Aurora Cruise R005. Excursions in Greenland.

[BORDER REIVER]

To anyone interested. I was disappointed when P & O informed me they no longer organised excursions / tours in Greenland, because of lack of demand. I contacted the Nuuk Tourist Board and have had a promising reply. They have been contacted by other people on this cruise and are currently putting together some tour options for those interested. They also say they talking to P & O on this. I'm not sure of what options there are, but I have asked about Whale Watching boat trips and possibly visit to the inland ice (probably too expensive). Anyone who has contacted them will be notified soon of what may be available.

P & O might contact members as well, but if anyone feels the need to e-mail the tourist board, here is their address info@nt.gl .

[daiB]

To anyone interested. I was disappointed when P & O informed me they no longer organised excursions / tours in Greenland, because of lack of demand. I contacted the Nuuk Tourist Board and have had a promising reply. They have been contacted by other people on this cruise and are currently putting together some tour options for those interested. They also say they talking to P & O on this. I'm not sure of what options there are, but I have asked about Whale Watching boat trips and possibly visit to the inland ice (probably too expensive). Anyone who has contacted them will be notified soon of what may be available.

P & O might contact members as well, but if anyone feels the need to e-mail the tourist board, here is their address info@nt.gl .

 

Hi Bonny Lad,

 

I think the excursions faded away because of the number of times the ship could not dock or land by tender resulting in cancellations. It has been mentioned here and on other boards.

 

Gan Canny

 

 

:):)Happy Cruising:):)

 

 

 

 

:cool:

 

 

Dai

[BORDER REIVER]

Cheers Dai,

Ah just divvent want tuh gan aaal that way tu Greenland and see nowt like - but it cud torn oot just champion man.

[qm2lover]

Hi BORDER REIVER,

 

Thanks for that info. I will have a look as we could well be interested.

[qm2lover]

Hi

 

Could you? Or would you mind if I? Put this information on the cruiseline discussion site as there is quite a discussion and a group for this cruise and I am sure others would be interested.

 

Ta.

[BORDER REIVER]

Hi qm2lover,

 

I don't mind if you do that. I'm very new to these boards and not familiar with the best places to discuss. I understand P & O's reasoning for not doing excursions, but the Nuuk Tourist folk seem keen enough. We, as tourists don't want to commit money on a non-refundable basis, but the locals stand to gain considerably if the weather is suitable. Let's see what happens. P & O were very definite that there was a complete lack of interest - I think otherwise.

 

Thanks

[BORDER REIVER]

Hi,

 

Here's the reply I got from Nuuk Tourism

 

 

 

Thank you for contacting Nuuk Tourism, my name is Drissia and I will do our best to provide you with the information you are looking for.

 

I´m working on your request as well as the others from other cruise guests arriving on June 25th. I will send you some offers before the end of the week. We met with some representative of P & O cruises some months ago and we agreed that they will be proposing some tours to their guests. They might have changed their mind, so we will make offers directly to people who contact us.

 

I put you on the list of passengers that should be answered 1st has you have been one of the 1st to contact us J

 

 

I´m sorry for the delay in the offers, but I´m right now alone at the office my colleagues are out of town.

 

 

I look forward to welcoming you next June in Nuuk.

 

 

Inussiarnersumik inuulluaqqusillunga / Kind regards

[Merlin7]

When we did this cruise in 2008 it was not indicated when we booked that there would be no excursions in Greenland. When expressing our complaint about this to P&O, they said it was because there was little interest!! Seems they told a porky!

 

Good luck to you all in sourcing excursions here. We were very disapppointed that we could not see more of this 'one off' place that we visited.

[BORDER REIVER]

You were told that in 2008, yet when I booked this year's cruise in June 2009 via the internet, the website indicated that there were a few excursions possible, although P&O have now amended their excursion info. They really are very slow in reacting to customers wishes (and e-mails sent in March still haven't been answered).

Never mind, I'm sure Nuuk Tourism will find something to do as long as the ship can land passengers.

[tony13579]

Thanks for getting the ball rolling!

I have e-mailed the tourisium office expressing an interest.

wikki has a good write up on Nuuk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Nuuk

 

The reason there may not be any tours is there isnt the infustructure to provide the usual army of 4x4's and busses to deal with 1000 tourists.

 

"The majority of 72 buses and 2570 cars owned in Greenland (as of 2004) operate in Nuuk" The population of 15,000 matches the village that I was born!

[qm2lover]

Hi

 

I also emailed the tourist office, but have not heard anything yet.

Still a while to go yet, but it nice to make plans.

Anyone heard anything yet? Or any ideas?

[BORDER REIVER]

I've heard nothing yet, but expecting a quick reply would be asking too much. They'll need a few weeks to sort out options with local businesses. I believe whale watching trips are available daily anyway throughout the summer (from beginning of June). I also enquired about cost of helicopter trip to the inland ice cap, but it could be very expensive. As the tourist board said I would be among the first to hear from them, I'll post any reply I get, on here, straight away.

[tony13579]

I still haven’t heard anything. only 11 days to go. I havent sorted out any currency.

The museum takes Euros; I am really unsure how much spending cash to take. Decisions, decisions...

[BORDER REIVER]

I've had a reply today, a copy of which I've attached. Unfortunately the attached pdf file is too large (17 pages) to post on this forum. It's a very comprehensive brochure, with something for everyone. We intend to express an interest in one tour (probably fjord cruise), but I need to clear up the matter of payment (or non-payment if we cannot land).

 

Anyone who has contacted Drissia, will surely get a copy.

 

Good luck.

 

I´m really sorry i haven´t got back to you earlier we have been pretty busy working on fulfilling all the P & O cruises requirements but unfortunately (for them and most of the customers) we haven´t got any agreement, they are still a bit uncertain about what they want to do. So we have decided to start proceeding with the individual requests and I start with you J.

Please find herewith our Cruise manual with all the tours tailor made for cruise guests. You will see a pretty wide range of tours both on land, on water and in the air J . Please ask about the minimums and maximums of each tours as this documents is usually send to the cruise companies and our requirements for min/max are different.

Once you had a look at it, just let me know what you would like to try and I will book you and sending you confirmation of the booking. How does this sound?

If you have any question, please feel free to contact me anytime I will do my best to help you out.

I look forward to meeting you here at Santa´s post office where Nuuk Tourism is also located (yes we are lucky we get to work for Santa too J ).

Inussiarnersumik inuulluaqqusillunga / Kind regards

Remember: New Opening Hours!

Monday-Friday: 10:00 / 17:00

Saturday: 10:00 / 16:00

Sunday: 12:00 / 16:00

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Drissia El Yousfi

Sales and Store manager

Tikilluarit A/S - Nuuk Tourism

P.O. Box 199

3900 Nuuk

Greenland

Tel. +299 32 27 00

Dir. +299 34 87 22

Fax. +299 32 27 10

E-mail: drissia@nt.gl

[qm2lover]

Hi BORDER REIVER,

 

I have also received the information thanks to you posting the link.

Just hope the weather is kind to us.

[BORDER REIVER]

Hi,

 

Well, we got there OK, found Drissia no problem, and the tickets for a scenic fjord cruise were waiting as promised, at the quoted price .....and it was worth every penny spent. The weather just got better the further away from Nuuk we got and the scenery was fantastic, with the fjords like glass at times, got close up to iceberg - truly amazing. No whales to be seen - but who cares.