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Shops and restaurants will all take cards. The only caveat is that some smaller vendors and unmanned payment terminals don’t accept magnetic-strip cards, so chip-and-pin or tap-to-pay options are more versatile. I haven’t carried cash in Norway since before COVID, and even back then I would carry around the same “just in case” 200 NOK note for several months without using it.

I haven’t used them specifically, but they’re listed on the VisitSvalbard.com official tourism site, so I wouldn’t worry too much. I do recommend reconfirming your booking and meeting details directly with the company. Especially since some tours may be canceled if there aren’t enough participants to warrant the trip. When we visited Longyearbyen on a traditional cruise, we reconfirmed everything with the local outfitter in andvance, and it all went smoothly.

If you’re looking for Norwegian fare, it tends to appear at either end of the spectrum. Expensive places for special occasions and cafeterias or local pubs. For the former, Den Gamle Rådhus (the old city hall) & Statholderens are the first that come to mind. In the latter category, Kaffistova and Dovrehallen are staples. There is one mid-range option I often suggest: Lorry pub and restaurant, northwest of the palace park. It has a long history as a meeting place for jour a lista and politicians and serves a few traditional dishes alongside more common pub fare. Oslo isn’t a Mecca for seafood like the west coast, but Fiskeriet serves some traditional fish soup, bacalao, etc. Vulkan Fisk at the Mathallen food hall is another affordable seafood venue. Norwegian salmon is widely available, and you’ll find plenty of sushi places around every corner offering it up cheap in its uncooked form. Just check reviews to find a good rated shop nearly anywhere in the city. Mostly locals dine out on foreign cuisines that are harder to make at home. Thai, Turkish, annd (North) Indian are common options, and there are a few good Italian pizzerias (Villa Paradiso, Mamma Pizza). There are a few food truck courts around the city offering smaller scale eatery options, but they can be a bit pricey if you want a lot of food. I’d recommend Vippa, Mathallen, and Via Vika as there has been some questionable predatory business choices by the owner of Oslo Streetfood and Bar Code Streetfod. One novel concept that I really like is the Posthallen bar court. It’s like a food truck court but for local cocktail bars, and a few of the mixologists have some great creations showcasing local flavors.

In the past, port calls were divided the Søndre Akershuskaia pier alongside the fortress and the Filipstadkaia pier to the west (marked on the map above). However, the port authority has moved most of the Akershuskai traffic nearly to the docking facilities on the opposite side of the peninsula at Revierkaia, across from the opera house. It has been improved to provide more sustainable shore power and is now taking far more large cruise ships than before. You can find the pier assignments here: https://www.oslohavn.no/globalassets/oslo-havn/dokumenter/cruise/forventede-cruiseanlop-8.2.2024.pdf SAK is Akershuskaia, the old pier alongside the fortress REV is Revierkaia on the opposite side of the Akershus peninsula FIL is Filipstadkaia, west of the city center Note that pier assignments do sometimes change before the arrival date.

If you’re also calling in Geiranger, the scenery is similar to the sail-in there (though still more narrow), so I might consider the train in that case. If you’re not, and dramatic fjords is what you’re in the area for, I’d do the Nærøyfjord cruise. I’ve taken the train a few times, and I always think it’s disappointing that you don’t get to see much of the fjord at all. It’s a nice pretty ride and interesting engineering, but if you’re there to see the iconic fjord scenery, I’d focus on that. There are mountain trains in other areas. The most interesting part to me is going from sea level to mountain plateau so quickly, and that really is astonishing and helps underscore how dramatic the fjord landscape is.

Lindblad has an excellent reputation, but if you're after 5-star dining and accommodations, you may be disappointed. Ponant has a long history in the luxury polar expedition market, but they don't offer camping. Regarding the Ultramarine, if you're in it for the luxury, maybe you can just factor the extra charges into the overall price. While Silversea doesn't have the long history of some of the others, the world of polar expedition staff is small, and most of them rotate between companies based on schedules and availability. I've seen several excellent staffers doing rotations on Silversea recently. The two main passenger thresholds are generally <150 and <250. Most ships that can carry under 150 passengers reduce that number far enough to have a single landing rotation. In the 150-250 range, you usually get the same number of landings but less time ashore. Traveling on a ship >250 passengers is pretty limiting and not something I would do unless it was enough of a bargain to just pick up an go for the hell of it. One thing to be aware of is that most Antarctica trips start at around 11 days (usually including one night pre-embarkation), so you may need to be a bit upwardly flexible on the timing. The suggestion to seek out a specialist travel agent is a good one. There's a lot of information within the polar travel community, but luxury is not the strong suit for most of us!

There's a description of the Princess excursion in this thread and it looks like there are some blogs/reviews posted further on: I've always just stayed on the ship, because the cruising between Hellesylt and Geiranger is some of the most iconic fjord scenery there is, so I never mind seeing it twice. There are waterfalls on both sides, so if you're watching from a balcony, that gives you the chance to see both sides. I prefer to be up on the upper decks where I can see easily switch sides as the scenery changes. And I watch the sail-out from an outdoor hot tub, for a different perspective, leaning back and looking up a the towering fjord walls above. Also recovering from my hikes up to some of the overlooks.

Northbound tends to be more popular among one-way tourists, in large part due to the longer calls and daytime arrivals in several of the cities. If you're in it for the scenery rather than the ports, the shorter times in port are less of a concern. The southbound route does have more daytime in Lofoten Islands. Since you're keen on the Northern Lights, you could also consider booking a shorter port-to-port trip to or from Tromsø and spending a few days in the city to chase the aurora. There are a lot of great aurora operations that track the surrounding microclimates and will drive you out to areas with clear skies when it's cloudy over the city.

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.

PS - If you want to eat reindeer, you’ll usually be able to find it in a few restaurants in most larger cities. And it’s fairly common in salami-style sausages (spekepølse) sold in most larger supermarkets.

If you are considering including northern Norway, I love Tromsø and Lofoten Islands (Leknes, Gravdal, or Svolvær) almost as much as the iconic fjords. Even in winter, reindeer sledding is not nearly as common as dogsledding. Reindeer are farmed for meat and hides more than for transportation. In the far northern plateaus, it’s not uncommon to see reindeer herds out grazing, as this is the area where it is most common, and the traditional Sami lifestyle is most prevalent. I’ve seen them en route to the Nordkapp (North Cape) landmark on an excursion from the Honningsvåg port.

My Falklands/South Georgia/Peninsula trip was with Hurtigruten, and we too sailed into the northern area of the Weddell Sea to cruise among the tabular bergs. It’s not my only peninsula trip to do so, since the tabular bergs are a popular highlight for ships already visiting Brown Bluff. If you’re referring to more southern areas in the Weddell Sea, then it’s true that Hurtigruten has not yet planned any Snow Hill or deep Weddell itineraries.

If you’re only interested in the fjords, it’s not the strongest option, but if you want to see most of Norway’s best highlights, it’s actually pretty lgood. As mentioned, Olden is the only iconic fjord port on the list, but Bergen, Lofoten, and Tromsø are my very top non-fjord port choices, and Honningsvåg is very popular for the visit to Nordkapp.

FWIW, my own Oceanwide trip wasn’t a basecamp itinerary, but it had several of the most experienced staff of any trip I’ve been on. More than one had done multiple seasons at research stations. In addition to all the usual knowledge of wildlife and history, the staff’s experience included a scientific expedition to collect readings inside the Erebus caldera, being at Deception Island during an eruption, multi-day scientific expeditions in the dry valleys, and even guiding a documentary trip for Steve Irwin.

I’ve heard some disappointment from people who joined the basecamp trips and were unhappy that there was less wildlife than they were expecting (since many of the landing sites were chosen for the activities rather than the nature). I would definitely only recommend them to someone wanting a more activity-focused trip. Pure speculation, but I think some of the issues with the expedition staff may come from the fact that they need guides with training and experience in the activities themselves, which leaves less staff capacity for region experts.

You’re looking for the trips that are typically referred to as “Fly-Cruise” trip. Quark Expeditions also offers one, and I think I’ve seen some from other expedition companies before. Keep in mind that the flights are even more weather-dependent than the rest of an Antarctic expedition, so there’s a chance of multi-day delays at either end. Be sure your travel to/from Punta Arenas has plenty of flexibility.

I think @PerfectlyPerth may have been to East Antarctica, but it’s not very often visited, so I don’t know of any other regulars who’ve been to that side of the continent. I’ve been to the area around Cape Adare and Robertson Bay, but no farther into East Antarctica.

I would not recommend boots if you’re not planning to hike. However, I do always recommend water-resistant footwear if you expect to do a lot of walking. I would usually wear GoreTex hiking shoes (not boots). If that’s not an option, you’ll probably be fine in tennis shoes, but they may get wet. Accessibility can be a challenge in some places, because a lot of older buildings aren’t set up for it. Just getting around should be fine as long as you’re okay with some uneven surfaces like isolated patches of cobbles, tram tracks, etc.

In the sheltered ports of southern Norway, weather disruptions are more common in the off-season (October to March) or the shoulder season (e.g. April or September). Strikes are a more common reason for missed ports in Norway, considering the number of people involved in docking a large cruise ship. I happened to be sailing during a large strike by the pilot boat drivers (not even the pilots themselves, but the captains of the boats that shuttle the pilots to the ships). However, strikes usually have fair warning, since the goal is to negotiate an agreement before it comes to that. So if you need to cancel 24 hours in advance, keep an eye on the news for ongoing labor disputes.

I haven't been there since before COVID, so I don't really remember.

I haven't been there since before COVID, so I don't really remember. You probably ought to buy them online if you're worried you might have to wait. If you're in port on a weekday, you could also consider stopping for a coffee on the way from the ship, and using the coffee shop wifi to buy the ticket (through the website or the app). [On weekends they probably wouldn't open early enough.]

If you're traveling in June, then I don't think there's a significant difference. In the winter, I'd definitely recommend the 8 am, since you'd have daylight for most of the trip, but in June that's not an issue. If you're traveling direct, I'd probably prefer the noon not just to avoid the early start, but also because the Norway in a Nutshell route would typically need to use the earlier departure to have time to make the side trip to Flåm and Gudvangen. So the noon departure is usually a bit less crowded with tickets available closer to travel.

I’d expect temperatures around 5-10°C with a chance of it going down to 0 or up to 15. Note that a lot of mountain roads will not be open at that time of year, and the seasonal tourism operations may not have started up yet.

My experience has been that there’s almost no line for departures early in the morning, and then it was much longer around late morning and mid-day before tapering off again in the afternoon. In addition to the website and app, you can also buy tickets from the ticket machines (which accept card). Note that there are separate queues to buy tickets and to board the funicular.

Also worth doing a quick search. There was a recent thread that mentioned the walkability of Visby, and Tallinn has been a favorite port for several years. It’s discussed less since the closing of St.Petersburg has reduced cruising in that are, but the older threads may still be relevant.