Hi, we're booked on a RC cruise in July 2024 that goes to 8 ports in Norway and I'd appreciate any insight since we've never been to any of these places! We have some shipboard credit to use and I'm trying to figure out where it makes the most sense to use it, versus touring on our own or signing up for excursions with other companies.
I've read that many people recommend going to the North Cape in Honningsvag, and many use Blue Puffin Tours. I also see it's apparently possible to take a public bus to North Cape, or our ship offers an excursion that's a 3 1/2 hour non-guided transfer to North Cape. I'm wondering if Blue Puffin does anything significantly extra on their tours because their price is quite a bit higher? Or could the public bus or ship transfer be comparable enough? The ship excursions are also on sale right now so it's another reason for me to make a decision about this.
For Molde, I was considering Norway Excursions' Atlantic Road excursion. The ship also has an Atlantic Road excursion, and it sounds like they go to a lot of the same places, but it's hard to tell how much is different. It does appear the ship excursion doesn't go to the top of Mount Varden for a view, which Norway Excursions includes. It would be nice to do that, but I don't know if it makes enough of a difference to rule out the ship's excursion?
In Geiranger I've signed us up for Norway Excursion's Mt. Dalsnibba & Eagle Road, and plan to do Norway in a Nutshell in Flam. We're also going to Tromso, Alesund, Olden, and Bergen, and I see many people say you can do these on your own, but I'm reviewing the ship excursions to see if any would work in these places as well... If anyone would like to recommend excellent ship excursions you've had in those places, I'm open to suggestions!
Thanks for any feedback!