bus tour-  it's too tricky with kids and my parents- so we would prefer to see the scenery on the boat) That being said, I don’t just want to see cities in Norway, we want to see the natural beauty.  It seems all 3 have kids clubs and pools (but only QE2 has a retractable roof pool, so weather-wise is this a better fit?) I know they will really be limiting cruise access from 2026, so I want to make sure we pick the right literary, as we likely won’t be doing this again.  Any advice would be appreciated.  THANK YOU!

 

 

Option 1 - Cunard QE2

Southhampton

At sea

Stavanger, Norway

Alesund, Norway

Skjolden, Norway

Lustrafjorden, Norway (Cruise-by)

Sognefjord, Norway (Cruise-by)

Hardangerfjord, Norway (cruise-by)

At sea

Southhampton

 

Option 2 HAL - Rotterdam

Rotterdam

At sea

eidfjord,

hardangerfjord (cruise-by)

alesund,

nordfjoreid (cruise-by)

bergen

At sea

Rotterdam

 

Option 3 - Princess - Sky Princess

Southhampton

At sea

haugesund,

skjolden

olden

stravenger

At sea

Southhampton

[kitkat343]

I'm primarily writing because we travelled with a 2 and 6 year old to Norway and wanted to note that my cruise review in my signature line might be helpful for you.  Also, I sailed on Cunard more recently with kids if you wanted to know more about that.

 

Depending on where you go, some excursions are remarkably accessible for children and travelers with disabilities.  Our three favorite ports in Norway were all extremely accessible for our 2 year old.  In Flam, you are a two minute walk from the Flam railroad, which offers an amazing view.   In Olden, the Loen skylift is completely accessible for people in wheelchairs and has beautiful views (I have read about long lines but don't know since we were there 3 days after their opening when there were no shore excursions available yet).  In Olden, the Briskdal Glacier offers a troll car that takes you most of the way to the glacier.  My 2 year old was able to hike the short flat distance left to the glacier, but we went fully expecting him not to make it and were completely prepared for that to happen (note this would not be good for a wheelchair since the ground is uneven. Your mom can look at videos on YouTube to see if she'd want to go).  Honestly, I would have been happy with the drive to the glacier and troll car ride if we didn't make it all the way to the glacier, because the glacier has been hit hard by global warming.   Geiranger is also an excellent option for people with limited mobility, since you ride in a bus to really beautiful sites and its only a few hours long.

 

I'm going to be honest with you - with my children's ages Pulpit Rock wasn't an option for our family,  And without Pulpit Rock, I don't really think of Stavanger as a port that is a highlight.  You can take a Rodne cruise around, which is a pleasant way to spend a day.   Check the times you are scheduled to be in port carefully because you need a longer port day in order to safely make this hike and return back in time.  But that's a pretty significant excursion and I think you'd be better off with Olden, Flam or Geiranger than Stavanger.  

 

Alesund is much beloved port on this forum (I haven't been so others will be more helpful).  I'm not familiar with most of the ports on your itinerary, so please listen to the other helpful members of this forum who can better advise you on the cities.  But I would encourage you to try to aim for shore excursions with your family - even with a 2 year old we were really glad we went on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 7 by kitkat343

[edinburgher]

5 hours ago, megmas said:

She really wants to go to the Norwegian Fjords

You could read past threads for all of the ports in the itineraries listed as reading about each port call might help you decide.

 

alesund  is indeed a favourite port of call by many as ships dock in the centre of town, there are a number of sights/attractions and it is very easy to DIY.

 

Should you want to consider doing your own thing in Alesund, this thread has much info and some images to help you decide.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826391-alesund-norway/#comment-62526938

[oakridger]

10 hours ago, megmas said:

It seems all 3 have kids clubs and pools (but only QE2 has a retractable roof pool, so weather-wise is this a better fit?)

 

I have only cruised on the HAL Rotterdam of your three choices and not in Norway. (I've been to Norway on Hurtigruten/Havila which I would highly recommend for your parents, but not particularly for the kids and 40 somethings) Bergen is a very nice city to visit!

 

The Holland America Rotterdam also has a retractable roof over the really nice Lido pool area!  There is an outdoor movie in that same area that is shown only in the evenings.

 

I highly recommend the Rotterdam for the evening live music that all of the adults would probably really like!  Three venues are the Rolling Stone Rock Room (Classic Rock and newer), BB Kings Band (R&B/Motown/Dance music) and a piano bar type venue.  

 

There is a kids club called Club Hal.  My friend's son loved it, but he was younger than yours.  It seems to get good reviews and kids I have seen on board look like they are having fun!

 

Rotterdam has a wonderful forward facing indoor viewing lounge called Crow's Nest/Exploration Central and the aft Seaview pool area outdoors is great for scenery viewing.  

 

Basically, I think the Rotterdam size ship is a great one for a multigenerational family cruise!  It has the best cabin showers I've had on any of the ships I have been on so far!  There are lots of choices for dining as well and the ship isn't so huge that it takes forever to get on and off in ports.  Wonderful and helpful crew as well!

 

Please let us know what you decide!

 

~Nancy

 

 

[megmas]

kitkat343, I would love to hear more about Cunard with kids.  We could only get an oceanview room with 4 people on QE2, does this matter? What was your room like?

 

Thanks to all for the replies and advice 🙂

[kaisatsu]

I assume you mean the Queen Elizabeth???

 

We sailed the Norwegian coast on the QE2 several years ago, but it was her final season. Queen Elizabeth herself even came aboard for lunch with the captain while we were embarking in Southampton, to bid the ship an official farewell (one of my cruise history highlights was seeing her in person outside the Queen’s Grille). Cunard/Carnival sold the ship in 2008, and the last I heard, she is in Dubai.

 

Cruising Norway with Cunard was an interesting experience, since we were packing both ballgowns and GoreTex hiking gear. I think we scandalized a few Queen’s Grille passengers when we reembarked after a particularly muddy hike in Geiranger! I can’t speak to the kids’ programs as I was on a much older ship, and there were almost no children aboard.

 

As for the itineraries, I’d choose the Cunard or HAL trips. The Princess itinerary is a bit bland. Stavanger is okay, but not usually one of most people’s highlights. It’s the center for North Sea hydrocarbon exploration and production, so there’s an excellent petroleum museum, and the old city is cute to walk around with its white wooden houses, but there isn’t as much to do as many other ports. And Haugesand is pretty underwhelming.

 

Beyond the iconic fjords, Bergen is always my top recommendation among the coastal cities.

[Thejuggler]

If you want to see the Fjords in all their glory,you need to find cruises which stop at ports in them, so check Google maps for locations of each port.  Norway has significantly reduced the number of larger ships which can visit each port, so many 'fjords' cruises are now very coastal port focussed.

 

Flam, Olden, Gerainger and Skjolden are deep inside fjordland so look for trips which include those.  Bergen and/or Stavanger are expected.  I've been to both and happy with either.

 

Cruise by doesn't mean much, but its time spent crusing the fjords.

 

Of your list I'd look at 1 and 3 and it may come down to which ship you prefer.  Trip 2 looks a pretty poor offer.

[kitkat343]

On 3/8/2024 at 6:00 PM, megmas said:

kitkat343, I would love to hear more about Cunard with kids.  We could only get an oceanview room with 4 people on QE2, does this matter? What was your room like?

 

Thanks to all for the replies and advice 🙂

It will depend on what your kids are used to and their age.  For years we sailed for itinerary and had sailed the oldest ships around with few amenities for kids and our kids were happy just being on a cruise ship and getting lots of yummy food and going to the kids club.  But once we had three small kids, we decided to sail from our homeport, and  the ships there had some nice amenities for for kids.    After sailing on the Getaway, my kids wanted waterslides on all their cruises and that's never going to happen on Cunard.  

 

One good feature Cunard has is an indoor pool, which is quite helpful on our cruise that left out of NY in December.  

 

Their kids clubs last December were strongly improved from the first time we'd sailed with them 6 years ago.

 

They also have a great feature I hope other ships adopt - you sign up for kids club slots one day in advance.  On other ships over Xmas/major holidays people often need to line up for the kids club early since it gets full.  But on Cunard, once you sign up your slot is your slot and you can show up whenever you want to claim it.  Your child can leave and come back so it's much more convenient that showing up early three times a day to wait on line to secure a slot.   

 

The food on Cunard is generally excellent, especially the lamb and afternoon tea food.  But they unfortunately do not do such a great job with either their vegetarian options or kids meal food.  My oldest enjoys steak and sushi, so he was very happy with the dining on Cunard.  My youngest likes burgers and he was very sad with the food.  I have no idea how a. line that can perfectly cook Beef Wellington in the MDR can't cook a burger, but apparently it can't.  The pizza in the MDR was also inedible (it's better in a pizza station near the buffet but still not very good).    They also have a lot of difficulty just getting the kids food, with it taking nearly an hour to bring my daughter spaghetti for Christmas dinner (and this is after we had explained to them to please bring the kids food as quickly as possible because she can eat and then go to the kids club).

 

The long waits for kids food was a huge problem because there is a portion of Cunard cruisers who believe the line should be entirely child free, and are not happy with kids being on the ship.  So when I would try to walk my child around the ship waiting for her food, people were not happy if she was in venues they thought should be child free (like the small ballroom that was right next to the MDR).  It was really frustrating because if the waiters could just bring the food quickly, we'd bring her to the kids club where everyone could be happy.

 

But my oldest (13) found a group of teenage friends, wandered the ship with them, and went to trivia and even a ballroom dancing class with them.  

 

One more odd thing is that Cunard didn't advertise the port times anywhere, so if you want private excursions (highly recommended with kids) you should search the port schedules to determine what times you are in port.

Edited March 28 by kitkat343