thndrmatt
Real Life Mickey Wannabe!
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2005
- Messages
- 799
I wanted to post some blurbs just in case people are interested for future trips to Norway like the upcoming Norway/Iceland and possibly future years.
Copenhagen was easy breezy for us just like when we were there in 2015 for the Baltic. Easy train to the Crown Plaza, easy metro from there into town for whatever (in our case google copenhagen street food market which was yummy times a million), easy metro+bus to the port, super cheap transportation, efficient even with luggage. Also easy back to the airport, we got off around 8:15, bus 25/27 left at 8:30 right there about 200 yards from the ship to Norreport, M2 train straight to airport, some shenanigans with dropping our lap child off our ticket and readding, still past security and into the duty free area with hours to spare to the point they didn't even have our gate listed on the departure board for our 12:00 flight. Note we were headed to FRA first so no customs/additional security beyond the main one, direct US travelers will need a bit more time for that. I still think 1100 or even 10:30 flights are more than doable.
Stavanger was Pulpit Rock on our own. Disembark as scheduled at 7:45, join the throngs bolting through the city to the ferry terminal (in our case we led the way) jump on the 8:00 ferry, buy the ticket for the ferry+bus on board (320NOK/~$37), sit on the ferry for ~30 min, walk literally 10 meters off the ferry into the Tide bus, ride the bus for ~30 min, arrive at the trailhead about 9:10, enjoy the hike and the 40 minute head start you have on all the Disney excursion people (who paid much more for same transportation) and people who took the 8:40 ferry. We lollygagged about an hour on top, and took the hill loop trail down from the top (not particularly obvious from the main trail, in fact they put a signpost for the main trail right where you need to jump off the main trail disguising the fact it is in fact a junction), and were still back around 13:15. Only delay was the 13:45 bus didn't show up until about 14:10 due to apparent ferry delays, but that bus eventually arrived at a waiting ferry, and we arrived back in town on the same ferry as all the excursion busses with 90 min or so of Stavanger town time before boarding at 17:45. Note, the "trail" is lots and lots of walking on rocks. Rocky steps, rocky areas, rocky plateaus, lots of rocks. Your feet/knees won't love you at the end. Totally worth it of course.
Alesund was rental car on our own, reservation was at Hertz (6 miles away) so tried just walking into Avis which was down the street from port, watched a guy in front of me reject the automatic they'd given him because he "was hoping for a 5 speed", asked if they had anything in automatic even without a reservation, and they gave me one no problem (probably the one he'd just rejected). Ended up ~$160 on the day which was a bit steep, but not if you factor in taxis both ways to Hertz. Or even better the $109 or whatever per person Disney charged to get to Trollstigen (there were four of us in the rental). Drove to Trollstigen leisurely via the southern route with lots of photo stops, spent a bunch of time at Trollstigen (did I mention the Disney weather bubble of ~70 degree temps every day of the cruise?) and had a great lunch in Andalasnes on the way back via the northern route. Time back at Alesund to climb to Aksla and recreate a picture my dad took there ~30 years ago, and still was able to return the car and head back to the ship on time.
Geiranger as you may of heard was a skipped port due to "high winds preventing usage of the seawall." They blasted the annoucement into the staterooms the night before at ~10pm, so they'd made the call early. Glad I didn't have kids sleeping at that point. Another shipped successfully went there the same day but they had their own tenders. So they ended up slowly cruising into the fjord, looking at Geiranger, and slowly cruising back out. The scenery missed in our case was a bike rental up the mountain for me, and a bus ride for the rest of the group, along with the waterfall hike. Pretty big bummer, but the perfect weather for the rest of the days meant we still fared pretty well. Still waiting for the refund to appear on my cc for the excursions, supposedly they sent it.
Bergen was a really ambitious Norway in a Nusthell day for us. The times were so sketch that DCL didn't even offer it as an excursion after initially acting like they would. It looked like this: 0800 disembark, 0843-0956 train Bergen to Voss, 1010-1120 bus#950 Voss stasjon to Gudvagen kai, 1145-1315 Premium ferry Gudvangen-Flam via the Aurlandsfjord, 1335-1431 Train Flam-Myrdal, 1437-1657 Train Myrdal-Bergen, 1730 All aboard. Now to try to sell you on why it wasn't that hard. Walk was ~20 min from ship to train, easy train ticket purchase after converting the machine to english on the front menu (UK flag). Used credit card for the tickets but also pulled out cash from ATM next to the ticket machine in order to pay for bus. Getting off the train there were signs every 50m pointing to the bus stop. Once arriving there were two blindingly obvious buses that showed #950 Norway In A Nutshell. 115NOK cash to the driver, and he had change since I'd withdrawn 400 (for 2 adults). Very scenic bus ride with a jolly driver taking time to stop at key photo ops, still made the boat in plenty of time. Time for a restroom break/food grab at Gudvangen, but they also had most of the same food on the boat while enroute (mmm waffles). Ferry ticket was purchased in advance and printed, show at boarding. Full up fast wifi on the modern/premium fjord boat, we were Facetiming with family showing them the fjord. Walk off the boat about 20 meters to the waiting train, that ticket from Flam-Myrdal-Bergen was also purchased in advance. After that train in Myrdal, walk literally 10 steps across the platform to the other waiting train, and ride that back to Bergen, and enjoy the 20 min walk back to the ship. This was the last port so worst case if something broke down or whatnot we would have had to taxi, or even worse arrange trans back to Copenhagen, but this was as smooth and efficient a day as we've had. Total cost was about $190/person including the premium ferry. For comparison the NCL excursion they still offer does the same, but substitutes the ferry for a bus through tunnels (big downgrade) and is $349/person. The opposite route (counterclockwise) was not doable with available transportation and the port times that we had, but might be an option for others. Truly an amazing sightseeing day that unfortunately few probably got to experience this time around. Of note, there are tons of things to do in Bergen proper as well, if you'd rather (which you won't have time for if doing this itinerary). Also of note, it rained all day in Bergen, and was sunny for large portions of our excursion including most of the fjordcruise. Lucky us!
Questions?
Copenhagen was easy breezy for us just like when we were there in 2015 for the Baltic. Easy train to the Crown Plaza, easy metro from there into town for whatever (in our case google copenhagen street food market which was yummy times a million), easy metro+bus to the port, super cheap transportation, efficient even with luggage. Also easy back to the airport, we got off around 8:15, bus 25/27 left at 8:30 right there about 200 yards from the ship to Norreport, M2 train straight to airport, some shenanigans with dropping our lap child off our ticket and readding, still past security and into the duty free area with hours to spare to the point they didn't even have our gate listed on the departure board for our 12:00 flight. Note we were headed to FRA first so no customs/additional security beyond the main one, direct US travelers will need a bit more time for that. I still think 1100 or even 10:30 flights are more than doable.
Stavanger was Pulpit Rock on our own. Disembark as scheduled at 7:45, join the throngs bolting through the city to the ferry terminal (in our case we led the way) jump on the 8:00 ferry, buy the ticket for the ferry+bus on board (320NOK/~$37), sit on the ferry for ~30 min, walk literally 10 meters off the ferry into the Tide bus, ride the bus for ~30 min, arrive at the trailhead about 9:10, enjoy the hike and the 40 minute head start you have on all the Disney excursion people (who paid much more for same transportation) and people who took the 8:40 ferry. We lollygagged about an hour on top, and took the hill loop trail down from the top (not particularly obvious from the main trail, in fact they put a signpost for the main trail right where you need to jump off the main trail disguising the fact it is in fact a junction), and were still back around 13:15. Only delay was the 13:45 bus didn't show up until about 14:10 due to apparent ferry delays, but that bus eventually arrived at a waiting ferry, and we arrived back in town on the same ferry as all the excursion busses with 90 min or so of Stavanger town time before boarding at 17:45. Note, the "trail" is lots and lots of walking on rocks. Rocky steps, rocky areas, rocky plateaus, lots of rocks. Your feet/knees won't love you at the end. Totally worth it of course.
Alesund was rental car on our own, reservation was at Hertz (6 miles away) so tried just walking into Avis which was down the street from port, watched a guy in front of me reject the automatic they'd given him because he "was hoping for a 5 speed", asked if they had anything in automatic even without a reservation, and they gave me one no problem (probably the one he'd just rejected). Ended up ~$160 on the day which was a bit steep, but not if you factor in taxis both ways to Hertz. Or even better the $109 or whatever per person Disney charged to get to Trollstigen (there were four of us in the rental). Drove to Trollstigen leisurely via the southern route with lots of photo stops, spent a bunch of time at Trollstigen (did I mention the Disney weather bubble of ~70 degree temps every day of the cruise?) and had a great lunch in Andalasnes on the way back via the northern route. Time back at Alesund to climb to Aksla and recreate a picture my dad took there ~30 years ago, and still was able to return the car and head back to the ship on time.
Geiranger as you may of heard was a skipped port due to "high winds preventing usage of the seawall." They blasted the annoucement into the staterooms the night before at ~10pm, so they'd made the call early. Glad I didn't have kids sleeping at that point. Another shipped successfully went there the same day but they had their own tenders. So they ended up slowly cruising into the fjord, looking at Geiranger, and slowly cruising back out. The scenery missed in our case was a bike rental up the mountain for me, and a bus ride for the rest of the group, along with the waterfall hike. Pretty big bummer, but the perfect weather for the rest of the days meant we still fared pretty well. Still waiting for the refund to appear on my cc for the excursions, supposedly they sent it.
Bergen was a really ambitious Norway in a Nusthell day for us. The times were so sketch that DCL didn't even offer it as an excursion after initially acting like they would. It looked like this: 0800 disembark, 0843-0956 train Bergen to Voss, 1010-1120 bus#950 Voss stasjon to Gudvagen kai, 1145-1315 Premium ferry Gudvangen-Flam via the Aurlandsfjord, 1335-1431 Train Flam-Myrdal, 1437-1657 Train Myrdal-Bergen, 1730 All aboard. Now to try to sell you on why it wasn't that hard. Walk was ~20 min from ship to train, easy train ticket purchase after converting the machine to english on the front menu (UK flag). Used credit card for the tickets but also pulled out cash from ATM next to the ticket machine in order to pay for bus. Getting off the train there were signs every 50m pointing to the bus stop. Once arriving there were two blindingly obvious buses that showed #950 Norway In A Nutshell. 115NOK cash to the driver, and he had change since I'd withdrawn 400 (for 2 adults). Very scenic bus ride with a jolly driver taking time to stop at key photo ops, still made the boat in plenty of time. Time for a restroom break/food grab at Gudvangen, but they also had most of the same food on the boat while enroute (mmm waffles). Ferry ticket was purchased in advance and printed, show at boarding. Full up fast wifi on the modern/premium fjord boat, we were Facetiming with family showing them the fjord. Walk off the boat about 20 meters to the waiting train, that ticket from Flam-Myrdal-Bergen was also purchased in advance. After that train in Myrdal, walk literally 10 steps across the platform to the other waiting train, and ride that back to Bergen, and enjoy the 20 min walk back to the ship. This was the last port so worst case if something broke down or whatnot we would have had to taxi, or even worse arrange trans back to Copenhagen, but this was as smooth and efficient a day as we've had. Total cost was about $190/person including the premium ferry. For comparison the NCL excursion they still offer does the same, but substitutes the ferry for a bus through tunnels (big downgrade) and is $349/person. The opposite route (counterclockwise) was not doable with available transportation and the port times that we had, but might be an option for others. Truly an amazing sightseeing day that unfortunately few probably got to experience this time around. Of note, there are tons of things to do in Bergen proper as well, if you'd rather (which you won't have time for if doing this itinerary). Also of note, it rained all day in Bergen, and was sunny for large portions of our excursion including most of the fjordcruise. Lucky us!
Questions?
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