Funicular in Bergen

[mandylennon]

Does anyone know if you book the ships excursion, do you queue or go straight through?

or

If we DIY is it far from the port and what is the best time when the queues won't be too long (we have my father in law with us who is 85).

Many thanks

Mandy

[tartanexile81]

It depends where you dock as to how far you are from the town. The commercial port is for larger ships and there is a shuttle which takes you into the town but stops a distance from the bottom of the funicular. Smaller shops dock closer to the city centre but still a good walk away from the funicular. I think you'd need either a tour, or even better, a taxi from the ship. There are so many tours there people on them do tend to wait in the queue.

 

Although there are queues they actually go down really quickly as the train holds a lot of people and it only takes a few minutes to go up. When we do it, we usually aim to arrive after the morning tours but before the afternoon - around lunchtime.

[P&O SUE]

We got there reasonably early but not very early and didn't have a long wait at all. We saw the P&O trip there and they didn't have that long up the top when they had to go back down again.

This was early May though and I've been told it's best to get there early in July/August.

 

 

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[Johnno3c]

Hi mandylennon. It depends on ship and time of year as to which port your cruise ship will use. Try this link http://www.tomsportguides.com/port-guides.html#norway I am on Britannia in June and we dock June 23 in Bontelabo 2 area which you can walk from the ship to the Funicular about 15 mins but the ship may have wheelchairs you could borrow. I am in a chair so it is all accessible for walking to/from. I have booked my tickets via the Floyen website only about £8 ish and the Funicular runs every 15 minutes from 10am. There are two lines one for "I don't have a ticket" and one for "I do"

Hope this helps.

 

 

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[groovechick]

Does anyone know if you book the ships excursion, do you queue or go straight through?

or

If we DIY is it far from the port and what is the best time when the queues won't be too long (we have my father in law with us who is 85).

Many thanks

Mandy

 

On Aurora we docked in the commercial port and were shuttled into the city centre, about a 15-minute ride. The square with the large pond in the middle where the bus dropped us off was a 10-minute slow stroll to the funicular. We hadn't booked tickets because we were meeting my cousin and her husband who happened to be in Bergen on Queen Victoria that day and didn't know what they would want to do. It took about 20 minutes to queue, this was around 11 am in mid-August.

[LondonTowner]

There is a Tourist Board kiosk on the quay side where you can buy tickets for the funicular and then you don't have to queue.

[Elviex]

Sadly we had a bad experience with the funicular last July! I had bought tickets online before the cruise thinking it would save having to queue. It was chaos when we got near the funicular...people everywhere not knowing where to go and a huge long line of people down the street. We thought that would be the one to buy tickets, so joined the shorter one only to find that was the one to buy tickets!! Once they had bought their tickets people were then being told to join the very long queue which was the one for those with tickets. So we did but as we got nearer the building we could see that you could go to the ticket office and then go straight through and in effect queue jump! I wish I hadn't bought tickets online. Maybe we were just unlucky, it was mid morning, 10 or 11 ish. It took nearly an hour to actually get on the train.

 

 

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[Florry]

We have done both and I would recommend doing it on your own. On the ship tour as I recall it was pretty much go to the top and come back down, it wasn't until a second visit and a bit of online research that we discovered the great area of natural beauty and walking opportunity which exists at the top - although with an older person I'm not sure how far you could go anyway?

 

 

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[Scriv]

Oh dear, Elviex. That was unfortunate. We also bought ours on line in advance and just walked up near to the ticket office and went straight through without having to queue..... I agree though, it was all a bit chaotic with no one seeming to know what to do and where to go and people queuing to buy tickets got quite shirty with those of us ticketholders. Not a very pleasant experience! Ours was made more complicated by a shipload of French cruisers queuing at the same time with less idea than us as to the right queue!! Some interesting skirmishes on that day. DIY could be a bit stressful and tiring for your elderly father though?

[davecttr]

Distance from Montelabo berth to the funicular is about 1500 yards and from the commercial port shuttle by the park about 1000 yards so you can calculate your own transit times!.

[ascot2012]

Does anyone know if you book the ships excursion, do you queue or go straight through?

or

If we DIY is it far from the port and what is the best time when the queues won't be too long (we have my father in law with us who is 85).

Many thanks

Mandy

We Were in Bergen a couple of years back, we walked no problems from the dock into town, caught the hop on hop off bus in the morning and when we pasted the funicular station there was a really long line waiting, after the bus we walked to the funicular station and got on the train within about 5-10 minutes (that includes buying our tickets) we only caught the train up as we have a nice walk down using the well signed path.

Have a great time in Bergen.

[Cappers]

I've done it twice, both times d.i.y. Based on tips I found on here somewhere and in a travel book I bought,,and from chatting to people at dinner on the ship the night before we got straight up there as early as poss on the Bergen day. No faffing about,,just head straight for it and don't get distracted by anything on the way! If you have mobility issues and can't march it out to get there ahead of the crowds I'd get a taxi. Both times I've done it and it's worked.,and I've been coming back down by mid day after a nice couple of hours up there exploring the troll trails etc.,,and the queues by then were indeed all the way down the street. I didn't pre book tickets, just bought them there on the day. It's a fast moving queue but the earlier you get there the better. Then you can have a nice leisurely afternoon wandering around the Bryggen and the waterfront soaking up the ambience:cool:

 

I think you have to go with what I call the Disney approach...when we go to Florida we decide what we want to do most and get there early and go straight for it before the rest of the world thinks about it!

[daiB]

I can confirm that getting there early is the way to go. We went with a P&O trip and that walked past all the queue and on we went. So if standing is a problem a ship tour may be best.

 

 

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[the english lady]

We have done this a couple of times. Both times diy. Both times got off the ship pronto and walked straight there (docked near enough to do it) and got tickets. I think we may have been in the first one up.

I wouldn't pay in advance...if its bad weather you will not see any view up there and I believe Bergan does tend to ere on the rainy side.

I don't think the ship loans out wheelchairs. If you think he may need one probably best to look into hiring one with the red cross here, and taking it with you...or go by taxi.

[daiB]

Correct EL the ship does not hire out wheelchairs. However there are places in Southampton who I'll hire them for the length of the cruise and who will bring them to the terminal to be picked up.

 

 

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[LondonTowner]

As the English Lady has already said, you can hire a manual wheelchair from British Red Cross FOC and take it with you.

[tartanexile81]

I had an accident in Santiago on our recent cruise on Ventura and couldn't even walk back to the ship when we got off the coach. My husband just went to Reception, signed a form and they handed over a wheelchair for as long as I needed it

[daiB]

I had an accident in Santiago on our recent cruise on Ventura and couldn't even walk back to the ship when we got off the coach. My husband just went to Reception, signed a form and they handed over a wheelchair for as long as I needed it

 

 

That's why they don't hire them out to anyone to have one for people who have an accident like yourself.

 

My scooter broke down on my last cruise and they lent me one for that evening but it was a day later before they could find me another one.

 

 

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