Too much more of the same in Norway?

Don't intend to get people riled up! Please! Know your experience is what you make it etc. I am in mid-60s in good shape traveling with 72yo husband in excellent shape. Like to do mild hiking and outdoors-ish activities. European travel limited to one visit to Edinburgh. Have done a wonderful cruise to Alaska and have a deposit down on a NCL 9 day to Norway in June 2018. Think that might be something like the Alaska trip. Would like start booking air reservations soon for best prices. Could still do a different cruise. Have been reading a lot of CC reviews. Still not sure if the Fjord Cruise isn't one small port very similar to the last. In the rain. ;). Don't travel a lot so this trip is a big deal to us. Any thoughts? Don't be mean.

I would never book air so far out. More like start pricing 4-5 months prior booking then when the prices start coming down. I usually book about 3 months in advance.

A valid question and one I've seen before, in one form of the other, particularly as compared to Alaska. Caveat, I've not done Norway yet but dh and I have been eyeing it. We did do a Baltic cruise, and from what I've read Norway is for stunning scenery and outdoors activities, the Baltic is for culture, as a very bare bones description. If outdoor activities are a priority, Norway would be better than some other European itineraries. If that isn't your priority and you want something significantly different from Alaska, then you might want to look at other itineraries. I loved our Baltic cruise.

As an aside, throw a side trip in to Iceland. You'll get stunning scenery, hiking if you wish, and there is no where like it on the planet. IcelandAir lets you do a stopover one way for up to 7 days.

I'm not sure what your itinerary is.

We did a 7 day Norway cruise this past May with stops in Eidfjord, Gerainger, Alesund and Bergen.

The fjords were beautiful.

Each town was a different.

We enjoyed our cruise, only wish it was longer and we could visited more of Norway - maybe next time.

We have done many Alaskan cruises - start another one next week.

However - we loved Norway! Will do it again, as we could not get enough of it. The scenery, the food, the people, the museums - fantastic. We cruised on the Celebrity Connie out of Amsterdam to the Norway coast all the way to North point and back south, in and out of fjords and stops in seaport towns. The celebration of passing over the Arctic Circle was so much fun; the ports were alive with all kinds of activities (or chose to do nothing but people watch from a sidewalk cafe).

We skipped Iceland - the airfare stopover there was priced beyond what we would pay. Will try again on next over-Atlantic flight; it also appears that Iceland may begin to limit tourists, as Venice has already decided to do.

We encourage you to sail Norway; select a cruise with lots of stops and few sea days - call it port intensive!

We have recently done both an Alaska and Norway cruise (in the last year.) Loved them both. Had great weather for both.

Similar but still quite different cruises. I would say I give the nod to Norway. I think we enjoyed that trip more. Alaska will have more wildlife sightings, but the Norway Fjords are very beautiful. Day hiking and biking is plentiful in Norway. There is also a culture there to experience that is missing in Alaska (or at least different.)

Norway is an interesting place. Rates very high if not number 1 on a number of world rankings (standard of living, per cap. income, quality of life, etc.) For that reason alone, it is worth investigating.

Have fun....

I'm glad to see actual BTDT advice. Norway sounds amazing. So many places to see, so little time and money!

Just a couple of thoughts....from my perspective.

We have cruised 4 times to Alaska and absolutely love it. Already have another cruise scheduled for next year.

We are very similar to you in that we are in our early 60's and very active..hiking, biking, kayaking...and anything else active is our choice. We also haven't done much international travel...spend most of our travel in Alaska, Hawaii and last year did a full transit Panama cruise. We leave next week for a 14 day Norwegian fjords cruise on princess. I picked this cruise because is only had 2 at sea days and 10 port days. I figured if we are going there we should make the most of it. We are also spending extra time in the England countryside and london.

Regarding booking air, I always book air through princess. Here's my reason. I can change my air anytime before final payment. So once I book, I watch the flights and prices. For our flight to England on this trip, I originally booked (through princess) with British airways. Prices was around $1900 roundtrip for two people. I kept changing as prices went down and ended up with non stop from SFO for 525.00 each round trip! You do have to look at prices but I just set up flight alerts on hopper and then check when it says flights have gone down.

I can give you more feedback after our trip....just let me know and we can exchange emails. Sounds as though everyone else who has done both Alaska and Norway have also given positive feedback....enjoy your planning!

All the ports in Norway are different and the fjords all have their own particular scenery. They're not all small ports by any means. A typical cruise will include cities such as Bergen or Stavanger.

I would never book air so far out. More like start pricing 4-5 months prior booking then when the prices start coming down. I usually book about 3 months in advance.

If you can book flight with short notice you might get good deals, however I have notice that the number of Norwegian fjords cruises has been reduced and the good cruises might be sold out. Best price I found for an August 2017 Norway cruise was USD 1.000

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So many kind and thoughtful answers. Thanks to all for your time.

It doesn't rain that much. I'm helped because I usually travel with my mother who appears to be some kind of weather goddess (basically it never rains on her holidays), but even so in summer there's more sun than rain. As for being a bit samey, imagine Alaska's Glacier Bay - if you've been there, you wouldn't then reject Tracey Arm or Endicott Arm as being unworthy of attention. You might get more than one three-hour sail-in through a fjord with 3,000 foot mountains right on the water's edge and cliffs and waterfalls all the way along, but I think you'll find you won't have had your fill of that in one day! ;) Besides, the cities are quite different.

For me it was to sail through the Norwegian fjords one of my greatest experiences on cruises.

Well, the towns are small but very different and beautiful nature experiences await.

Below examples of cruising the magnificent Norwegian fjords, Bergen and Geiranger

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Timing good - June about the best weather wise and also for those long nights (no darkness at all if you go further north), though cannot guarantee a lack of rain at any time. We have spent several weeks up there in total over the last ten years and only had a couple of days of rain though, and if it does rain it is unlikely to span the whole day.

9 days will not get you very far though, so will just be doing the fjords in the south and a couple of towns and are highly unlikely to get across the arctic circle. If you take longer (approx 2 weeks) then you could also get to North Cape and see more of a variety on the way. Personally though, if spending so much on flights to come from North America, I would definitely consider Spitzbergen, which will not take much more than two weeks and is so very special because of the remoteness - totally different to the busy ports in Alaska. You will also be much further north than Alaska, though the only snow and ice you will see at that time of year will be on the mountain tops. There will be little or no snow in the more southerly fjord region in June. It is often not understood by Americans just how much effect the gulf stream has on our climate. We were in the jaccuzzi on a ship in one of the Spitzbergen ports. If you do go to North Cape and/or Spitzbergen, you will likely be seeing something of the fjords on the way there and if you go on a small ship, rather than the big ships of NCL etc. you will find they travel up the inside passage, so 'sea days' are actually scenic cruising rather than spent out at sea.

Iceland does have impressive sights but you would need to travel inland for those, not just stay near a hotel or port.

Greenland is the place we travel to for views of ice and our Greenland cruise a couple of years back was amazing from that perspective (Prins Christiansund, and Narsarsuaq being particularly impressive (but will not be done on a big ship). I have tried searching for Greenland cruises from North America as we have Canadian relatives and you are nearer than us, but it seems to me that the prices within our budget only sail from European ports (we sailed from Liverpool). Sadly all I could find from over your way is expedition cruises at extortionate prices.

OP -- thanks for asking this question. I was wondering the same thing.

I've gone to Alaska 4x and dearly love it, so I had 2nd thoughts about Norway.

Thanks, Everyone, for your responses.