Norwegian 10 Day Cruise Northern Europe; Iceland & Norway

[Heyjude555]

We are looking at a 10 day cruise that goes to Iceland & Norway on the Norwegian Prima Ship.  The ship was built in 2022 with a different design than most of the bigger ships.  We have never sailed with Norwegian and would like some input into this cruise line as far as service, quality of cruise, etc.  We saw several reviews on the Prima Ship that were not good.  They said the smaller restaurants that were scattered around the ship were not adequate for the number of passengers.  I think it holds 3000 guests.  They complained about the service and the long lines trying to get into all of the restaurants, bars and lounges.

Also, if anyone has done this trip I am concerned that a ship this size will be too large to adequately access the Norway Fjords in order to fully experience their beautiful scenery/landscape.   Were the few stops in Iceland enough to appreciate this country?  The pictures make it look amazing but they are only making a few stops and wanted to know if that is enough to make it worthwhile to include on this trip; or if it would be better to focus on the Norway Fjords and book a trip to Iceland at a later date.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Edited May 12, 2023 by Heyjude555
want to check follow this topic

[DCGuy64]

9 minutes ago, Heyjude555 said:

We are looking at a 10 day cruise that goes to Iceland & Norway on the Norwegian Prima Ship.  The ship was built in 2022 with a different design than most of the bigger ships.  We have never sailed with Norwegian and would like some input into this cruise line as far as service, quality of cruise, etc.  We saw several reviews on the Prima Ship that were not good.  They said the smaller restaurants that were scattered around the ship were not adequate for the number of passengers.  I think it holds 3000 guests.  They complained about the service and the long lines trying to get into all of the restaurants, bars and lounges.

Also, if anyone has done this trip I am concerned that a ship this size will be too large to adequately access the Norway Fjords in order to fully experience their beautiful scenery/landscape.   Were the few stops in Iceland enough to appreciate this country?  The pictures make it look amazing but they are only making a few stops and wanted to know if that is enough to make it worthwhile to include on this trip; or if it would be better to focus on the Norway Fjords and book a trip to Iceland at a later date.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

When is your cruise? I would definitely make sure the ports you were promised are still on the itinerary, because recent reports point to Norway closing some ports altogether, particularly behemoths like Prima. And this where I stick my usual disclaimer about not trusting reviews. People who complain are usually in the minority, so take those with a grain of salt.

[Heyjude555]

Haven’t booked it yet, looking at next summer. Also looking at Oceania smaller ship.

Thanks!

[CCJack]

I do not think a ship of that size would be a problem in the Norwegian Fjords..    The Fjords are deep.   Note that there are only a couple of long Fjords that the mainstream cruiselines go to (Flam and Gerangier- I think, you can confirm by looking at map.)   I would make sure you choose a cruise that goes to at least one of these.   We were on Cunard QE, which is a big ship and had no problem docking in Flam.   There was a HAL ship that was larger than ours in Flam as well.    The sail into Flam through the Fjord (about 2 hours) was the highlight of our trip, I thought.

 

We took that Cunard cruise to Norway and a separate Celebrity cruise to Iceland.   

 

Both are great trips, but very different.   The Norway cruise was my favorite cruise ever (of about 20), so I would vote for a Norway cruise only.    Iceland is unique in itself, with all of geothermal springs, lava relics, etc.   However, there are few trees in Iceland and very few mammals, so it is very different than Norway.    Norway is a great cruise destination with viewing the Fjords from the ship, while Iceland is mostly land based excursions.   Many people say land vacations are better than cruises in Iceland.  We  were only on the cruise to Iceland and so I can't compare to a land vacation.   It was a great cruise as well, but I liked Norway better....  

Edited May 12, 2023 by CCJack

[kitkat343]

I'm not exactly sure what your itinerary is - you can post it here or on the Northern Europe board because there are people on that board who are very familiar with Norway.

 

If it is the Prima cruise leaving this May I  found in a very quick google search, you are scheduled to visit 2 beautiful fjords, Geiranger and Alesund plus Bergen, which is a nice city but not a fjord.    The most popular fjords on the Northern Europe Board are Geiranger  and Flam  and I also really loved Olden (from Olden you can easily visit both the Loen Skylift and Brisdal Glacier).  In Geiranger the highlight is driving to the beautiful mountaintops, but please note that the road to the highest points is seasonal, and opens after the big annual avalanche (usually mid-May to early June).  Flam has the amazing railway.  I haven't been to Alsund, but it much loved on the Northern Europe forums.

 

You can post your itinerary there and they can explain the various options in Norway, and it would depend on what you want to do - you might want to go all the way up the Northern coast and they can explain the advantages of that.  

 

Please note though that NCL has been dropping ports for reasons other than emergencies (on my cruise it was for environmental reasons after final payment.)  On my cruise NCL continued to advertise the original itinerary without updating their website to reflect the dropped port and morning of another.  Passengers were not allowed to make changes to a later sailing that actually reached the advertised itinerary, even those who bought directly from NCL after the ports were dropped and were not warned of the port changes by NCL reps when they bought the cruise directly from NCL.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2023 by kitkat343

[kitkat343]

10 minutes ago, DCGuy64 said:

When is your cruise? I would definitely make sure the ports you were promised are still on the itinerary, because recent reports point to Norway closing some ports altogether, particularly behemoths like Prima. And this where I stick my usual disclaimer about not trusting reviews. People who complain are usually in the minority, so take those with a grain of salt.

Norway is requiring some heritage fjords (such as Geiranger) only be visited by zero emission ships I believe starting in 2025.  The Northern Europe board people know a lot about those regulations so if you post your itinerary there they can help you.

[ontheweb]

We have been booked on this cruise except in the other direction since 2021. The Norway ports are the ones mentioned in an earlier post. The ship also goes to Zeebrugges for Bruge and Amsterdam. The 10 day cruise would have 2 ports in Iceland. Ours has a 3rd port, an overnight in Reykjavik.

 

Our only problem so far is when do we dock in Reykjavik. NCL says 7 AM while the port guide says 13:30 (1:30 PM). That makes it difficult to figure when to do a private excursion,

 

Oh, also NCL is saying the only tender port is Geiranger, but according to everything I have read Isafjordur, Iceland is a tender port except for small ships. In addition, the tour guide for the private tour we have booked says to meet her at the place where the tenders come in.