SempreMare

Yea. Clay, I almost included that on my 'con' list. However, another way to think about it is: What is the actual departure time impact on Oslo activities available for that train day of travel? - Early morning departure --> 3:30pm-ish arrival, then hotel checkin. By that 5:00 time, all the afternoon activities are over. After that long in a train and a late night before, I'd fall asleep if I planned to see the theater or opera. I'd need to be on my feet, but I would not want to book a pre-planned evening tour, even if I could find one. Too many variables in a travel day. So, Activities: Dinner --> Downtown People Watching / Window Shopping --> Walk back to hotel and unpack. Comment on the Munch I chose to try to see the Munch on arrival day. However, even with this earliest possible arrival, there was only time to see one floor of the Munch where I promptly fell in love with that painting that looked like the sun was bursting through. When I return, I'll do the Munch as the main morning or afternoon activity; not travel day. [ but even if you only have 1 hour, it's still worth price of admission for that hour. Just take in the main upper floor with his most famous works. ] - Late morning departure --> 6:00pm-ish arrival, then hotel checkin. Still plenty of time for dinner + a fitness walk before sunset through the main shopping drag in downtown Oslo. (on those main shopping streets / people watching streets between the train station and the National Parliament / National Theater area.) When I walked back to the hotel the night before leaving, much later than arrival night, the pedestrian-only streets seemed as bustling as earlier, but different. Less of a workers-commuting feel and more of a fun socializing feel. Lots of happy Norwegians and young adults / high schoolers out in a people-watching atmosphere. So, Activity options are almost identical to before Dinner --> Downtown People Watching / Window Shopping --> Walk back to hotel and unpack But with more sleep, less early morning time stress / more time to accommodate delays in getting to the train station. Despite what I experienced above, when would I still prefer the early train time? If I were debarking directly from the Viking ship to the Bergen --> Oslo train on same day. Why? Because there is no chance of getting those extra hours of sleep on debarkation early morning. Even in a room at the end of the hall, I heard lots of noise, door slamming, and commotion starting early early on debarkation day that I didn't hear on any other day of the cruise. Plus I knew that the room stewards wanted access to start cleaning my room for next guests, so I felt pressure to be out.

Wow. When did you give them the source photograph they use for compare? At desk checkin?

Wow, very cool data visualization on its homepage!

I think that's a great idea. The 8am departure made for a very early morning after a late night of packing to depart and taking in all possible activities the day before till too late 🙂 You'll be more alert to take in the vistas through the window after more sleep Less stress over time deadlines Ticket costs less Mid-day travel early on means pictures of the best sights with less side-to-side sun glare and shadows On the bad, the published journey timetable takes ~30 min more.

I was wondering this as well. That being said, I found the regular seats very comfortable and with a lot of legroom. I literally can't recall anything to complain about related to the regular seats. It looks like the USB charging port or plug on the Plus seats are easier to reach. Pics show its located to the side of the Plus seat vs what my pics in the topic starter show for the regular carriage (near your feet between the 2 seats in front of you. Similar to a flight I took for a work trip from Hong Kong to Singapore.)

To those who have been in quarantine, how have you / are you keeping yourself entertained?

I saw it as 60 days out also when I looked a couple months ago. Maybe it changes at some point during the year.

@Clay Clayton good point - given the table in Pluss, you might be more comfortable in the seats in regular class - they seemed to have tons of legroom, and the table is foldable.

Aha! I was confused how you were both able to book excursions for a cruise next year >> We’ll be on a Viking cruise visiting Stavanger on 17 [ May ] next year. Now I realize @claranda that you wrote that last year! So you cruise very soon! Which itinerary has you in Stavanger on May 17?

Do you mean 17 March or 17 May?

8:15 - 3:15ish scheduled Our train seemed to leave on time but was 30 min late arriving. For me, perception-wise, it seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. OK maybe 3 blinks. Before lunch, lunch time, after lunch. The Viking rep with the flag led us on < 10 min walk to the Thon Opera from the train station. I was worried checkin of that many Viking Cruisers at the exact same time would take all remaining daylight. However, checkin was extremely efficient. Kudos to Viking operations! I had plenty of time to walk in daylight to the Grand Cafe. Yea, my first thought was, "my cousin in the state dept would not approve of my being here." But I asked one of the people in costume. She said she was a paid actor / extra for the filming. Darn, wish I had known that. I was not too far from there the next day at that time.

It would always be the carriage with luggage and bike racks. Where "It" = a great carriage or "car" to hang out in and take pictures through the big windows on either side. BTW there are grab bars to hang on to if needed. You can see those in car 5 pic #2 on the left. But I don't recall really needing to. Just a nice train motion. Trying to remember... I do recall that I still had > 500 photo cloud uploads pending that night. The super fast Thon Hotel Opera's WiFi handled easily that night. So either the answer is No, or if yes, it was sloggy slow. Sloggy slow WiFi except in hotels was a pain point throughout the entire trip. Hundreds of photos were constantly not backed up to iCloud on my iPhone. I feel very insecure with knowledge that losing my phone would mean losing hundreds of memories. I learned that Viking blocks photo uploads to help prioritize WiFi for ship purposes. Totally understandable. But that made the problem worse. @longterm this is 1 reason why when I was outside the ship, I wanted to leave WiFi on. Even a short stop at a cafe or museum was a chance to see if I could connect to fast WiFi and - Update critical apps - Sync more photos with iCloud To help save battery, I instead set Settings --> Battery --> Low Power Mode on

Do you think that is what @longterm meant by his reply?

First-timers must begin with tipping the bucket of cold water above your head onto yourself. It's a rule! 😉 [ I screamed out loud... ]

Tips & Opinions below are based on taking the Bergen to Oslo train Sept 30-ish 2022 during Viking's British Isles Explorer post cruise extension, Bergen to Oslo. Train travel occurred 8:15am - 3:45 pm. Big picture, I totally enjoyed this trip. I wrote these tips for those who are are DIYing the Bergen to Oslo train trip, i.e., if it's not part of an excursion or Viking Pre/Post cruise extension: 1) Book early To see what day is the first bookable day possible, Go to VY.no Try to book the last ticket date possible. Note how many days in advance that would be of your train day. Then, immediately, Tell Alexa* , "Alexa, remind me to book a train trip on _ Date X_ " <---- the first day possible * or set a Apple Reminders reminder, or Gmail calendar reminder.... I did this and recently booked the same trip on my own. I was surprised that in my carriage of choice, 2 months in advance, seats were already ~ half reserved on Day 1 of ticket purchase availability. It's possible that with summer approaching, vy.no extended the booking window and I could have booked it earlier. Not sure. I paid the small extra amount for a refundable ticket. I triple checked the date I booked with something besides my memory :-). Remember, most Euro calendar visuals do not show Sunday as the day on the far left. 2) Best Seat selection if you take a lot of pictures Opinion: I would prefer a seat on the LEFT side as the early morning train moves forward from Bergen to Oslo. Mostly because of sun glare, but also some of the early sights are better on the left. Bloggers you will find by Google Search advise the right side. That puzzles me. Maybe on a different time of day... I was on a post-cruise extension, so Viking managed the seats. I ended out on the right. It was fine, just more glare to work around. 3) How to transfer to the Bergen train station from your Viking ship, See this topic 4) You don't have to stay seated! At first, my mindset was "I'm on a plane; must stay mostly seated.". Then I realized, it's totally OK and interesting to walk around from carriage to carriage and stretch your legs. 5) Best carriage to check out if you take a lot of pictures Carriage 5, the one dedicated to luggage and bike racks. I freely crossed from side to side as the vistas showed themselves, and talked with one of the friendly and interesting conductors for about an hour about what his life was like as a conductor. He might have been 2'nd or 3'rd in command. 6) Skip lunch, or just nibble. The included bag lunch sandwich was meh. Dear Viking, instead of a sandwich in a bag lunch in situations like this, consider asking your caterer for a lentil or quinoa salad + veggies, a protein, Italian dressing, and crackers. Airlines seem to execute that dish reliably well for thousands of travelers. I decided this train day was a good day to resume a 12-12 intermittent fasting routine. Then, at 2pm-ish I was overcome by the Train Cafe's interesting looking non-alcoholic beer that did indeed taste like a good pilsner. Norway / Europe in general has so many more delicious non-alcoholic beer options not at all available here in the states. It helped me avoid Diet Coke / Coke Zero when I was craving something carbonated but didn't want an alcohol buzz. On the cruise, I did not like the non-alcoholic wine at all, and switched to the real thing for wine. Also, I gave in to the Freia chocolate cookie(?) available for purchase. The train cafe is staffed by not very welcoming personnel. 7) Plan how you'll charge your phone. I brought 2 Euro power adapters on board for USB-charging on the train, and 1 MagSafe iPhone charger.. Phone would have run out of power by early afternoon had I not done that. (iPhone 13 Pro Max < 1 year old) It was at 95% charged when I started walking through Oslo right after checking into the hotel. Yay! It was drained to 10% when I eventually returned after - walk to late lunch / early dinner at the Grand Cafe - walk back / shopping - taking lots of pics at the Munch museum near the Thon Opera Oslo On the train, there are 2 Euro power receptacles are located near your feet between the seats. I brought a spare adapter that I lent out to the nice couple from Florida sitting a couple rows ahead of me. --- Bonus Tip 8 ) Plan a people watching / sightseeing fitness walk immediately after you check into the hotel a) I anticipated that after 6 hours in a train I'd want a good walk before dinner. Walked from the Thon Opera (Viking extension hotel) near the train station to the downtown Oslo Grand Central Cafe. Fun walk. Grand Cafe - a beautiful cafe and attached hotel. Famous people, US presidents, etc have stayed there. It's adjacent to the National Theater building and an open air park where they were filming a movie. At first I thought it was some kind of organized protest being covered by the media ;-). At the cafe, I ordered a tenderloin with an interesting-sounding sauce. They served a tough top sirloin. I gently explained to the server, "I'm from Texas. It's illegal in Texas to sell an expensive tenderloin and serve a top sirloin. I know the difference." (I didn't think the word 'fraudulent' would translate + it felt a little strong and I was in a chill mood.) "Please ask the chef why they decided to serve top sirloin instead of tenderloin." A lot of discussion ensued in the open kitchen. The eventual explanation was something like, "we did not have inventory." I ordered a replacement entree. Second entree and the sides of both entrees were totally delicious. I would still recommend the Grand Cafe as a great late lunch / early dinner downtown option. Just keep an eye on your steak. b) I took a different downtown street back to the Thon Opera. An enjoyable walk for people watching and shopping. c) Munch I realized I had just enough time to see part of the Munch museum before it closed. Remember to 1) check your day pack in the locker and 2) purchase your audio guide before going through the inner entrance. Loved this one: All in all, a beautiful and memorable day.

looking forward to it! remember to bring portable phone battery chargers. I would’ve been unable to take pictures several days from 3 PM onwards if I hadn’t brought 2 MagSafes 🧲power banks.

@CILCIANRQTS in May the morning train I'm on is at 8:14am

good points !

You reminded me @LibertyBella I wished I had packed more Hot Hands hand warmers. Ran out of room while packing.

One of my favorite Canadian brands! Discovered Tilleys at Epcot in Orlando FL on a fall day that almost gave me heat stroke. I have their summer hat with the secret pocket in the very top for hiding cash.

2 things I wished I had packed for my first Viking cruise that included Norway (British Isles Explorer, September 2022): 1) A really good rain hat - that actually keeps water out - that keeps eye ware dry - my hoodie hat did not do this Interested in your opinions. After returning I picked up a rain hat from REI that hopefully should work; might have been LL Bean. Of course now in mostly dry Texas I think, "will I really need this given I'm taking a small umbrella and will have a hoodie" When packing I shall remind myself: YES. 2) Something to better secure my glasses / sunglasses in wind. I had a close call... Any opinions on what makes a good sunglasses holder these days? So many different styles. Growing up, Croakies were IT.

I was thinking about the DIY adventuring Ex: trying to make it from 1 place to another before closing time. On any given day I'd prefer walking, especially in cities like Bergen or Oslo. However, time... The time clock doesn't care about my preferences. It marches on, regardless.

Clicked on the right page.... Looks like answer = YES !

Uber was great in Oslo last September when I needed to get several miles away quickly. So much easier than phoning a local company and trying to describe where I was (FYI - My google search results still 'say' Uber is not in Oslo. Not true! I just double checked my receipt on the app from Sep 2022. Unless there is new news for 2023?) Is Uber bookable while in Bergen?

It's different enough and beautiful enough to be worth it, IMO. I went on that rail trip when in Alaska with Holland and loved it. Several of the vistas from that train window are seared into my memory. I took the Bergen --> Oslo train and also loved it. Different nature, more communities along the route, more life, less barren than Alaska.