Celebrity Apex - Norwegian Fjords from Southampton

The odd call on this loop is the last one. After a North Sea crossing to Haugesund, on Norway's southwest coast and the first Norwegian stop on several rival Southampton loops, the ship works north up the coast, Flåm at the head of an arm of the Sognefjord one day and Geiranger, the scenic-cruising day, the next, then turns south and spends the second sea day getting to Belgium rather than to a fourth Norwegian port. Whether that trade is worth it is a question posters have asked about Apex specifically: a 2023 thread weighing this shape against an all-Norway week with Stavanger was told Zeebrugge is a common stop with worse views in port, that Stavanger is only OK, and that shops in Norway, and possibly Belgium, are mostly shut on Sundays, which matters for whichever port lands on one. Two timing points come from the threads. Summer is the only season: June and July are light around the clock at 15 to 20 C, the fjord towns close behind the last ships in late September, and a 2025 reply called early May too early. And posters in 2023 and again in 2024 repeated a claim that cruise calls at Geiranger and Flåm would end in 2026 under Norway's environmental rules; this summer 2026 schedule still lists both, so whatever form the rule finally took, it did not remove them from this sailing.

What Apex passengers report from these ports is mostly about Geiranger. The highest-scoring Apex fjords thread in the archive is a June 2023 photo set from day five, the sail-in past the Seven Sisters, and replies used it to compare Norway with Alaska: easier to get up a mountain on an excursion, ports less given over to cruise-line jewellery shops, fewer glaciers and less wildlife. Flåm draws the calmer praise, peaceful, with a stave-church excursion to Borgund mentioned by a 2025 poster, while Geiranger is also called very touristy on a busy day. Haugesund is the weak link by consensus, bottom of a 2023 poster's ranking of eight Norwegian ports and described by a 2025 P&O passenger as the most industrial stop on their loop. On the ship, one 2025 poster who had done the fjords on Apex found the service poor for the price, a 2024 passenger with gluten and dairy restrictions said the buffet labelling and made-to-order cooking were the best they had encountered, and several replies said the sail-in and sail-out are the point, waking early for the approach and staying on deck for the whole exit, which on this route means the Geiranger approach and the run back out.

This is the priciest week per night on Apex's own schedule, ahead of the Canaries and Portugal loop from the same pier that a 2025 couple weighed against it and were told to choose Norway, and roughly double the ship's Caribbean week. Among rivals from Southampton, Queen Victoria reaches both Flåm and Geiranger over eight nights at a lower tier, Queen Anne is the cheapest fjords week among the rivals listed but shares only Haugesund with this route, Liberty of the Seas costs more and skips both marquee fjords, and Norwegian Prima's ten-night adds Iceland at a higher tier on a ship two 2025 replies called wrong for cold-weather sailing for lack of indoor space. Sky Princess came up directly: a 2025 poster choosing between Apex and a longer Princess Scandinavia cruise was told by one reply to take the Princess for the same money and by others that the Celebrity itinerary gets more of the fjords, since the Princess route lacked Flåm and Olden. That is who this sailing suits: someone who wants the two most-praised fjord calls inside a single week from an English port, on a ship that reads as adult. It does not suit families with a child under three, since a 2024 reply noted Celebrity's kids club starts at three where P&O takes two-year-olds, or anyone whose list is Bergen, Ålesund or Olden, which posters rank highly and which this loop does not reach; and the Bruges day is the one to skip if the ship is the destination.