Bergen to Oslo post extension - train class question

[2BERMUDA]

From Oslo, We did the Norway in a Nutshell train trip.  In Komfort Klass, which was so much better than regular.  We booked through Fjord Tours. We also booked the Bergen hotel for one night, and a luggage delivery service through them.  The bags were at the hotel when we arrived. 

 

it was a great trip, with a boat ride from Flam and a bus portion too.  Don’t remember the cost but you can check on their site.  It is not escorted.  Took about 11 hours. 

[purpleally]

21 hours ago, longterm said:

Hmm... not encouraging. Thanks for the input.

 

I'm wondering if a) it's really such a wonderful trip as I've heard, and b) whether we should just book the train and hotel in Oslo ourselves, so that we can go 1st class on the train.

 

We're leaning towards booking it ourselves, which would be cheaper in the long run anyway. 

 

Again, I appreciate any insights from those who have done the extension.

We are booking ourselves instead of paying the outrageous amount Viking is charging 

[purpleally]

4 hours ago, longterm said:

Here's what I came up with; these are just rough approximations, although I did look up train travel, and it looks like it will be approx. $250/person for 1st-class. I hope that's high, but when I looked at a random date in the next couple of months, it came back with $247 each (I forget what site it was).

$500 - 2 1st-class train tickets

$50 - transfer from ship to train station

$50 - food on the train

$300 - food in Oslo (2 nights, 1 morning)

$600 - hotel (2 nights - high, but I estimate high)

$1500 - TOTAL ESTIMATE

I know that the hotel's a little high, but there are always extra expenses that come up, like a souvenir or a museum entry fee, or perhaps an Uber.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by purpleally

[longterm]

6 minutes ago, purpleally said:

We are booking ourselves instead of paying the outrageous amount Viking is charging 

Once I did the math, it was clear that the train trip would be better if we booked ourselves--guaranteed reserved seats that are nicer and have charging ports; also, once I priced the same hotel and everything else, I saw that the difference in price is around $500. Plus, we may decide to get a private tour guide in Oslo, which would be excellent; we've always enjoyed private tours.

I also found out that Viking doesn't allow flight deviations from Bergen, which meant that, if we decided to let Viking do our flights (we're doing our own), we would have had to get a flight from Oslo to Bergen, retrieve our bags, then check in AGAIN for the flight home. I see that I can get a nonstop outbound, and a 1-stop return through Toronto, which Viking certainly wouldn't get us on. The difference in flight time is more than 12 hours.

[CHammond]

4 hours ago, longterm said:

Not surprising these days, unfortunately. I'm constantly appalled at the bad grammar I see online, the butchered English spoken by talking heads on TV, the tortured headlines on news sites. 

 

When I went to Japan years ago, everyone told me, "Not to worry! Most Japanese people speak English!"

 

The very first day, in Kumamoto, we went to a bank to exchange money, and nobody spoke English. We did all our transactions with hand signals; I was surprised that more Japanese people didn't speak English, but of course, in our arrogant American way, most Americans speak English only, while expecting other countries to just fall in line and understand us. Before I return to Japan, I'll learn at least some rudimentary phrases; it shows respect and I've always enjoyed trying to converse in foreign languages.

My daughter spent 9 months in Japan as an exchange student, one interesting thing she told us was that most Japanese people speak English but will not speak it with a foreigner unless their English is perfect, because they don’t want to make a mistake, we certainly found that to be true on our trip there 

[purpleally]

42 minutes ago, longterm said:

Once I did the math, it was clear that the train trip would be better if we booked ourselves--guaranteed reserved seats that are nicer and have charging ports; also, once I priced the same hotel and everything else, I saw that the difference in price is around $500. Plus, we may decide to get a private tour guide in Oslo, which would be excellent; we've always enjoyed private tours.

I also found out that Viking doesn't allow flight deviations from Bergen, which meant that, if we decided to let Viking do our flights (we're doing our own), we would have had to get a flight from Oslo to Bergen, retrieve our bags, then check in AGAIN for the flight home. I see that I can get a nonstop outbound, and a 1-stop return through Toronto, which Viking certainly wouldn't get us on. The difference in flight time is more than 12 hours.

When I did a dummy booking on vy.no (too early) there was no option to first class?

Edited January 16, 2023 by purpleally

[Moonlion]

10 minutes ago, purpleally said:

When I did a dummy booking on vy.no (too early) there was no option to first class?

When you going through the vy.no booking process, you can select "Plus" which is their equivalent of first class.  You can also select fully refundable, partially refundable and non-refundable.  Seniors get a 25% discount.  The more expensive fares allow you to select your seats in advance. 

[longterm]

2 hours ago, CHammond said:

My daughter spent 9 months in Japan as an exchange student, one interesting thing she told us was that most Japanese people speak English but will not speak it with a foreigner unless their English is perfect, because they don’t want to make a mistake, we certainly found that to be true on our trip there 

Back in 2002, we were on a 2-week tour with a fairly well-known guitarist named Nonie Edwards, who was in the Ventures back in the 60s; for some reason, the Ventures are still hugely popular in Japan, even after 60+ years, and Nokie played all the famous guitar parts on those songs, and other ones like "Hawaii 5-0." He was a great friend, and died in March 2018, and was a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I played keyboards on about 15 of his albums and did this one tour with him.

Anyway, the Japanese people at all the concerts were really friendly and tried their best to speak English with us, since none of us, including Nokie, spoke Japanese, but when we went in businesses, like the bank in Kumamoto, we often found no one who knew any English at all. I was definitely surprised; fortunately, we had a tour manager who helped us when we got on a train to go to Kyoto.

[hbtraveler]

7 hours ago, 2BERMUDA said:

From Oslo, We did the Norway in a Nutshell train trip.  In Komfort Klass, which was so much better than regular.  We booked through Fjord Tours. We also booked the Bergen hotel for one night, and a luggage delivery service through them.  The bags were at the hotel when we arrived. 

 

it was a great trip, with a boat ride from Flam and a bus portion too.  Don’t remember the cost but you can check on their site.  It is not escorted.  Took about 11 hours. 

If you have the time, I'd also recommend the Norway in a Nutshell tour.  We did it on our own (not associated with a cruise) from Oslo to Bergen.  We had the time, so we split it into 2 days and overnighted in Flam.  We also booked through Fjord Tours.  Since we did it in two days, we were able to book the later departure from Oslo, which was a bit less crowded.  We stayed at Thon Opera Hotel, which is right next to the Oslo train station.  We stayed at the Bergen Bors Hotel in Bergen.  I don't remember whether we walked or took a taxi to the hotel from the Bergen train station.  It was a fantastic trip. 

[dd57]

4 hours ago, longterm said:

Once I did the math, it was clear that the train trip would be better if we booked ourselves--guaranteed reserved seats that are nicer and have charging ports; also, once I priced the same hotel and everything else, I saw that the difference in price is around $500. Plus, we may decide to get a private tour guide in Oslo, which would be excellent; we've always enjoyed private tours.

I also found out that Viking doesn't allow flight deviations from Bergen, which meant that, if we decided to let Viking do our flights (we're doing our own), we would have had to get a flight from Oslo to Bergen, retrieve our bags, then check in AGAIN for the flight home. I see that I can get a nonstop outbound, and a 1-stop return through Toronto, which Viking certainly wouldn't get us on. The difference in flight time is more than 12 hours.

I am by no means recommending the Oslo-Bergen Viking post-cruise extension, but for future reference it is important to note that when you do a pre or post cruise extension with them, Viking air includes leaving from wherever the extension ends (or starts for a pre-cruise).  So if you take the Bergen-Oslo extension with Viking, they will fly you out of Oslo without paying for a deviation.

 

Having been on that extension, I  would recommend doing it on your own.  We have enjoyed other extensions.

[BluebonnetTexan]

As you have surmised, you can definitely do the Bergen-Oslo cheaper as a DIY than with the Viking extension. We were on Viking Homelands in 2019. We did our own air into Stockholm and out of Oslo (we live in Houston, so lots of options). We did Comfort Class train, three nights at the Comfort Grand Central, bought 2-day Oslo Pass, and Flytoget train to airport for what Viking charged for one person. 
The train from Bergen to Oslo is beautiful scenery for the most part as others indicated. We took a taxi from the ship to the train station, not very expensive. Then we walked from the train to our hotel which was inside the train station. Very convenient! We each had a large suitcase and backpack, no problem storing them on the train.
Friends that we made on the trip who took the extension later told us that they wished they’d done it DIY as they didn’t feel like the added cost was worth what Viking provided. 
Enjoy your trip!

[Sunflower & The Scientist]

We are on this pre July 2023, kind of wish I knew all this before we booked that. My concern is the train seats. We fly first class as my husband has broken his back twice and seating is an issue. I had read before that the seating was comfortable, now I'm getting concerned. 

[Clay Clayton]

On 1/15/2023 at 6:09 PM, CCWineLover said:

If you do it yourselves, it likely will be less a hassle and cheaper.

There have been a number of threads discussing this train and booking it.  We were, as I said, all set to book ours in first class (on the advice of friends), when the train shut down for maintenance for the week we needed it.

Doing a simple search, here is the most recent thread, but there are plenty of others.

 

How far in advance were you trying to book? In other words, I’m looking at our options and don’t want to find out just a week or two ahead that the train isn’t one. 
 

TIA!

[Clay Clayton]

19 hours ago, hbtraveler said:

If you have the time, I'd also recommend the Norway in a Nutshell tour.  We did it on our own (not associated with a cruise) from Oslo to Bergen.  We had the time, so we split it into 2 days and overnighted in Flam.  We also booked through Fjord Tours.  Since we did it in two days, we were able to book the later departure from Oslo, which was a bit less crowded.  We stayed at Thon Opera Hotel, which is right next to the Oslo train station.  We stayed at the Bergen Bors Hotel in Bergen.  I don't remember whether we walked or took a taxi to the hotel from the Bergen train station.  It was a fantastic trip. 

I’m looking at doing this in reverse but I am unable to get a hotel in Flam (or anywhere else along the NIN route) so that means we will spend about 14 hours traveling. So need some advice from those who have done the Fjord cruise and Flam railway trip. Given we will have been cruising fjords aboard Viking (one of our ports is Geiranger) do you think cruising the NIN fjord is needed?  If not, then we will just book the train from Bergen to Oslo. 
 

TIA!

[pfibilly]

On 1/16/2023 at 7:19 AM, longterm said:

Sounds like booking this myself may be the way to go. My rudimentary budget for booking it ourselves came out to about $1500 with 1st-class train, versus $1938 from Viking. The only difference would be 1 guided tour in Oslo, which I could probably arrange for less than $200.

 

Viking's arranging flights for us; we're already paying $100/person for Air Plus, but if we fly home from Oslo instead of Bergen, is Viking going to uncharge for that? We've never flown out of a city other than the termination city of a cruise.

 

Good to hear about the lack of a language barrier; I speak French and Italian, but certainly no Norwegian. 

 

 

We are flying home from Oslo and there was no upcharge with AirPlus.

[dd57]

1 hour ago, Sunflower & The Scientist said:

We are on this pre July 2023, kind of wish I knew all this before we booked that. My concern is the train seats. We fly first class as my husband has broken his back twice and seating is an issue. I had read before that the seating was comfortable, now I'm getting concerned. 

Everyone's definition of comfortable varies.  The train seats you get on the Viking excursion are padded, like airplane domestic flight seats.  There is a lot of legroom, and they are fairly wide. For the price I paid  I was expecting something more comfortable like on Amtrak long distance trains and they weren't that comfortable.  But we were OK for the long trip. Even though you already booked it, you could probably cancel the extension, get your money back, and DIY.  We did enjoy the included excursions and there is something to be said for having Viking take care of everything.   Could your husband take a travel pillow for his back?

[longterm]

20 minutes ago, pfibilly said:

We are flying home from Oslo and there was no upcharge with AirPlus.

Interesting; when I spoke to them, I was told that if we were NOT on a post extension, Viking didn't allow for a deviation in departure city.

 

So what this meant was that we'd have to a) pay $200 for us to get Air Plus, and then b) book a separate flight from Oslo to Bergen to catch our flight home, and c) when we got to Bergen, we'd have to retrieve our bags and check in AGAIN for the flight home.

 

So, I researched doing flights ourselves, and saw that we can fly nonstop from DFW to London on AA, and then we can do a 1-stop flight home from Oslo through Toronto, all for about $100 per person less than Viking would charge us. 

[hbtraveler]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

I’m looking at doing this in reverse but I am unable to get a hotel in Flam (or anywhere else along the NIN route) so that means we will spend about 14 hours traveling. So need some advice from those who have done the Fjord cruise and Flam railway trip. Given we will have been cruising fjords aboard Viking (one of our ports is Geiranger) do you think cruising the NIN fjord is needed?  If not, then we will just book the train from Bergen to Oslo. 
 

TIA!

The Nærøyfjord is quite dramatic.  It is listed as the narrowest fjord in Norway and is a UNESCO site.  But, if your fjord'd out, and particularly if you don't want to do a really long day, the through train from Bergen to Oslo is still worth that part of the trip.  In addition to the fjord cruise, the Norway in a Nutshell trip also includes the steep, scenic Flam Railway to get to and from the Bergen-Oslo mainline.  When we overnighted in Flam, we stayed at Flåmsbrygga Hotel, which was right along the fjord.  We also arranged a morning tour to the Stegastein viewpoint that is high above the Aurlandsfjord.  As this was our first fjord in Norway, we were quite glad we did this trip.

[longterm]

5 minutes ago, hbtraveler said:

The Nærøyfjord is quite dramatic.  It is listed as the narrowest fjord in Norway and is a UNESCO site.  But, if your fjord'd out, and particularly if you don't want to do a really long day, the through train from Bergen to Oslo is still worth that part of the trip.  In addition to the fjord cruise, the Norway in a Nutshell trip also includes the steep, scenic Flam Railway to get to and from the Bergen-Oslo mainline.  When we overnighted in Flam, we stayed at Flåmsbrygga Hotel, which was right along the fjord.  We also arranged a morning tour to the Stegastein viewpoint that is high above the Aurlandsfjord.  As this was our first fjord in Norway, we were quite glad we did this trip.

How long is the Norway in a Nutshell trip? This might be a nice alternative for us to just taking the train to Oslo. What site did you use to book? How was your booking experience?

[Clay Clayton]

7 minutes ago, longterm said:

How long is the Norway in a Nutshell trip? This might be a nice alternative for us to just taking the train to Oslo. What site did you use to book? How was your booking experience?

They said they booked through Fjord Tours who appear to be the official NIN agency. https://www.fjordtours.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAq5meBhCyARIsAJrtdr7i1516Q4adveZNBK4E4HQrAINIIffnVR3zU3LIP6yQ04N-xhVyZ-MaAsI0EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 

I’m looking at going from Bergen to Oslo and we can leave Bergen at 07:00 or 08:00 but either way don’t arrive in Oslo until 22:40 so it’s a 14 -15 hour day.  Others have posted elsewhere on this thread that it was an 11 hour day for them so perhaps the timing for the transfers when going from Oslo to Bergen is a little tighter. 

[pfibilly]

39 minutes ago, longterm said:

Interesting; when I spoke to them, I was told that if we were NOT on a post extension, Viking didn't allow for a deviation in departure city.

 

So what this meant was that we'd have to a) pay $200 for us to get Air Plus, and then b) book a separate flight from Oslo to Bergen to catch our flight home, and c) when we got to Bergen, we'd have to retrieve our bags and check in AGAIN for the flight home.

 

So, I researched doing flights ourselves, and saw that we can fly nonstop from DFW to London on AA, and then we can do a 1-stop flight home from Oslo through Toronto, all for about $100 per person less than Viking would charge us. 

I may have misunderstood your question. We are booked on the Bergen to Oslo post cruise extension. Sorry for the confusion.

[janetcbl]

2 hours ago, Clay Clayton said:

I’m looking at doing this in reverse but I am unable to get a hotel in Flam (or anywhere else along the NIN route) so that means we will spend about 14 hours traveling. So need some advice from those who have done the Fjord cruise and Flam railway trip. Given we will have been cruising fjords aboard Viking (one of our ports is Geiranger) do you think cruising the NIN fjord is needed?  If not, then we will just book the train from Bergen to Oslo. 
 

TIA!

That surprises me. Have you considered booking the “Norway in a Nutshell” tour for 2 nights, using your TA? This area is one of the most beautiful in Norway if you will only be in Norway a short time.

[longterm]

1 hour ago, Clay Clayton said:

They said they booked through Fjord Tours who appear to be the official NIN agency. https://www.fjordtours.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAq5meBhCyARIsAJrtdr7i1516Q4adveZNBK4E4HQrAINIIffnVR3zU3LIP6yQ04N-xhVyZ-MaAsI0EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
 

I’m looking at going from Bergen to Oslo and we can leave Bergen at 07:00 or 08:00 but either way don’t arrive in Oslo until 22:40 so it’s a 14 -15 hour day.  Others have posted elsewhere on this thread that it was an 11 hour day for them so perhaps the timing for the transfers when going from Oslo to Bergen is a little tighter. 

I'd be concerned about being able to get off the ship by that time though; I was thinking we may have to plan to do an 11:45am train, which, since daylight is so long, wouldn't be a problem.

Right now we're still planning to duplicate the post extension that Viking offers, but with our own train reservations. If someone has a compelling argument in favor of doing the Norway in a Nutshell trip instead, I'd definitely be interested in hearing. We're not going until July 4, 2024, so we have plenty of time to get things booked.

[janetcbl]

27 minutes ago, longterm said:

I'd be concerned about being able to get off the ship by that time though; I was thinking we may have to plan to do an 11:45am train, which, since daylight is so long, wouldn't be a problem.

Right now we're still planning to duplicate the post extension that Viking offers, but with our own train reservations. If someone has a compelling argument in favor of doing the Norway in a Nutshell trip instead, I'd definitely be interested in hearing. We're not going until July 4, 2024, so we have plenty of time to get things booked.

I have spent a lot of time in Norway (weeks at a time for decades) and this is one of my favorite areas. The train trip (Bergen-Oslo) is great, but if you have time to include the N in a N trip do it. The train down to Flam(spectacular) the fjord trip to Gudvagen (2 hours on two different areas of the fjord), Gudvagen (just a dock), the incredible bus trip up to Stalheim (not for the faint of heart, very steep, but the bus drivers know what they are doing), the view from the hotel in Stalheim (there is a famous painting of this view in the National Museum in Oslo), routine continuation of bus trip to Voss where you catch the train (nice water view on the right at one point) back to Bergen is worth it. This is Norway in a Nutshell.

[hbtraveler]

30 minutes ago, longterm said:

Right now we're still planning to duplicate the post extension that Viking offers, but with our own train reservations. If someone has a compelling argument in favor of doing the Norway in a Nutshell trip instead, I'd definitely be interested in hearing. We're not going until July 4, 2024, so we have plenty of time to get things booked.

We took the NIN trip back in 2018, so things might have changed a bit.  But whether you take NIN or the through train between Oslo and Bergen, you will see the same scenery between Oslo and Myrdal and between Voss and Bergen.  Per my notes, It takes about 4:30 for the Oslo-Myrdal part, which is the best of the mainline train trip.  Spectacular scenery as the train climbs up and over the big mountains.  Voss-Bergen is less spectacular as it mostly follows river valleys.  It takes about 1:15 from Voss to Bergen.  The part between Myrdal and Voss, I think, takes about 45 minutes and continues the descent from the mountains.

For NIN, you would depart the mainline at Myrdal.  There was about a 30 minute gap between the mainline train arriving and the Flam train departing to allow for passenger and luggage transfer.  It is about an hour down to Flam on the scenic railroad.  The Flam train station is right next to the dock.  It was here that we overnighted.  But if you continue on, you board the boat for the very scenic 2 hour cruise to Gudvangen.  I considered it one of the highlights of our Norway trip.  At Gudvangen, you board a bus (right next to the dock) for the 1:15 trip to Voss train station, where the mainline train to Bergen is met.  If you have the time, and especially if you aren't visiting any fjords otherwise, NIN is well worth it.  I hope this helps.