Viking Homelands & Shore Excursions in Flam

[molymoo]

We will be taking the Viking Homelands cruise from Stockholm to Bergen in July (the 10th to be exact). Although it is a month before we will be able to select our shore excursions (we booked a PV stateroom), we have been watching the MVJ site for options as we narrow our decisions.

 

We actually were booked on this cruise last summer but had to cancel when we both experienced major health issues shortly after making all of our excursion and dining selections ... so we have a pretty good idea what we want to do this time around (fingers crossed for continued good health!).

 

The site is currently showing all shore excursions in Flam as being "Sold Out" ... even the included "city tour". I am sure this is a mistake and will call Viking to clarify if things do not change as the day gets closer but has anyone else noticed this? Can this possibly be the actual situation?

 

Just curious! :)

[huntersyaya]

I doubt it. You can easily book the Flam RR trip on your own. You literally step off the ship and walk less than a block to the train. We reserved our seats and got our tickets prior to sailing. We were able to do that in the morning (I think we left around 8:30 and were back by 11 or so). We had lunch on the ship and then did the included excursion in the afternoon. Loved FLAM.....very pretty as you might expect.

[Pugwash123]

I doubt it. You can easily book the Flam RR trip on your own. You literally step off the ship and walk less than a block to the train. We reserved our seats and got our tickets prior to sailing. We were able to do that in the morning (I think we left around 8:30 and were back by 11 or so). We had lunch on the ship and then did the included excursion in the afternoon. Loved FLAM.....very pretty as you might expect.

 

Thank you for this post, it has prompted me to look up the Flam Railway on the internet and as a result I have booked and paid for our tickets when we visit in August. The round trip has cost 880 NOK for the pair of us. On our cruise Viking Star is scheduled to dock at 09:00 so I have booked the 11:05 return trip which will leave time for us to explore Flam on our return or take one of the afternoon included tours..

[huntersyaya]

Great....It is a beautiful ride. They stop at a large waterfall on the way up. Everyone gets off the train to take a look. You are so close, you will get splashed. Just beautiful! The entire cruise is wonderful. You will love it.

[CruisingGems]

We are on this cruise from Stockholm to Bergen a week after you on the Sea, and I would like to take the much touted "Norway in a nutshell" tour. The ship's version of this trip seems to take the Flamsbana to Myrdal, the mainline train to Voss, and then a bus that allows us to see the Naeroyfjord and scares the heck out of us on a hairpin descent back to Flam. The normal "Norway in a nutshell" tour as I've seen it, leaves the bus at Gudvangen and takes a boat through the Naeroyfjord and Aurlandsfjorden back to Flam. (Rick Steves actually recommends doing it in the reverse order starting with the boat.)

 

I have found this real "Nutshell" at FjordTours.com, however the boat portion departs from Flam at 0900, the exact time we are scheduled to arrive. So, the question is, are we likely to be able to make that tour ($109/person vs Viking's $199) or should we do something like ride the Flamsbana up and back and then just do a separately-scheduled cruise to and from Gudvangeng?

 

I have requested clarification from FjordTours.com but received only silence so far.

 

Gary & Mollie

[watchung hills]

Molymoo, we are also on the Viking Homelands tour leaving Stockholm on July 10th. We are interested n riding the train up and biking back down. The cafe at Myrdal offers bike rentals, and the fee includes the cost for returning the bike on the train. (It is much cheaper than the cruise package.)

You can get the train schedule from the railway's webite. Unfortunately I don't know how to attach a dowload, but here is the link: https://www.nsb.no/en/our-destinations/our-regional-railway-lines/the-flam-railway

 

I hope this helps.

[molymoo]

Thanks for all of the information. I called Viking today and apparently the site is correct and all of the excursions are indeed sold out. The agent did suggest that they will eventually add more booking slots to the included tour as that one will have to be made available but the others will unfortunately not be available. She also said that we might have to wait until we are onboard to book the included excursion.

 

We will look into booking the train/bike our ourselves but this is quite a disappointment and wonder what other excursions are likely to be sold out when we are able to book ours in 20 days. We were able to book every excursion we wanted last year (about a month before we had to cancel) but there were quite a few more available so there was a lot more to choose from. they seem to have cut a lot of the previously available shore excursions from the schedule this year.

 

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will not have to spend the next couple of months booking tours in many of the ports ... I understand that they are often a bit cheaper than the ship excursions but the ship excursions are in sync with the port schedules and that gives us a lot of peace of mind.

 

This is our first disappointment with Viking after six lovely river cruises ... too bad. :(

[HTKat]

You may want to check back with Viking in a few days. Apparently there is a glitch in the system. The Viking service representative I spoke with this evening was going to report the problem.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[molymoo]

Thanks! I will give it another try in a couple of days!

[TERRIER1]

Thanks for all of the information. I called Viking today and apparently the site is correct and all of the excursions are indeed sold out. The agent did suggest that they will eventually add more booking slots to the included tour as that one will have to be made available but the others will unfortunately not be available. She also said that we might have to wait until we are onboard to book the included excursion.

 

We will look into booking the train/bike our ourselves but this is quite a disappointment and wonder what other excursions are likely to be sold out when we are able to book ours in 20 days. We were able to book every excursion we wanted last year (about a month before we had to cancel) but there were quite a few more available so there was a lot more to choose from. they seem to have cut a lot of the previously available shore excursions from the schedule this year.

 

We are keeping our fingers crossed that we will not have to spend the next couple of months booking tours in many of the ports ... I understand that they are often a bit cheaper than the ship excursions but the ship excursions are in sync with the port schedules and that gives us a lot of peace of mind.

 

This is our first disappointment with Viking after six lovely river cruises ... too bad. :(

 

This tour was sold out on our cruise last year which prompted many on our roll call to book our own tours.

[Fairfield Nana]

Some of us on this gem cruise (Jul 10-25) have already booked tours with private companies in several of the ports (SPB, Warnemunde, Tallinn, & Flam). Still think about possibles for Copenhagen and Helsinki or may just do the free offerings in these ports via Viking or our own foot power and possible HOHO.

 

I am totally confused how any of the free or 'optional$$" tours could possibly be booked this far in advance when not even "ultra-penthouse" cabins can book yet. Of course lately, I confuse easily.

[jiminyC_fan]

I found this thread helpful. I was just coming on to see how hard it is to book tours and if they sold out. I haven't booked yet and was just wondering if it is worth the extra $$ for a higher category because of the earlier bookings.

[molymoo]

Some of us on this gem cruise (Jul 10-25) have already booked tours with private companies in several of the ports (SPB, Warnemunde, Tallinn, & Flam). Still think about possibles for Copenhagen and Helsinki or may just do the free offerings in these ports via Viking or our own foot power and possible HOHO.

 

I am totally confused how any of the free or 'optional$$" tours could possibly be booked this far in advance when not even "ultra-penthouse" cabins can book yet. Of course lately, I confuse easily.

 

We thought the same thing but it seems that they have reduced the number of excursions in a lot of the ports this year (we had booked last year and it seemed there was more to choose from in many ports) so I can only guess that they may well have reduced the number of slots available for each excursion as well ... then you have to keep in mind that there are some aboard that will be doing the longer (as long as 50 days) trip that ends with the Viking Homelands itinerary. They will have been able to book their excursions earlier and may have filled up all of the available slots ... hard to imagine but I suppose it is possible.

 

We will be able to book our excursions on the 24th so we will know better then but it is interesting that Flam is the only port where ANY excursion is showing "SOLD OUT". It IS a small port but considering the lovely location and touring possibilities I am surprised that (apparently) so few spaces were allocated for passengers at this stop.

 

We have considered booking our own tour but really prefer going with Viking to insure that the tour is coordinated with the ship's port times. We know from experience that the ships go when its time to go and if you miss the departure due to some unforeseen occurrence you are on your own to figure out how to catch up with the ship ... we are two females (mother and daughter) and frankly prefer the "lazy" way out and let Viking take care of us as much as possible! We did book our own tour in Stockholm for last year's cruise but that was an overnight in port ... so lots of time to "play with".

 

:)

[molymoo]

I found this thread helpful. I was just coming on to see how hard it is to book tours and if they sold out. I haven't booked yet and was just wondering if it is worth the extra $$ for a higher category because of the earlier bookings.

 

While booking a higher cabin category does allow you to book your excursions earlier I wouldn't pay the extra for that reason alone. We are booked in a PV and there are only two cabin categories that can book before us and frankly; we have been stalking the site for some time and the Flam excursions (including the "Included" tour) have been showing "SOLD OUT" for more than three weeks.

 

All of the other ports are showing availability for all excursions ... Flam seems to be a "unique" issue on this cruise.

[Fairfield Nana]

Mollymoo- thanks for the explanation on how some "50 dayers" could have taken some of the tour booking slots--makes sense but would be surprised that this is the whole story. Like you, we'll just have to wait and see. Not concerned about the Flam slots as we booked our own cruise of the Fjords for part of the day, and plan to hire a cab for some of us to tour some of the local sights--like a recreated farm a few miles out of town.

[jiminyC_fan]

While booking a higher cabin category does allow you to book your excursions earlier I wouldn't pay the extra for that reason alone. We are booked in a PV and there are only two cabin categories that can book before us and frankly; we have been stalking the site for some time and the Flam excursions (including the "Included" tour) have been showing "SOLD OUT" for more than three weeks.

 

All of the other ports are showing availability for all excursions ... Flam seems to be a "unique" issue on this cruise.

 

Thank you