Trip Report - July 18 - August 1, 2015 Ocean Princess to Scotland, Iceland & Norway

[wismergirl]

After lunch in the beautiful yet expensive Geysir Visitor Centre, we headed towards Thingvellir National Park. The National Park features Iceland’s largest natural lake with amazing views of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.

 

Our guide dropped us off at the lower parking lot so we could walk up the ridge. The walk was not difficult at all and we could reach the top where the Thingvellir Visitor Centre is located in less than 20 minutes (with photo stops).

 

 

 

The view at the edge of one of the tectonic plates was breathtaking!

 

Our guide met us at the parking lot near the visitor centre and we used the most expensive washroom there (almost US$1-1.50 or 150-200 Icelandic kronas) for one visit. We could use credit card to enter if we had no local currency but then you would have to pay overseas charges for each credit card transaction. Use of public washroom was very expensive in Iceland, so I collected as many coins as possible for that purpose. The view from the washroom was also spectacular!

[wismergirl]

July 29, 2015 – Skjolden, Norway

 

9:20 – started to walk to Adventure Tours’ booth 10-min away from the pier (NOK 590 per person for the RIB tour); 10:00 – RIB tour started; 11:30 – walked around in the small town; 12:30 – lunch on the ship; 13:30 – Princess ship tour to Jotunheimen National Park & Sognefjell Mountain Pass; 16:40 – back to ship

 

After 2 days at sea, allowing us to refresh, enjoy the 3rd formal night & sample English pub food in the specialty restaurant for lunch, we were all ready for Skjolden in Norway. For the Pacific Princess 2016 cruises, only the June 15 sailing would dock there. Personally, I love Norway better than Iceland, and I’m happy to do Norway again on Crystal Symphony in July 2016.

The Norwegian fjords indeed are incredibly beautiful! These were taken from our balcony when we were entering Skjolden. The panoramic was from my point-and-shoot and the second one was taken from DH's Canon. What a difference!

 

 

In order to enjoy more of the fjord experience, we booked a RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) to go along the north shore of Lustrafjord. We booked the tour with Adventure Tours in Skjolden for NOK 590 (US$70) per person, which was quite expensive for a 1.5-hour tour, though the experience was quite enjoyable.

 

The yellow boat was our RIB. The pier was a 10-minute walk from Ocean Princess. Many of the houses were for vacation rentals with beautiful views.

 

I liked the high speed of the boat and the tranquility of the little farms and villages that offered. Unfortunately we could only take pictures using my Panasonic Lumix water camera so the pics were not that great compared to DH's.

 

One of the highlights of the tour was the view of the stunning 218 metre high Feigumfossen waterfall.

[wismergirl]

It was an easy 10-minute walk from the RIB pier to the visitors’ centre.

 

On our way we saw a few taxis near the visitors’ centre and we had some Princess friends who got a taxi to take them to the famous Urnes Stave Church which was about a 30-minute drive away. We already saw many stave churches in the past so we skipped this one. They used a 15-seater van from JB Turvogn (http://www.jbturvogn.no). A 7.5-hour day tour was NOK1270 (US$150) per person. Half-day tour was half the price. At the visitors’ centre, we saw many posters that captured the natural beauty of Skjolden. Here are 2 of them.

 

 

The view of Ocean Princess from the visitors’ centre.

 

Beautiful views while walking back to the ship.

 

[ontheweb]

Iceland weather in March may be unpredictable with snow storms or heavy rain. Just dress yourself in layers and wear comfortable and warm walking boots. You may be lucky enough to see northern lights.

 

Instead of considering it, we have now booked it. And we do hope to see the Northern Lights. It will be in late March during the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.

[wismergirl]

Instead of considering it, we have now booked it. And we do hope to see the Northern Lights. It will be in late March during the week between Palm Sunday and Easter.

 

Great news! Good luck with the northern lights. A friend just came back from Yellowknife in Canada and said the northern lights were like dancing in the sky.

 

I still have more pics to post from Norway, but I'm too busy planning a round-the-island self-drive tour in Ireland after my North Sea cruise this July...wondering if anyone who's from Ireland could help.

[Tanumveien]

Wow! That's a lot of travel, Marina! You really need to retire!

[wismergirl]

Wow! That's a lot of travel, Marina! You really need to retire!

 

Yes, retirement is in my 5-year plan. BTW, I just came back from Hong Kong and the harbour view was totally incredible. Nowhere in the world could compare to it!

[ontheweb]

Great news! Good luck with the northern lights. A friend just came back from Yellowknife in Canada and said the northern lights were like dancing in the sky.

 

I still have more pics to post from Norway, but I'm too busy planning a round-the-island self-drive tour in Ireland after my North Sea cruise this July...wondering if anyone who's from Ireland could help.

 

Thanks for the good luck wish; seeing the Northern Lights seems to be a hit r miss proposition.

 

Wishing you the best for Ireland and your North Sea cruise.

[Tanumveien]

I look forward to seeing more of Brian's wonderful photos from Norway! The driving trip in Ireland sounds wonderful! We'll visit Norway again in September when we take a TA from Copenhagen to NYC- it's a chance for me to visit cousins in Denmark, plus a return to Ireland and UK before heading across to the US.

[wismergirl]

Many apologies for taking a LONG break before posting this review as I was too busy planning our self-drive tour to Ireland (some of the best B&B’s and hotels are already booked up for July!!!) plus the trip to Asia during Christmas. Now we’ll continue with Skjolden, Norway…

 

We went back to the ship for a quick lunch before our 1:30 pm Princess Tour to Jotunheimen National Park & Sognefjell Mountain Pass. It was the best out of all the ship tours we joined. The itinerary was good, timing was great and the scenery was amazing! This is the only ship tour that I would recommend.

 

As you could see from the posters in my last post, there was a big winding road going up to the snowy mountains. We were on it with beautiful scenery to the Glacier Centre.

 

 

The Glacier Centre was just renovated with modern design.

 

 

That’s where complimentary waffles and hot chocolate was served.

 

Then we were on our way back and saw some old cairns.

[Colo Cruiser]

Nice! :)

[wismergirl]

Breathtaking views continued to accompany us back to the ship.

 

 

 

Ocean Princess looked amazing at the Port of Skjolden.

 

Before our dinner at the Steakhouse, we managed to capture some gorgeous views while leaving picturesque Skjolden. The colours of the photos were not the best as it was getting dark and we took them from the specialty restaurant.

 

 

I definitely like the Norwegian fjords more than the Iceland waterfalls!

[Colo Cruiser]

Beautiful! :)

[ontheweb]

Thanks for more beautiful pictures

 

Updating you on our trip to Iceland next month--it includes a Golden Circle and Geothermal bath tour (through Icelandair), and we booked separately a Northern Lights tour by bus.

 

We researched both bus and boat tours for the Northern Lights, and even posted the question as to which was better on cruisecritic in the Northern Europe forum. The bus tour seems to have more advantages.

[wismergirl]

Beautiful! :)

 

Glad you liked my pictures.

[wismergirl]

To our biggest disappointment, the ship excursion that we booked with Princess to Troldhaugen & Fantoft Stave Church was cancelled due to insufficient bookings. Originally we were willing to pay 3 times more than booking the Troldhaugen tour through Tidereiser just because we wanted to visit a stave church in Norway. Now Princess only informed us of the cancellation on July 28 so we were not able to book the Tidereiser tour online as it needed to be booked at least 48 hours prior to the tour. Luckily there were still seats available when we made the booking at the visitors’ centre in Bergen. As a music teacher, I would be so upset if I could not go to the famous composer, Greig’s birthplace and attend the lunchtime piano recital there.

 

Anyway, after 2 restful sea days, we arrived at Bergen, our last port of call of this cruise. Unfortunately, we were welcomed by coldness, fog and rain!!

 

July 30, 2015 – Bergen, Norway (Mostly rainy, 55°F/13°C, arr. 6:31, dep. 16:52) 7:10 – taxied to Mt. Floyen funicular (prepaid NOK 85 per person return); 8:10 – walked to Visitors’ Centre; 9:20 – city tour on Hop-on-hop-off bus; 10:40 - visited Fish Market; 11:00 – on the coach to Troldhaugen; 11:30 – Guided tour to Grieg’s house; 12:30 – piano recital; 14:00 – left Troldhaugen; 14:20 – walked around in Bergen City Centre; 15:30 – took HOHO bus back to ship

 

Due to our very tight schedule of the day, we bought the Mt. Floyen cable car online to go up the mountain, hoping to see beautiful Bergen from above. We just couldn’t afford to spend hours waiting for the cable car to go up (usually every 30 minutes), so a pre-purchase was necessary. Due to the rain, instead of walking, we took one of the 2 taxis from the pier to the cable car entrance, arriving there to board the 7:30 am ride with only a few people there. The tickets were good for any return ride on the specified date.

 

Since the ticket office was not open at that time, it was great that we had our tickets with the barcodes to scan at the entrance.

 

The tram was very modern and clean.

 

The view through the cable car window on a rainy day was blurry (taken half-way up). It would be so much better if we were able to go up Mt. Floyen in the afternoon. Our cruise ship was at the top right corner.

 

We could see nothing but the building on the top, just to show that we were there!!!

[wismergirl]

Thanks for more beautiful pictures

 

Updating you on our trip to Iceland next month--it includes a Golden Circle and Geothermal bath tour (through Icelandair), and we booked separately a Northern Lights tour by bus.

 

We researched both bus and boat tours for the Northern Lights, and even posted the question as to which was better on cruisecritic in the Northern Europe forum. The bus tour seems to have more advantages.

 

We watched stunningly beautiful Northern Lights videos at the Museum of the North in Fairbanks when we went to Alaska in 2011. Really looking forward to one day when we could see them real.

 

The Golden Circle tour was great and we found the geothermal bath experience to be one of the highlights of our Iceland trip.

[wismergirl]

It was quite romantic walking in the rain from the cable car to the Fish Market. At 8:30am the stalls started to open.

 

The Visitors’ Centre was right beside the Fish Market and we were waiting for it to open at 9 am so we could buy tickets to Troldhaugen, enjoying the rainy yet beautiful harbour view beside the building, overlooking the famous Bergen Bryygen.

 

As soon as we bought the tickets & a day pass for the Hop-on-hop-off bus, we boarded one outside the visitors’ centre and had a quick loop around Bergen to know where we would go in the afternoon. Now we knew the exact locations of all the stops, including the one outside the cruise terminal.

 

After we got off the bus, I even had time to do some souvenir shopping at the Fish Market before boarding the coach to Troldhaugen outside the visitors’ centre.

 

 

The seafood looked extremely fresh but we had no time savour any.

[wismergirl]

The coach to Troldhaugen was completely full, many tourists were not able to buy tickets to get on, so we were lucky to be able to get the last tickets. My advice would be to get them online through Tidereiser well in advance to avoid disappointment and save a few Euros. The journey only took 20 minutes and the guide gave us a mini tour of Bergen en route to Troldhaugen.

 

This picture shows the coach we were on with the sign “Edvard Grieg Concert Bus” on the windshield, the visitors’ centre on the right, and the HOHO bus on the left.

 

Troldhaugen, what a beautiful and tranquil place! We had to walk for about 10 minutes from the car park to the museum.

 

 

Since the tickets we bought included transportation and the piano recital at 12:30 pm, we didn't have to line up to buy concert tickets and were able to join a tour to visit Grieg's residence before the concert. No photography was allowed inside the house.

 

Grieg did not compose in his house, instead, he spent most of his time in the red hut, facing the gorgeous lake to get inspiration to write his music.

 

The interior of the tiny hut.

Edited February 16, 2016 by wismergirl
wrong picture

[wismergirl]

Grieg and his wife’s burial site was right by the lake with no fancy tombstone.

 

After the tour, it’s almost time for the lunchtime piano recital in the concert hall with tiered turf roofs, built in 1985.

 

We were not just enjoying the charming music, but also the amazing view offered as a stunning backdrop.

 

 

This is the statue of Grieg outside the concert hall. This guy who was 5 ft. 1 in. tall did a lot of wonders to the musical world in Norway!

 

The map below summarizes how we spent our early afternoon near Bergen.

[wismergirl]

Instead of going all the way back to the Visitors’ Centre, the coach driver let us get off at the Music Pavilion in the city park (Festplassen).

 

Then we walked to Ole Bulls Square.

 

There were lots of children’s activities happening in the pedestrian zone.

 

We moved on to the UNESCO Bergen Bryygen (the old wharf) to view the old buildings. Many of them have slanted facades.

 

Then we boarded a HOHO bus to return to the Skolten Cruise Terminal.

 

Leaving Bergen, our last port of call…back to Dover in 2 days.

[phxbne]

Just found your review and enjoyed it. We are headed to Norway, Iceland and Shetland this summer - your photos make me even more excited to see puffins!

In Shetland, did you get to visit the farm or just see the horses across the fence?

[wismergirl]

Just found your review and enjoyed it. We are headed to Norway, Iceland and Shetland this summer - your photos make me even more excited to see puffins!

In Shetland, did you get to visit the farm or just see the horses across the fence?

 

We only saw the horses across the fence. When we arrived, the Princess ship tour was just about to leave. They also saw the horses just by the fence, so I doubt if they visited the farm. The farmhouse that we saw was VERY far away so you need to drive over. Workers were there to answer questions though. They basically brought a lot of those horses over to the fence to entertain the ship guests.

[Esmeralda]

Thank you so much for your review and the wonderful pictures. We are taking the Pacific Princess cruise to Iceland on Aug. 28 and your review was very helpful for us. I am wondering about booking the taxi in Akureyn. Was this booked online? Thanks so much, Joanne

[msmoger]

Thank you so much for your review and the wonderful pictures. We are taking the Pacific Princess cruise to Iceland on Aug. 28 and your review was very helpful for us. I am wondering about booking the taxi in Akureyn. Was this booked online? Thanks so much, Joanne

 

 

 

Joanne, come join our roll call. Lots of information there.

 

 

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