European Cruises 2017 - What have you heard?

[Disneymadhouse]

August is still the UK schools summer holidays, so us Brits gets to holiday fairly close to home with just a short 2 hour flight to Barcelona, some lovely warm weather ( which is definitely not guaranteed in the UK in summer!), and Disney can charge huge amounts as its the school holidays! Win win all round!!

Claire

 

[Danni75]

I completely agree with the August madness! I guess it is a price game ; the magic is not in Europe all year long and port prices go up during more desirable periods.
Maybe they also want to avoid competition at certain dates...

 

[Flossbolna]

I think the reason for the Northern European cruises taking place early in the reason is that May, June and July are the long days with so much daylight. That is considered to be part of the appeal of these cruises.

Examples:
Alesund, Norway: June 10: sunrise at 3:41am, sunset at 11:28pm; August 15: sunrise at 5:38am, sunset at 9:39
Rome, Italy: June 10: sunrise at 5:34 sunset at 8:44; August 15: sunrise at 6:18am, sunset at 8:09pm

Having been on a Norway cruise, I can tell you that the late sunset was definitely one of the great things on this cruise!

 

[Danni75]

Fair point - I will be enjoying that myself soon end of May !

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

Assuming that Amsterdam is one of the ports while the Magic is in the north - what are some "new" itineraries that this could include? Or do you think we will be looking at the Baltic capitals and Norway and British Isles? I wonder if any of you DISers have cruise experience in this part of the world that might give us some more insight.

 

[Danni75]

Amsterdam is located in such a way it is more than improbable that it would be part of any other itinerary than the Baltic, Fjords or Northen Europe

 

[SillyInventor]

Amsterdam is a great place to start a cruise. The Central trainstation is at the other side of road with a very frequent direct service to Schiphol Airport. And most important: it's half an hour's drive from my frontdoor...

It's pretty close (les then a night of cruising) from Dover, so could easily be included in a cruise around Britain. And the cruise terminal is right in the city center, which is great. It's just a 10m walk to Central squares of the city.

 

[kaseyC]

We looked at that cruise and ultimately ended up on the very similar NCL cruise that sailed on 6/5/15. It was less than half the cost for a similar room (we booked a mini-suite) and we got the dining and beverage packages included. Maybe with the port intensive cruises, people aren't seeing the value in Disney. Right now we've got a 10-night Med booked on NCL that is crazy cheap ($3100 for the 3 of us!). Of course it's also the end of March and only 1 week coincides with the kiddo's spring break. So he'll have to miss 1 week of school to go. I'm still watching for everyone's summer dates!

NCL is sending the Jade to sail the Western Europe and Norway in 2017 ( passengers will be able to board in Southampton, Hamburg and Amsterdam) and they are sending the Getaway to sail their 9 night Baltic itinerary out of Copenhagen. Should be some great prices.

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

I think the reason for the Northern European cruises taking place early in the reason is that May, June and July are the long days with so much daylight. That is considered to be part of the appeal of these cruises.

Examples:
Alesund, Norway: June 10: sunrise at 3:41am, sunset at 11:28pm; August 15: sunrise at 5:38am, sunset at 9:39
Rome, Italy: June 10: sunrise at 5:34 sunset at 8:44; August 15: sunrise at 6:18am, sunset at 8:09pm

Having been on a Norway cruise, I can tell you that the late sunset was definitely one of the great things on this cruise!

Thanks for this - Norway in June - July sounds wonderful! Not sure when folks sleep, though

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

In Iceland last summer (July) we barely went dark several nights - like 1-2 hours if that and it was INSANE the beauty of the sunset, then sunrise after and so amazingly beautiful. For those "worried", no issues sleeping at all as the curtains are very thick and overlap and stay closed so no sunlight comes in, unless you want sunlight coming in.

Heather

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

NCL is sending the Jade to sail the Western Europe and Norway in 2017 ( passengers will be able to board in Southampton, Hamburg and Amsterdam) and they are sending the Getaway to sail their 9 night Baltic itinerary out of Copenhagen. Should be some great prices.

I meant to quote you in my last post, oops. I remember reading about this (the Getaway heading over) so have they released that itinerary anywhere that we can see what it is? I was looking online the other day and didn't see it but felt like I read it was officially released yet if that makes sense. I'm always comparing at least and would love to see this itinerary and pricing.

Thanks,
Heather

 

[Pens Fan]

I meant to quote you in my last post, oops. I remember reading about this (the Getaway heading over) so have they released that itinerary anywhere that we can see what it is? I was looking online the other day and didn't see it but felt like I read it was officially released yet if that makes sense. I'm always comparing at least and would love to see this itinerary and pricing.

Thanks,
Heather

I've been looking for those as well. They were originally supposed to be released last week, but I saw on the NCL CC board that someone had called NCL and those particular itineraries would not be released until this coming week. We already have our 2017 vacation booked, but I'm still intrigued by this. My husband travels all over Germany frequently for business and loves Hamburg.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I've been looking for those as well. They were originally supposed to be released last week, but I saw on the NCL CC board that someone had called NCL and those particular itineraries would not be released until this coming week. We already have our 2017 vacation booked, but I'm still intrigued by this. My husband travels all over Germany frequently for business and loves Hamburg.

Thanks for sharing

Heather

 

[krisinparis]

Anyone else here of any new ports being "discovered"?

 

[momof2n2]

I'm eager to see the transatlantic itinerary. Some of the past ones appeal to me. Others do not.

 

[Pens Fan]

Thanks for sharing

Heather

I just checked their website and NCL now has the northern European itineraries available for booking. It looks like the Getaway is sailing to the Baltic capitals and the Jade is running a mixture of Norwegian fjord cruises and Western European capitals cruises.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

I just checked their website and NCL now has the northern European itineraries available for booking. It looks like the Getaway is sailing to the Baltic capitals and the Jade is running a mixture of Norwegian fjord cruises and Western European capitals cruises.

Thanks for sharing! Anything excite you enough to change your 2017 plans? I'll go look in a little bit ...

Heather

 

[Pens Fan]

Thanks for sharing! Anything excite you enough to change your 2017 plans? I'll go look in a little bit ...

Heather

Not really. I was hoping for a northern cape cruise. They have run those the last couple of years and they go all the way to the northern tip of Norway, but it doesn't appear that they are doing that in 2017 - or at least they haven't released it yet. There are two Norwegian Fjord cruises out of Hamburg that look fabulous - one includes Kirkwall which I would love to return to, but the dates don't work for us. I also would love to sail on the Getaway just to try it, but we tend to go more for the cruises that are more for outdoor activities and scenery rather than large cities, so that one is probably out.

It's all good, though! We have Alaska booked and it will be our first time going to Glacier Bay after seeing Tracy Arm twice. I'm not complaining . We are branching out from the mouse on NCL, but I'm sure it will be fine. It's Alaska, how could it not be???

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Not really. I was hoping for a northern cape cruise. They have run those the last couple of years and they go all the way to the northern tip of Norway, but it doesn't appear that they are doing that in 2017 - or at least they haven't released it yet. There are two Norwegian Fjord cruises out of Hamburg that look fabulous - one includes Kirkwall which I would love to return to, but the dates don't work for us. I also would love to sail on the Getaway just to try it, but we tend to go more for the cruises that are more for outdoor activities and scenery rather than large cities, so that one is probably out.

It's all good, though! We have Alaska booked and it will be our first time going to Glacier Bay after seeing Tracy Arm twice. I'm not complaining . We are branching out from the mouse on NCL, but I'm sure it will be fine. It's Alaska, how could it not be???

Yep agree with me - nothing stands out itinerary and price wise like I "need to do it". I'm still waiting on DCL for 2017 so we'll see how it goes. I always compare other lines/itineraries but so far nothing has pulled me over yet. It's all good, indeed So DCL - come on and stay as much on "schedule" as possible as it's really hard waiting until the end of March (just estimating)......

Heather

 

[kaseyC]

Yep agree with me - nothing stands out itinerary and price wise like I "need to do it". I'm still waiting on DCL for 2017 so we'll see how it goes. I always compare other lines/itineraries but so far nothing has pulled me over yet. It's all good, indeed So DCL - come on and stay as much on "schedule" as possible as it's really hard waiting until the end of March (just estimating)......

Heather

Nothing stands out for us either. I think we will stick with our Tauck Bridges river cruise for 2017.