Excursions

Hi all, I'm new on here so be gentle with me. I've just booked a cruise with P&O for the Norwegian Fjords in April, :D calling at Stavanger, Flam, Olden and Bergen. My question is should I book excursions or is it better to go ashore and do my own tours of the various places. Also any tips about life on board the Britannia would be appreciated. Thanks.(y)

Cruise line's own excursions are usually at the expensive end of the market and DIY excursions are much cheaper.

The crucial difference is that when you are delayed significantly, where you are on a cruise line booked excursion they will hold the ship up to let you re-board, whereas if you are on a DIY excursion the ship will likely leave port without you.

Some excursions are easy to organise yourself others very difficult, most fall in the middle. When you are new to cruising it is prudent to book cruise line excursions, however if you just want to walk around near the port, if this is appropriate or get a taxi to a beach or local shopping or town tour. Then that does not require much organising so you can just get a taxi on the dayor walk into town independently. Flam has a train which is a nice excursion I would book through the cruise line. You can research all the ports, look at the line's offerings and see what interests you.

Alternative suppliers do cruise tours as well as the cruise line www.viator.com for example. If you go down this route, it is important to check every detail of anything offered to make sure it is compatible with your port stay. Other similar suppliers are out there but I have only done viator, cruise line or DIY on the day.

Regards John

We always book our own tours at half the price of the ship's tours. That's fine when you go to the Med or the Caribbean. But the towns in Norway are quite remote and you don't have taxi drivers lined up to offer you tours. Our biggest disappointment was getting to Flam to find the mountain train fully booked.

My advice......book the Norway tours through the ship, but elsewhere do your own thing.

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Also, avoid any tour in Flam that talks about magical, mystical caves. It's just a quarry with a few tea lights dotted around.

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Bergen:

We went on the funicular independently go early as its popular it's only a short walk from where the shuttle drops you off. Views from the top great we then chose to follow the woodland walk down to town there were trolls everywhere carved into trees. A great day finished off by a look round the fish market.

Olden:

A short walk to the village or the tourist train is at the quay scenery amazing do look in the little church like something from a fairytale.

Stavanger:

Easy to walk round nice shops wi fi great in library

Sorry never been to Flam it was cancelled and substituted for Alesund

Did a ships tour here Valley of the Trolls full day with food and worth every penny such beautiful places visited with a passionate guide.

Hope that helps

I did a similar itinerary on Aurora last autumn.

If you enjoy research on the internet as I do, then you can book many of the cruise excursion equivalents yourself at much lower costs.

Bergen & Stavanger are lovely little city centres, just made for strolling around, unique old wooden houses & warehouses. I booked the Bergen funicular online as at busy times there can be big queues.

From Olden we went to Briksdal glacier & I was determined to save money on the expensive P&O coach trip & feel a little independent! There is a public bus which stops right next to the ship's berth, unfortunately after standing there for a few minutes someone told us the service had finished for winter the previous week. Luckily, there are coaches & mini-buses & taxis all waiting to take your business. Went in a lovely new minibus, stunning drive past lakes into the hills. I had booked the 'troll car' online at Briksdal. We loved it, an excellent trip & still saved quite a lot over the standard coach tour.

Went to Andalsnes rather than Flam & there I did book the ship's trip as I wanted to go to the Rauma river & railway & coach which I couldn't seem to do independently. The guide was very engaging & interesting & the stops were worthwhile. Amazing scenery.

Take a look on Aurora roll call thread R702 for a post about Britannia. I did the same cruise last year on Britannia and by coincidence posted it on that thread only a few days ago.

Flam The station is about 250m from the ship. Stroll across early get your tickets return to ship for breakfast/coffee.This pleasant train journey stops at the troll place for photos. There is a small show put on. 75% saving pp on ship tour. I remember being on the train and seeing the ship tour group being led across by some from the ship holding up an umbrella. Olden From the ship walk 200/250m. See large Taxi sign.They advertise "cheaper than ship tours" .We saved 50% on ships prices and could have saved more if we had been able to get another couple in the cab. Went to the glacier too !. Also have mini bus(s) Bergen and Stavenger In full agreement with other comments. Loved the fish and general markets in both ports.The old wooden buildings both sides of the dock area in Bergen.On our October cruise we had no problems walking up and getting on the funicular.

Hi all, I'm new on here so be gentle with me. I've just booked a cruise with P&O for the Norwegian Fjords in April, :D calling at Stavanger, Flam, Olden and Bergen. My question is should I book excursions or is it better to go ashore and do my own tours of the various places. Also any tips about life on board the Britannia would be appreciated. Thanks.(y)

This should help you on the subject of Britannia...

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2015/03/30/britannia-the-maiden-cruise/

Try http://www.rodne.no for fjord cruise. Booking direct was considerably cheaper. We thought good value for money

Hi all, I'm new on here so be gentle with me. I've just booked a cruise with P&O for the Norwegian Fjords in April, :D calling at Stavanger, Flam, Olden and Bergen. My question is should I book excursions or is it better to go ashore and do my own tours of the various places. Also any tips about life on board the Britannia would be appreciated. Thanks.(y)

Hopefully, if it's April this year your ports of call are confirmed. Six Britannia Flord cruises last year (including ours) had Flam and/or Olden cancelled and replaced by far less scenic places. As they are at the end of very long Fjords, the fuel savings for a ship the size of Britannia if they are cancelled are significant. Of course, you end up with something that you didn't book, but P&O don't consider it a meaningful change. If it's April 2018, be warned.

Britannia is a lovely ship. It has one significant negative point in that it has no promenade deck. It also has a design flaw with no stairs midships, which forces able bodied passengers to use lifts and makes it challenging for those who have no choice but to use a lift.

The positives outweigh this though. Cabin furnishings and technology are a class above the rest of the fleet and the select dining restaurants are all superb (particularly The Epicurean). Limelight Club is a lovely night out if you get a good act (we saw Darren Day who was very good). The ship never feels over crowded, in spite of the vast passenger numbers. The extra space swallows them up.

Whilst a lot of seasoned P&O travellers don't like the ship just because it's big (their loss), it's ideal for first time cruisers, who form the majority of the clientele.

I agree with Selbourne. We are booked on Britannia in October and are looking forward to all she has to offer. I have to say if particular fjords ports were important to me I wouldn't choose this ship for the reasons outlined. These days I adopt the attitude that if the ship actually docks at the ports advertised at time of booking it's a bonus....

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Hi all, thanks for thee replies and info, gave me a lot of food for thought. I ended up booking one ship's tour and we're going to do our own thing in the rest of the ports. Roll on the end of the month, the excitement builds. :):ship:(y)

Bergen:

We went on the funicular independently go early as its popular it's only a short walk from where the shuttle drops you off. Views from the top great we then chose to follow the woodland walk down to town there were trolls everywhere carved into trees. A great day finished off by a look round the fish market.

 

Olden:

A short walk to the village or the tourist train is at the quay scenery amazing do look in the little church like something from a fairytale.

 

Stavanger:

Easy to walk round nice shops wi fi great in library

 

Sorry never been to Flam it was cancelled and substituted for Alesund

Did a ships tour here Valley of the Trolls full day with food and worth every penny such beautiful places visited with a passionate guide.

Hope that helps

Is the woodland walk down to town well sign-posted?

Cruise saint.....Yes it is well signposted in Bergen .... have posted in the other thread for you :)....... Flipperdipper : Re Flam, we booked the train on line in advance at a very good price and all went very well. We paid an insurance of about £7 for the booking in case of cancellation of the port as this can sometimes happen. The station is literally about 2 mins walk straight across from the quay.

Thanks again folks, I have the tickets for the funicular printed and in my bag. I bought return tickets just in case it's raining, or snowing:eek:, but if it's a good day we intend walking back down. Happy cruising. (y)

Thanks again folks, I have the tickets for the funicular printed and in my bag. I bought return tickets just in case it's raining, or snowing:eek:, but if it's a good day we intend walking back down. Happy cruising. (y)

Enjoy your cruise :)

Yes woodland walk well signposted and great fun we just took our time and enjoyed the views. There are several other walks but we just went straight down into Bergen. Leave time for the fish market and food stalls and The Brygen. Have a great trip.