Has anyone taken this 'cruise' in early September? I'm taking the Grand Circle Tour to St. Petersburg and Scandinavia, departing JFK Sept. 1-18 and am now reconsidering the cruise (thus the entire trip)......is that time of year going to have rough seas? Do you see land all the time? I am prone to seasickness. Is it really as great a trip as all the books say it is? It's been a dream to see the fjords as well as Lapland. I have 4 weeks to cancel my reservation. Please give me some input!

There was just a thread on this, although it concerned a trip in the early spring.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...ern-lights.cfm

While it does not address all your concerns, it's a good place to start. I went and ordered the brochure based on it!

A rather belated reply but yes, you see land all the time. Most of the trip is in sheltered waters with a few short open sea stretches of an hour or two. The exceptions are rounding Stad north of Bergen and in the far north, stretches where it can be really rough or like a millpond. My wife and I have done the trip six times and we're not good sailors. When it did get rough we took to our bunks and had no problems.

This may be of interest:

http://homepage.mac.com/wasleys/norway/

The new hurtigruten ships are so large and stable in the water (like cruise ships) that you probably won't be bothered by seasickness. They're very comfortable.

Wasleys--thank you so much for the pics and comments about this trip! I loved the pictures and can't wait to experience the beauty of Norway. I leave Sept. 1 for St. Petersburg, then on to the north of Norway and the ship!

I travelled with a Hurtigruten ship from Bergen to Tromso last August. We only had about 4 hours of open sea, the rest of the time it was nice, you didn't even feel you were on a ship. Once you are there, I suggest you to take advantage of the daily supplementary trips, most of them worth. Have a great tour!

Thank you,cri80, for your post. Were any daily supplementary trips extraordinary? I do want to go to the midnight concert at the cathedral.

The trip to Svartisen glaciar, the dinner at the "vikings" in Lofoten Islands, the trip on the Troll's road, and the safari bird in Gjesvaer (near North Cape) were puffins and lots of other birds can be seen were all wonderful. I'm not sure which Cathedral do you mean, the one in Tromso? I visited it too, but not for the concert. The Trondheim Cathedral is nice too, there is a supplementary trip for that cathedral too.