Fjord excursions

[gah_cruise]

Bit late to the party it seems.
Off to the fjords, this summer and it appears that a lot of the Princess excursions are already sold out.

Does Princess add more excursions to meet demand nearer the time?
What other shore excursion companies would you recommend or avoid?

Thanks

[Torfamm]

1 hour ago, gah_cruise said:

Bit late to the party it seems.
Off to the fjords, this summer and it appears that a lot of the Princess excursions are already sold out.

Does Princess add more excursions to meet demand nearer the time?
What other shore excursion companies would you recommend or avoid?

Thanks

Sometimes more excursions are added but I wouldn’t count on it. You can probably find good information on the ports of call board for the country and port you are visiting 

[milolii]

Check the roll call for your cruise. There should be ideas there.  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/63-princess-roll-calls/

[nini]

In addition to visiting your Roll Call, you will find much more pertinent answers to your questions on the link below. Many cruisers book with other tour companies and not through the ship. We will be sailing to Iceland and Norway this June and I booked our excursions many months ago and discovered that these fill up quickly.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

[Nicole&Pete]

9 hours ago, gah_cruise said:

Bit late to the party it seems.
Off to the fjords, this summer and it appears that a lot of the Princess excursions are already sold out.

Does Princess add more excursions to meet demand nearer the time?
What other shore excursion companies would you recommend or avoid?

Thanks

Hi I assume you mean Norwegian fjords? Having done Norway a fair few times I have to say because some of the places are small there is not a huge capacity on excursions and things to do. 
 

Are you able to let me know your itinerary and I would be able to recommend companies for various ports?

[gah_cruise]

34 minutes ago, Nicole&Pete said:

 

Are you able to let me know your itinerary and I would be able to recommend companies for various ports?

Thats very kind, thank you.

Bergen
Molde
Trondheim
Honningsvag
Tromso
Andalsnes
Olden

[adam7392]

Bergen - easy to walk into town and then either walk up to the viewpoint or take the funicular train.

 

Olden - Ship docks right by the bus stop for the local bus to Briksdal glacier

[kaseyoz]

We also booked late, in the last few weeks but managed to find a few things to do.

think you are on our cruise as the same itinerary 

Have you joined the roll call yet.

 

[Nicole&Pete]

Just now, gah_cruise said:

Thats very kind, thank you.

Bergen
Molde
Trondheim
Honningsvag
Tromso
Andalsnes
Olden

Hi. I think I’m on the same cruise as you on the Sky Princess? Please join our roll call!

 

Just to set your expectations, in terms of fjords only Andalsnes and Olden will be in the fjords, the other locations are more coastal towns, just in case you were expecting every place to be scenic and in the fjords.

 

We booked this cruise because we’ve never travelled up to the Arctic circle before, we’ve only done the South of Norway before and there are places on this cruise we haven’t done before. We have been to Bergen, Olden, Alesund and Bruges before but the other places are new. 
 

Here are my recommendations for the ports;

 

Bergen

 

For a first visit the Funicular is a great idea, you can walk at the top round a lake and it is really scenic and quiet. We did this the first time we went to Bergen and it was great. You can definitely book this yourself and it is walkable from the ship. Booking it ahead will mean you can save time not buying a ticket there.

 

We have also done the Osterfjord cruise with Rodne.no, which was really good but because we’ve done it before we will not do it again this time. Not many cruisers book this tour or know about it, but it’s a great way to see more of the fjords from a large city like Bergen. I would definitely recommend the funicular though as a must do if you’ve not been to Bergen before.

 

Molde

 

Museums aren’t usually my thing but the Romsdal museum looks great as a lot of it is open air which looks good. I don’t think you need an excursion for this place as we will dock right in the centre but there are trips to the Atlantic road available with Norway Excursioms if you want to go further afield.
 

Trondheim

I haven’t done much research into this port yet, some of the Princess tours look interesting to me. I have also seen some walking tours available on Viator. The one that looks the most interesting tour is the best of Trondheim tour with Princess, is that sold out?

 

Honingsvag

 

We booked a bird safari tour with north cape tours but we also really want to see the North Cape as well so we have booked a north cape express tour with Northcape-experience who are running a tour at 3pm (I contacted them directly to book). The tour is only max 8 people so it should be quite pleasant I hope. I can dig out the contact details if your interested?

 

Tromso

 

The problem with Tromso is that they get the most tourism in the winter to do whale watching and northern lights so I don’t see many options here. I think a lot of people will go to the Arctic cathedral, which you can do on foot.

 

If I find anymore tours I will let you know, but I’ve not had much luck.

Andalsnes

 

From what I see this is a lovely place to explore and I don’t think an excursion is necessary. In my view it is a scenic place so I don’t want to leave it to see other places. There is also a cable car right near the ship which might be nice to do.

 

Alesund

 

For a first visit I would recommend a trip to the Aksla viewpoint, this is free and walkable from the ship. After you can see some of Andalsnes which is very close to where the ship is parked.
 

There is also a tour with Norway excursions going to the troll road but I think this is a lot of driving in one day as it is 7 hours, you probably see a lot though.

Olden

We did this last year and because we had a long time in port we were able to see both the glacier and the Loen skylift. I don’t think this is possible for the length of time in port this time. Personally my favourite part of the day was the Loen skylift and having a meal in the restaurant at the top. I would recommend this. We booked through Olden cruise.

 

I hope this helps
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Nicole&Pete]

Just now, Nicole&Pete said:

Hi. I think I’m on the same cruise as you on the Sky Princess? Please join our roll call!

 

Just to set your expectations, in terms of fjords only Andalsnes and Olden will be in the fjords, the other locations are more coastal towns, just in case you were expecting every place to be scenic and in the fjords.

 

We booked this cruise because we’ve never travelled up to the Arctic circle before, we’ve only done the South of Norway before and there are places on this cruise we haven’t done before. We have been to Bergen, Olden, Alesund and Bruges before but the other places are new. 
 

Here are my recommendations for the ports;

 

Bergen

 

For a first visit the Funicular is a great idea, you can walk at the top round a lake and it is really scenic and quiet. We did this the first time we went to Bergen and it was great. You can definitely book this yourself and it is walkable from the ship. Booking it ahead will mean you can save time not buying a ticket there.

 

We have also done the Osterfjord cruise with Rodne.no, which was really good but because we’ve done it before we will not do it again this time. Not many cruisers book this tour or know about it, but it’s a great way to see more of the fjords from a large city like Bergen. I would definitely recommend the funicular though as a must do if you’ve not been to Bergen before.

 

Molde

 

Museums aren’t usually my thing but the Romsdal museum looks great as a lot of it is open air which looks good. I don’t think you need an excursion for this place as we will dock right in the centre but there are trips to the Atlantic road available with Norway Excursioms if you want to go further afield.
 

Trondheim

 

I haven’t done much research into this port yet, some of the Princess tours look interesting to me. I have also seen some walking tours available on Viator. The one that looks the most interesting tour is the best of Trondheim tour with Princess, is that sold out?

 

Honingsvag

 

We booked a bird safari tour with north cape tours but we also really want to see the North Cape as well so we have booked a north cape express tour with Northcape-experience who are running a tour at 3pm (I contacted them directly to book). The tour is only max 8 people so it should be quite pleasant I hope. I can dig out the contact details if your interested?

 

Tromso

 

The problem with Tromso is that they get the most tourism in the winter to do whale watching and northern lights so I don’t see many options here. I think a lot of people will go to the Arctic cathedral, which you can do on foot.

 

If I find anymore tours I will let you know, but I’ve not had much luck.

Andalsnes

 

From what I see this is a lovely place to explore and I don’t think an excursion is necessary. In my view it is a scenic place so I don’t want to leave it to see other places. There is also a cable car right near the ship which might be nice to do.

 

Alesund

 

For a first visit I would recommend a trip to the Aksla viewpoint, this is free and walkable from the ship. After you can see some of Andalsnes which is very close to where the ship is parked.
 

There is also a tour with Norway excursions going to the troll road but I think this is a lot of driving in one day as it is 7 hours, you probably see a lot though.

Olden

We did this last year and because we had a long time in port we were able to see both the glacier and the Loen skylift. I don’t think this is possible for the length of time in port this time. Personally my favourite part of the day was the Loen skylift and having a meal in the restaurant at the top. I would recommend this. We booked through Olden cruise.

 

I hope this helps
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry I didn’t mean see some of Andalsnes I meant Alesund. There are some cute buildings to have a look at and art galleries if that’s your thing.

[gah_cruise]

16 minutes ago, Nicole&Pete said:

 

I hope this helps

 

Thank you so very much for this....we really appreciate the time you have taken to reply in such detail

 

[PurpleTraveller]

Some of your ports you can DIY if you can't find a tour that you like.

 

Honnigsvag itself is quite small though we did walk through it after our morning tour to North Cape and also did walk to another small fishing village in the opposite direction from the ship to Honnigsvag. We did a great tour in 2019 from Honnigsvag with Blue Puffin (blue-puffin.com) to the North Cape and fishing villages. You could check with them but they do book up quickly. 

 

In Trondheim it is an easy walk into the city which is very pretty. We walked to see the Cathedral, Old Town Bridge, the colourful river warehouses,  Kristiansten Fort (great view) and went to the Army and Resistance Museum (free in 2019).

 

In Tromso we had a bit of rain in the morning so we got the local bus into town and visited the Catholic and Tromso Cathedrals and saw the Arctic Cathedral from afar. We then got a local bus around the island and then visited the Botanic Gardens which are really close to the dock.

 

In Bergen we got the port shuttle to the port entrance then walked into town where we went to Bryggen ( the old warehouse area), the Bergen Castle area with a number of old buildings, the Cathedral, City Park and St John's Church. A very pretty place to wander around. A lot of people got the funicular up to the viewpoint.

 

Hope you have a great cruise 🛳️

 

[Mary loves to travel]

18 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

 

In Trondheim it is an easy walk into the city which is very pretty. We walked to see the Cathedral, Old Town Bridge, the colourful river warehouses,  Kristiansten Fort (great view) and went to the Army and Resistance Museum (free in 2019).

 

 

@PurpleTraveller,  we (mostly) followed your excellent Trondheim day plan (from your 2019 trip report) and had a lovely day!    

 

Thanks so much for that detailed report.

 

Best,

Mary (& Peter)

[PurpleTraveller]

2 hours ago, Mary loves to travel said:

@PurpleTraveller,  we (mostly) followed your excellent Trondheim day plan (from your 2019 trip report) and had a lovely day!    

 

Thanks so much for that detailed report.

 

Best,

Mary (& Peter)

 

How wonderful! I'm so glad you enjoyed your day. Trondheim is such a lovely city to visit. Thank you! 😊