questions for anyone that has done the iceland, norway arctic explorer cruise

[shadowlover]

We will be going on this cruise in August.  I have some logistics questions.

For the tender ports - how long did it take to tender in Geiranger and Longyearbyen and do you remember the last tender times?

Do you remember if the included tour "highlights of Longyearbyen " was close to the port?  We are hoping to do another excursion close to the time that this tour ends.

 

Hope that makes sense!

TYIA

[Clay Clayton]

11 hours ago, shadowlover said:

We will be going on this cruise in August.  I have some logistics questions.

For the tender ports - how long did it take to tender in Geiranger and Longyearbyen and do you remember the last tender times?

Do you remember if the included tour "highlights of Longyearbyen " was close to the port?  We are hoping to do another excursion close to the time that this tour ends.

 

Hope that makes sense!

TYIA

We got lucky and were able to dock in Longyearbyen so can’t speak from experience on how long the tender would take.  But another ship was tendered while we were there and they were relatively close to shore.  I can’t imagine it would take any longer than 20 minutes from shell door to pier. Most of the tender time I’ve found is in loading and unloading. 
 

We didn’t take the included tour here as it was (as I recall) a bus ride to the center of town and access to the museum. Instead, we booked a glacier excursion with Hurtigurten’s Svalbard directly. That excursion left from the pier next to where we were docked.  If you’re leaving on any water based trip, I think they will likely leave from the same location. Later, we took the complimentary shuttle into town and wandered for a bit before walking back to the ship. It is probably less than a mile to the center of town. 
 

In Geiranger, we did tender and I think they said to allow 30 minutes for the ride to shore and it was I think less than that. Below is a picture of Saturn anchored behind a HUGE Costa ship that used the floating pier. You can see our tender leaving the pier headed back to our ship. Costa arrived after we did and boy did it change the atmosphere in the little town.  It’s one of those ports where they should really only allow one ship a day. 

[Cruising Domer]

Our experience was the opposite of Clay's -- we tendered in Svalbard / Longyearbyen and used the SeaWalk (floating dock) when in Geiranger although the original itinerary had us tendering in Geiranger.

 

In Longyearbyen, we actually were docked our first day and then were tendered for the second day.  The tender ride was short -- 10-15 minutes tops from boarding the tender to setting foot on shore.

[Clay Clayton]

Just now, Cruising Domer said:

Our experience was the opposite of Clay's -- we tendered in Svalbard / Longyearbyen and used the SeaWalk (floating dock) when in Geiranger although the original itinerary had us tendering in Geiranger.

 

In Longyearbyen, we actually were docked our first day and then were tendered for the second day.  The tender ride was short -- 10-15 minutes tops from boarding the tender to setting foot on shore.

Mike had corrected me (after I read your post)-we too tendered the 2nd day.  

[Capt_BJ]

Did this cruise last July. We were scheduled to tender but at last minute the port changed us to the floating dock which had the impact of actually slowing us down so far as getting off as SATURN had never used this dock and was all set up to tender so there was some regroup actions required as they figured out how to park and connect to the pier (floating pier ...)  . . .  Not our first time to this port in prior visits my perception/observation was the largest ship got the floating pier . . . We were not the only ship last July but sizes were similar. We were the first ship to arrive that day ...

 

July 2018 .. VIKING is  'anchored' <actually a fixed mooring buoy> and tendering .... less than a mile ride ....

Edited April 22 by Capt_BJ

[shadowlover]

Thanks everyone!  We are looking to do some excursions on our own because many are already sold out with Viking.  Just want to make sure we have plenty of time to get back to the ship, tendered and on board!  If anyone has some must do excursions I am open to suggestions.

 

[Lotusgirl22]

Geiranger is a great port for hiking, which you can do on your own. When we were there, we did tender. My husband and hiked in the morning, ate lunch by the dock area and then took the included tour in the afternoon. Information about hiking trails is easy to find on the internet. A beautiful port.

[janetcbl]

Has anyone visited the Norwegian Fjord Center in Geiranger? It is a World Heritage Site dealing with the geological formation of the area and  biological diversity. A bit of a walk from the center, but looks fascinating! We have been to Geiranger a few times and this seems like something new to explore. Anyone?