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7 Things That Trip Up Norway Fjords Cruisers Every Time!
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Jan 28, 2025
I take a look at the 7 things I find on every Norwegian Fjords cruise I've been on that keeps surprising, shocking or throwing Norwegian Fjord cruise passengers. Here is what anyone thinking of going on a Norway Fjords cruising vacation really needs to know GET EXCLUSIVE PERKS LIKE MEMBER-ONLY BONUS VIDEOS BY BECOMING A CHANNEL MEMBER: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Links mentioned in the videos: BUY MY CRUISE-THEMED T-SHIRTS ———————————————— * Check out my T-Shirt range at https://tipsfortravellers.myspreadshop.com , http://bit.ly/TFTStore or https://tips-for-travellers.creator-spring.com SUPPORT TIPS FOR TRAVELLERS ————————————————————— * Become a Channel Member and get perks: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com/Join * Become a Patron on Patreon and get perks: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * Make a donation: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=V9STJGYSEMGLJ * Buy my book “Cruise Traveler’s Handbook: USA Amazon https://amzn.to/2YVFmG4 and https://amzn.to/3tzIxBn UK Amazon https://amzn.to/3oXbzYc and https://amzn.to/3qawqIQ
View Video Transcript
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not one of the passengers I spoke to in
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the early days of my recent Norwegian
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fjords Crews had any inkling that the
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days of us cruising there could be
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numbered I'm Gary beverage and every day
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on that cruise I came across things
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about cruising the fjords that my fellow
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passengers have found were shocked
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surprised or even confused by it so I
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want to talk about those right here
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right now Norway has always been a very
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eco-focused country but it's really
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changing things quite dramatically
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Norway had decided that by 2025 they
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will only allow zero emission ships and
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ferries into UNESCO world heritage
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listed fjords so that includes places
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like garanga Fjord and narrow your field
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even places like flam are pushing back
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on eco grounds they won't even allow LNG
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ships it basically means that they'll
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need electric power chips of course
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there are none of those there's also by
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the away a strong lobbying group called
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Cruise not welcome and its members have
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been harassing Cruisers over the last
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couple of Seasons they put up thousands
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of posters in Bergen that I saw this
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past season but they've also been active
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in places like flam for example now of
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course there are many other fjords that
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are not UNESCO world heritage listed so
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it is possible that ships of course can
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still sell there however some of the
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most stunning and the most beautiful are
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the ones that are not surprisingly
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UNESCO listed and are going to be banned
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so there is a real chance that cruising
1:36
to the fields will become so very
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different this was a really big surprise
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I've found and probably is an extremely
1:43
good reason why you should consider
1:45
going cruising to the fjords soon one of
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the things I did find amusing is how
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many people were surprised that the
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Norwegian fjords were not like Alaska
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it's not only geographically different
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but I think many people expected an
1:59
Alaska cruise and a fjord cruise to be
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kind of interchangeable now I've done
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both recently I went to Alaska in June
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and I went to the fjords again in
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September and they are extremely
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different let me talk about some of the
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key differences that you need to expect
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first of all in the fjords there are
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many places that you can call on big and
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small loads of places that can
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accommodate ships in Alaska it's much
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more restricted so most of the major
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ships will call on three key ports Juno
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Ketchikan Skagway they may also go to
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places like Whittier to Sitka however in
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the fjords there are a myriad of places
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even some of the tiniest places you can
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imagine take cruise ships so you'll find
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that the itineraries are often a mixture
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of towns like savanga Bergen Olden and
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flam but you will also go into tiny
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little places like garanga while you
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still can with about 250 residents I
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went to I'd Fjord which has basically a
2:58
couple of hundred residents
3:00
on a Norwegian fjords Cruise the scenery
3:03
is constant because you're sailing deep
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within the fjords some are many hundreds
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of miles deep within the countryside
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whereas in Alaska you're basically
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traveling by Sea Coast to Coast from
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port to port so scenery is much more
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constant in the fjords it's around you
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almost all of the day and certainly well
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into the evening a Norwegian cruise is
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not as Wildlife focused in Alaska you're
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looking for Eagles Bears whales here it
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is much more nature and scenery focused
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you might see a couple of reindeer but
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it's not so much about the wildlife it's
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about the scenery the huge Cliffs the
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Magnificent forests the waterfalls it's
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also much less about glaciers in all my
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trips that have been on to the Norwegian
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fuels the only time I've actually seen
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Iglesia is when I went on a helicopter
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ride in Nord fjordide and I saw it in
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the distance it's also though of course
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to see summer glaciers in Norway some
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people for example went on excursions on
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my most recent trip to the brick style
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glacier
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there's one though big key similarity to
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Alaska both are very beautiful many
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people ask me should I do an Alaska or a
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Norwegian fjords Cruise
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the answer is both because they are very
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very different the third thing I want to
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talk about which is one of the most
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surprising things about doing a
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Norwegian fjords cruise is how far
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inland the ship sail even the big ships
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I've been on like to scalden on the
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Queen Elizabeth which was 135 miles
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Inland and recently on Disney Magic into
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I'd Fjord as I was mentioning which is
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over a hundred and ten miles inland
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there is a key difference between Norway
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and Alaska because you don't tend to get
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any experience quite like this on an
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Alaskan sailing you don't go that far in
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Land one of the biggest confusions which
4:58
can turn into one of the biggest
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surprises around the Norwegian fjords is
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linked to the weather
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and the Magical Northern Lights the
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weather in Norway is not great even in
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summer it usually only gets between say
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15 and 21 degrees Celsius I guess that's
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about 60 to 70 degrees in the daytime
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Fahrenheit it rains a lot just like in
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Alaska now what through people is they
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hadn't really packed as if they would if
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they were going to a very variable
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climate so heading into Norway I
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basically pack the same as I do for
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Alaska layers layers layers so I make
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sure I also have a really good outer
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layer to cope with all of the rain just
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as I do in Alaska now in the peak season
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which runs from May to about September
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in the fields it's light until very late
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these are the months of what's called
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The Midnight Sun so although a lot of
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people come to the fjords hoping to see
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the Northern Lights they will not see
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them then because it's the wrong time of
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the year it's too light you can be out
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on deck at midnight and it's like the
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middle of the day if you want to see the
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Northern Lights Cruise in the Autumn and
6:07
the winter months and head as far north
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as you can it will be very cold but
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November December January offer the
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greatest chance of seeing the northern
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lights in all their Glory plus of course
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there's also awesome winter related
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Shore Excursion options at that time
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people on my cruise in September towards
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the end of September though did actually
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get to see great views of the Northern
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Lights another thing that surprised
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people on my cruise was just how many
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options and permutations face you when
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they had been considering doing a
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Norwegian fjords Cruise it's a short
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season places can get really busy prices
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can be high and demand of course can be
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even higher because you can only really
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sell between May and September if you
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want to avoid snow boots and the cold
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which of course most people want to do
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so most Cruisers by the way tend to be
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packaged as seven night sailings and you
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have two key routes to choose from the
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first are a makes a few yours and towns
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it tends to be much more focused on the
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middle to southern part of Norway and
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most of those will Sail Out of very easy
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to get to Ports they'll sell out of the
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UK or Germany Holland Denmark or even
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Norway itself this is the classic and
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the most popular one with the most
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amount of Cruise Line Choice the second
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option that you should consider is a
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more intense Coastal trip that runs from
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Bergen in the South to kokenis in the
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North heading into the Arctic Circle
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there are very few lines that do this
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but the most common is hertigurton which
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has to purchase every single day now my
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suggestion if you're going for the first
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time is to do the route that I mentioned
7:43
first but with this also comes a
7:47
challenge because almost all Cruise
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Lines offer it so you could go with the
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resort type cruise lines like Royal
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Caribbean MSC you could go with more
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premium cruise lines like princess
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celebrity Pinot cruises UK
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or you could go with smaller ship lines
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like Saga or Fred Olsen or you could
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even go with German or Italian lines
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like Aida or Costa the choice is
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absolutely enormous when you go to the
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field so it's really important to decide
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what kind of experience you want so
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you're not basically unpleasantly kind
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of surprised so for example
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I went on cunard's Queen Elizabeth which
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gave me a more enrichment focused
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experience there were lots of lectures
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and lots of talks but when I went on
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Disney more recently there was Zero
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immersion it was much more about the
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onboard Disney Experience something that
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threw off a lot of people was excursions
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they tend to be expensive and they sell
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out really quickly however one of the
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things I would say is it's very very
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easy to find excursions at Hop On Hop
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Off buses in every single port even in
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the tiny ones there are a myriad of
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options and they are much better value
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than the cruise line ones so that's
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something to think about make sure
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though you do think about and plan
9:04
excursions in most of the places that
9:06
you visit some of the places are
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incredibly small so if you step off in
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scholden for example or you step off in
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either field there's pretty much nothing
9:15
to do in the actual town it's all about
9:17
going further afield so even if you do
9:19
through the cruise line or do it when
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you get off the ship or one of those
9:21
easy to book Things even bigger towns
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like Stavanger there's not a lot to do
9:27
in the town itself many of the
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excursions can by the way result in
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pretty long days because you're going
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further fields and a lot of people over
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exerted themselves because they
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basically booked six seven hour
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excursions every single day they were
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exhausted so pacing yourself is also
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very key when coming to the fjords
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there are a few more Excursion War
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charts that I think though that you need
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to know about first of all
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Norwegians are very active so they do
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tend to underplay the energy levels and
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the difficulty of Excursion so an
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Excursion that may be billed as moderate
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but it's often much much harder than
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people expect keep this in mind I kept
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hearing people talking about this next a
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key thing that surprises people and I've
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already mentioned it but I mentioned
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again is just how expensive many of
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these excursions are so please make sure
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that you budget for it one of the things
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that's surprised and actually
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disappointed people on all of the trips
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I've been on revolved around souvenirs
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people really want to come back from
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Norway with beautiful and authentic
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items the souvenir shops are everywhere
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but they're very tourist orientated and
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in my view they're packed with corny
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things many of which are actually not
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even made in Norway
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if you do want to bring back something
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from Norway that's unique and typically
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Norwegian then look at the knitwear with
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the distinct Norwegian snowflake design
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and of course
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they have trolls everywhere they're
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really popular always check on the label
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where they've been made I would stress
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again that Norway is very expensive the
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currency of the Norwegian krona because
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it's not the Euro the exchange rate is
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more complicated I found and I've saw so
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many people got really easily confused
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about how much they're paying for items
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and souvenirs so make sure you
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understand it on the plus side many of
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the souvenir shops will take euros and
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some will take dollars or UK Sterling
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the one right at the cruise port so
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that's will help a little bit when
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you're thinking about that now if you
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really want to do a Norwegian fjords
11:31
Cruise which I strongly recommend look
11:33
at this video where I give you very
11:35
specific tips on how to make the most of
11:38
a Norwegian Fjord Cruise starting with
11:41
the one tip everybody should focus on
11:43
first to make sure they get it right see
11:46
you over there
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