Which cruise fits our needs?

Check out cruisecritic.com and ask for help from avid cruisers.

I agree with Diane that Cruise Critic is a logical first step. I will note that if you are thinking you can do it this summer, you are VERY last minute and choice may be very limited. You might ask for recommendations from family, friends and colleagues who have cruised before. I always recommend that people who have never cruised before contact a travel agent who specializes in cruises. They can ask the proper questions to pair you with the cruise that most closely coincides with your tastes, expectations, and budget.

Hurtigruten do one or two cruises a year from the UK to Norway, on ships returning from the Antarctic season. Generally they leave from Dover.
As they are expedition cruises they are not cheap.

There is a UK cruise line called Fred Olsen (well UK market, but a Norwegian family owned company) who do premium cruises from the UK using relatively small vessels, without all the fripperies of the international lines.
They tend to serve the more interesting ports, not just the same few the bigger ships serve.
Again pricing reflects the quality. Generally facilities for the Children are pretty limited.

They just about never use Southampton, but use regional ports like Dover, Newcastle or Edinburgh (Leith or Rosyth).

You will lose some time for the long way from wherever to Norway. Therefore I recommend to consider a Havila or Hurtigruten coastal journey from or to Bergen.

I’ve cruised to Norway twice out of Southampton, both times on Princess Cruises.

The first was my favorite. 14 days along the coast and up to North Cape and back. Stunning scenery and a variety of ports. That particular cruise had a very reasonable price tag. The second was an 8 day fjord intensive cruise in the South. I also enjoyed it but didn’t feel it had the variety of scenery I experienced north of the Arctic Circle and it was more expensive. Princess does an excellent job with enrichment presentations onboard.

There are casinos and bars on most cruise ships. I don’t gamble or drink so walking past them has never been a problem for me. They are non issues. The crowd on Princess is different than the party crowd you might find on Carnival Cruises. I’ve not seen many people “under the influence.” It tends to run older. That said there are children and youth spaces and activities onboard. You just won’t find amazing water slides or race track courses like some other brands.

My advice is to look at itineraries and time in port. If you take a ship (I think this can happen with Hurtigruten or Havila) that is there late at night only, that might be disappointing for some ports. Think about which ports are important and check times carefully.

Also think about cabin configurations. If at least one room is a balcony cabin, the other room(s) could be ocean view or inside cabins with no real loss. Everyone can use balcony cabin or public areas during particularly scenic sections. Money saved can be spent on activities in port.

Whatever you decide, Norway is a great destination for cruising and scenery.

Just to clarify, the Hurtigruten and Havila ships traveling the western coast of Norway between Bergen and Kirkenes are not traditional cruise ships. They travel the route in 6 or 7 days depending on direction, stopping at over 30 ports each direction for 10 minutes to several hours picking up and dropping off passengers, vehicles and freight at all hours of the day and night. Much smaller than most mainstream cruise ships, there are no casinos, Broadway shows or bingo on board. However, the meals on Hurtigruten were excellent.

If you take a ship (I think this can happen with Hurtigruten or Havila) that is there late at night only, that might be disappointing for some ports.

If anyone is disappointed with the ports on a Hurtigruten or Havila cruise, they didn't do their homework.

We cruised with Hurtigruten in 2023 from Kirkenes to Bergen. Our first port stop was Vardø. Many of the 400 passengers walked together from the ship to explore the Fortress. And we didn't leave anyone behind during our 55 minute port call.

All really helpful, thank you.

Looking at Hurtigruten and Havila, I think those might be better suited when we don’t have the children with us. Assuming I enjoy the experience I think I’d probably come back and take one of those up to the Arctic Circle at a later date, just me and my wife. They seem like they’re large ferry type boats rather than traditional cruise ships that are suited to younger children.

It looks like P&O might be the best if I want to go from Southampton. We’d be going in August and I couldn’t find a Princess cruise at that time. Cunard could be an option, but it didn’t seem to have a whole lot on board for the kids against something that might be suited more to just me and my wife.

I’m thinking we’ll probably do the seven day trip from Southampton and do lower Norway and then we have when we have more time, I’ll probably come back and do a longer two week cruise going further north for the Northern lights and the Arctic circle.

If you want a quick listing of cruises leaving Southampton for Norway in August, a quick tool is to go to the Vacations to Go website. Use their search engine to put in August 2026, Norway as the destination, and Southampton as the departure port and a list of about 20 different cruises pops up. It is a quick way to see what is available across multiple cruise lines.

P and O are wholly owned by Carnival, and their bigger ships, like the Iona are these huge ships which can only get into a few ports because of their size.
They are a no tipping line, because their main market is UK people. Gone are the days when they were posh or at all premium, the big ships are very mass market and are exactly what you are wanting to avoid, especially the "getting hammered in the bar" as people maximise their drinks packages. But plenty for the children as all cruises are now family cruises. The adults only cruises are gone. They have also moved to pay in full 120 days out.

It's a hard circle to square, a premium ship, and lots for the children. I sail with Ambassador, another line with small ships (just a bit bigger than Hurtigruten) so good Norwegian itineraries. They have no or very few children's facilities, but UK families at least don't find that a big problem, albeit their main demographic is more mature.

Southampton is far from the only UK cruise port, there are other equally good (if not better) ports on the East Coast- Dover, Tilbury, Newcastle, Harwich, Edinburgh, which are a lot less sailing time to Norway.
Hull is also used sometimes.

Hurtigruten and Havila's main business these days is the cruise business, but cruises for those who say they don't do cruises. That's why they started going into places like the Geirangerfjord- not for freight, purely for the cruise business. They don't even let you get off at Geiranger to explore the port, like a cruise does.
What Carol means about being disappointed about the ports is how brief most of the calls are, how many are late at night (and how much great scenery you miss at night if going one way, as opposed to a round trip cruise). You don't get all day cruise stops and their excursions are as overpriced as any mainstream cruise line.
Even Trondheim, the call is way too brief.
Southbound you even miss out entirely one interesting port (which is northbound only)- Vadso.
And on lines like Ambassador and Fred Olsen the Casino is so much an afterthought, and small it's easy to avoid.

We chose a Royal Caribbean cruise that visited 6 ports with fjords and went all the way to the North Cape.
It was fantastic. Cruise departed from Copenhagen. It was about 11 days.

I researched others and Hurtigruten was more expensive, visited lots of ports, but only a few had excursions to visit with any descent time. Also, didn't get a balcony cabin and alcohol was extra and expensive.

Loved Flam, Geirangerfjord, Alesund and the others.

Cunard also has a number of Norway cruises from Southampton, but there are one or two that end in Hamburg or that begin and end there.