Geiranger -which bus tour, timing and tender

[righthand1]

We will be on Holland America Nieuw Statendam cruise end of June with a stop in Geiranger from 7 am-5 pm. We are thinking of taking a bus tour, looking at possible 3 hour tour that include Mt Dalsnibba departing at 9.30 am. We will have 2 kids with us but may plan to drop them off at club HAL which will only open at 8 am, then taking a tender to port to catch the tour. Our kids will have terrible carsickness with that type of roads.

1. Will we be able to catch 9.30 am tour easily if start lining up for the tender at 815 am or so? (I also heard about some ship used the seawalk, not sure HAL has ever used that. Our itinerary said tender port.) Otherwise we may need to look at 1230 pm tour or other type of bus tour itinerary. We are the first time cruiser on HAL(though we cruised other lines in past), so we won't get any priorities.

2. How easy it is to come back and forth with tenders during the day? If we would come back to have lunch and possible taking the kids for other activity tour in the afternoon. I am a bit concerned of making another tour time if the tender process involve a lot of waiting on both ends. 

3. I am trying to decide between a panoramic exclusive bus that goes to 3 viewpoints included Mt Dalsnibba or the panoramic bus that goes only to Flydalsjuvet and Eagle's bend. I thought we would book ahead, however we also don't know how the weather will be. Is the ride to Mt Dalsnibba enjoyable and still worth it even in bad weather that we won't see anything at the top? The 2 view points is obviously cheaper and I thought we will be more likely to see the view, so wonder if we should just go with that. 

Thank you very much for any input.

[PurpleTraveller]

When I was in Geiranger in June 2019 on Sapphire Princess, HAL's Rotterdam was moored at the floating dock while we had to tender so you may be fortunate and not have to tender. I did the Panorama Exclusive Bus Tour in a mini bus with 16 passengers, that went to Flydalsjuvet, Mt Dalsnibba and Eagle Bend Lookout. We also stopped at Djupvatnet Lake which was still frozen. I would recommend that you do a tour that goes to Mt Dalsnibba as the views were spectacular and a highlight of my cruise. There was still snow on the mountain tops and it was beautiful. As you know there are no guarantees with the weather but the Panorama Exclusive Bus does book out early so I would book beforehand and hope for good weather. The views from the other two viewpoints were great but no where near as fantastic as the view from Mt Dalsnibba. Geiranger was my favourite port of my 14 day cruise.

 

Hope you have a wonderful cruise 😊