HAL port changes to the Fjords

[ruralmomof2]

HAL changed the ports on our itinerary from Alesund, Nordjfjord, eidfjord and Bergen to Alesund, eidfjord, olden and Sardnes which they claim is a port for Stavenger.   Is Sardnes a good port?   How far is the trip to Stavenger?

 

we could switch to celebrity apex and see Bergen, Flam, Geirenger, and Haugesund but not sure if it is worth the extra money.  Would have loved to go to Flam, but…

 

thank you

[janetcbl]

14 minutes ago, ruralmomof2 said:

HAL changed the ports on our itinerary from Alesund, Nordjfjord, eidfjord and Bergen to Alesund, eidfjord, olden and Sardnes which they claim is a port for Stavenger.   Is Sardnes a good port?   How far is the trip to Stavenger?

 

we could switch to celebrity apex and see Bergen, Flam, Geirenger, and Haugesund but not sure if it is worth the extra money.  Would have loved to go to Flam, but…

 

thank you

I’d vote for the Celebrity trip. IMO, and only IMO, the ports of Bergen, Flam and Geiranger are more interesting than Olden and Sardnes. Eidfjord is a beautiful fjord, but the sail in to Geiranger is spectacular. The Flam railroad is a special experience, a steep climb up to the top and back. Alesund is an interesting city, but Bergen is much more interesting, with many more diverse experiences. Remember, this is just my opinion.

[hallasm]

1 hour ago, ruralmomof2 said:

Is Sardnes a good port?   How far is the trip to Stavenger?

Assuming you mean Sandnes and Stavanger! It is 15 km from the pier in Sandnes to Stavanger.

 
For HAL there is one deep fjord into Olden that is a fine port of call.
Flåm and Geiranger are two of the most iconic deep fjords - in fact cruises will be severely limited to those two destinations from 2026 - Bergen is also a very nice city - Celebrity is clearly better thepan HAL.

Edited April 10 by hallasm

[ruralmomof2]

Yes.  Thank you.   Should have double checked my spelling.   
 

The Celebrity advice reinforced what I was thinking.   We were upset to lose Bergen.  

[kitkat343]

8 hours ago, ruralmomof2 said:

Yes.  Thank you.   Should have double checked my spelling.   
 

The Celebrity advice reinforced what I was thinking.   We were upset to lose Bergen.  

Totally understandable to be upset to lose Bergen.  

 

Olden was one of my 3 favorite ports, and it has both the Loen Skylift and Briskdal Glacier.  Flam and Geiranger were also 2 of my other favorite stops so it's really up to you if you want to switch to Celebrity (our day in Bergen was what the port staff described as one of the worst weather days they'd ever seen, so we really couldn't get much of an appreciation of it so I can't really help with Olden vs Bergen.  Everyone else really seems to love Bergen though) 

Edited April 11 by kitkat343

[Hezu]

4 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

 (our day in Bergen was what the port staff described as one of the worst weather days they'd ever seen, so we really couldn't get much of an appreciation of it so I can't really help with Olden vs Bergen.  Everyone else really seems to love Bergen though) 

Although Bergen is fairly well known for quite wet climate, so rain (and even heavy rain) there is not that unusual thing. The average annual precipitation is 2495 mm.