Railroad Ticket validation for Flam Cruise Line excursion

[Augustsunshine]

i have heard that ticketing for the Flam Railway is essentially a two stage process. If you have a reserved ticket you must stand in line to get it validated in some way. Is it different if you have purchased a Cruise Line excursion? Is this something people have experience with. Does the cruise line do it for you? I have purchased an expensive (yes I know but the ones available from the Rail line were all late in the day) excursion for 8:20AM from NCL. The ship will be in port 8am til 8pm. I am now worried about missing the train. Can't move it to later in the morning. I am assuming that, like most ship excursions, you meet in a lounge somewhere and are sheparded off. Can't imagine people are told to go stand in line to get their ticket. Also, am seriously considering renting a bike to come down. Does anyone see an issue with this? Would NCL get upset if 40 passengers go up and 38 come back on the train:confused:

[dronnygirl]

The train leaves at 8.35 so I guess the cruise tour leaves at 8.20, it's only a short hop to the station. I can't imagine a cruise would sell tickets if they can't make the train. In Europe it's usual to validate your tickets, there is usually a machine to put your ticket in. With regard to the return journey, I don't think it will matter if you don't return with the tour so long as you let the leader know.

[Augustsunshine]

Thanks for your input. I would definitely let the tour leader know

[kitkat343]

We bought our tickets directly through the train, and they were validated by a conductor who walked through the train in 2017. Flam is a possible tender port since only one large ship can dock there.

 

The Flam railway is a five minute walk from where you dock or tender, so this can easily be undertaken as an independent excursion. We booked our tickets online at the Norwegian Railways site at https://www.nsb.no/en/?gclid=CMuvnubiitMCFYoy0wodZb8BnQ .

If that site is showing that everything is booked, other cruise critic posters have mentioned trying http://booking.visitflam.com/en/to-do/a1488268/the-flåm-railway/showdetails, and other posters have stated that this site has access to different tickets and sometimes has availability even when the Norwegian railway site lists no availability (I don't have any personal experience with the second site, but the first one worked easily for us). Also, people have reported on the forums that when the train was initially sold out, they kept checking and eventually tickets opened up due to cancellations, which is something to consider if your excursion through NCL is still refundable.

 

 

A quick online search seemed to recommend that you should sit on the right side of the train on the Flam to Myrdal journey. The view on that side was quite lovely, but might also be on the other side.

 

 

Have a great trip!

[Augustsunshine]

Cruise Critic members(y)

[pompeii]

We bought our tickets directly through the train, and they were validated by a conductor who walked through the train in 2017. Flam is a possible tender port since only one large ship can dock there.

 

The Flam railway is a five minute walk from where you dock or tender, so this can easily be undertaken as an independent excursion. We booked our tickets online at the Norwegian Railways site at https://www.nsb.no/en/?gclid=CMuvnubiitMCFYoy0wodZb8BnQ .

If that site is showing that everything is booked, other cruise critic posters have mentioned trying http://booking.visitflam.com/en/to-do/a1488268/the-flåm-railway/showdetails, and other posters have stated that this site has access to different tickets and sometimes has availability even when the Norwegian railway site lists no availability (I don't have any personal experience with the second site, but the first one worked easily for us). Also, people have reported on the forums that when the train was initially sold out, they kept checking and eventually tickets opened up due to cancellations, which is something to consider if your excursion through NCL is still refundable.

 

 

A quick online search seemed to recommend that you should sit on the right side of the train on the Flam to Myrdal journey. The view on that side was quite lovely, but might also be on the other side.

 

 

Have a great trip!

 

kitkat343, I posted this question on the other current help with Flam railway thread, but since you have experience from last year......do you know if there is a difference in the tickets you get from the railway site and the visitflam site? Do you get an actual ticket from visitflam, or is it a voucher that you then have to wait in line to trade for a ticket? I'm trying to determine if it is worth waiting until the 90 days before departure to purchase our tickets on the nsb website or just get them from visitflam now.

[dronnygirl]

Hi Pompeii, I've recently bought tickets from the visit Flam site. I received an email confirmation and an e.ticket with barcode. I assume we just have to scan the barcode to validate the ticket.

[kitkat343]

We purchased our tickets through the Norwegian railways site, and then downloaded their free app to access our tickets, which were scanned by the conductor. This was in May 2017. We booked our trip about 2months in advance, so we weren’t limited by the same time restrictions you mentioned. Sorry I can’t help.