British Isles v. Northern Europe Cruise

[JayhawkCruiser]

Hey Everyone!

I need some opinions here to help me decide which cruise the Mrs and I should choose for 2019.
Both are almost identically priced and just a week a part so date and price are non-factors here.

Option 1: 7-night British Isles
Ports of Call - Dublin, Belfast, Greenock, Liverpool

Option 2: 7-night Northern Europe
Ports of Call - Copenhagen, Oslo, Kristiansand, Bergen

 

[FSU Girl]

I think it'll depend on what you're more interested in. I think the British Isles cruise sounds fun.

 

[DisneyPiPhi]

Who is cruising? What type of experience do you want to have? (Active, history-focused, etc.) What are your interests?

 

[JayhawkCruiser]

Who is cruising? What type of experience do you want to have? (Active, history-focused, etc.) What are your interests?

It would be my wife and I (late 20s/early 30s). We both enjoy history and site seeing in general. When we went on a Med. cruise last year with DCL we chose to visit the historical sites in Rome, Pompeii, and Florence rather than beaches or shop.

 

[aggiedog]

Up front, I've never done a BI cruise, have spent a month backpacking England. We did a Baltic DCL 3 yrs ago. I'd do the Northern Europe. It's probably easier to navigate England on your own than Norway, and Copenhagen is a really nice city. If you really want to splurge, add on several days in England. It's quite easy to get around England.

 

[ldo]

First--do you want to be based out of CPN or London?
Norway is easy DIY--Bergen:funicular to top of mtn, Hanseatic museum, cute old town area to walk around, CPH lots to do, we didn't go to other ports, but had Gerainger and Alesund, which had lots of outdoors things to do. Scenery is gorgeous--similar to Alaska (from photos I have seen of Alaska). I'd research to find out if you would get that scenery on your sail--as most of it was going into Gerainger.
Doing BI this summer--here's what we have planned:
Dublin-DIY train to Kilkenny or Howth or Greystones to Bray hike, all via train. Also Temple Bar area of Dublin looks interesting.
Greenock-DIY train to Stirling castle. also look at WOW Scotland for ideas for Greenock. Can also train to EDI if you have a longer day.
Belfast-tour to Giants Causeway. also popular are Game of Thrones tours.

 

[Lill]

Copenhagen, Bergen and also Kristiansand and Oslo (my home town) are nice cities and Copenhagen and Oslo worth exploring several days (Oslo looks boring at first look but there’s so much more on the scene not discovered when spending just a few hours) BUT you’re not going to get the scenery even close to Geiranger in these ports!

 

[DisneyWishes14]

Full disclosure, I haven't been to any of those British Isles ports but I've been to all of the Northern European ones and they are SPECTACULAR! I would do that cruise again in a heartbeat.

 

[mousefan73]

The northern europe routes would be more time, hastle, cost on your own as land only than the BIs. I would choose NE as a cruise makes getting from A to B easy. GB and Ireland are so easy to do on your own without a cruise ans IMO much more time needed for the cities than a cruise offers. Ireland driving coast to coast is under 3 hrs. Try getting from Oslo to Bergen on your own. Not so easy

 

[LeslieG]

I have not done the BI cruise but have done Norway, and I personally would not do a Norway itinerary that did not include Geiranger. For me it was the highlight.

 

[abdgeek]

I did the DCL Northern Europe cruise in 2016 when it went to Norway, Iceland & Scotland. I think it was 11 or 12 days then. It left from Copenhagen and returned to Dover, England. I spent a week in London prior to the trip because it was cheaper to get a round trip ticket to there and book a separate one from there to Copenhagen. I also spent 2-3 days in Copenhagen before the cruise sightseeing. Like you, I love history and always check out the historical things/museums in each city I visit. Of the cities in Norway we visited, I liked Oslo the best. I got to see The Scream, Vigeland, and the Olympic ski jump. Kristiansand and Bergen didn’t do much for me because there wasn’t much to see IMO.

I never made it to Liverpool when I was in London, but it was on my list to do the Beetles & Tate Liverpool museums. I didn’t like the new itineraries DCL came up with when they split the cruise apart. I want to do Ireland, but will probably do the ABD to get the itinerary I want. I would suggest looking at the DCL tours offered to get an idea of which cruise you want to do. Other than Oslo and Bergen, the other ports required bus transportation to get to the sites.