kaisatsu

I considered it when we were in port on the QE2, but the timing didn’t work. My partner lives in Stavanger for a while, and he went once for a work event. His comment is “If you’re the kind of person who thinks it sounds interesting, you’ll probably enjoy it. And the boat trip is nice.” I have zero idea about their cancellation policy though.

Layers. Your cold weather clothes are just a combination of your warm weather clothes and your cooler weather clothes. e.g. a short-sleeved wicking tee shirt under a fleece jacket or sweatshirt with a GoreTex rain jacket on top. Mix and match based on temperature, wind, and precipitation. (As for formal wear, women definitely have this one easier. I have a floor-length moisture wicking black dress that I could wear to a hot day on the beach, wear warm tights underneath and throw on a coat and pashmina scarf, or flatten out the pashmina and use it as a wrap to wear the free for a formal dinner. I have no idea what the men do.)

A cruise ship isn’t really the best option for chasing the aurora. You need clear skies, and land-based chasers around places like Tromsø know the microclimates and have much better chances of finding clear skies even on somewhat overcast nights. Cruise ships are fairly fixed in their sailing routes due to maritime traffic coordination. If you do see them, they are most likely to be with overhead or towards the horizon if you’re outside the Aurora band. A balcony sighting would require luck that they are at the right location and angle. As mentioned, an upper deck with clear sight lines will be the best option. Also, the slight vibrations of the ship even on calm seas can make it difficult to take the long exposure tripod photos that best showcase them, so don’t count on getting amazing photos. Edited to add: If your goal is just to see the northern lights, I’d recommend a land trip to spend some days in Tromsø and book a few chasing tours with the local experts.

I agree with hallasm. If you want to experience the midnight sun, choose the 12-day. If you’re more interested in the ports, choose the 14-day. But they are both excellent itineraries and I’d be very happy with either one. If it was me, I’d probably choose the 12-day. Olden and Trondheim are great, but Brugge is lovely, Ålesund is cute, and if you’re lucky with clear skies, watching the midnight sun at sea, dipping to the horizon and then rising again without disappearing, is a pretty special experience.

The sightseeing boat is rarely late. It travels a largely untrafficked route that it follows multiples times every day. I wouldn’t worry about missing the bus unless you plan to wander around Gudvangen and end up getting distracted. I’ve done the roundtrip route from Bergen, where the bus ride is from Voss to Gudvangen, and it’s much more common for the train to be late. The bus typically waits for the train, and if it’s too late or there are more people than fit on the bus, they run extra buses. It’s all a very well-oiled operation after many years of shuttling independent visitors around the area.

What is your reason for considering Sep/Oct? With shorter days and colder weather that’s less conducive to being out on deck, I am missing the appeal. If you pack plenty of warm waterproof layers and don’t mind the cooler temperatures, then it could be an option, but be aware that a lot of tour operators and other services in the western fjords are seasonal. Especially in smaller ports, they typically end their season in August. Traveling out of season, you may be more limited to ship excursions and self exploring.

This is spot on. The Vy tickets are only available 90 days in advance, so set a reminder and check again at/around the 90-day mark. Note that some people have reported issues buying tickets on vy.no with a foreign bank card, and paying via PayPal is the typical alternative.

You'll definitely want an excursion, independent tour, or rental car in Leknes. The port is quite a ways from the town itself, so there's very little option to just disembark and wander around. The beauty of Lofoten is in the scenery, so being able to get farther afield is well worth it. Reine and Nusfjord are two beautiful locations that often appear on a Leknes excursion itinerary. In Honningsvåg, if you're keen to visit the north cape monument and visitors center, you'll need to book transportation to get there. Ålesund is a pleasant little city to wander around and is known for its art deco architecture, which is a bit uncommon for the Norwegian coast. If you're up for a bit of walking, Trondheim can also be done independently on foot if you want to visit the Nidaros cathedral and Gamle Bybro. I love Tromsø and always explore on my own. I love wandering around town and have enjoyed the Polar Museum and Polaria aquarium. It's a bit of a trek if you want to take the cable car on the other side of the water, but you can also check the local buses. We took the cable car and then hiked a bit farther uphill for some higher views. I've also done the Mack brewery tour, though I'm not sure what it's like now that the main facility has moved out of town. Their brewpub is still great to visit with lots of small batch creations on tap. The Arctic Cathedral is architecturally interesting, but having been inside, I'm not sure it added much. I'd be happy to skip the admission fee and just view the exterior.

One of my cruises on the coast had a day that was almost 30°C and a day with a high of 5°C. This is why the advice is to always pack layers. The temperatures vary significantly according to weather, and while we do have some very warm days, there is no warm season. (Yet. Climate change has started seeing some new trends with longer continuous stretches of warm weather in recent years.) There is definitely an advantage to having a balcony, and if you are the type to always book one elsewhere, then you will definitely want one in Norway. If you’re on the fence because of the price and don’t mind planning to be up on deck for the scenery, then it’s not a must have. And if you’re doing cost analysis and debating between a balcony and a more desirable itinerary, choose the better itinerary.

Sorry about that! I didn't realize that I'd copied an old link! 🤦‍♀️ I took a look at the website, and it looks like it still has the problem that the dates and times get converted to your local time zone instead of showing the actual port times. They told me they'd fixed that, but I think they just made the problem worse (i.e. now it changes the times, not just the dates). However, poking around a bit, it seems you can actually access the full port schedule from https://api.flamport.no/Open/ Unfortunately they show all the ships as tendering, so I guess that data is still missing.

It’s on the port schedule (but is subject to change): https://www.flamport.no/ship-arrivals2021 “Kai” = docked ”Anker” = tender

@Karen Lynn If I read correctly, this excursion is only the Nærøyfjord cruise and then a bus up to Stalheim and back to Flåm? If you’re doing a small boat cruise in Lysefjord as well, I would lean towards the Flåmsbana for the variety. The train isn’t bad at all. It just doesn’t offer the kind of beautiful views and fjord scenery that some people expect.

Do you have any other ports where you will be visiting a scenic fjord overlook? If so, I think I would also choose the cruise, because Nærøyfjord is noticeably narrower than the other fjords you will sail, and it’s quite dramatic how steep the sides are. However, if you aren’t visiting an overlook anywhere else, I think it’s worth getting the view from above at least once. These are the perspective you usually see in photos, and it’s a very different view from what you see closer to water level.

I’m aware that the US is behind Europe, which is why I mentioned the old magnetic strip cards. I was in the US last week and was pleased to see that they have mostly moved over to contactless and chip, but I have still seen US people with mag-strip cards, so I thought it would be worth mentioning that they might not work everywhere here in Norway. I don’t know if the OP is beginning their cruise in Copenhagen, since they only mention the fjords, but my information still holds true for Norway. A one-time vendor here in Norway is very unlikely to purchase a card machine. The street vendors you describe in Copenhagen sound more like the people who do so on a more periodic basis. Of course Norway has plenty of farm stalls, knitters, and other micro-scale independent street vendors, and those will all accept card. However, a teenager selling cookies to fund their school’s music corps may not have ordered a card terminal in advance, and often choose instead to rely on the Vipps payment app. Similarly, a food vendor at a local event may just choose to use Vipps for the convenience, since they don’t have to handle the card terminal and then rewash their hands. (PS - If it wasn’t clear from my original post, I live in Norway.)

I thought I read that the zipline took you down the steepest part of the descent, and that the descent from the end of the zipline is not so steep The zipline takes you past the steepeat part where many people choose to walk their cycle. It starts at Vatnahalsen, which is a little over 1km from Myrdal. The Rallavegen path is a 8% grade down for 850m followed by 250m back up at 7.5%. This is certainly an incline, but not the most extreme part of the route. If you pick up the cycle at the train station, you may need to cover this section either riding walking the cycle. The other end of the zip line is at Rallarrosa sølsysteri, down in the valley. https://www.vatnahalsen.no/en/flam-zipline That takes you well past the section of switchbacks on the cycle path that have an average descent of over 25%! It’s not a surprise that even experienced cyclists walk that bit! Returning to Flåm from the Rallarrosa end of the zip line, it is an overall downhill journey, but it does have some small ups and downs, so it’s not just coasting the whole way: And if your curious, here is the full profile from Myrdal to Flåm for comparison: