When G and I plan our trips away it normally starts with me saying, “G I have found us a really cheap flight / deal” and our Norway Fjords Cruise was no exception.
I get so many travel emails daily with all the latest deals and one that caught my eye was a Norwegian Fjord cruise for £399! Score, I called G and he said OK get the details, I did, we booked the trip and paid an extra £50 on top of the £399 price to get an outside cabin. Money that was well spent!
Norway was on my “if I won lotto travel wish list” as I had always heard it was more expensive than Sweden and oh my goodness Sweden was expensive! A six night cruise to Norway for £399 sounded to good to be true.
The cruise ship was the Marco Polo and to be honest, this ship isn’t the flashiest of ships you will ever encounter however it got us safely from A to B and back to A again which was all we wanted. What gives the Marco Polo ship a slight edge is that it’s a lot smaller than other cruise ships hence it is able to go into more Fjords and smaller harbours hence the cruises on offer can differ greatly from other cruise companies which have larger ships.
If you have ever seen me on a boat you will know that me and the open sea don’t get on well together, I get very sick so I was pretty worried about spending 6 nights at sea on a ship however I just kept thinking I didn’t get sick on an oil tanker so I was hoping the size of the vessel was going to help me out and it did. The staff did offer sea sickness tablets to anyone that might need them which was cute.
Our cruise was leaving from the English port of Tilbury so we didn’t have to worry about flights which was great. After leaving Tilbury we started the journey across the North Sea on a pretty clear day, there were no choppy seas and even the sun was out (it was April!). G and I went for a walk around the ship and up onto the decks only to find that the English passengers were out sun bathing as we were going full steam across the North Sea – it was bloody cold to say the least but they were in their swimming costumes working on their tans. G and I decided to take a seat on the deck and try and count how many oil rigs we could see. However the difference between G and I and the rest of the passengers was that we were wrapped up in blankets trying to keep warm, not sun bathing!
This was our first cruise and it was an enjoyable experience. You get to wake up in a new place each day which is pretty awesome in my world. The Norwegian Fjords are stunning and well worth a visit and they remind me of New Zealand. There are tiny little villages dotted around the Fjords so at times you feel like you have stepped back in time.
Obviously the cruise staff will try and get you to purchase their day trips as that is how they make money out of the passengers however most of the time you can grab a taxi or public transport from the port to wherever you want to visit without having to pay a fortune. We only booked the one day trip as it was a full day trip and it took in Voss and the Flam Railway and unfortunately it was a pretty difficult to do this trip by yourself but it will so well worth the money. The Flam Railway has to be one of the best train journeys in the world and the scenery is out of this world with waterfalls, rivers and snow capped mountains around every bend.
Our last stop before heading back to England was Bergen, this was the most cosmopolitan place that we visited while in Norway and it gave us the ability to wander around the town, do a bit of shopping and see if Norway was really that expensive after all. The answer was yes – I did the Milky Way price check – £4 for a Milky Way bar (OK it was a double one!) and I didn’t share it with G.
As we were in Bergen we thought we might have lunch in the town after we took the Bergen Funicular to the top of the mountain to get some incredible views overlooking Bergen. There was a nice place selling fish and chips however the £15 price tag each kind of put us off so we walked back to the cruise ship for our all inclusive 3 course lunch as you do!
What did I buy other the selfish flavoured Milky Way bar, well I bought the compulsory tacky fridge magnet (we need a bigger fridge!) and I bought a lovely wool blanket with reindeer’s all over it and I love it. G kept asking why I bought it as we wouldn’t use it however I can report you will find G snuggled under the blanket from time to time.
If you are looking for a cheap way to visit Norway then I suggest booking a cruise as it includes all your accommodation, food and transportation costs between towns – all you need to do is pay for your drinks and any excurisons you book or decide to do yourself.
I wasn’t too sure if cruising was going to be for me really however they offered Bingo every morning and I was there with my bells on! G decided to come down on the last day along with most of the other passengers who were trying to win the jack pot to pay off their bar bills!
G and I were the youngest passengers on board and we did encounter a certain snobbery from some of the older passengers however this didn’t bother us too much to be honest.
I found our Norwegian Cruise deal on the Travel Zoo Cruise section and there are always a few Norwegian cruises available so just keep checking and you can get some really good deals. Just check where in Norway the cruise is going as the itineraries can vary between Cruise company.
If you want to cruise on the Marco Polo Cruise ship then there is currently a deal going to visit the Dutch Gardens during Easter.
We really enjoyed the cruise and found it really relaxing way to travel.
xx
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