CCJack

Steelers0854.... we went on a very similar Viking trip a couple years ago. 3 nights in Prague, then cruise from Nuremburg to Budapest. We did stop at Passau however. It was a great trip. Prague was a great pre cruise stay, we stayed at the Hilton which was the Viking hotel, I am not sure if it still is. Budapest is really beautiful from the river at night with all the buildings lit up. There were 20 some locks along the Danube we had to go through,, some people are bored with those things, but I found them really interesting. (a few of those may have been between Nuremberg and Passau however.) Our evening entertainment (along with everyone else) was sitting on the top deck after dinner watching the river bank pass by. However, you will have darkness after dinner (we went in July), so likely you will be in the lounge after dinner, and maybe they will have some entertainment. Have a great trip....

Agree..... A hotel room booked for the night before might be good to get cleaned up, change clothes etc. but do not sleep in the morning. Get going as Bruce suggests. Stay up as long as you can. Even sleeping at 6 pm is much better than sleeping at 10 am right after you get off the plane...

Staying in Venice for a couple days post cruise is a great decision. If you only see Venice as part of the cruise stop you will see massive crowds between noon and 5 pm, and will miss the best part of the days, IMO, which is early morning and evening. You can stroll through the city without fighting the afternoon crowds. For the same reason, I would not lock on staying in St. Marks, although 2 min walk away may be fine, I would not want to be any closer. Of course you want to see St. Marks while you are in Venice, as it is the main pedestrian square. However, we did not spend much time there and our hotel was a ways away, which was good. Other areas of Venice is where we enjoyed walking....The entire city is walking distance to anywhere in the city. Have fun, it is one of the world's most beautiful places.

We took the 12 day (7 day cruise plus 5 day land) The land stops were Aleyska, Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage. We enjoyed Aleyska resort as a stopover on the way to Denali. It is a ski resort, but during the summer you can still take the tram up the mountain, and they have hiking trails around the property. It is a very nice hotel, which is hard to find in Alaska. Our Denali lodging was less plush but fine none the less. I think Princess likely has the edge over RCCL for their Denali lodging. However when we went (a couple years ago) RCCL had much nicer motor coaches than Princess. This may have changed if Princess upgraded their coaches since then. Talkeetna is an odd town. Maybe it is an acquired taste, but that stop did not appeal so much to us. Overall we were very pleased with RCCL land tour.

We have not done the specific tour through Viator, but I think it sounds like a good combo. I would definitely do whale first. In that way you are not far from the ship (Mendenhall is not far from Juneau) late in the afternoon. So if there were ever a problem with a vehicle or something, they (or you) could arrange another ride back. Out at sea and a problem with the whale boat 1.5 hours before the ship leaves is a different story and would make me nervous. Other replies are correct, you don't need a lot of time for Mendenhall.

We hired a local guide to go with us to portofino in the am and then provided a walking tour of genoa highlights in the afternoon. It was a great day, probably our favorite port of our med cruise. Pleasantly surprised with Genoa. Enjoy!

I agree with all the replies. We normally book on our own. However our last trip Airfare was coming up way cheaper through cuiseline. We booked that, and the trip went fine. Correct in that we could not choose seats until the ticket was actually ticketed, however the cuiseline ticketed them maybe a month before the trip or so and we got adequate seats no issues. Have fun.....

We had just an awesome whale watching experience at ISP. Juneau is not that far away, i understand whale watching is very good there too, as it is similar waters. However Juneau has more selection for other things to do than ISP, so ISP worked well to go whale watching. We did independent. Most of the boats from different companies end up close to each other anyway as the captains talk with each other to help locate whales. Difference is boat size and number of passengers.

before or after? probably no wrong answer depends on your travel plans etc. We wanted to spend a night or two in Vancouver before the cruise, so that makes it a Northbound cruise and by default our cruise tour after. Vancouver is a great place to spend a pre cruise night. These days I would never plan on flying into a city and board a cruise ship the same day, way too much can go wrong with airlines, luggage, etc. We really enjoyed our 5 day cruise tour through RCCL (and typically we are DIYers, but I liked the cruise tour a lot.) However, as the other two responses mention, if you are limited to 3 days I am not sure I would go to Denali. One very long day drive, one day at park and on very long day back likely. In that case 3 days in the seward area may be a good DIY option as suggested.

I think it looks real interesting. July better than October. Copenhagen i think would be a great departure Port. 5 countries in 14 days !. Only slight drawback is only 2 Norway stops, as Norway is one of my favorites. I think it would be a great trip.

I agree with all the responses, but a couple other points to ponder.... I like to minimize the number of at sea days. For Alaska, the Glacier Bay or Hubbard Glacier are beautiful sights and should not be missed, but they are a day when everyone is on the ship. Thus try to minimize the number of other at sea days. Any port is better than no port, in my opinion. I would not overlook the stop at Victoria in your decision. A lot different than your Alaska stops, but a very nice place to see, we had a great time there. As far as rough seas go, neither itinerary is going to be more or less risky. This is based on weather and you could have bad weather anywhere, but we had very calm seas along the Alaska coast, it was no issue. However, if you are concerned.. a large ship is better. Laws of physics apply here and the more mass you have on your side, the smoother it will be. For my planning, I always put some emphasis on departure city. It is part of your vacation. Vancouver is beautiful and if you arrive a day (or two) early and stay in one of the downtown hotels, you will have a very relaxing first day of your cruise (we walked to the ship... even with luggage) rather than long traveling or transport that day of departure. Can't go wrong with either... have fun.

Hallasm correctly pointed out the daylight issue that I did not think about in my initial reply. when I booked our Norway (not northern Norway) cruise and then a couple years later our Iceland cruise I intentionally booked as close to June 21 as I could - we were within 10 days of summer solstice for both. I just really enjoy the near 24 hour daylight. We had deep fjords and I was up a 4:30 to see the beautiful sail in - it was daylight and very beautiful. My opinion TN-Mountains is I would much prefer the June sailing, you would have 24 hour sun. Although there are no deep Fjords on those trips, those Northern stops look really beautiful to me (although I have never been to them, I enjoy looking at the 4k drone videos on youtube.) - You may want to check sunrise and sundown times for your october dates and locations just so you know. Good luck planning...

Certainly a balcony would be nice as there is a lot more to see from your cabin than on a Caribbean cruise. Although it will be chilly in October, it will also be cold (or colder) on the deck as opposed to your balcony. The sail in to fjords can be a couple hours so it is nice to view from your room. An ocean view would be an otion if you are looking to save money. One option is to book ocean view then keep an active watch on price fluxuations and switch to balcony if the opportunity is there. Are you pricing through the cuiseline? We like to book through one of the big box wharehouse clubs, saving a few hundred $ on a cruise line this.

I agree, you will see fjord twice from the ship: during the sail in and sail out. Kayaking would be fun, but i would not choose that just for the views of the fjord.

We just went on a Iceland / Ireland cruise on Celebrity Apex. A few years ago we went on a Norway cruise on Cunard QE. For both trips, there were kids but not many. However, both of those lines do not really cater towards kids, you may be better off on Royal, NCL or HAL etc. Personally, I like the idea of taking an 11 year old on international travel, it is such a gift even if there is some grumbling. My kids are adults now, but I took them cruising when they were young, I was a full time single dad and cruises were easy planning. I found that 11-15 years old was an ideal time to travel. 16 - 19 is tricky, they may hate you then (just kidding.......OK, maybe not just kidding). When your daughter is 21 she will love you again and want to travel. But then you may be talking 2 cabins, and there may be a boyfriend tagging along, and both of them might like the $79 filet mignon in the specialty restaurant and you will be paying for everything !! Kids grow up fast, take advantage while you can... Good luck planning.

I agree, thanks Cruisemom for posting. The idea to lift Venice for only $100m seems too good to be true, but you never know. I also found interesting the fact that they cannot overuse MOSE or it will affect the tides ability to clean out Venice waters. I never thought of that. A balancing act they need to consider before lifting the barriers.

We hired a private guide and spent am in portofino and pm in genoa just a you suggested. It was a great day. Took train / ferry but with a local guide transport was easy. Their website is gogenova.

I agree. Fjords in Norway are very beautiful, but a couple of Fjords is likely enough, if you are on a cruise. The coastal cities like Bergen are very interesting in there own right for different reasons. I think your situation comes down to if you want to do 2 countries with one trip and and thus have fewer stops at each, or you want to just concentrate on one country. I really enjoyed our Norway only cruise . Also enjoyed our Iceland / Ireland cruise a couple years later. I would give Norway the edge, however.

We have been on a Norway only cruise, an Alaska cruise and an Iceland (+ Ireland) cruise. I agree with jrmende63 in that I really enjoyed our Norway only cruise (more than Alaska). I would not shy away from Norway only cruise just because you have been to Alaska, it is quite different. That said, your suggested itinerary looks fine. My only concern would be it tackles a lot of countries / ports for one cruise. Our Iceland cruise as an example spend 2 days in Akureyri and 2 days in Reykjavik. Your suggested trip might be a bit of a whirlwind trip. Only one afternoon in Amsterdam is quite short for a city like that. As for cruiselines, we love Celebrity. We have only been on one NCL, and I thought it was a step down from Celebrity, but it was only one so I hate to make a generalization on NCL but that was our experience. I would prefer to leave from Amsterdam for a Northern Europe cruise rather than Southampton or Reykjavik and spend a few days in Amsterdam. Have fun planning!

well for summer of 2022 that would definitely not work. Amsterdam airport has been a disaster and they are recommending arriving 4 or 5 hours before your flight. We were there in June 2022 and it was as bad as advertised on the news. I assume you are looking for summer 2023 or later, we can only hope that Schiphol gets things under control by then. However, even with a smooth running airport, that time is too right for my comfort zone. I would spend a night, and enjoy Amsterdam for one more day post cruise. Other than the airport situation, I feel Amsterdam is a great city to start or end a cruise. The ships dock right downtown. Plus you get to see these giant ships go through a lock, which doesn't happen with hardly any other ports....

Oh boy, every itinerary you list looks awesome, you can't go wrong ! We went on a 7 day Cunard cruise to Norway out of Southampton. On a separate trip we went on a 12 day Celebrity cruise to Iceland and Ireland out of Amsterdam. Some thoughts: These two trips have been my favorite 2 out of about 20 cruises or so to various places, like I said you can't go wrong. If forced to decide between the two, I would say I would prefer Norway over Iceland. The sail in to the fjords in the early morning was spectacular and I think more beautiful than Iceland. Iceland has its own uniqueness however, especially all of the volcano and geothermal activity , etc. I agree that Bergen and Flam would be don't miss ports in Norway. Although we did not go to the Northern part of Norway, I think this would be really worth seeing. I am a bit of a geography nerd and so going to the farthest North latitude would be an adventure and something worth doing. I did like leaving from Amsterdam better than Southampton. Amsterdam is such an interesting city and you can walk to your ship from some downtown hotels, where as Southampton is of course a journey away from London. This depends on if you have already been to London or Amsterdam and if you have a desire to see the other, etc. Have fun planning, happy to answer questions if I can.

On our cruise the early morning views (sail in fjord) and evening views (sail out) were quite a bit different. sun angle, wind, etc. can make quite a difference. I really liked the early morning views, and as others have mentioned the evening tends to have a lot of ship activity going on ( dinner, etc.) and mornings are more quiet on the decks.

I would choose the 2nd. I would prefer to leave from amsterdam rather than southampton. Ships dock close to amsterdam Central and airport is short train ride to town. #2 over #3 due to date and daylight. Some of the fjords you may enter very early in the am, the closest date to june 21 would be desirable to me. Can't go wrong with any of them. Norway is beautiful.

Although I have not been on this specific excursion, we have been on a lot of cruises and excursions. I think part of the fun of cruising is sharing excursions with others and meeting people, either families, couples, or solo ... everyone seems to bring something interesting to the conversation.... I would honestly say, I would prefer to share my excursions with solos or couples over a larger family ... as sometimes those groups tend to dominate the excursion conversation, but all are welcome in my opinion... Have fun...

We were there in the last month, and I agree there were no tour companies at the pier. However, I would be surprised if you couldn't get a local tour company to re-view their tour times based on the ships arrival. I assume you are not the only one on the derailed tour, so there could be others asking the tour companies the same question. We went with SAGA tours.