Please help me choose

[kimkencruzers]

Hi community,

Of these three cruises, any opinions as to which one stands out? Thank you for your thoughts. 

[gnome12]

5 minutes ago, kimkencruzers said:

Hi community,

Of these three cruises, any opinions as to which one stands out? Thank you for your thoughts. 

I’m not sure what you are looking for. But the third one, while having pretty good Norwegian stops, to me wastes way too much time going back and forth to Rotterdam. It is really 2 different Norway cruises (each with a few good - and different- ports) stuck together. 

[hallasm]

If Scotland and Iceland cruise #1 - if Norway #3

For Norway #3 Eidfjord is less interesting, Never heard about Farsund as cruise port and Sandnes  is located 10 miles south of Stavanger. Geiranger and Skjolden are located in the deep fjords. Bergen and Ålesund are nice coastal cities.

Edited December 24, 2023 by hallasm

[kimkencruzers]

Thank you for your responses.  This is a casino offer so that is why I have limited choices on only one particular line as well as vacation time restraints. 

Edited December 25, 2023 by kimkencruzers

[kimkencruzers]

I'm still so torn, I don't know much about each port because I just started researching:

 

 

cruise      positives                                                        negatives

 

1             Better Scotland port?                                     Have to travel to Rotterdam

              Newest Ship                                                   Travel on July 4th to get there

              Overnight Reykjavik?                                     No visit to Akureyri?

              Slightly better for my vacation time               no visit to Norway

                  Early July

 

2         Second newest ship                                         less desirable Scotland stop?

           Easier to leave from AMS                                no overnight in Reykjavik?

           Get to at least see one Norway stop

           Akureyri?

 

3         Newest ship                                                     Back to back waste of time to Rotterdam

          Good Fjords which i understand will                 Have to travel to Rotterdam from AMS

                limit access after 2026 and I usually          Might never get to see this scenery

                don't have the budget for small

                vessels like Viking, etc.

             

Edited December 25, 2023 by kimkencruzers

[hallasm]

20 minutes ago, kimkencruzers said:

Good Fjords which i understand will limit access after 2026 and I usually don't have the budget for small vessels like Viking, etc.

Do not fully understand your comment with reference to size of ship. There are no size limitations for the UNESCO Heritage fjords - only emission. Size doesn't matter for the deep fjords.

[puppycanducruise]

A couple of thoughts ....

It's easy to get from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, as a matter of fact, the train station is at the airport and runs often, don't let the travel from one city to another deter you.   This past spring we took a cruise from Rotterdam, flew to Amsterdam and took the train to Rotterdam then a cab to our hotel the day before the cruise.  Our hotel was a short walk to the ship. 

I guess you have to chose between a short visit to Norway or a stop in Edinburgh.

As to option #3, since it appears to be 2 7 day cruises B2B, you could take only 1 cruise and spend more time in the Netherlands before or after your cruise and still not be away from work for too long.  You could spend several days in Amsterdam, there's so much to see there, do a few day trips to other areas and still get to Rotterdam for the cruise.

Lots of decisions.

[kimkencruzers]

11 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Do not fully understand your comment with reference to size of ship. There are no size limitations for the UNESCO Heritage fjords - only emission. Size doesn't matter for the deep fjords.

Thank you for clarifying.  I appreciate it!

[kimkencruzers]

13 minutes ago, puppycanducruise said:

A couple of thoughts ....

It's easy to get from Amsterdam to Rotterdam, as a matter of fact, the train station is at the airport and runs often, don't let the travel from one city to another deter you.   This past spring we took a cruise from Rotterdam, flew to Amsterdam and took the train to Rotterdam then a cab to our hotel the day before the cruise.  Our hotel was a short walk to the ship. 

I guess you have to chose between a short visit to Norway or a stop in Edinburgh.

As to option #3, since it appears to be 2 7 day cruises B2B, you could take only 1 cruise and spend more time in the Netherlands before or after your cruise and still not be away from work for too long.  You could spend several days in Amsterdam, there's so much to see there, do a few day trips to other areas and still get to Rotterdam for the cruise.

Lots of decisions.

thank you, yes, I am not really deterred by the extra train ride, its just a small negative to list while trying to decide.  With any of the three choices, I would spend at least two nights extra in Amsterdam for sure. 

[kimkencruzers]

I thought i was going crazy.. I believe Holland America just changed the itinerary for this cruise, removing Alesund. Thoughts on doing the entire B2B or just the first or second part? I agree about the waste of time to go back to Rotterdam in between cruises, but I don't want to miss any good opportunities before they are restricted. Thank You 

[hallasm]

2 hours ago, kimkencruzers said:

I believe Holland America just changed the itinerary for this cruise, removing Alesund. Thoughts on doing the entire B2B or just the first or second part? I agree about the waste of time to go back to Rotterdam in between cruises, but I don't want to miss any good opportunities before they are restricted.

Looks like Ålesund is replaced by Nordfjordeid and Molde.

For this Itinerary only sailings to Geiranger will be restricted from 2026 - hence only second cruise if only doing one. No restrictions for all the other ports of call.

In addition to Geiranger, restrictions sailing to Flåm from 2026.