Need Advice: Booking Cruise to Norway /Norwegian Govt Ban on cruising UNESCO Heritage fjords

[Fleur25]

3 minutes ago, danny8826 said:

urge you to book your excursions early.

 

I am learning that the hard way. Today I went to the cruise website and many tours are sold out.   I found my Roll Call for the sailing today and luckily many folks are looking to do independent tours. We will try to tag along or set up our own. 

 

Your itinerary sounds wonderful! Enjoy!!

[danny8826]

5 minutes ago, Fleur25 said:

 

I am learning that the hard way. Today I went to the cruise website and many tours are sold out.   I found my Roll Call for the sailing today and luckily many folks are looking to do independent tours. We will try to tag along or set up our own. 

 

Your itinerary sounds wonderful! Enjoy!!

 

If you are in Geiranger, look at Visit Geiranger

If you are in Flam, look at Norway's Best.  We book a bunch of tours with them including the Geirangerfjord cruise, Naeroyfjord cruise, and Flam Railway.  Their price is very good compare to the cruise line. 

[ontheweb]

43 minutes ago, danny8826 said:

 

I saw your post. When I learn about the closing of fjords, we were not hesitant to book a Norway cruise right away.  We are currently booked on the MSC Euribia which is the newest ship from MSC.  It came out last June.  The ship visit 3 ports of Norway and one port of Germany, but it hits all the 3 ports I wanted to see and especially the fjords that will be closing.  The ports are Hellesylt, Alesund, and Flam.  When we are in Hellesylt, we will be taking the ferry to see the Geirangerfjord.  While in Geiranger, we also have time to do a short tour to see some of the stunning sites, then we cruise back to Hellesylt to board our ship.  In Alesund, we haven't decide if we wanted to do the modified trollstigen tour or to roam around Alesund.  In Flam, we are doing the Naeroyfjord cruise and in the afternoon, we are doing the Flam railway.  I would urge you to book your excursions early.  We didn't book any of these with the cruise line.  The cruise line charge double the price of what we book from outside. Have fun planning.  We can't wait to see these fjords before we can't no longer see just like how lucky we are to see St. Petersburg and now, you can't really visit the city anymore.  

Alesund with its art deco architecture is an interesting place to wander around.

[danny8826]

41 minutes ago, ontheweb said:

Alesund with its art deco architecture is an interesting place to wander around.

 

Yes, we have the most dificult time deciding whether to go on this Trollstigen Tour or to see Alesund and wonder around as you mentioned.  Till this day, we still can't decide which one to do.  

[ontheweb]

17 hours ago, danny8826 said:

 

Yes, we have the most dificult time deciding whether to go on this Trollstigen Tour or to see Alesund and wonder around as you mentioned.  Till this day, we still can't decide which one to do.  

We basically decided we wanted each port in Norway to be totally different. Seeing Alesund for its art deco architecture was different. I don't think you can go wrong with either of the choices you have given yourself.

 

We actually did not wander around, but had a ship's tour. We had a wonderful guide and it was a very small tour, IIRC 15 or so on it. We were taken to an art deco museum and then around the city.

[danny8826]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

We basically decided we wanted each port in Norway to be totally different. Seeing Alesund for its art deco architecture was different. I don't think you can go wrong with either of the choices you have given yourself.

 

We actually did not wander around, but had a ship's tour. We had a wonderful guide and it was a very small tour, IIRC 15 or so on it. We were taken to an art deco museum and then around the city.

 

I did booked the, Tour from Alesund to Trollstigen, The Land Of The Trolls, but I haven't decided if I will keep the tour.  It does end with Aksla Viewpoint which is good because that's one of things we wanted to do in Alesund.   

https://www.viator.com/tours/Alesund/Trollstigen-The-Land-Of-The-Trolls/d4312-75068P1

 

Did you walk around the port?  I mainly wanted to take some pictures of those unique architectural buildings.  Our tour starts at 9 AM and the ship gets in at 7 AM.  I guess we can walk around the port to take some pictures before we join the tour.  

[gnome12]

2 hours ago, danny8826 said:

It does end with Aksla Viewpoint which is good because that's one of things we wanted to do in Alesund.   

I don't know the size of the bus on your tour, but I thought that they had banned large coaches from the viewpoint. I know that on my Alesund excursion we did not go there.

See this article

https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/blog/statement-regarding-aksla-viewpoint/

Edited July 30 by gnome12

[karatemom2]

2 hours ago, danny8826 said:

 

I did booked the, Tour from Alesund to Trollstigen, The Land Of The Trolls, but I haven't decided if I will keep the tour.  It does end with Aksla Viewpoint which is good because that's one of things we wanted to do in Alesund.   

https://www.viator.com/tours/Alesund/Trollstigen-The-Land-Of-The-Trolls/d4312-75068P1

 

Did you walk around the port?  I mainly wanted to take some pictures of those unique architectural buildings.  Our tour starts at 9 AM and the ship gets in at 7 AM.  I guess we can walk around the port to take some pictures before we join the tour.  

 

We recently experienced the same dilemma. It was a hard decision for us initially when we booked the Trollstigen excursion, because I knew it meant basically giving up the day in Alesund, a city I very much wanted to explore.

 

The Trollstigen was closed while we were on our cruise, just a few days before we were scheduled for the tour. After some careful consideration, we opted to cancel as the two main reasons we booked were to be able to experience actually driving the road and to get to the bottom to see Trollveggen. We knew the scenery would probably still be lovely, but we had already seen so much beautiful and similar scenery, that we decided it wasn't worth it to give up our entire day in Alesund.

 

Others in our group opted to stay on the tour and ended up sharing they really enjoyed it, but we will never regret our decision to stay and explore the town. We took the tiny train to the Aksla overlook, went to the Aquarium, visited the harbor and fisheries museum, and explored all of the beautiful streets and Art Nouveau architecture. It was a really perfect day and I would have been sad to miss that absolutely charming town and all it had to offer. Just my perspective.

[danny8826]

36 minutes ago, gnome12 said:

I don't know the size of the bus on your tour, but I thought that they had banned large coaches from the viewpoint. I know that on my Alesund excursion we did not go there.

See this article

https://www.norwayexcursions.com/en/blog/statement-regarding-aksla-viewpoint/

 

According to what the tour company has told me, we are on a small van.  This is not a large group at all, but thanks for the info.

 

 

[danny8826]

14 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

 

We recently experienced the same dilemma. It was a hard decision for us initially when we booked the Trollstigen excursion, because I knew it meant basically giving up the day in Alesund, a city I very much wanted to explore.

 

The Trollstigen was closed while we were on our cruise, just a few days before we were scheduled for the tour. After some careful consideration, we opted to cancel as the two main reasons we booked were to be able to experience actually driving the road and to get to the bottom to see Trollveggen. We knew the scenery would probably still be lovely, but we had already seen so much beautiful and similar scenery, that we decided it wasn't worth it to give up our entire day in Alesund.

 

Others in our group opted to stay on the tour and ended up sharing they really enjoyed it, but we will never regret our decision to stay and explore the town. We took the tiny train to the Aksla overlook, went to the Aquarium, visited the harbor and fisheries museum, and explored all of the beautiful streets and Art Nouveau architecture. It was a really perfect day and I would have been sad to miss that absolutely charming town and all it had to offer. Just my perspective.

 

You read my mind completely.  That's exactly what i was thinking.  On one way, I wanted to do the tour, but it doesn't look like a complete tour and plus I will be missing out on the city of Alesund.  is it worth $149 p/p?  

Did you walk around in Alesund on your own or did the tiny train take you to a lot of those places?  I heard the city is walkable, but that also depends on each person.  I really want to do/see Aksla.  I have seen so much pictures of it that it's a must do now for me.  

[ontheweb]

2 hours ago, danny8826 said:

 

I did booked the, Tour from Alesund to Trollstigen, The Land Of The Trolls, but I haven't decided if I will keep the tour.  It does end with Aksla Viewpoint which is good because that's one of things we wanted to do in Alesund.   

https://www.viator.com/tours/Alesund/Trollstigen-The-Land-Of-The-Trolls/d4312-75068P1

 

Did you walk around the port?  I mainly wanted to take some pictures of those unique architectural buildings.  Our tour starts at 9 AM and the ship gets in at 7 AM.  I guess we can walk around the port to take some pictures before we join the tour.  

We were first taken to a museum dedicated to art deco Then we walked around the town. 

[NightOne]

On 7/8/2024 at 4:01 PM, kitkat343 said:

But to answer your question, we did a 7 day fjord cruise, and felt that Olden, Geiranger and Flam were our three favorite ports.  

 

You did a 7 day cruise that went do Olden, Geiranger, and Flam? What cruise line/ship?

[danny8826]

1 hour ago, ontheweb said:

We were first taken to a museum dedicated to art deco Then we walked around the town. 

 

 

Thank you

[kitkat343]

36 minutes ago, NightOne said:

 

You did a 7 day cruise that went do Olden, Geiranger, and Flam? What cruise line/ship?

It was quite a long time ago - the two year old we took on that trip is 9 now.  We needed to sail Cunard because they are one of the few lines that have drop off daycare for two year olds, and I was trying to find a cruise that sailed to both Geiranger and Flam, and Cunard had only one cruise sailing to both Flam and Geiranger  that season, so we booked it.  At the time, I don't think Olden was nearly as popular a destination as it is today since the Loen Skylift was still being built when we booked and Olden wasn't even a factor in my selecting that cruise.

 

 I happened to read about the Loen Skylift's opening a few weeks before we sailed and googled the distance from all of 4 of our ports, and was shocked to realize Olden was only 5 minutes away.  The ship tours weren't going there yet so I found a private operator (Olden adventures) that was running buses to both the Loen Skylift and the Briskdal Glacier and we were able to do both (there are troll cars that can take you most of the way to Briskdal if you have a small child or travelers with limited mobility).   We got very, very lucky with being able to do a 7 night cruise that visited Olden, Geiranger and Flam, and I don't know that I deserve that much credit for finding it since I was actually just looking for Geiranger and Flam but sometimes its better to be lucky.

 

Oh, and one more thing for people to consider in planning Norway - please note that the road to the highest viewpoints in Geiranger is seasonal (it opens after the big annual avalanche) and can open anywhere from Mid May - early June.  We were there 2 days before the road opened, so unfortunately we did miss that but our options were very limited in terms of picking a cruise.  There are several other amazing viewpoints in Geiranger, and they take you to a nice lake my kids liked skipping rocks at if the highest viewpoint is closed.  The kids club on Cunard actually took all of the kids out on deck to see the Seven Sisters when we sailed past, which I thought was very nice of them and couldn't happen on a ship with more children (there were only about 8 kids on that sailing since it left from Southampton, and English parents are fined heavily for pulling their kids out of school). 

Edited July 30 by kitkat343

[NightOne]

7 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

It was quite a long time ago - the two year old we took on that trip is 9 now.  We needed to sail Cunard because they are one of the few lines that have drop off daycare for two year olds, and I was trying to find a cruise that sailed to both Geiranger and Flam, and Cunard had only one cruise sailing to both Flam and Geiranger  that season, so we booked it.  At the time, I don't think Olden was nearly as popular a destination as it is today since the Loen Skylift was still being built when we booked and Olden wasn't even a factor in my selecting that cruise.

 

 

 

 

We just got back from a RCCL cruise that did Flam, Stavanger, Alesund, and Bergen. We did the train and fjord tour in Flam and the Lysefjord tour in Stavanger. We learned that we really liked the fjord cruising/tours above everything else. At the end of the cruise I said that if we ever were to cruise to the Norwegian Fjords again that it would have to include Geirangerfjord and Olden. (the other 2 deep fjords)

 

So I have been researching that a lot since we have have been back and the "best" itinerary I am find for a future cruise is the P&O Iona that does this:

 

Southampton, UK

Sea Day

Stavanger 9-5

Olden 9-6:30

Hellesylt 7-4:30

Haugesund 9-5

Sea Day

Southampton, UK

 

The dilemma is that Hellesylt is at the mouth of Geirangerfjord and it looks like you can take the car ferry to Geiranger and back but that doesn't leave a lot of time for things in Geiranger like the scenic overlooks. 

 

When I look for a cruise that goes directly to Geiranger it never includes Olden. Celebrity Apex has one that does Geiranger and Flam  but also has non-Norway stop in Belgium. Costa does one that does a brief stop in Helleslyt and then on to Geiranger but again no Olden.

 

Adding the 3rd deep fjord and that Loen skylift looks like an awesome choice.

 

Sky Princess has a nice itinerary that includes Olden but no Geirangerfjord.

 

I'm not seeing a better option than the Iona itinerary. Helleslyt an acceptable port for taking a round trip Geirangerfjord boat excursion? (not RIB)

 

Thoughts?

 

 

[danny8826]

2 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

It was quite a long time ago - the two year old we took on that trip is 9 now.  We needed to sail Cunard because they are one of the few lines that have drop off daycare for two year olds, and I was trying to find a cruise that sailed to both Geiranger and Flam, and Cunard had only one cruise sailing to both Flam and Geiranger  that season, so we booked it.  At the time, I don't think Olden was nearly as popular a destination as it is today since the Loen Skylift was still being built when we booked and Olden wasn't even a factor in my selecting that cruise.

 

 I happened to read about the Loen Skylift's opening a few weeks before we sailed and googled the distance from all of 4 of our ports, and was shocked to realize Olden was only 5 minutes away.  The ship tours weren't going there yet so I found a private operator (Olden adventures) that was running buses to both the Loen Skylift and the Briskdal Glacier and we were able to do both (there are troll cars that can take you most of the way to Briskdal if you have a small child or travelers with limited mobility).   We got very, very lucky with being able to do a 7 night cruise that visited Olden, Geiranger and Flam, and I don't know that I deserve that much credit for finding it since I was actually just looking for Geiranger and Flam but sometimes its better to be lucky.

 

Oh, and one more thing for people to consider in planning Norway - please note that the road to the highest viewpoints in Geiranger is seasonal (it opens after the big annual avalanche) and can open anywhere from Mid May - early June.  We were there 2 days before the road opened, so unfortunately we did miss that but our options were very limited in terms of picking a cruise.  There are several other amazing viewpoints in Geiranger, and they take you to a nice lake my kids liked skipping rocks at if the highest viewpoint is closed.  The kids club on Cunard actually took all of the kids out on deck to see the Seven Sisters when we sailed past, which I thought was very nice of them and couldn't happen on a ship with more children (there were only about 8 kids on that sailing since it left from Southampton, and English parents are fined heavily for pulling their kids out of school). 

 

Our cruise ship, MSC Euribia (newest ship) will do Hellesylt (which you can take the Geirangerford ferry to Geiranger for the day and that's what we are doing), Alesund, and Flam.  We get to see 2 fjords on this cruise which we can't wait. Here's our itinerary.  

 

https://www.icruise.com/itineraries/7-night-northern-europe-cruise_msc-euribia_9-29-2024.html?refPage=src

 

 

Edited July 30 by danny8826

[bunzini]

After reading about the fjords and trying to decide which ones, etc.  We opted to do a B2B on Celebrity Apex in May.  So we will be able to do Geiranger, Flam and Olden.  I'm super excited and now just getting started on learning more about each port.  

[karatemom2]

6 hours ago, danny8826 said:

 

You read my mind completely.  That's exactly what i was thinking.  On one way, I wanted to do the tour, but it doesn't look like a complete tour and plus I will be missing out on the city of Alesund.  is it worth $149 p/p?  

Did you walk around in Alesund on your own or did the tiny train take you to a lot of those places?  I heard the city is walkable, but that also depends on each person.  I really want to do/see Aksla.  I have seen so much pictures of it that it's a must do now for me.  

 

We did it all on our own. We first grabbed an Uber (which in Norway are Taxis) to the Aquarium - very nice Aquarium in a beautiful setting. We spent about 90 minutes there. Then we taxied back to the Harbor and went to the Fisheries museum. My husband is owns two commercial lobster fishing vessels here in CA, so we are particularly interested in these things, but there were a number of other museums in town, including the art deco museum which many people seemed to really enjoy. We stopped and ate at a great outdoor fish and chips place on the canal with gorgeous views. After lunch we took the Tiny Train to Mount Aksla which was a good way to take in the view and also get a narrated tour of the city to decide where we wanted to visit after and learn a bit more about the history. We then just walked the streets, stopping in different shops, vintage stores, and admiring the beautiful buildings and the canal. We considered doing a kayak trip in the canal but just didn't have time to fit it in. Very full and lovely day. 

 

We were very lucky to have an outstanding itinerary which you can read about in my review that I posted earlier in this thread.

 

Edited July 31 by karatemom2

[danny8826]

45 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

 

We did it all on our own. We first grabbed an Uber (which in Norway are Taxis) to the Aquarium - very nice Aquarium in a beautiful setting. We spent about 90 minutes there. Then we taxied back to the Harbor and went to the Fisheries museum. My husband is owns two commercial lobster fishing vessels here in CA, so we are particularly interested in these things, but there were a number of other museums in town, including the art deco museum which many people seemed to really enjoy. We stopped and ate at a great outdoor fish and chips place on the canal with gorgeous views. After lunch we took the Tiny Train to Mount Aksla which was a good way to take in the view and also get a narrated tour of the city to decide where we wanted to visit after and learn a bit more about the history. We then just walked the streets, stopping in different shops, vintage stores, and admiring the beautiful buildings and the canal. We considered doing a kayak trip in the canal but just didn't have time to fit it in. Very full and lovely day. 

 

We were very lucky to have an outstanding itinerary which you can read about in my review that I posted earlier in this thread.

 

 

Thank you for sharing. The more we thought about it, we think we would be more incline to seeing Alesund.  The day before, we are in Hellesylt and pretty much, that's a full day even though the ship gets in at 9:00 AM and departs at 8:00 PM.  We start out with seeing Hellesylt with its waterfall that you can see from the ship when the ship is in port.  Then we are off to the ferry for Geirangerfjord and while in Geiranger, we are seeing a few of those viewpoints before heading back to Hellesylt.  I thought since we have a full day in Hellesylt, we will take it easy in Alesund because the following day after Alesund, we will be in Flam.  We will have another full day in Flam with the Naeroyfjord cruise and Flam railway.  

 

 

 

[danny8826]

19 hours ago, karatemom2 said:

 

We did it all on our own. We first grabbed an Uber (which in Norway are Taxis) to the Aquarium - very nice Aquarium in a beautiful setting. We spent about 90 minutes there. Then we taxied back to the Harbor and went to the Fisheries museum. My husband is owns two commercial lobster fishing vessels here in CA, so we are particularly interested in these things, but there were a number of other museums in town, including the art deco museum which many people seemed to really enjoy. We stopped and ate at a great outdoor fish and chips place on the canal with gorgeous views. After lunch we took the Tiny Train to Mount Aksla which was a good way to take in the view and also get a narrated tour of the city to decide where we wanted to visit after and learn a bit more about the history. We then just walked the streets, stopping in different shops, vintage stores, and admiring the beautiful buildings and the canal. We considered doing a kayak trip in the canal but just didn't have time to fit it in. Very full and lovely day. 

 

We were very lucky to have an outstanding itinerary which you can read about in my review that I posted earlier in this thread.

 

 

I watched more Youtube videos about Alesund last night.  I also wanted to add that if we decide to spend the day in Alesund, we will likely do the Hop On Hop Off because that seems like a good option to save some time and see more of the city.  

[karatemom2]

1 hour ago, danny8826 said:

 

I watched more Youtube videos about Alesund last night.  I also wanted to add that if we decide to spend the day in Alesund, we will likely do the Hop On Hop Off because that seems like a good option to save some time and see more of the city.  

 
Seemed lots of people opted for that and found it convenient. They go to Aksla viewpoint as well. 

[danny8826]

11 minutes ago, karatemom2 said:

 
Seemed lots of people opted for that and found it convenient. They go to Aksla viewpoint as well. 

 

Yeah, I thought about the tiny train, but that only stops at Aksla viewpoint for 15 minutes where as the hop on hop off bus, you can stay longer or even walk back down.  

[edinburgher]

On 7/30/2024 at 8:51 PM, danny8826 said:

I will be missing out on the city of Alesund.  is it worth $149 p/p?  

there are many past threads with info and suggestions for Alesund, a port favourite with cruise passengers as docking is in town and there are a number of sights and attractions.

 

some past threads here

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=alesund&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=116

 

This one is, I think, one of the best.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826391-alesund-norway/#comment-62807291

 

 

 

Edited August 2 by edinburgher

[danny8826]

11 hours ago, edinburgher said:

there are many past threads with info and suggestions for Alesund, a port favourite with cruise passengers as docking is in town and there are a number of sights and attractions.

 

some past threads here

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=alesund&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=116

 

This one is, I think, one of the best.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2826391-alesund-norway/#comment-62807291

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you for sharing...appreciated.  

[edinburgher]

10 hours ago, danny8826 said:

Thank you for sharing...appreciated

Thanks for that as not everyone acknowledges