Flam railway booking questions

[timetravler]

I have booked the Flam Railway for a group of 14 for June. But my confirmation came back showing both a 9:39 departure and a 11:05 departure. I wanted ONLY the 11:05 departure and as a round trip Flam and back. I did e-mail them but probably will not hear back from them for a few days. Has anyone else had a problem like this? Also have any of you booked a group tour for this?

[MTJtraveller]

I'm not quite sure what you are asking with your departure times but the railway people were wonderfully responsive in answering questions. I purchased tix last year for our group of 20 & wrote a post of suggestions based on my experience. Hope it is helpful in some way:

 

 

2013post:

I purchased train tix for our Roll Call group of 20 for the Flaam train and I would say it was a great experience BUT if I was to do it again here is what I learned:

 

1) Keep the group number manageable. We were a group of 20, 8 of which were in my personal traveling group. 20 was manageable as we had a group of 4 also. I truly don't think there is anything wrong with booking a group of 10 and then another group form for 10. When I pre booked there were probably 35tickets left.

 

2) As you need to pay for all the tix with one currency, keep it as simple as possible. We had a stop in Bergan the day before Flaam so everyone was able to secure NOK ahead of time. If i had paid by credit card I could have asked for US currency and collected at our M&G. That would have made it easy on everyone to not have to hunt me down after Bergen.

 

3) I had one no show. While it wasn't THAT traumatic of an outcome, it made for a lot of consternation on my part from 10pm-midnight trying to reach the couple. Fortunately someone at the M&G had given me their cabin number as an alternative if something opened up. They stepped up and everything was ok.

 

4) No need to get off the ship in any hurry. Yes indeed, there is a separate line for group reservations. Easy as pie. Lots of grouchy people in the regular line as they QUICKLY sold out. I could have easily sold the tickets for the no show couple IF I had the correct amount of payment, hence my idea of paying with a credit card.

 

5) The train company does a great job of marking specific train cars, groups of seats for Groups. The people who buy the tickets the day of do not have "assigned seats" and seem to infill after the groups are seated. We had a couple spots open in our "area". What was a shame is that some of those people got on before the Princess group and because of the unwieldy size of the Princess group some of them were left to "search for seats" in the following cars. Get your group on and seated on the earlier side rather than later.

 

I hope some of this info is helpful to someone. The train trip was a highlight of the trip and I would not hesitate to book it as an independent group again.

[timetravler]

Thanks your post was most helpful and I learned a lot. Guess my only problem right now is getting my booking corrected. You see the confirmation shows TWO rail trips when I only wanted the 11:05 one. I hope they get back to me soon so I can get this all worked out.

Thanks again

[MeHeartCruising]

Thanks your post was most helpful and I learned a lot. Guess my only problem right now is getting my booking corrected. You see the confirmation shows TWO rail trips when I only wanted the 11:05 one. I hope they get back to me soon so I can get this all worked out.

Thanks again

 

Are you saying they split your group up into 2 different departure times? or

It looks to me based on the timetable on their website they may have sold you the 9:39 FROM Myrdal to Flam and then the 11:05 from Flam to Myrdal. Those are the only 9:39 and 11:05 departures in their timetable. That would be your round trip, but starting in the wrong location for what you need. Although, I do note their website says the schedule is "preliminary" and will be finalized in mid-March. So perhaps they will be switching the schedule around to be opposite starting locations. Either way, you need to work it out with them.

Edited February 22, 2014 by MeHeartCruising

[timetravler]

The Flam railway corrected my booking problem. They are very efficient and replied in a timely manor. They are really great to work with. Thanks everyone.

[cruisesusie]

MTJ Traveler,

 

I saw your post about the train to Flaam and I have a question about the purchasing of tickets. I sent an email to Flamsbama and was told I would have to pay for the tickets in advance with a credit card. I don't want to do that because we're a large group and there is always the possibility that there will be no-shows or cancellations and I'll be out the money. You mentioned on your post that you paid for the tickets on the day of the trip. Did you reserve the tickets through Flamsbama or someone else?

 

Thanks for any help you can give me.

 

Susan

[MTJtraveller]

Hi Susan,

 

I preordered and I guess would say pre purchased the 20 tix with the railroad with my credit card in NOK. If I remember right, there is a minimum for group orders...10? In retrospect I would have broken it down into 2 orders of 10 in the roll call in hopes that someone else would have taken "responsibility" for one of the groups. We were the largest party (8) in the group. I felt like 12 others would be easier. Yes, things happen, I had a no show couple when I was collecting NOK at our meet & greet BUT I did have names of a back up couple, that was good.

 

Also it would have been super easy to sell any extra tickets at the station as there were a lot of people who could not get tickets. I'm not a scalper, not know rules about that in Norway, but someone would have urchased them from me.

 

My best advice is to form multiple groups of 10 and spread the risk. Hope this helps in some way.

[cruisesusie]

Thanks MTJTraveler - I'm still deciding how to handle it. I may tell everyone to buy their own tickets - not sure yet.

 

Thanks again,

 

Susan

[MTJtraveller]

There is a minimum # you have to have in order to prepurchase. So grouping into groups of 10 (I believe that's the number) is the least risky for the person using their credit card. That would be easiest. Don't rely on purchasing at the dock, they run out quickly as the cruise ship reserves large blocks.

 

That was my experience.