hal2008

You will certainly get some form of shuttle to get you out of industrial port from (it could be just outside port, by the lake/park (byparken) or tourist information (torget)).

If it is at torget, you may be able to just walk. (last block is slightly uphill but gradual)

If it is byparken, (lake/park), it is still walkable (just quarter mile more than torget - area is flat)

Buses are available from here. (bus 10 and 18 brings you very close to the funicular)

For taxi, just download the 07000 app or most hotel will help you get one.

Taxi should cost around 200-250 NOK.

Bergen although large city (as you will see from top of mountain if not obstructed by clouds), touristy part is quite walkable. From Byparken to Bryggen houses via stop at funicular IS what walking sightseeing all about here.

2 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

 

Found out that 9 euro tickets are not valid on ICE train (so that comment about standing room on ICE train may be indirect effect of so many people traveling?)

 

its not just train pass. It seems it can be used on metro, subway, trams and bus too.

At 0.30 eurocentas a day, unlimited local/regional travel  and resulting expected overcrowding,  it should be named "lets spread covid" pass.

56 minutes ago, hal2008 said:

 

Few questions:

 

1. Doesnt train start from Warmunde? if so, getting seats that difficult at the starting point?

 

2.  Are these Euro 9 fares valid on trains between Warnemunde and Berlin?  (on ICE trains? I saw a comment about standing room on ICE trains)

 

 

 

Found out that 9 euro tickets are not valid on ICE train (so that comment about standing room on ICE train may be indirect effect of so many people traveling?)

its not just train pass. It seems it can be used on metro, subway, trams and bus too.

On 7/2/2022 at 8:47 AM, Scottishclover said:

I’ve just got off a regional train from Kufstein in Austria to Munich on a €9 ticket. While the train was busier than usual, there were still seats so it probably depends on the route. It would be a long stand to Berlin from Warnemunde mind you but €9 is a real bargain.

Few questions:

1. Doesnt train start from Warmunde? if so, getting seats that difficult at the starting point?

2.  Are these Euro 9 fares valid on trains between Warnemunde and Berlin?  (on ICE trains? I saw a comment about standing room on ICE trains)

16 hours ago, ColdCruise said:

We just returned from Norway last week. Short answer: we really enjoyed the Flam train and last half of the fjord cruise (1st half not as scenic)
 

T

I had to repurchase the fast ferry (norled) from Bergen to Flam (~5hr) and loose the money on the Aurland accommodations, 

 

 

do the trip to Flam, either via NIN or fast ferry, ride the Flambahn. If it makes more sense for your overall itinerary, I don’t think you’ll loose much by doing a circle from Bergen instead of going one way between Bergen & Oslo.

Each person has his/her own view of "beauty". Bias also creeps in based on prior experience elsewhere, expectations from too much research, weather and one's own heath/tiredness.

The most scenic part of this excellent fjord cruise as part of NiN itinerary is the first part from Gudvangen through Naeroyfjord. Then it makes sharp inverted V turn into Aurlandsfjord. It never enters the Sognefjord proper.

Most cruise ship (and most likely the fast ferry from Bergan to Flam) travels through Sognefjord proper and then travels through Aurlandsfjord.  (they never enter the beautiful  Naeroyfjord)

When you say first part of fjord cruise was not scenic, are you talking about cruising through Sognefjord or Naeryofjord?

Flambanen is extremely aggressively hyped.  It can be considered great or ho-hum depends on how many other (better) train rides you have done in Asia, Switzerland, etc.

Also, famous bus route between Gudvangen and Voss that take you through steep hairbend clip curves is now permanently closed and that part of NiN is routing through a boring tunnel.

The rail component between Myrdal and Oslo are part of highly rated BegenRail.  First hour out of Myrdal towards Oslo, you see a lot of glaciers (although view keep getting interrupted by snow sheds) and then remaining four hours is more or less constant view of Fir trees and lakes (whcih do gets repetitive after few hours)

Yes, the best part of NiN is fjord cruise through Aurlandsford and Naerofjord (especially the Naeryofjord) 

Nida excursion if available is worth looking into it.

Cycling paths are not rough.

Walking path to beach from back of the bus station on Smythie side is actually paved and a nice walk to through thick woods.  Plenty of families walking on it on a summer day and hence you should not feel unsafe,  Walkway finishes at the top of the sand dune and you have to take some 30-40 steps down to a flat beach.

Beach remains flat for a quite a distance into the water and hence one of the best beaches to waddle in with kids.

You can actually rent bicycle on klapedia side, take it on this ten minute ferry to the Curona Spit and peddle around on the marked paths.

However, there is always a risk of injury in foreign country while on very short port call.

Taxis in Bergen are relatively bit expensive (like everything in Norway)

Charges are based on meter drop fee, per km fee and per minute fee.

They are NOT listed on side of the car.

Uber is not yet in Bergen 

There are couple of taxi companies that are very good and respond quickly. (such as 07000)

Most hotels have kiosk from where you can self order a taxi by touching screen few times.

They also list their charges clearly on their website.

Download its app and hope that your US credit catd works

Bergen also have good bus service (4 USD per ride per person)

Flobannen is not far from back of Bryggen houses (although on slight uphill)

Do not buy tickets to Flobannen upfront. Bergen weather is moody (drizzles more than Seattle - 280 days in a year). If clouds are low, you may not be able to see anything from the top. Even with multiple cruise ship in the town, the line for the funicular is usually not long. (There are self service kiosks to buy tickets)

On the other hand Bryggen houses can be seen in any weather

On 7/16/2022 at 11:21 PM, Norwaylady said:

Kristinehamn - Karlstad

Linje: Stockholm–Karlstad–Oslo
Period: 12 juni – 9 augusti.
Påverkan: Tågen ställs in del av sträckan och ersätts eventuellt med buss, alternativt går en annan våg.

 

this is from SJ in Swedish. 
it says that trains between Oslo-Stockholm is affected of maintenance on the railroad from 12.June to 9.August. 
It will be train+bus on your travel or they will do a different route by train compared to the usual train ride. 
This is different from day to day. 
 

For best updates on train travel between Stockholm-Oslo, use sj.se 

You will find more options and better explanation  on the service for this trip. 
 

Sj.no is the correct place to look for tickets from Oslo-Trondheim/Røros-Bodø. 

This make sense as trains were showing up regularly on seach in early June and now shows up for late August.

For all the oil wealth  and strong anti-carbon sentiments, surprised at lvel of rail travel in that part of the world. (CPH -STK seem to be in much better shape)

On 7/16/2022 at 11:06 PM, Norwaylady said:

are you looking for tickets in near future?
 

There is a strike at SAS, SK airlines. 
the majority of us that commute to Stockholm-Oslo fly. 
the strike has been on for 10 days now.

Pluss the security lines at Arlanda Airport is totally out of control. It has been for weeks and it’s not getting better tomorrow…
So many travelers search for other options. So that’s why it’s impossible to find a direct train ticket in near time. 
 

So as of now the train nonstop are sold out. First available ticket I could find is 18.of August. 
 

and also, the summer maintenance  service on the railroad is affecting traffic on the trains. 
 

You can also use the bus service directly to Oslo. It’s okay. Nothing fancy, but it works well. 

Yes, have been following strike situation since mid June.

Usually, when train is sold out, it does say sold out.

18 hours ago, Sand and Seas said:

Has anyone used OnPoint proctored testing with your own home test?   

Would you recommend them?

 

Their website shows a very reasonable $15 proctoring cost and says they are available 24/7 for appointments.  We already have a good supply of home test kits (thanks to our insurance) so it seems wasteful to order the full kits from Emed.  

OnPoint proctor test works except when it does not.

It has no proper customer service (by email, phone, text - whatever)

They use a different third party to issue you a report.

Again, if it works, it is perfectly ok.

In our case, they messed up date/time posted on the report rendering the whole pre-testing circus useless. Lots of aggravation few hours before catching long haul flight.

This is just data point. Statistically not significant. Your experience may vary.

Given our experience with them. we are using one of the other companies for our next cruise.

CANNOT RECOMMEND OnPoint based on our experience

(but many others have found no issues - just dont expect any customer service when they make a mistake)

3 hours ago, deelightfull said:

Our flights for Sunday were finally officially canceled early Saturday Morning. Hubby called NCL air as soon as they opened this morning, and no joy in Mudville!  NCL basically told us they had no options for us, oh well, darn!  They told us we should take it up with SAS to get re-booked.  We've called SAS before and they've said they can do nothing, because the airfare is through NCL.  We've been on hold for about 2 hours now, again with SAS.  Based on their on hold message I'm pretty sure they're only offering refunds, not re-bookings.  We do have trip insurance, so we're about to cobble together some crazy combination of flights to Europe and trains within Europe, and see how the travel insurance works out.  

 

How's everyone else doing? 

Some usual alternatives in the recent days:

1. Use Air Canada or LOT or ever Turkish Air

    (avoids crazy transfer at major European airports)

2. United to Bergen

3. Finn Air to Helsinki

Oslo to Stockholm trains.

Understand that these are run by Swedish railway and not by Vy.

Also understand that summer repair work can disrupt schedule.

But why is schedule on this service is so random?

sometines 1 intercuty nonstop.

Somedays 2.

Then for several days none.  

Everything seem to be random lately.

Good to know that this company is good.

Based on our horrible stressful experience with OnPoint, like to use someone else.

Had posted our experience with OnPoint earler.

Staff is easy to understand and are very professional.

Certain people just find it difficult to deal with people who dont look and sound like themselves.

But I cannot recommend OnPoint based on our experience. (one case is not statistically significant and YMMV)

Issues:

1. They use yet another company to issue paperwork. (not a big deal when everything goes smoothly)

2. That other company website, asks for lot more information than necessary but you can just decline giving any information.

3. There is no easy customer service of any kind (email, text or phone). Not at all an issue if everything goes fine.  But when it does not, the only solution is to pay for another test and get the person on the zoom to basically solve the issue rather than doing test.

They messed up date/time on our report rendering the whole circus pointless. Test was scheduled for 12.15 AM to meet he "2 days" deadline. It was like 4 AM by the time everything was resolved.

I would suggest using the other company that is not OnPoint based on our first hand experience.

It might more advantageous to contact the dinning staff on the specific ship.

Email is similar for every ship except for the two character prefix which are different.

It was posted on this board few months back but my search failed to dig it out.

Maybe someone else may be able to point you towards it.

22 hours ago, CruiseMelissa said:

The public transportation link you posted isn't working, do you have any tips/info on what this would involve?  Trams? Busses?  We love trying local transportation when we travel and would be open to taking it from the port to the city center if it's an option.  Thanks so much!

Public transport at the KS port itself is not an option.

It is a restricted area. (seriously a hard hat area with no proper roads)

Shuttle buses are free and frequent provided by Riga Tourist bureau and managed by Royal staff (at both ends)

It drops you at Polu gate. From there old town is quite walkable.

If you need to go somewhere (like art nuovo district), rideshare is extremely cheap and convenient and does not involve any pickpocket risks.

6 hours ago, ace1zoe2 said:

 

When you get a deck 6 obstructed balcony on Anthem... I'd rather have an inside than this view!

AFAIK, you can not e assigned this balcony unless you have opted to do GTY in obstructed view balcony,

You DO NOT require test to enter Denmark.

You DO require one to board a cruise ship in Denmark

(that requirement has not been removed yet and when it does get removed, it would be through proper press releases and in general with much wide dissemination of information - certainly not through sneaky removal of paragraph in boarding documents)

Obtain "certificate of recovery" from your doctor.

It has advantages of you not needing any pressure of "2days before boarding" test.

42 minutes ago, ATG said:

We just got home from a river cruise visiting the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, France and Switzerland.  We had about 20 euros from a previous trip.  We came back with 15 euros.  Everywhere took credit cards. I had planned to go to an ATM but never needed to.  
 

One thing I learned was in a restaurant if you want to leave a tip, just tell them what total amount to charge.

 

 The only card issue I had was with the Swiss train tickets.  I couldn’t use the machines since our card required a signature.  I had to go into the ticket office.  Not a big deal.

In recent trips, need to use local currency is rarely encountered (may be streetside purchase from gypsy vendor). Nowadays, even paid WC take credit cards.

US based credit cards are preferred as they offer excellent fraud protection.

It is advisable to take the contactless versions as most Europeans do not like the hassle of putting chip card in the machine (and roll their eyes when "signature needed receipt rolls out").

Some of the military/federal govt associated Credit Unions (open to anyone to join) do issue PIN priority credit cards which work even with ticket vending machine and unattended gas/toll stations.

However, most places, even signature priority US cards work just fine especially when amount is less then 50 USD (or whatever threshold issuing bank has set)

In pinch, you can always use your US ATM card in any reputable ATM machine to take out local currency.

From what I recall, shuttle bus was provided by the port authority and was rather expensive (if it is indeed 10 euro roundtrip then it is not that bad since it comes all the way to cruise berth gate)

Rideshare apps (Uber, Bolt) provide much cheaper and flexible option. They can come only up to the tollbooth gate which is about 200m towards city.

From there to Fat Margaret Tower was 3 euro (Uber)

On return, from Viru gate to port was 4 euro. (Bolt)

You can certainly take Rideshare to Upper town (should be around 5-6 euro - local taxi will ask 20-25 euro) to be dropped in front of the parliament/Russian cathedral.  Kiek in de Kok tower is nearby.  Walk to two viewpoints (highly recommended) is quite flat. 

Then you can take pikk street (very gradual slop) down to the main square and after spending time there, walk out of old town near viru gate from which you can uber/bolt back to the ship. 

12 hours ago, hallasm said:

I think the SAS strike will soon be over.  Personally, I would book flights and have a bus / train as contingency plan  (unless the trip is this week). - or other options for flights than SAS.
There are no direct trains between Oslo and Stockholm - either bus to Gothenburg and train to Stockholm or Flixbus direct Oslo to Stockholm.
 

On SJ.se website, tried randomly few dates.

(SJ website has known issue that when you select date x, it sometimes shows fares for date x+1)

Selecting August 16, it shows options for August 17.

One of the option is InterCity Train 639 departing at 15:29 from STK C. and arriving non-stop at Oslo S at 21:24 (fare is pretty low and train has bistro)

Selecting August 12, it shows options for August 13.

One of the option is InterCity Train 635 departing at 13:32 from STK C. and arriving non-stop at Oslo S at 19:20 

However, this train option appears only for select dates this summer. Strange. And hence the question.

(in June and early July, it was showing two nonstop trains everyday)

We all know about SAS strike affecting Scandinavian countries and hence larger demand for SJ trains between STK and CPH and DFDS ferry between CPH and OSL.

But what is going on between STK and OSL trains?

Few weeks ago it showed two intercity trains every day and several connections but now it sahows nothing via SJ's own website or Ninja or norwaytrains (Vy suggests going to SJ website for this route anyway)

Anyone local knows?

14 hours ago, AdventureKenandCar said:

As I write this, I am in the airport in Istanbul. My July 10 flights were completely cancelled:

“Dear Traveler,

We are sorry to inform you that your booking (redacted) has been canceled.

Unfortunately, we are unable to find a suitable alternative for you. During the summer season there are limited seats available on the market. This means that we are not able to find a new seat within the same time frame as your current booking.

We truly apologize for the inconvenience this will cause you.

Please read more on:https://flysas.com

Would you prefer to cancel your trip and apply for a refund of your ticket, you can do this via "My bookings"https://flysas.com/managemybooking

If you have made your booking through SAS and want to change your trip to a later occasion, you can contact Customer Service after the strike has ended.

If you have made your booking through a travel agency, please contact them for further assistance.

Please inform anyone else traveling with you.Please do not travel to the airport unless you have a confirmed reservation.

Best regards,
SAS”

The only reasonable flight from Stockholm to Chicago was 2 days later through Istanbul with a 7 1/2 hour layover. 
I don’t have the mental bandwidth to figure out who and how I’m going to be compensated, but I saved EVERY receipt from this bit of unfortunateness. I’m going to pursue

1. SAS will pay for my flights, hotels, meals through the EU rules

2. Travel insurance will compensate my “up to” amount 

3. The credit card I used to make my original SAS purchase will compensate (a long shot)

4. Some combination of the above. 
 

Does anyone have further suggestions?

You are doing everything correct by saving receipts, etc.

First priority is to get you back home safe (Turkish Air has been the one recommended by many along with Air Canada and LOT air) without acquiring COVID.

Money part can be figured out later on once you are home. It may take some time and effort but most of the financial part will be compensated somehow. (stress part is other matter).

Best wishes to you...

We made alternate backup arrangements as soon as first indication of this came up in mid June (had posted a heads up post here) at slightly higher cost as I was not sure how EU rules will apply for strike, or canceled slots by airport or ease of acquiring EU money from troubled airline).  

23 hours ago, davekent said:

Thanks for this, weather permitting the harbor bus looks a great option for the 2nd day, when we will look to have an early start into the city. The Copenhagen card looks ideal for the trip, as we are arriving at 12:00 on day 1 and leaving at 18:00 day 2 we could probably get away with a 24 hour card + pay for the last journey back separately but a 48 hour pass would I suspect remove any possible stress and rushing around. Still some planning to do!

Copenhagen Pass and City Pass are two different things

Former is useful for transportation as well as for entry (free or discounted) to various attractions.

City Pass (small version is fine) is strictly for transportation (but includes everything - harbor boats recommended by hallasm, bus, trains, metro, even transfer to/from airport)

Price difference is naturally substantial as one is superset of the other.