Norwegian Cruise Line Makes Port Changes in Norway

My cruise is on one of the very large ships. Perhaps Norwegian could change to a smaller ship.

Yeah, dont hold your breath on that. Those environmental restrictions have been in the works for at least a couple of years, and NCL has been well aware of them. If they wanted to use a smaller ship they would have done that before now.

Bergen has had cruise ship limits since 2022 to avoid overtourism, with new restrictions added this year.

NCL is fully aware of the restrictions as they were announced several years ago. Have you thought of canceling and going with Celebrity? We did 14 night Norway on Celebrity in August 2025 and it was amazing. Celebrity very seldom changes anything in itinerary as compared to NCL who does all the time. Flam, Honningsvay (Arctic Circle) and Geiranger were the highlights for us.

We're doing our last NCL in May to Alaska, only because we had a credit from a previous cruise with them. We're sticking with Celebrity and Cunard. Our NCL Alaska itinerary was drastically changed too.

Good Luck!

All cruise ports are subject to change without any input from you. It’s in the contract you signed. I’ve had positive and negative changes for everything from weather to China retracting a previous approval for a 350-passenger ship.

Having seen large ships in the very small villages of Flam, Geiranger, and Olden (as well as in Alesund, Stavanger and Oslo), I wish they would limit the size of the vessel being allowed to sail on the fjords. Here's some info about this ban on polluting cruise ships.

Bostonphil, you will still have a wonderful trip, but I understand your disappointment. I hope this is the only change you have.

Maløy would be a good port to take one of the ship's excursions if it's in the budget. The scenery will be lovely.

As long as people keep booking on mega ships, NCL and other cruise lines will keep building and using mega ships.

Some members might recall that I botched Bruges some cruises back. I am hoping to do it right in 2027.

I hope you are planning to book the Accessible Medieval Bruges excursion to get the most out of your visit.

Thanks to everyone for all your wonderful responses.

I stick with Norwegian because I travel alone and they are still one of the friendliest lines for solo passengers.

This will be my 11th cruise with NCL and I get perks. I also have aome credits that bring the cost down but need to be used by October 2027.

mnanie. think there will be more changes. I am prepared. And it is not such a disappointment. It still is going to be beautiful.

More and more, I am learning to go with the flow.

Terri, I have heard that Celebrity is a step higher than Norwegian but I feel like continuing with NC because I probably only have a few cruises left in me.

jeanm, I plan on a guided tour when in Bruges.

Also, excursions will be in the budget. I am relaxing the purse strings.

Thank you CJean and Tim for your input

As said, more and more I go with the flow.

I have now traveled enough to get used to changes.

It's all good.

Still I am good. However given that this is early 2026, I expect more changes.

People of Bergen (and other ports) were / are over-saturated from cruise ship industry and pulled the brake (article).

From a social and an environmental port perspective NCL belongs to the worst cases because of very large passenger numbers per ship and below-average environment and climate protection of their ships incl. high dust-pollution in ports (source).

Based on this original document regarding "Adoption of zero-emission requirements for cruise ships" you shall be safe from further changes from fjord-oriented pollution order. But I am not sure if and when they enhance the regulation to the least (most inner-land) branches of a fjord which would affect also Flam at Aurlandfjord. These branches have the lowest "power" for natural regeneration. 1-2 generations in the future will shake their heads that we did this.

One other example: mandatory shore power for cruise ships to be introduced in Hamburg in 2027 (source), in rest of EU 2030.

Hi Mark

You are more technical than I am.

yes,, NCL does have huge cruise ships. I prefer the smaller and older ones myself but often the huge ones give me a better price and sometimes a more interesting itinerary.

However NCL is the only cruise line that is allowed to sail four Hawaiian Islands. NCL does use a small cruise ship (POA) but I had heard something about meeting very strict environmental standards. The State of Hawaii has had to give NCL permission to sail four of the islands.

NCL is offering some 2026 sailings on smaller ships that will port in Norway but from what I can tell, these cruises will only port n one Norwegian port.

The sailings for 2027 are all on big ships but offer two or three Norwegian ports. That is the reason that I delayed a cruise offering Iceland and Norway until 2027. I wanted more than one Norwegian port.

There are a lot of youtube videos saying something like "If you are interested in Norway, Go Now!" These videos were made in 2025 and maybe 2026 and they were/are referring to the upcoming restrictions.