The Cruise Report With Cruise Specialists Cruise Reporter Ralph Grizzle

Is Norway’s dramatic coast more beautiful than Alaska’s?

From the top deck of Norwegian Coastal Voyage’s 464-passenger Nordkapp, the city of Bergen beckons. The picturesque waterfront is only a short distance away, and I am aching to explore. But poor planning on my part put me here too late. Our voyage to the north is about to begin, and for the next half hour, I can only watch as one of the world’s loveliest towns recedes into the distance.

Bergen is the departure port for the Nordkapp’s 12-day roundtrip cruises (one-way cruises also are available) to Kirkenes, near Norway’s border with Russia. The journey ahead will be unlike any I have ever experienced. Nordkapp will show me and my traveling companions some of the world’s most beautiful scenery; we will sail into breathtaking fjords, cross the Arctic Circle (twice), witness the Midnight Sun and call on the world’s northernmost town during our journey along Norway’s spectacular 1,250-mile west coast.

IT IS LATER THAN YOU THINK — near midnight, in fact, when our ship entered Norway’s Troll Fjord. The day before, we had crossed the Arctic Circle, entering the mysterious “Land of the Midnight Sun.” At these latitudes the sun only lingers, then slides across the horizon, never dipping below during most of July. So even a late-night arrival at Troll Fjord greets passengers with sunlight.

Not long ago, Americans traveling to Greenland had to fly from North America over the world’s largest island to land in Denmark, where they would change planes, then fly halfway back to where they had started to finally make landfall. The routing more than doubled the time required to get to Greenland. Returning home required doing the route in reverse.