Flam railway in Norway

[Queenie52]

Help please!

We have been trying to book for the Flam railway when we go on our Norway Fjords cruise, however the most appropriate times are all blocked out. Presumably the cruise ships by lock book in advance which means very few options! We could wait until we get there and see if there are any returns (tricky!) or we could gamble on an early departure (9.45) but as we don't dock until 9 and everyone else gets priority for disembarking (especially if tendered) could be problematical, likewise if we book the later one which gets back at 3.40 and the ship leaves at 5 which again could cause us to worry and not enjoy the trip. The other option is to pay the exhibitant price of a ship excursion and bite the bullet!

Has anyone managed to book this trip themselves with those time constraints?

Thank you

[Keith1010]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

Let me recommend that you post this on the Northern Europe Board and this link will take you there.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=192

 

Keith

[sddsddean]

Yes, the cruise lines block book the 'best' times. When I went a few years ago I bought 30 tickets for our 'roll call' on the day they came out (start of January I think) and by 2 days later, I wouldn't have got them. Your choices are i) pay the exorbitant price or ii) hope that when you get there, someone has cancelled. Also, try your roll call in case someone has extra tickets on there. I didn't allocate all of mine until well into April. I wasn't worried as I knew they would sell (BTW, I sold them at face value; not for profit!)...had all sorts of people on the ship asking me if any were spare once word got round. Anyway, back to your problem. When I was there, I did notice that on late morning trains there was often space, but not for coming back. If you are fit, you could overcome this by renting a bike at the top and freewheeling all the way back down ( I think it takes about 3 hrs). Just trying to give you options.

 

Simon

[Alphen]

Help please!

We have been trying to book for the Flam railway when we go on our Norway Fjords cruise, however the most appropriate times are all blocked out. Presumably the cruise ships by lock book in advance which means very few options! We could wait until we get there and see if there are any returns (tricky!) or we could gamble on an early departure (9.45) but as we don't dock until 9 and everyone else gets priority for disembarking (especially if tendered) could be problematical, likewise if we book the later one which gets back at 3.40 and the ship leaves at 5 which again could cause us to worry and not enjoy the trip. The other option is to pay the exhibitant price of a ship excursion and bite the bullet!

Has anyone managed to book this trip themselves with those time constraints?

Thank you

 

If you look on this website; http://aurlandhavn.no/cruise/skipsanlop-2016/ you will able to determine if your ship is the only one in Flam on that day. Usually ships are able to dock and you won’t have to tender.

The listing per day is for the ships that are moored alongside (Kai), or at anchor (Anker), in which case you will tender.

 

The railway station is only a couple of hundred meters from where you dock, so if you manage to get ashore as one of the first, you will have plenty of time to buy tickets in the station.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Alphen

[teamflames]

Email flan tourist office, they are super helpful and will answer you promptly.

They were who told me how to book.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

[Clarea]

Help please!

We have been trying to book for the Flam railway when we go on our Norway Fjords cruise, however the most appropriate times are all blocked out. Presumably the cruise ships by lock book in advance which means very few options! We could wait until we get there and see if there are any returns (tricky!) or we could gamble on an early departure (9.45) but as we don't dock until 9 and everyone else gets priority for disembarking (especially if tendered) could be problematical, likewise if we book the later one which gets back at 3.40 and the ship leaves at 5 which again could cause us to worry and not enjoy the trip. The other option is to pay the exhibitant price of a ship excursion and bite the bullet!

Has anyone managed to book this trip themselves with those time constraints?

Thank you

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

I would recommend the Ports of Call forum:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

[Queenie52]

Thank you for all your helpful replies! This is where a community forum is so useful"

[clmom]

Hopefully you will succeed in getting tickets but if you don't...make a point of getting off the ship as soon as you can. The Flam ticket office gets MOBBED quickly. Make sure you get tickets for BOTH ways. Someone on our cruise took a chance on finding a ticket back down once they reached the top and were out of luck. They had to run down the whole way to get back to the ship in time!!

[Guest maddycat]

We took a cruise that stopped in Flam several years ago. When we got off of the ship we walked to the train station and purchased round trip tickets without a problem.