Flam Railway

[TLCOhio]

If it's small and manageable, I would suggest pretending to book the railroad excursion on your ship to see when the excursion leaves to see if you might be able to catch the train before them. On our excursion to Flam, we were the first on the railway, and the train we took was the second or third one from Flam that morning and we knew of fellow passengers who took the earlier train (lining up and buying right at Flam) without much trouble. They actually took it round trip so had views going both ways. It's a very scenic ride (but not that long).

 

I would urge care in trying to "pretend" and play games hoping to make it all work out on your own. I think the Fram train ride and experience is well worth it. The large cruise ships lock up a big, big number of tickets, IN ADVANCE! The people running this rail trip are not dumb. They want to make sure the larger, sure customers like the cruise lines are taken care of in the best manner, week after week. You can take riskS to try to save a few dollar, but don't complain if things are busier than you expected and that you get "shut out".

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

For details and visuals, etc., from our July 1-16, 2010, Norway Coast/Fjords/Arctic Circle cruise experience from Copenhagen on the Silver Cloud, check out this posting. This posting is now at 72,626 views.

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1227923

[Charles4515]

It looks like our ship is the only oe in port that day. We are scheduled to get into port at 9:00. The ship has about 2,500 passengers I would guess it it the Eclispe. I was thinking that if we got off the ship as soon as it docked we might have a chance of getting tickets. Most of the shore excurisons as far as I can tell don't begin until the 11:00 train. We want to ride up to Mydral and then walk part of the way back. SO I guess we have to keep our fingers crossed about getting train tickets.

 

When the ship debarks a mass of people literally runs for the train station to get tickets. Then there is a line. We had an advance group reservation for 20 but that still meant someone had to wait in the line a while to pick up the tickets. I would have not wanted to be trying to get tickets without that group reservation. I hate doing stuff like this thru the cruise line but without a group reservation I would not chance it.

[LondonTowner]

We visited Flam last June on a cruise. I checked to see how many ships would be in port that day and ours was the only one.

 

I then looked on the ship's excursions to see what time their trip departed so we could arrange to go a bit later.

 

Our ship docked about 200m from the station, it is an easy flat walk. We bought our tickets and got on the train.

 

I understand from postings on Tripadviser that a number of tickets are held back from the cruise lines so other people can also book the train.

 

We got on a train that departed from Flam around 11.00, so arrived back into Flam with plenty of time before our ship's departure.

[Ray66]

The brewery is just outside of the cruise terminal.

 

Oops! Only just seen this. Thank you. :)

Edited June 12, 2012 by Ray66

[MTJtraveller]

When the ship debarks a mass of people literally runs for the train station to get tickets. Then there is a line. We had an advance group reservation for 20 but that still meant someone had to wait in the line a while to pick up the tickets. I would have not wanted to be trying to get tickets without that group reservation. I hate doing stuff like this thru the cruise line but without a group reservation I would not chance it.

 

Charles 4515,

 

I put together a group of 20 from cruise critic for the 9am (can't remember the exact time as I write) train, the second train and from what appears a train Princess has also booked its excursions.

 

I have a logistics question I hope you will answer for me. We plan on meeting early, get off the ship as a group and head over to pick up our reserved tickets. Are seat assignments also reserved? How easy/difficult was it for your group of 20 to get tickets, seats and on the train. Any hints you may have would certainly be appreciated.

 

Also, were you able to use separate credit cards and/or cash at the window to secure the seats? Would it be best to take with me to the window one person from each "group" of our 20 to pick up the tickets? I would imagine the line could be quite long thought I think the majority of the train tickets are booked by Princess. Is there a separate line for reserved tickets?

 

As you can see I like knowing EXACTLY what I am doing before I get there. I don't like surprises!

 

Thanks for any info you can provide!

[Charles4515]

Charles 4515,

 

I put together a group of 20 from cruise critic for the 9am (can't remember the exact time as I write) train, the second train and from what appears a train Princess has also booked its excursions.

 

I have a logistics question I hope you will answer for me. We plan on meeting early, get off the ship as a group and head over to pick up our reserved tickets. Are seat assignments also reserved? How easy/difficult was it for your group of 20 to get tickets, seats and on the train. Any hints you may have would certainly be appreciated.

 

Also, were you able to use separate credit cards and/or cash at the window to secure the seats? Would it be best to take with me to the window one person from each "group" of our 20 to pick up the tickets? I would imagine the line could be quite long thought I think the majority of the train tickets are booked by Princess. Is there a separate line for reserved tickets?

 

As you can see I like knowing EXACTLY what I am doing before I get there. I don't like surprises!

 

Thanks for any info you can provide!

 

I was not the one who went inside for the tickets. We sent two people inside, one person to get the tickets who paid with a credit card. Sent the other person so the person paying would have company in case there was a snafu. We gave him cash for our share. As it was we had to wait a while for him to obtain the tickets. I would not have each person get their own ticket. I suggest have one person get the tickets, either with cash or credit card. We were kind of panicing with the time it was taking for our person to get thru the line but I think that was because we did not know that actual space was reserved as you will see below and because at Stavenger we had group space on the first ferry and the ferry we were supposed to be on left without us because of the ticket line.

 

It was not seat assignments but was reserved space. No problem getting seats. They had stickers already placed on the door of the coach with our space and stickers on the window inside, because of our advance reservation. I took a picture of one of our group pointing at the coach. As you can see there were three groups in our coach. See link below. That is part of the photo album I took of our cruise.

 

[ibfishing2]

Old post, but good info

[sddsddean]

As this thread has been 'bumped up', it might be a good time to advise anyone visiting Flam in summer 2014 and thinking of doing a group booking to do it now (or at least in the next few weeks). The cruise lines will block book everything in the first week of January and then you will find it extremely hard to get a group booking. It is really easy to do. Just go to the flam booking website http://www.flambooking.com/booking.aspx ,set up an account (no fees involved) and book your train up and down. You don't have to pay up front (just tick the box that says 'pay on the day' or something). You will get a confirmation e mail and are ggod to go. I did a booking for 29 of us, but with others booking the cruise later, could easily have done a booking for half a carriage (49 people). You will 'sell' the seats no problem. Everyone booked just gave me the money on our meet and mingle day and I took all that lovely cash down to the station...no problem at all. So if you want to be certain of getting a seat, do it now!!

 

Simon

[ibfishing2]

Thank you for this info. We will be going in July 2014.

Nice of you to give the "heads up"

[diane.in.ny]

I've been emailing them using this email:Flaamsbana@visitflam.com You need a group of 10 or more to make a reservation. Otherwise you just have to take your chances that day (or book a ship tour). I was able to make a group through my cruise critic group and then used that email to book it.

 

Great idea!