What are Fjord cruises like?

Question

What part of the year can you go? How much is it per person? Is it really cold? Is it beautiful and worth it? How long is it usually?

Answer 1

There are two types of cruises that do Fjords.  One is cruises through the Fjords of Norway and the other is cruises to places like Alaska, the Baltic and South America that sail a portion of the cruise through fjords.  

A fjord is really an island that sits in the middle of a waterway that is live a river.  When I cruised to Alaska a portion of the trip was through what's called the "inside passage".  That is  a waterway that is not open to the Pacific Ocean all along the way.  There are places where the open ocean comes into the inside passage but most of it is closed off by islands that may be from a few hundred yards long to a few miles long.  The islands may rise out of the water to a hight of from a hundred feet to a thousand feet.

When I cruised to the Baltic and cruised through some of the fjords of Norway it was somewhat the same.  Many islands of different sizes and height, some with houses on them and some high enough to be snow capped.

The same was true when I cruised the Chilean fjords.  islands mountains of various height and size and some with snow and even glaciers and waterfalls flowing off of them.

One of the big benefits of cruising fjords, in addition to the pretty scenery, is the ride is very smooth because the ship does not get the waves and motion of open ocean water.

You can generally do fjord cruising in warmer months.  The Alaska season is mid-May through mid-September.  The Baltic season going to Norway is about the same.  The South America season for Chilean fjords is the reverse.  Since Chile is in the southern hemisphere the cruise season would be about November through March.  

Yes it will generally be cold, especially near any glaciers in the fjords.

Answer 2

Here are some Arctic Cruises to give you an idea of what they are all about

http://www.topoftheworldtours.com/icelan...

http://www.topoftheworldtours.com/arctic...

http://www.topoftheworldtours.com/russia...

http://www.greatcanadiantravel.com/exped...