oLife tours in Norway and northern Russia

[Tansy Mews]

Hi everyone, I had been thinking of taking the onboard credit and buying something on the ship. I thought I could be more selective, be able to book tours I can't take with the oLife bonus. But now I am wondering about the wisdom of that. I can't book ahead. They are expensive, especially the ones that aren't available through the oLife bonus. (I could do those privately for lesss.) And I will have too many onboard credits! But I do want to make the most of this "bonus".

 

I see that last year there was a similar trip and others for this year. I travel in June 2018. I have gone through the old and ongoing discussions on other sailings on the roll calls. Some good information there - thank you!

 

We are booked on the Dublin to Oslo on Nautica. June 2018.

https://www.oceaniacruises.com/baltic-cruises/dublin-to-oslo-NAU180628

BTW, this isn't a "Baltic" cruise since it doesn't go to Talinn, St. Petersburg, etc. It goes up the coast of Norway and back around to Oslo.

 

Did any of you take ship's excursions on this or similar itinerary? Were they "regular", i.e. they qualify for oLife? Did you book ahead or book onboard? Any advice?

 

I did take excursions on our trip last year and the excursions were quite good. But I selected early and carefully. And we did some private tours too through CC and roll call.

 

Thanks for any advice on this.

[pinotlover]

Best bet is to review the June 25-July 15, 2017 Northern Explorer cruise. It departs Copenhagen to London, but most all of the Norway fjords and Russian ports are identical to your cruise. You can see all the O tours offered and which are covered with O Life. Should answer all your questions.

[Mura]

We did the Copenhagen-Southampton cruise on Nautica this past June/July which has some common ports to yours.

 

Bergen: We took a city tour (on our own) to Grieg's home outside of Bergen. We've been in Bergen a number of times so weren't interested in one of the ship's tours. If you are interested in classical music, this is an excellent trip. We booked online and compared to ship's tours (assuming you are paying for them) it is inexpensive. It also includes a half hour piano recital.

 

Alesund: Just walked around on our own

 

Trondheim: We were planning on going to the Music Museum and Cathedral on our own, but when I reminded myself that the museum is a bit outside of town we took the oLife tour. This was a good tour but for us not exactly what we wanted. We'd been to the museum in 1975 -- it has grown quite a bit since then! Back then we could visit the main collection on our own. Now it is upstairs and they give hour long tours led by college music students who demonstrate various instruments. We liked the main collection in 1975 because they let us try out the instruments ourselves. I don't know if they still do that! For us, the original plan would have been best ... but it was a good tour and not too crowded.

 

Hammerfest: Again, a place we've been to several times. Plus the ship's tours were really duplicates of what we did last time with a private guide. So we walked around town, visited the church and Polar Bear Club. It's a small town and easily do-able by yourself if you haven't been there before.

 

Murmansk: We were there in 2010 and didn't care for it so we just stayed on board this time.

 

Solovestsky Islands: Took the oLife tour to the Monastery. The tour was excellent, but we weren't lucky with our guide. She wasn't awful but she was verbose, and her English (despite her day job being as an English teacher!) wasn't prime. Well worth seeing. Our guide had been imported from Archangelsk so I think they had to bring in extra guides given the large demand.

 

Archangel: We had a wonderful oLife tour to the Art Museum which also included a walk around town. The museum guide was superb. My only complaint, and it's not really a complaint, was that since the museum is so large you don't get to choose what you want to see. In our case we toured the ikons, which for some of us isn't of great interest, BUT the docent was so good that even given our non-interest we enjoyed the tour. We also had some free time after the official tour to visit some other areas. The building we were in wasn't large so there wasn't that much more to see.

 

Honningsvaag: Again, we've been there several times. If you are new to North Cape, a tour to is recommended. In 2010 we overnighted here so we were able to do a night time tour to the Cape and the next day we did the Bird's Island boat tour out of Jesvaer. We had a private driver for a group of 8. It's a pity that these days Oceania doesn't give you the option of a night time visit to North Cape since they are only there during the day. The ship on our cruise did have a North Cape tour but you can book it for a lot less (if you want to use oLife elsewhere) by taking the City bus.

 

Kirstiansund. We just took a do-it-yourself walking tour. There are city ferries that take you to neighboring islands (I think the trips are like 10 minutes back and forth). Easily done on your own.

Geiranger. Again, we were here in 2010 when we took the local boat trip up the fjord. It's nice seeing the fjord from lower down than you see on the ship and the commentary was excellent. You can book online or just line up in the office and buy tickets on the day. This time we took the oLife tour to Mt. Dalsnibba - highly recommended. (Or you can find a driver and do it on your own. A beautiful trip. The town is so small I don't think you can rent a car!)

 

Hellesylt. This is a shared day with Geiranger. In 2010 the only people who were able to leave the ship here were those doing the (a) hike or (b) bus trip to Geiranger. In 2010 the first stop was Hellesylt and we only stayed long enough for the hikers to leave the ship, then we went on to Geiranger.

 

Oslo. Well worth staying here a few days if you haven't been there before. Also very do-able on your own. We like to take the ferry to Museum Island (right there at the dock) and then take the bus a short ride to Vigeland Park to see the sculptures. (There are five excellent museums on the island. Our favorites are the Kon TIki and Viking.)

 

Hope this helps.

 

Mura

[Tansy Mews]

Much appreciated.

 

Frances