Homelands Travel Connections / Misc

[Dark Avenger]

Contemplating Viking Homelands next June/July – thinking about “pulling the pin” soon.  2^nd cruise on Oceans for us.  Will be traveling from Denver and prefer to avoid US east coast connections.  Thinking about 3 days on the front end in Berlin.  Perhaps a couple of extra days on the back end (Stockholm, or Bergen, or Oslo).   Lufthansa flies out of Denver to Frankfurt and Munich and we like them.  Icelandic Air does also as does Norwegian.   Heard mixed reviews on both.  United flies to Europe, but we’ve had bad experiences with Heathrow.  Not married to one carrier. 

Questions – Which sailing direction would be better?  Anyone have any experience with Berlin to Stockholm, or Bergen (or Oslo) connections?   We could take the 7-hour train ride from Oslo and catch the ship in Bergen on the front end (or back end).   Trying to avoid the Bergen / US connection problem.

Viking Custom Air might be an option if we can save money on better seats and if Viking lets you make ticket plans days before and after ship arrival, or departure dates.  I like to pick my airline and seats in advance.

 

Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated

[CCWineLover]

1 hour ago, Dark Avenger said:

Contemplating Viking Homelands next June/July – thinking about “pulling the pin” soon.  2^nd cruise on Oceans for us.  Will be traveling from Denver and prefer to avoid US east coast connections.  Thinking about 3 days on the front end in Berlin.  Perhaps a couple of extra days on the back end (Stockholm, or Bergen, or Oslo).   Lufthansa flies out of Denver to Frankfurt and Munich and we like them.  Icelandic Air does also as does Norwegian.   Heard mixed reviews on both.  United flies to Europe, but we’ve had bad experiences with Heathrow.  Not married to one carrier. 

Questions – Which sailing direction would be better?  Anyone have any experience with Berlin to Stockholm, or Bergen (or Oslo) connections?   We could take the 7-hour train ride from Oslo and catch the ship in Bergen on the front end (or back end).   Trying to avoid the Bergen / US connection problem.

Viking Custom Air might be an option if we can save money on better seats and if Viking lets you make ticket plans days before and after ship arrival, or departure dates.  I like to pick my airline and seats in advance.

 

Any advice and suggestions would be appreciated

We went last May on the Viking Sky - and specifically chose Stockholm to Bergen, but I'm sure both directions have their advantages.  We did Stockholm first because we wanted to come early and spend several (3) days ahead of the cruise - what a wonderful city.  We also chose it because the sailing out of Stockholm on the way to Helsinki is in the late afternoon/evening in the light!  The archipeligo from Stockholm is breathtaking and you could sit up in the Explorer's Lounge, or your balcony, or whatever view spot, with a glass of wine, and watch the islands go by.  If you take the other direction, you get it early in the AM.

Then on the back end you can take the train from Bergen to Oslo, see that city and fly home from there with some decent connections.

 

As for airlines, we fly from SFO and use KLM to connect to European cities via Amsterdam.  Seems to work quite well.  But each to his own.  Not a big fan of Iceland Air.

[SoccerMom#3]

We're from the Denver area also and did the Homelands cruise this past April/May.  We did Bergen to Stockholm and I think if I had to do it again, I'd do Stockholm to Bergen. We spent three days in Stockholm at the end of the cruise and I wish we had done that at the beginning since by the end of the cruise I was ready to get home.  I loved Stockholm though.

 

Definitely getting from Denver to Stockholm or Bergen isn't easy.  We did our own air and flew Delta since it was cheaper than Viking Air especially since we upgraded to Comfort Class on Delta.  We flew Denver to Atlanta to Amsterdam to Bergen and them coming home we flew Stockholm to Amsterdam to Detroit to Denver.  Lots of flights and some tight connections and some longer connections.  Made for a few long days.  I'd say the fewer flights you can do the better.

 

The Homelands Cruise is absolutely wonderful and so worth doing!

[Peregrina651]

5 hours ago, Dark Avenger said:

 Trying to avoid the Bergen / US connection problem.

 

No matter what, you can't avoid it but it is less hassle to fly into rather than fly out of. Flying into avoids all the check in hassles.

 

If you are looking at flying through Iceland to get Bergen, check out the Keflavik airport website; it shows you all of the arrivals and all of the departures. There is only one flight per day to Bergen from Iceland (arrives in Bergen at 2:50pm).  If you are thinking of flying this route consider an overnight or two in Iceland, either coming or going. Not that I am pushing this plan because Lufthansa has a better reputation than Icelandair.

 

I do agree with soccermom, go for the fewest number of connections possible. Also, don't be afraid to book your own flights, especially if you can get a cheaper rate booking on your own. Opt for the Viking Air when you book; you can always drop it if you decide to book your own flights. It is harder to add on afterwards.

 

 

[mhb1757]

I agree to the above posts saying it’s best to fly using the fewest possible connections. I share your aversion to United. We really like SAS when flying to/from/within Scandinavia. Sadly they are in the United alliance which makes it more complicated. They have many daily nonstops from Bergen to both Oslo and Stockholm. You can avoid the early AM flights that are packed with cruise passengers heading out for connections to the US. When a ship is unloading it pretty much overwhelms the smaller Bergen airport. 

 

I would absolutely work work in a Norway in a Nutshell trip between Oslo and Bergen (or reverse) if at all possible. The scenery was beyond breathtaking. It was my absolute favorite part of our Midnight Sun trip. The ferry ride between Flam and Gundvagen is just too beautiful to describe. I liked it even more than the train ride between Flam and Myrdal (and that was pretty amazing). If you can manage an overnight in Flam you won’t regret it. 

If you did the Nutshell route between Bergen and Oslo you could avoid the Bergen airport all together. 

[knoxclone]

We flew into Stockholm  a day early.  Agree the late afternoon sail away  from Stockholm was a  a wonderful way to start the cruise.

 

After cruise, we took train from Bergen to Oslo stayed 2 days and and flew home from Oslo. Train ride was relaxing and beautiful scenery, and it eliminated a O' Dark thirty departure from the ship!   Was a much less stressful way to conclude a wonderful trip -  I hate to fly home directly from cruise, because I end spending the last day or so having to think about packing etc.instead of enjoying my vacation. 

[Hanoj]

We flew Icelandair for our Homelands cruise in May/June 2018. Their Saga business class allows much roomier seating than the main cabin but the service is not as attentive as on Alaska, Lufthansa, or Delta. We fly from PDX and I believe all Icelandair transcontinental flights go through Reykjavik (KEF). This was nice since we did the Viking pre-extension in Iceland before flying to Stockholm. The flight from PDF to KEF was only 7 hours. Keep in mind if you fly into KEF I think all the arrivals deplane on the tarmac for a shuttle that goes to the terminal entry for passport control. Have a jacket available in your carry on, otherwise you may get doused if it's raining. 

 

I agree with the hassles of flying out of Bergen. We are about to "pull the pin" on booking a British Isle Explorer cruise and plan to fly into Bergen.

 

I'm just the opposite of @knoxclone. When the cruise is over I want a flight home, and preferably nonstop. We usually each come home with one more piece of luggage (a cabin bag to carry on for purchases we don't want in our checked luggage) and the thought of lugging all this to a hotel or train is unappealing to us.

 

[knoxclone]

I agree, I would be much more amenable to departing after immediately after the cruise with a a nonstop home... from anywhere! 🙂 

 

[CCWineLover]

6 hours ago, knoxclone said:

We flew into Stockholm  a day early.  Agree the late afternoon sail away  from Stockholm was a  a wonderful way to start the cruise.

 

After cruise, we took train from Bergen to Oslo stayed 2 days and and flew home from Oslo. Train ride was relaxing and beautiful scenery, and it eliminated a O' Dark thirty departure from the ship!   Was a much less stressful way to conclude a wonderful trip -  I hate to fly home directly from cruise, because I end spending the last day or so having to think about packing etc.instead of enjoying my vacation. 

 

We are more like you knoxclone -  we like to not pack early and not rush off the ship!  So we will be also taking the Bergen-Oslo train this June after the Misnight Sun cruise.  Have heard so many great things about this train!  Plus, more flight choices out of Oslo!!  

[Peregrina651]

4 hours ago, Hanoj said:

The flight from PDF to KEF was only 7 hours.

 

Very interesting bit of data since the flight from Boston is 5 and half hours,

 

4 hours ago, Hanoj said:

Keep in mind if you fly into KEF I think all the arrivals deplane on the tarmac for a shuttle that goes to the terminal entry for passport control. Have a jacket available in your carry on, otherwise you may get doused if it's raining. 

 

Thank you for that bit of advice.

 

In spite of all the downsides, I am pretty sure that we will be using Icelandair for our flights next June (not Homelands but Bergen to Iceland) because they are by far the shortest routes available when flying Boston to Bergen and from KEF back to Boston.

[Hanoj]

6 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Very interesting bit of data since the flight from Boston is 5 and half hours,

 

 

The flight from PDX heads north and flies over most of the Canadian provinces and then Greenland. It's about 40 minutes longer coming back.

[molymoo]

FWiW ... just a couple of notes.  We just returned from a cruise with Viking that included the dreaded Heathrow and leaving from Bergen.  I have a love/hate relationship with Heathrow but they now have automated passport control and it was AWESOME!  Not we were just arriving, not connecting so things might be different but our usual hour+ wait at passport control took about three minutes ... and most of that was figuring out how to use them!

 

We flew out of Bergen which I generally try to avoid but when making the air arrangements the agent in Viking Air referred to our flight as a "charter" by Viking.  Sure enough just about every passenger on the plane was someone from our cruise.  We connected in Amsterdam and it was a very easy and much more pleasant an experience than our last trip out of Bergen in 2015!

[Heidi13]

3 hours ago, molymoo said:

FWiW ... just a couple of notes.  We just returned from a cruise with Viking that included the dreaded Heathrow and leaving from Bergen.  I have a love/hate relationship with Heathrow but they now have automated passport control and it was AWESOME!  Not we were just arriving, not connecting so things might be different but our usual hour+ wait at passport control took about three minutes ... and most of that was figuring out how to use them!

 

I also tried to avoid LHR until they built T5 and all BA flights used a single terminal - no dreaded hike followed by the connections bus. Sadly, they moved the Vancouver flight to T3.

 

Passport Control - totally agree with the improvements, as our last time through we had no delays.🙂

[Jim Avery]

3 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

I also tried to avoid LHR until they built T5 and all BA flights used a single terminal - no dreaded hike followed by the connections bus. Sadly, they moved the Vancouver flight to T3.

 

Passport Control - totally agree with the improvements, as our last time through we had no delays.🙂

Our much enjoyed PHX/LHR non stop also uses T3.  Not too bad last time.  Hoping for the same this time.  When flying out of LHR we have learned to stay at the airport at either Hilton or Sofitel.  Makes the morning much less stressful.

[Heidi13]

1 minute ago, Jim Avery said:

Our much enjoyed PHX/LHR non stop also uses T3.  Not too bad last time.  Hoping for the same this time.  When flying out of LHR we have learned to stay at the airport at either Hilton or Sofitel.  Makes the morning much less stressful.

Same for us, when departing from T5 we always stayed at the Sofitel - really convenient with the walkway across to departures. We would have a leisurely breakfast and then stroll over and spend a few hours in the business lounge before our 17:20 flight.

 

With the new Airportr service, we now tend to spend an extra night in London and have our cases picked up and shipped to LHR, where they hand them over to BA. We then have breakfast and Tube out to LHR, spending a few hours in the lounge.

 

Post cruise, we are heading to St Andrews for a couple of weeks. On the return we will train down to King's Cross and stay in a local hotel, as it will be rush hour. Will book Airportr for the next morning, so we don't see the cases again until Vancouver. It is an excellent service, as with online check-in, on arrival LHR we head straight to security. With Fast Track, we are enjoying a beverage in the lounge, within about 20 mins of arriving at LHR.

 

Will agree T3 has improved, but still remember way too many arrivals after long flights, then making connections over to the old T1/T2 for the domestic flights up to Edinburgh/Glasgow.😞