Flam questions

[Koz1]

We'll be visiting Flam while on a Fred Olsen cruise on the Black Watch in July and will be in port from 7.30am to 5.30pm. We did a Norwegian Fjords cruise on Celebrity Constellation in 2011 and travelled on the Flam Railway on that trip so are considering other options for our day in Flam this time, although we may still decide on doing the train trip. Last time we did a ship tour and travelled to Voss by bus with several stops along the way and then on trains from Voss to Myrdal and on to Flam.

 

When choosing what to do on our port days we are thinking from a photography viewpoint to capture some of Norway's spectacular scenery.

 

We'd like to do the 90 minute Stegastein Viewpoint bus tour and are also considering taking the boat from Flam to Gudvangen and then the shuttle bus back to Flam. Our cruise the itinerary shows us as scenic cruising "Cruising Naeroyfjord" from 6pm - 8pm after we leave Flam and since it's a smaller ship we may sail closer to shore than in the larger ships so is doing the boat trip from Flam to Gudvangen worth doing since we will be sailing part of the same area later in the day? The next day we are "Cruising Nordfjord" as we sail into Olden and then on to Geiranger the following day.

 

If we do this boat trip can we get off at Undredal and then back on and travel to Gudvangen for the same fare? Is it worth spending time at both Undredal and Gudvangen if we can fit them in comfortably with the timetables? Can you book the boat and shuttlebus ahead or just buy tickets on the day?

 

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

[FLACRUISER99]

We'll be visiting Flam while on a Fred Olsen cruise on the Black Watch in July and will be in port from 7.30am to 5.30pm. We did a Norwegian Fjords cruise on Celebrity Constellation in 2011 and travelled on the Flam Railway on that trip so are considering other options for our day in Flam this time, although we may still decide on doing the train trip. Last time we did a ship tour and travelled to Voss by bus with several stops along the way and then on trains from Voss to Myrdal and on to Flam.

 

When choosing what to do on our port days we are thinking from a photography viewpoint to capture some of Norway's spectacular scenery.

 

We'd like to do the 90 minute Stegastein Viewpoint bus tour and are also considering taking the boat from Flam to Gudvangen and then the shuttle bus back to Flam. Our cruise the itinerary shows us as scenic cruising "Cruising Naeroyfjord" from 6pm - 8pm after we leave Flam and since it's a smaller ship we may sail closer to shore than in the larger ships so is doing the boat trip from Flam to Gudvangen worth doing since we will be sailing part of the same area later in the day? The next day we are "Cruising Nordfjord" as we sail into Olden and then on to Geiranger the following day.

 

If we do this boat trip can we get off at Undredal and then back on and travel to Gudvangen for the same fare? Is it worth spending time at both Undredal and Gudvangen if we can fit them in comfortably with the timetables? Can you book the boat and shuttlebus ahead or just buy tickets on the day?

 

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Try posting your question here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=83

Personalty, I would book with the ship unless you have a lot of time.

[LondonTowner]

We did a Fred cruise to Norway. The ship stops about 200m from the station. As we very rarely o ship excursions I had looked up how many ships were going to be in port and it was only us.

 

We bought our tickets at the station, but since we went you can now buy them online. A lot cheaper than the ship's excursion.

[dsrdsrdsr]

I planned to do the Gudvangen boat-bus round trip earlier this year. You can book round-trip tickets on the day, and the boat leaves from more or less next door to where the ship docks. It's a small harbour.

 

Be aware that the bus trip isn't very scenic - it's mostly through tunnels.

 

I didn't go on this tour, because for the first time when I've visited Flam, it was cloudy, down to quite low level. It cleared up a bit later, but not much, so we decided that as we were going through the Naeroyfjord for free in the evening, we wouldn't pay for it in the morning. Then in the evening, the clouds and rain really came down, so we skipped it altogether. Conclusion, don't book in advance, because when you get there, you might not want to bother.

 

As for doing it twice in one day, yes, definitely. Light conditions may be entirely different, and for certain the sun (if there is one) will have moved round 180 degrees from morning to evening.

[P&O SUE]

Sailing in and out of Flam you see fantastic scenery. Even on the bigger ship we went on we were 'close to shore'. Not sure you need to go on a boat trip there because you get it all just sailing in and out. Truly gorgeous! My jaw literally dropped when I first went up on deck :)

[Koz1]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

 

We definitely want to do the 90 minute bus tour to the Stegastein Viewpoint and we'll probably book that soon but we'll wait until we arrive to decide on something else to do that day, depending on the weather.

 

According to a port schedule I looked at there is only one other ship in port that day, the Costa NeoRomantica, which holds 1670 passengers and our ship, the Black Watch, holds 804.

 

We did the train trip when we were there last time so were hoping to find something different to do but we may still do it again if there are still seats available on the day, although we realise that it will probably be sold out.

 

We just have to decide whether to book the Stegastein Viewpoint bus tour for early or late in the day. On our cruise in 2011 it was often foggy early in the day and cleared up later so I'm thinking that we may book a later trip, although I realise of course that anything can happen with the weather.

Edited January 24, 2016 by Koz1