Ocean Princess Land of the Midnight Sun port experience

We found that the ports for this cruise were unusual enough that we weren't able to find much information online. For that reason, I wanted to include some (hopefully) useful tips for those going to these ports in the future. :) I encourage others to add their own experiences too!

Points of Reference: June 2014, the USD:Kroner exchange rate was approx $1 = 6K, Gas costs approx 12+ to 17+K per liter or about US$8-11/gallon. In Honnigsvag an 8 passenger minivan could be leased for approx 1200K per day. Norway is EXTREMELY expensive!!! Our tablemate said that he bought a beer at a cafe in Stavanger and it was equal to $18US! Fish and Chips in Bergen at the Fish Market was about $20US. We didn't buy any souvenirs, but keep your receipt if you do. The ship a has VAT Tax refund person for a short period of time on the last sea day of the cruise.

Bergen:

You will find a great deal of information on this port, but I have a few things to add. The Ocean Princess was a short walk to Old Bryggen. The walk was on a flat, paved sidewalk and took about 7-8 minutes to get into town. You will pass the Rosenkrantz Tower. We arrived on a Sunday and stores did not open until noon. During the week most open at 10. As you pass Bryggen on the left, the "inner harbor" is on your right.

If you need to go the the tourist information office, continue along the harbor side of the street, walk through the fish market and look for a multi-color earth tone stripes building that looks like a shipping container. Go in and take a number. I waited in line approximately 45 minutes. (If you are trying to buy tickets, go directly to the venue first to see if they sell them directly.) The TI can change money, but there are plenty of ATMs which are called "Minibanks".

If you don't need to go to TI, I suggest you do the funicular first thing, as it gets more crowded during the day. Go to the end of the row of old houses/stores. The Hanseatic Museum will be on your left. (Come back to that later.) Keep going across the small street and then take a slight left turn to the Floibanen (funicular) up to Mt Floien. It will be a slight hill upwards. Buy a round trip ticket for 85K per person, in just a few minutes you'll be at the top. You'll have about a dozen steps to climb once you're out of the funicular car. This is the place to get some great pictures. There are some trails behind the little restaurant if you want to walk.

Once you're back down, visit the Fish Market (doesn't smell bad at all), the shops and the museums. The Hanseatic Museum was very small, dark and consisted of living/sleeping quarters. The price of the ticket also includes the Schotstuene Museum which was a recreation, dining and meeting hall with an archaic kitchen. I don't remember the cost for the museums. Plan on taking 20-30 minutes for each museum, unless you are unusually interested in the architecture. There wasn't any English signage. These museums are not for mobility impaired or claustrophobic visitors.

There is a small sightseeing train that begins across the street from the Bryggen houses (on the harbor side of street). ISHAVSTOGET is the name on the sign. You can buy tickets from the attendant at the stop. The trip is about 50 minutes long and includes audio narration in many languages. The cost is 150K per person. It is not HOHO. The train goes through town and through residential areas. I liked it! There is also a bus that is HOHO, but only does commercial areas.

Hellesylt/Geiranger: All I can say is take the Overland trip! (Mt. Dalsnibba, Stryn Lake and Buldrefossen Waterfall) It was fabulous!!! The scenery was amazing. We had a very good guide that lived on the Fjord, so she was a great storyteller of the history, geography and culture of the region. We stopped about every 2 hours. There weren't any stops that would be problematic for most people. Lunch was good, but I'm not a fish eater, they happily brought me a vegetarian dish. The price was $199/per person and in my opinion worth it.

Tomso: I loved Tromso!!! This is a very easy DIY town. We docked right in town, behind the Hurtigurten ship. As you disembark and pass through the security gate. You will see a white cape cod style house that has tourist info. Go to the next street back and look for a 5 story gray office building that says ODD BERG or something like that on the top floor. On the ground floor there is an office with blue sign. There you can buy a pass for the city bus. The cost is 70K per person for a full day or you can by a one way for 33K. On the bus it will cost 46K for one way to cable car. If you plan to walk back across the bridge one way will be enough. (Some people walked both ways, but going to the cable car is all up hill.) To go to the cable car, you want bus #26. The stop for bus 26 going towards the bridge will be on the right side of the road in front of Peppe's Pizza which is about 3-4 blocks closer to the bridge. (There is also a shop across the street to buy tickets.) The bus comes about every twenty minutes. You'll be on the bus for about 10-12 minutes. You will pass a "shopping mall" and residential streets, but ask the driver when you get on to tell you where to get off for cable cars. It's obvious if you're paying attention because you'll pass right in front of the entrance on the right side and stop about 1/2 block beyond. Round trip tickets on the cable car are 140k per person, 110K for seniors. 65 is the age for senior discount, but I didn't see them ask for ID. Don't expect to get a lot of pictures from the cable car because they pack you in very tight!!! The views from the top are beautiful!!!

After seeing the view, come down and walk out of the cable car parking lot. Turn right. You can walk through the neighborhood, mostly downhill for about 10-15 minutes on paved roads to get to the Crystal Cathedral. Entry is 40K per person. From here, either walk across the bridge back to town or go down the hill to the road just below the church and catch the bus back. Most buses will go back to the town center, so you don't have to wait for #26.

Vernerstranda is a big shopping mall a few blocks from port in the opposite direction of the bridge. Many crew members were shopping and getting wifi. The stores consisted of fashion, prepared foods, music stores, flowers and household items. There is a Europastar Grocery Store across the street that had a good selection if you're looking for a snack.

Polaria is a VERY small aquarium just beyond the shopping mall. It was 120K per person for entry. Try to go for the 12:30 seal training and feeding session. They have 2 harbor seals and 2 big seals that I can't recall name of. The trainer speaks first in Norwegian, then repeats in English.

Mack Brewery has a store called Keller 5 across from Polaria. It is the northernmost brewery in Europe. They don't brew there any more, but offer a retail selection of all their beers. We bought ARTIC and Sommerbeir, both were very good on our balcony. (no problem bringing on ship) Don't confuse the store and the Pub. Keller 5 is on the left as you face the pub.

Magdalenafjord/NY Alesund: The fjord was scenic cruising. The captain rotates the ship, so it isn't important where you stand. It's not as spectacular as Glacier Bay, but still very nice. We didn't see any wildlife here. Bundle up!!!

NY Alesund is NOT Alesund!!! Don't make the same mistake I did!:o I thought it was going to be a quaint town with shopping and HOHO trains, etc. Nope! 35 permanent residents in a research village. This is where you can only walk around a confined area due to the danger of Polar Bear attacks!!! :eek: The residents carry a rifle with them at all times. There is a post office where you can send yourself a post card from the "north pole" and a small shop. The ques to both buildings were very long and they only allow a couple of people in at a time. We laughed at the dumpsters because they were literally filled to the top with empty wine bottles!!! I would need to drink a lot too if I was there for more than a few hours! I'm glad that I saw it, but it wasn't my favorite port. At that point, we were only 70 miles from the polar ice cap.

Honnigsvag: We were in port on a Sunday and none of the stores were open. The highlight of this port however is access to the North Cape. You can take a ship's tour, which is not guided. It stops at a roadside stand where there are a couple guys with a reindeer. The guys are dressed as Sami Villagers. We actually purchased bus tickets online, but you can also buy them at the Tourist Information Office at the pier. You will save about $50 per person by taking the city bus instead of the ship's tour. It leaves at 11:30ish, you have 45 minutes at the North Cape, and you return on the 1:30ish bus back. Watch the clock carefully! You don't want to be left here! 45 minutes is enough time to be there because it is so cold! There is a gift shop, cafe, museum and clean restrooms there. Your bus ticket includes the entrance fee to the facility. Bring lots of layers! We actually experienced heavy blowing snow when we were there on June 15! The ride to and from is beautiful and you will see many wild reindeer.

Alta: The ship provided free shuttle to town, which was about a 15 minute ride. At the shuttle stop there is a shopping mall (free internet at or just outside Peppe's Pizza), short walk to the Northern Lights Cathedral and city buses. The mall had nice stores including household, fashion, books, toys, pharmacy, and groceries.

Take bybussen#2 at the shuttle stop to the Alta Museum for 35K per person round trip. It's about a 15 minutes ride and you'll catch the return bus right where you get off at the museum. The entry to the museum is about 65K per person and an audio guide for another 25K, which for us was well worth it. Plan on about 2 hours for the petriglyphs. It is not wheelchair friendly and would be iffy for mobility impaired. Take many layers as the weather went from bright sunshine to heavy snow as each cloud would come over the mountain. There are a couple of short cuts away from the carvings and back to the museum, but a couple of them are long steep hills.

Gravdal: For the Lofoten Islands. **Disclaimer** The weather here was raining and cold, so my view of the ship's tour (Flakstad Church, Sund and Nusfjord) may be negatively biased.

This is the area that is know for cod fishing. There were drying racks of cod and cod heads everywhere and the air held the smell of drying fish. The villages were quaint and beautifully painted in red and gold. Originally, the red paint was made of fish blood and cod liver oil and was used by the fisherman to help preserve the wooden houses. Wealthier people painted in various tones of yellow and gold, but the very wealthiest people painted their houses white.

The scenery was still beautiful, despite the rain, but in sunshine it would have been magnificent. Flakstad Church was small and it was a very brief stop. There were many tunnels on the route and open tunnels being built. The open tunnels were simply a roof being made for the roads in certain areas to help prevent loss of life in their frequent landslides.

This tour was not mobility impaired friendly and I even saw a couple people fall on the graveled steep roads. There was nothing near the port and traffic issues with the road work would make it dicey to rent a car. I would say a difficult DIY unless you find a car rental that would deliver to the port.

Stavanger: This was a beautiful town! We had been here before and did the Fjord Cruise out to see Pulpit Rock, so this time we did the ship's tour of the Iron Age Farm and Petroleum Museum. Our guide was very good!!! The Iron age farm was interesting and DH liked the Petroleum Musuem a lot. The guide was a retired engineer who had been a part of the dive teams working on the oil rigs. He was extremely knowledgeable about the museum and made it more interesting with anecdotes. The oil museum was just around the corner from the pier and we still had time to go back to the ship, have lunch and then go out walking around. This is a great city and you could go many times before running out of things to do.

The Petroleum Museum was a flat paved walk of about 5 minutes from the ship and the entry fee is 100K for adults, 50K seniors. Depending on your interest in the subject, I'd plan at least an hour here. It is also close to shopping and the old town. The city is very walkable, but the streets are cobblestone, so wear appropriate shoes.

The weather on this cruise was generally excellent. Other than one day in the Norwegian Sea, the ocean was very calm. Our coldest port was NY Alesund at about 2*C (just below 30*F) and our warmest port was Tromso which was about 10-12*C or mid 50's F. Of course, the wind made it feel much cooler at times.

Hope this helps anyone planning to cruise this itinerary!

Excellent information. Do you have any suggestions for 'onboard' Ocean---

Connie

We are going June 15, 2015

Very informative, it is on our list of cruises to do.

Excellent information. Do you have any suggestions for 'onboard' Ocean---

Connie

We are going June 15, 2015

Hi Connie,

Fortunately, we had a good Cruise Director and an EXCELLENT Assistant CD. There were plenty of activities planned for sea days. Trivia was held twice each sea day, morning and late afternoon. There were also make shift bowling contests and indoor golf chipping contests. Bingo was held a couple of time. Zumba was offered each sea day morning. The photographer gave great photography classes, there was an investing class or two. The port lecturer was also good. The chef and Maitre D gave a great culinary show on the last sea day. (I admit to being a big fan of these "culinary demonstrations", which are hilarious!) There was also Pop Choir, book club, knitting/crochet group, LGBT group, Friends of Bill and various other demonstrations and activities that I don't recall.

The entertainment was good to great, with a few not so great thrown in. Our problem was that some of the evening shows conflicted with our meal time.... only because we had such a great table and our late seating dinner lasted well past the beginning of the shows. Sometimes we'd go to the early show, see half, go to dinner and then return to see end of the late show. Disjointed, but it worked. There was always music at the Casino bar. The Tahitian Lounge was a popular spot for reading and visiting, since it was too cold to be outside. Great views from this lounge too!

There are 4-5 days when you will be completely out of satellite range so you won't have any broadcast tv or news during that time. Princess programming was still available, but we always take our portable DVD player and DVD's. We use the cruise to catch up on a few movies/ TV series. Watching Downton Abbey after spending time in UK is just more fun! :)

I can't say enough about the crew on the small ships. The big ships may have more "stuff", but for me, you can't beat the friendliness on the small ships.

Thanks for the information I'm booked on the June 4th 2015 cruise. I found your overview very helpful.

Debbie

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Forums mobile app