Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 10 #1 Share Posted July 10 This post was recognized by LauraS! "Thank you for sharing your review with everyone at Cruise Critic. Please consider submitting it to the site for publication as well: Click: Write a Review" MillbrookMom was awarded the badge 'Great Review' We recently did a Norwegian Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise on Jewel of the seas from May 30 - June 11, so thought I would share my thoughts and some pictures. Ship - We were the 2nd sailing on Jewel after a drydock and while no major additions were made, for an older ship she was looking pretty good. While in general we enjoy the larger ships, we have no complaints about Jewel. A nice size ship for this itinerary and she handled a few rougher nights at sea pretty good. Room - we had an interior room as that was all that was in our budget (we spend 2 weeks in Europe before the cruise so had to watch our $ a bit). We were very happy with it and slept well, especially north of the Arctic circle were the sun doesn't set! Staff - Overall we found the staff to be relatively friendly. While we had mytime dining, we had the same servers for the whole cruise as we requested to sit in their section every night except the one night we had Chef's table. Dining - I would say we weren't as impressed as we normally are with the quality of the food, but still found it pretty good overall. Our chef's table experience was almost exceptional, with my only "complaint" being that my steak was cooked to medium vs the medium rare and while I could have sent it back, I am not picky enough to do that if it still tastes pretty good. Entertainment - I only went to one show myself as we were always up so early I just couldn't stay up for the late shows. My husband saw a few others as well (a comedian and a magician I believe) and we both enjoyed what we did see. Itinerary - WOW! This was a 12 nt cruise from Amsterdam. I will breakdown the itinerary and what we did at each port as well as add a few photos. May 30 - Amsterdam May 31 - Sea June 1 - Geiranger - Here we got up early to watch sail in through the Fjord. Having done Alaska fjords before, we found Norway to be very beautiful, but it doesn't have the ruggedness of Alaska. Many little towns and villages along the fjords in Norway, where Alaska is all wilderness. Once docking we decided to hike up past the Storfossen waterfall, past the Fjord Center and up to the Flydalsjuvet viewpoint (we took the trail up and the road back). The views are just spectacular. June 2 - Sea day June 3 - We took the cruise line bus transfer into town as we planned to do a lot of walking around Tromso. We walked across the Tromsobrua (bridge) to the Arctic Cathedral. It's a beautiful building, but we decided not to go inside. After taking some photos we walked back and then through town to Telegrafbukta beach. My husband has a think about swimming places we go in the world so swimming north of the Arctic circle was a must. The beach is lovely, has bathrooms for changing (they are pay as you go, but all were unlocked when we were there). June 4 - Honningsvag - This is the most northern point you go to. After considering various tours, we decided the best bang for our buck was to rent a car. That would give us the freedom to go where we wanted around Mageroya island at our own pace. Unfortunately the weather wasn't that great, but we were able to see all that we wanted. We drove up to the North Cape (Nordkapp) and got some great photos before the fog rolled in (which was also a very cool experience to watch it engulf everything and be so thick you could barely see 20 feet in front of you). We then drove to a villages on both sides of the island, admiring the desolate landscape and plentiful groups of reindeer. Hightly recommend a car rental. June 5 - Sea day, but we passed back through the Arctic circle so the ship held their Blue Nose Ceremony where you coud jumb in the pool. My husband of course had to participate. LOL June 6 - Alesund - Here we decided to walk through town and up the 418 steps to the Mount Aksla viewpoint. Afterwards we wandered around town and found a great spot for some delicious fish and chips. June 7- Flam - We had previously booked the Flam Railway and the Stegastein Viewpoint transfer, both through Norway's Best. Would definitely recommend this as they were both cheaper than booking with the cruise ship and the railway you are on the exact same train as the excursion through Royal, just in a different car on the train. Sitting on the right side going up has the best views. Afterwards we walked around Flam and had a Norwegian waffle at a bakery in an old train car. June 8 - Stavanger - We had seriously considered doing the hike to pulpit rock, but there was news of a hiking dying shortly before the summit a few days before our arrival, coupled with the fact that they weather wasn't supposed to be very nice so we decided to do a Lysefjord cruise instead. We heard that some from the ship who did the hike didn't make it to the top because you are time restricted so that would have been extremely disappointing for such an expensive excursion. While we did have rain on our cruise, getting so close to the walls of the fjord was quite the experience. We also walked around Stavanger in the morning before any of the shops opened so was nice to have the town to ourselves. Old town Stavanger right beside the ship is also worth a walk through. June 9 - Kristiansand - This was our last port and since it was a Sunday not too much was open. We just did a walk around the port, and the town before having some local shrimp to eat before heading back on board. June 10 - Sea day June 11 - Arrival back in Amsterdam Overall we had an absolutely amazing cruise. The weather was pretty good, Most days even when calling for rain had fair weather. We certainly couldn't complain. We just love these longer cruises with so many ports. Norway is a very beautiful country and if you have the chance, I strongly encourage you to visit. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. 13 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Kellie in Texas Posted July 10 #2 Share Posted July 10 Stunning photos! Looks like a great cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 10 Author #3 Share Posted July 10 35 minutes ago, Kellie in Texas said: Stunning photos! Looks like a great cruise. Thank you. It was wonderful! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uvadover Posted July 11 #4 Share Posted July 11 Awesome review and photos. Thank you. Interested a bit more in the sea conditions. You mentioned the ship fared well on some of the bumpier nights. That's the only thing that gives me pause about an itinerary like this one - a few members of the family are a bit squeamish about rougher seas. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marci22 Posted July 11 #5 Share Posted July 11 What was the timing for your Flam Railway/Stegastein viewpoint day? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare little britain Posted July 11 #6 Share Posted July 11 (edited) 6 minutes ago, marci22 said: What was the timing for your Flam Railway/Stegastein viewpoint day? We booked 9.30 train which gets you back at 11.35 then the 12.00 bus. The bus stop is literally steps away from the train. The bus is 30 mins ride, 30 mins there then 30 mins back. Flåm is also the cheapest place to go shopping 🛍️ for those down coats. The shop on the other side of the train had the best deals. I bought a coat there that I saw in every other port for 50% off Edited July 11 by little britain 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare little britain Posted July 11 #7 Share Posted July 11 @MillbrookMom please can you share who you did car rental with and what the daily cost was? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marci22 Posted July 11 #8 Share Posted July 11 (edited) 4 minutes ago, little britain said: We booked 9.30 train which gets you back at 11.35 then the 12.00 bus. The bus stop is literally steps away from the train. The bus is 30 mins ride, 30 mins there then 30 mins back. I think your ship docked at 8am? Ours docks at 8:30am. I'd would book a 9:30 train but worried about getting off the ship in time. The next train (this season) is at 10:45am. Edited July 11 by marci22 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
five. Posted July 11 #9 Share Posted July 11 I see posts like this and automatically assume they are out of my budget. Would you mind saying ballpark cost for an interior cabin, I no longer see these on the site to check myself. Speaking of interior, did you have any regrets going with that option? It looks like a wonderful once in a life type cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TMLAalum Posted July 11 #10 Share Posted July 11 @MillbrookMom Great review and much appreciated since we'll be sailing the fjords in under 14 months! Questions? Where did you reserve your rental car in Honningsvag? How far ahead were you able to book Flam RR/Stegastein with Norway's Best? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare twangster Posted July 11 #11 Share Posted July 11 Just now, five. said: I see posts like this and automatically assume they are out of my budget. Would you mind saying ballpark cost for an interior cabin, I no longer see these on the site to check myself. Speaking of interior, did you have any regrets going with that option? It looks like a wonderful once in a life type cruise. There were some pretty significant price drops before final payment at least for those who booked through the US/Canada system. My balcony cabin started over $4,500 solo when I booked the same sail date when this cruise first opened. That ended up at $2,600 about a month before final payment. I am over 340 points in the Crown and Anchor system and being May the DP340 reduced single supplement helped significantly. Booking for two would naturally cost more. May is before the summer peak so going early in the Northern Europe cruise season helps keep costs down. Be aware the heritage fjords are being closed to cruise ships after this year, at least from a Royal Caribbean perspective. Royal will continue to visit coastal Norway in the future but Flam and Geiranger will be off limits due to new emissions standards imposed by Norway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #12 Share Posted July 11 8 hours ago, uvadover said: Awesome review and photos. Thank you. Interested a bit more in the sea conditions. You mentioned the ship fared well on some of the bumpier nights. That's the only thing that gives me pause about an itinerary like this one - a few members of the family are a bit squeamish about rougher seas. Obviously I only have the experience from this one sailing, but we had much rougher seas on our Bahamas cruise last year than we did on this sailing. There were a couple nights that we definitely had a bit bigger swells, but I feel like those prone to sea sickness would be fine with they typical medicines/remedies used. It certainly wasn't bad enough that they were hanging sickness bags on the railings. I would also mention that other than a few sea days the majority of your travel is in the evenings and at night while you sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #13 Share Posted July 11 1 hour ago, marci22 said: What was the timing for your Flam Railway/Stegastein viewpoint day? Our docking time in Flam was 8am. I want to say we arrived shortly before that. Our Stegastein viewpoint ticket was for 10am and we booked our train for 1:30pm (it's around 2 hours round trip). This gave us plenty of time to figure out where we were going for both excursions and gave us time to explore after train for our 5:30 all aboard time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #14 Share Posted July 11 1 hour ago, little britain said: @MillbrookMom please can you share who you did car rental with and what the daily cost was? We booked through Nordkapp Bilservice (they are right beside where the ship docks in a yellow building). We had a Mazda CX5 SUV and it was 2000NOK for the day. For us with exchange it was $268.71 Canadian for the rental and we spent 274NOK for gas which was $36.79 cdn. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #15 Share Posted July 11 2 hours ago, marci22 said: I think your ship docked at 8am? Ours docks at 8:30am. I'd would book a 9:30 train but worried about getting off the ship in time. The next train (this season) is at 10:45am. We felt the same, that's why we booked a little later and decided to do the Viewpoint first, then the train in the afternoon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #16 Share Posted July 11 47 minutes ago, five. said: I see posts like this and automatically assume they are out of my budget. Would you mind saying ballpark cost for an interior cabin, I no longer see these on the site to check myself. Speaking of interior, did you have any regrets going with that option? It looks like a wonderful once in a life type cruise. We always thought it was out of budget too. This was for our 30th Anniversary and in the long run we did spend a lot but that is because we turned it into a month long adventure (We flew round trip to Amsterdam and rented a car to drive to Switzerland to visit my husbands family for 8 days). The cruise itself (including prepaid tips) was $3960 Canadian. Ours was 12nts. Flights we booked through Air to Sea when they had a deal on and got them for about $500 less than we had seen them anywhere else. So that was a bonus. As for interior. We had a balcony when we did Alaska a few years ago and were so happy we did as you spend so much time sailing close to land that there seemed like there was always something to see. For this cruise it just wasn't in the budget and to be honest, it didn't bother me at all. Especially for the nights we were north of the Arctic Circle and you have midnight sun (see photo). We heard a few people in the windjammer saying they had trouble sleeping because they couldn't close their curtains fully and the sun was making their rooms too bright. We found there were so many spots for viewing and to get the rull effect of the sailing through the fjords you would want to be out on the outer decks anyway. 100% for me if it's a choice of being able to afford this trip and stay in an inside, I would definitely do it again. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #17 Share Posted July 11 52 minutes ago, TMLAalum said: @MillbrookMom Great review and much appreciated since we'll be sailing the fjords in under 14 months! Questions? Where did you reserve your rental car in Honningsvag? How far ahead were you able to book Flam RR/Stegastein with Norway's Best? We booked the car rental through Nordkapp Bilservice (they are right beside the port). For our Flam reservations with Norway's Best we booked them Jan 5th. For our June cruise. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #18 Share Posted July 11 51 minutes ago, twangster said: There were some pretty significant price drops before final payment at least for those who booked through the US/Canada system. My balcony cabin started over $4,500 solo when I booked the same sail date when this cruise first opened. That ended up at $2,600 about a month before final payment. I am over 340 points in the Crown and Anchor system and being May the DP340 reduced single supplement helped significantly. Booking for two would naturally cost more. May is before the summer peak so going early in the Northern Europe cruise season helps keep costs down. Be aware the heritage fjords are being closed to cruise ships after this year, at least from a Royal Caribbean perspective. Royal will continue to visit coastal Norway in the future but Flam and Geiranger will be off limits due to new emissions standards imposed by Norway. Was your cost in US or Cdn $? Because I thought we had a good deal for our interior, but we are Cdn. So our $ doesn't go as far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marci22 Posted July 11 #19 Share Posted July 11 1 hour ago, MillbrookMom said: We felt the same, that's why we booked a little later and decided to do the Viewpoint first, then the train in the afternoon. I usually don't obsess about excursions but I'm afraid of getting left behind in Norway. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #20 Share Posted July 11 3 minutes ago, marci22 said: I usually don't obsess about excursions but I'm afraid of getting left behind in Norway. I hear you. I would check when the last time your cruise ship does the Flam railway excursion and then make sure you do it at the same time or earlier than that. (Because they both go on the exact same train so if the cruise ship is good with a time, then you will get back no problem). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare twangster Posted July 11 #21 Share Posted July 11 1 hour ago, MillbrookMom said: Was your cost in US or Cdn $? Because I thought we had a good deal for our interior, but we are Cdn. So our $ doesn't go as far. $USD 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
born-to-cruise Posted July 11 #22 Share Posted July 11 Aloha, We've done Norway on August 2018 aboard Indy OTS but didn't go as far north with your cruise. It is my wish to cruise Norway again making it goes as far as Honningsvag with hopes to see Aurora Borealis. Your cruise itinerary was very nice and thank for sharing your wonderful experience. The photos you shared were evidence of a wonderful cruise. Born-To-Cruise (Diamond+) Past Cruises: 19-RCI, 3-Carnival, 1-Celebrity, 1-HA and 1-NCL Plus 2 cruises booked (Celebrity and Princes) (funds permitting, always looking forward to great cruises) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 11 Author #23 Share Posted July 11 3 minutes ago, born-to-cruise said: Aloha, We've done Norway on August 2018 aboard Indy OTS but didn't go as far north with your cruise. It is my wish to cruise Norway again making it goes as far as Honningsvag with hopes to see Aurora Borealis. Your cruise itinerary was very nice and thank for sharing your wonderful experience. The photos you shared were evidence of a wonderful cruise. Born-To-Cruise (Diamond+) Past Cruises: 19-RCI, 3-Carnival, 1-Celebrity, 1-HA and 1-NCL Plus 2 cruises booked (Celebrity and Princes) (funds permitting, always looking forward to great cruises) Aloha @born-to-cruise! I have been to Hawaii, but my husband has not so that is on our list for the future. We figured this may be a once in a lifetime cruise for us, so wanted to make sure we made it as far north as possible. If you are wanting to see Northern lights you would likely have to do an off season expedition cruise or one in September as midnight sun prevents the dark needed to see them from late April until almost the end of August. I am glad you enjoyed my review. It was a very memorable vacation. I am just in the process of putting together a book of our photos now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
renebfl Posted July 12 #24 Share Posted July 12 (edited) We also did this amazing cruise. We all booked obstructed balcony for around $2000. I always buy during a holiday. And I believe it was July 4 the year before. We also got $300 on board credit. Our obstruction was actually just the waterline, not looking forward, so it worked out. We took a few royal Caribbean excursions only because we didn’t trust the timings. We did the flam Railway on our own and took the 12 noon rail. As reported earlier, the food was mediocre to me but then again, I’m used to celebrity cruise line. I certainly had enough to eat and would say we , booked this cruise for the itinerary. The midnight sun was a beautiful experience. The entertainment was also just mediocre. Mostly just the dancing and singing of the Royal Caribbean dancers. Again entertainment was not what we really went for. It was the itinerary. I think the staff was absolutely fabulous. Bartenders waitstaff ,room stewards were always on top of things. We started our cruise in Amsterdam for four days and that was very enjoyable. We went to the Anne Frank house also, getting our tickets way before hand. I never saw weather change as quickly as I did this cruise within the same minute. It was sunny and then it would go to rain. Glad I packed lots of layers, but I did need to buy a raincoat as mine wasn’t long enough to keep me dry. I used my medium winter jacket, my hat, and not too often my gloves during the cruise. Edited July 12 by renebfl 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare MillbrookMom Posted July 12 Author #25 Share Posted July 12 2 minutes ago, renebfl said: We also did this amazing cruise. We all booked obstructed balcony for around $2000. I always buy during a holiday. And I believe it was July 4 the year before. We also got $300 on board credit. Our obstruction was actually just the waterline, not looking forward, so it worked out. Was that a per person price? or for the room? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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