Norway/Iceland/U.K. Logistical Notes. Just back.

[Regguy]

Just got back from the Norway/Iceland/Scotland cruise. Longish post of sort of “stuff I wished I would have known while planning, to return the favor of the so many on thisboard and others that helped us plan this great trip – which was nearly 18 months of anticipation. I'll post in a few batches. Initial thoughts, what we did each day, and then logistics and other stuff.

 

It looks as though NCL is running this cruise (or a sligh tvariation) two more times. We are DIYport planners, and don’t do ship excursions. As we were planning, I made extensive use of this board and tripadvisor, but the reality was there wasn’t a ton out thereabout these ports for the DIYer and NCL. Accordingly, I thought I’d post a few quick notes about what we did on this cruise. This is not meant to be areview. There are some points below thatwill be critical, just because it’s information I would have liked to have. Overall this was a fantastic trip. Basically, stuff that I wasn’t able to findmuch about is discussed here.

 

Overall, this itinerary sets up really nicely. It basically starts with a sea day, thenthere are three groups of three days of port visits each, with a sea day inbetween, and then a sea day to end. Particularly nice is that the two bad time changes – where you needed togive back the hour – come on sea days (after Akuryeri and after the last Scotlandstop).

 

Every port we went to had multiple ships. It made things a bit difficult at times. We were supposed to be the only ship in townin Akuryeri, but apparently Costa simply decided to show up a day early, and unfortunately beat us there. There was a Europcar pick up right at port and the line looked to be 30 people long. We almost rented from them, which would have ruined the stop. Iceland was surprisingly crowded at the major spots. I was expecting remote quietness, but it was more like Disneyland at places. Still spectacular – just not what I was mentally picturing. Renting cars was great for us, because we got to some remove places.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Regguy

[Regguy]

Here’s what we did each day in case anyone has specific questions that we might be able to help with.

 

Hamburg: We had a day before and a half day after. We did the typical tourist stuff – walked the shopping pedestrian zone, went to the platform and had a beer at the Elbephilharmonie, went to minatur wonderland. On our half day before flying out, we rented a day room downtown, for the family to hang out and use the internet, and I did a bunch of walking, including the old Elbe tunnel,which was really cool.

 

Alesund: This was our most ambitious day. We rented a car from the Avis in town. (They were great –very efficient.) We debated driving the Trollstigen, but really wanted to do the Hellesylt to Geiranger ferry. The problem was that the port stop time made the ferry trip a bit dicey. To get backin time from Geiranger, I was not comfortable taking any ferry later than 11:00 from Hellesylt, which arrived at Geiranger at 12:05. We weren’t sure if we could make it, which created a dilemma – the ferry car spaces can sell out, but we didn’t want to spend $120 on a ticket without knowing if we would make it. Without knowing how long the rental car process would be, we basically decided on having an alternative plan depending on how quickly we got out of town. The key limitation is that the ferry running from Magerholm to Orneset leaves only every 20 minutes. We decided that if we made the 9:10 ferry from Magerholm, we would be able to make it to Hellysylt by 11:00, so at thatpoint I could book a ticket online for the Hellysylt ferry and pay the $120,because we would almost certainly make it. If we only made the 9:30 ferry from Magerholm, it would be more dicey,so we decided we would just drive to Hellysylt and hope there were still car places left to purchase if we got there in time. If we didn’t get to Magerholm in time for the 9:30 ferry, we would scratch the Hellysylt ferry and instead drive through Stranda, down to Hellysylt, back up the 655 (which is supposed to be magical),past the hotel Union Oye, and back into Alesund.

 

As it turned out, the car rental and getting out of Alesund was very quick. We made the 8:50 ferry from Magerholm, bought tickets for the Hellysylt ferry on the internet as soon as we knew we would be ok, and it was fantastic. (For completeness -- it looked as though the ferry sailed full of cars, but there were still some spots when we got there around 10:30.) We drove back from Geiranger by way of the Eisdal ferry. We had time for the Aksla view point (I had set a 2:45 cut off and we made it to the exit for the view point by about 2:25. We were back on the ship by about 4:20.

 

A few tips – use Fjellstua (the restaurant at the top of Aksla) if using GPS. The road to Aksla was a bit hairy toward the top. There were huge buses up there; it was very crowded and very narrow at points. A little more stressful than I was expecting,but it all works out. There are toilets at the top of Aksla, at 10 Kroner or 1 euro on the honor system. We were the only ones that seemed topay! Great day – so happy we rented a car. Total cost was about $200 for the car, about $180 for ferries, and maybe $35 for fuel. Much better than paying for an excursion for 4 people.

 

Bergen: We had a great dock position right at the top of the harbor, which made things very easy. Lots of cruise ships in town. We pre-booked the 10:00 a.m. Rodne fjordcruise, which was great. Leaves right from the fishmarket. They apparently added a second boat at 10:00 and sold both of them out in advance, so if you’re interested probably best to pre-book. We got great weather, which helped. After,we walked around town and took the funicular up Mt. Floyen (buying tickets in advance saved us probably 45 minutes wait, although there was still a long wait).

 

Lerwick: We did a private tour. For four, still considerably cheaper than NCL excursions. Lerwick is the kind of place where a private tour is a benefit. We wanted to do the southern part of the island and found a guide who specialized in that part. If you want north or west, ask some questions of your guide to make sure you’re getting what you want. We saw puffins, seals, got a great tour of Jarlshof, etc. Tendering was slightly chaotic, but not bad. It’s a quick trip. We were told that if there are significant seas, this stop is often cancelled. Apparently, it was very dicey our morning,but the Captain gave it a go.

 

Reykjavik day 1: We rented a car for both days from Enterprise. About a 10 minute walk. Not bad,but I got the sense that this is not the most honorable company. They seemed to live up to the caution that many give about how Iceland companies will try to claim ordinary wear as damage. Even though I have protection with my credit card, after reading about some of these scams, I simply decidedthat for the three days in Iceland I would pay the zero deductible, no questions asked super insurance all three days. It was about $50 extra per day, but good peace of mind.

 

For day 1, we did the golden circle, but counterclockwise. Kerid crater first, then Geysir, Gullfoss,and Thingvillar. We stopped in Laugarvatn (peeked at the public swimming pool took some pictures by the lake)on the way to Thingvillar. We did it in reverse because we wanted to return to Reykjavik on Nesjavallevegur (435)instead of the common circle route (36). We also detoured on the 361 around the lake to Thingvillar. I’m glad we did it this way. In some senses, the deserted pipeline road from Thingvillar back to Reykjavik was the highlight of the trip. It was spectacular. We had it all to ourselves, which was a relief after the tour buses at Gullfoss. It was the best part of the day, maybe the trip. If I had it to do over again, I would do it the same way, but probably would have driven past Geysir to Gullfoss first, then stopped at Geysir on the way back out on the way to Thingvillar. By going counterclockwise, we hit Gullfoss just as the tour buses coming the other way did. Two logistical notes: The lower parking lot at Gullfoss is better if you can manage the steps. For Geysir parking, go a bit past the hotel area where everyone is parking, and use the lot that’s more to the north. After getting back to Reykjavik we parked near Hallgrimskirkja, got a very expensive waffle with chocolate, and walked around the down town area. Parking was very easy at Skarfabakki with the rental car.

 

 

Day 2, we went to blue lagoon. We bought tickets for 10:00 in advance, but decided to take a chance going a bit early, because a Holland ship was coming into port that morning and we wanted to beat the tour buses. We got there around 9:10, and they let uscheck in. We almost had the place to ourselves until 10:00 or so. Even when “crowded,”it’s no problem in the lagoon, but the locker rooms were pretty packed when weleft. Had low expectations for blue lagoon, but loved it. We drove back the long way, down to Grindavik, around on the ocean side through Hafnir, and back into town for a 3:30 all aboard.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Regguy

[Regguy]

Akureyri: As noted above, the Costa ship’s premature arrival caused some chaos. But we found the shuttle to our rental car quickly (actually, it was just a guy in a car, taking people back and forth the 2 minutes to the location). We got our car quickly and drove immediately to Godafoss. Again, pretty crowded, probably due to the Costa ship being there. But definitely a highlight. We drove up to Husavik and ate outdoors at a café we had picked out before hand. Right after we got there, a big bus from NCL showed up, and it turns out it was the same place the excursion used – we couldn’t escape! Still, the restaurant did a nice job of accommodating everyone and the weather was great. Our plan was to drive around the 85 and go to Asbyrgi, but we decided to cut the day short. We just drove north around to the Tjornes point from Husavik, and then drove back and spent some time in downtown Akuryeri before returning the car.

 

Orkney – We opted to simply hire out a cab for a few hours here and just hit the highlights. It was no frills – our driver was knowledgeable but wasn’t exactly a tour guide; he just brought us where we wanted to go. It was nice having some local knowledge, and he knew where to park to get us close, but this wasn’t like our guided tour at Lerwick. We saw skara brae, the standing stones, the Italian chapel and the world war 2 barriers. I got dropped off in town while the rest of my crew went back to the pier. I walked around for an hour or so and too thefree shuttle back to pier – not much to see, but pleasant. It looks like next year’s NCL Iceland cruise ships Orkney and goes to the Faroes instead.

 

Invergordon – this stop should be longer. It’s 40 minutes to an hour in and out of Invernesss, and the distances on the last 3 stops are so short. We were doing about 10 knots from Orkney in the night, and could have easily made it earlier and left later and still made it to Edinburgh in time. We took the 25x bus into and out of town – we spent an hour or so walking around town and took he Jacobite two-hour contemplation boat cruise on loch ness from Dochgarroch. The hop on hop off bus is supposed to be timed to get your to Dochgarroch in conjunction with the cruise,but it was delayed and we needed to take a cab (about 15 pounds) back to Inverness after the cruise to make the 2:50 25x bus. The Jacobite cruise was fantastic – singing tourguide, nice café with snacks. Really great. Inverness was also beautiful to walk around.

 

 

Newhaven/Edinburgh – Edinburgh is great. Newhaven – excuse the language – sucks. It’s a terrible tender and very inconvenient. We waited out the first several rounds of tenders, and then just took a cab from Newhaven to the top of the Royal Mile, took some pictures in front of the castle, walked back down taking our time, and cabbed back from the palace at the bottom of the mile. Basically, just a two or three hour superficial fly through Edinburgh, but docking in Newhaven doesn’t give you too many options.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Regguy

[Regguy]

A few words about the ship and the clientele – I’d say Germans outnumbered everyone else on board significantly. USA probably second. It was a nice mix. 14 days is a long time, and while I actually like the international makeup, I guess queueing isn’t really a German thing. It got a bit trying at times, but not a huge deal. We were on Jade last year, and the dry dock changes were excellent. Everything looked really nice, and the crew were good. The food is worse. Maybe part of that is that when you’re therefor 14 days, it’s hard not to understand the complicated leftover balance they must walk. We ate at Cucina a lot, even paying the a la carte fee, which isn’t bad.

 

A few logistical notes. It seemed like everyone showed up at the Hamburg terminal when we did –around 1:00. Luggage drop and check in times were pretty significant. We tookthe ferry from downtown Hamburg, which was a bit of a chore with luggage, but worth it to see the ship up close from the water! We got the unlimited internet package. Go in with low expectations, and you won’t be disappointed. We also used a travel router, to use multiple devices in the cabin, which worked maybe 40 to 50 percent of the time. $350 for the two weeks, which was expensive, but for 14 days away a bit of requirement for me.

 

The four U.K. stops were all a hassle in their own way. In Lerwick, you need to go through U.K.immigration formalities before tendering, which is basically just a long line culminating in a very nice U.K. immigration officer looking at your passport. (Separate lines for EU/UK and non-EU.) The lines were chaotic with Jade staff giving inconsistent instructions and not knowing what to do with the excursion people, but it all worked out eventually. Need patience. The transportation options in Invergordon were not great. There is a public bus,but the times aren’t great, and once the bus fills, they take off and you have to wait an hour for the next one or take a cab. There is an 8:17 if you get off the ship quickly, but there were two ships in port for us. Coming back, it was stressful – the last bus to make all aboard was at 2:50, and there were more inline than could fit on the bus. They eventually added a second bus, but with zero communication about it. Orkney, there is a shuttle bus to and from town (which isn’t much of a town), but the line was very long for the bus. It looked like people were waiting an hour. There was a taxi line, but no taxis – except prearranged. Newhaven was awful. I don’t know whether NCL went cheap here on port fees or what, but it was a 35 minute tender, and the dock at Newhaven can only accommodate one tender at a time in the mini-harbor. So, they would send out six tenders and then people just had to wait around for an hour until they started coming back, and then they filled up and went out again. We got there early – around 7:30 – but the tendering was very tedious, and I thinkthey didn’t really honor tender tickets. If you are gold or above, you can’t just flash your key like for most priority tendering. Instead, for the first 2 hours, you have to go to some lounge and be escorted, and once the tenders left it was an hour before they were back. We just waited it out and then jumped on a tender around 11:00. Once you got to Newhaven, there’s nothing there you could take a cab – about 15 pounds. NCL has an excursion – Edinburgh on your own –that gives you transportation into and out of the city center for 5 hours forabout $40 per person. For a couple this is a good deal – you get a priority tender spot and transport. It was sold out quickly, so book inadvance. For four of us, who could share cabs for about 35 pounds total, it didn’t make sense.

 

There were other bumps along the way as one might expect fora ship that hasn’t been to some of these places before. For example, in Reykjavik, it was a bit of a clown show getting the gangplank out – the ship was too heavy to use the deck four gangway, so had to rig something up on deck 5, cutting off one of the hallways to passenger cabins and putting a metal detector in the middle of the lobby. A long line gathered while they tried to make the gangway safe. I watched the Holland ship do it the next day as we were getting ready – they made it look so easy – they dumped a ton of seawater ballast, and the ship must have risen 10 feet to make the gangway work. It took about four minutes from when they docked to when people started getting off. (We were hustling to beat the crowds to blue lagoon, so I was watching while everyone else was getting ready,hoping they would take longer!)

 

That’s all I got.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Regguy

[Zeno]

Thx for the info

Do you think It's possible to be off the ship in Lerwick Half an hour after the posted arrival time?

[All-ready2cruise]

Regguy, thanks so much for the great information for Lerwick and Reykjavik since our Transatlantic on the Jade Sept 2018 will be stopping at both of these ports. I'm sure your information will be very much appreciated by those on the RC.

 

 

Thanks again,

Connie

[Regguy]

Thx for the info

Do you think It's possible to be off the ship in Lerwick Half an hour after the posted arrival time?

 

Possible, yes, but I don't think it's something you can count on. There are two limitations -- first you need to clear immigration if Lerwick is the first U.K. stop on your cruise, and there is a line for that, and second, you need to make one of the first couple of tenders. The tender journey is short, but you'd need to be on one of the first few tenders, and I think certain excursions get priority.

 

We got incredibly lucky. The instructions in the freestyle daily said to go to your designated immigration place and then wait in Bliss lounge for the call to the tenders. We got called to the immigration queue at around 7:30 and it probably took 15 minutes. While we were waiting to have our passports checked, the captain came on and said people could proceed to their designated immigration station and then "proceed to the gangway." But it was like nobody heard him. After we had our passports checked, there were people mulling about in the hallways, and presumably at Bliss, and I thought, "but the Captain said we could go to the gangway," so I decided to just go down to 4 to check it out. There was nobody there. But the security guy waived us to give our cards and board the tender. We sat on the tender for like 30 minutes and nobody else showed up, and then like 10 more people came on board and we just left. It was the first tender and it was half full, because people were waiting for a second announcement.

 

Even with that luck, we were probably off the tender around 8:15 or so, and that was only because we were early arriving. Once the ship gets to Lerwick, the immigration officers actually have to be brought in a tender to the ship (we watched it happen from our balcony). It's about 200 nautical miles from Bergen and the Bergen port stop ended around 7:00 p.m. and it's slow going leaving Bergen because there are some islands and narrow channels, so I don't think getting there early is guaranteed.

[littlelulu01]

Thanks so much for posting this! We have booked a rental car for most of the ports as well. We're sailing two week Southampton in September.

 

I appreciate the details very much.

[Regguy]

Regguy, thanks so much for the great information for Lerwick and Reykjavik since our Transatlantic on the Jade Sept 2018 will be stopping at both of these ports. I'm sure your information will be very much appreciated by those on the RC.

 

 

Thanks again,

Connie

 

Thanks so much for posting this! We have booked a rental car for most of the ports as well. We're sailing two week Southampton in September.

 

I appreciate the details very much.

 

Jealous. Have fun -- coming back from vacation is tough.

[All-ready2cruise]

Jealous. Have fun -- coming back from vacation is tough.

 

 

Very true, it is difficult, which is why I almost always found something of interest within a month or 2 to book for next time..

 

The TA on the Jade sounds like a great cruise... come join us... you know you wanna... ;p :halo: :evilsmile: LOL

 

If not, thanks for the great info.

[Zeno]

Thanks for the reply - it gives me a clearer idea of what to expect.

[Granny DI]

A few words about the ship and the clientele – I’d say Germans outnumbered everyone else on board significantly. USA probably second. It was a nice mix. 14 days is a long time, and while I actually like the international makeup, I guess queueing isn’t really a German thing. It got a bit trying at times, but not a huge deal. We were on Jade last year, and the dry dock changes were excellent. Everything looked really nice, and the crew were good. The food is worse. Maybe part of that is that when you’re therefor 14 days, it’s hard not to understand the complicated leftover balance they must walk. We ate at Cucina a lot, even paying the a la carte fee, which isn’t bad.

 

A few logistical notes. It seemed like everyone showed up at the Hamburg terminal when we did –around 1:00. Luggage drop and check in times were pretty significant. We tookthe ferry from downtown Hamburg, which was a bit of a chore with luggage, but worth it to see the ship up close from the water! We got the unlimited internet package. Go in with low expectations, and you won’t be disappointed. We also used a travel router, to use multiple devices in the cabin, which worked maybe 40 to 50 percent of the time. $350 for the two weeks, which was expensive, but for 14 days away a bit of requirement for me.

 

The four U.K. stops were all a hassle in their own way. In Lerwick, you need to go through U.K.immigration formalities before tendering, which is basically just a long line culminating in a very nice U.K. immigration officer looking at your passport. (Separate lines for EU/UK and non-EU.) The lines were chaotic with Jade staff giving inconsistent instructions and not knowing what to do with the excursion people, but it all worked out eventually. Need patience. The transportation options in Invergordon were not great. There is a public bus,but the times aren’t great, and once the bus fills, they take off and you have to wait an hour for the next one or take a cab. There is an 8:17 if you get off the ship quickly, but there were two ships in port for us. Coming back, it was stressful – the last bus to make all aboard was at 2:50, and there were more inline than could fit on the bus. They eventually added a second bus, but with zero communication about it. Orkney, there is a shuttle bus to and from town (which isn’t much of a town), but the line was very long for the bus. It looked like people were waiting an hour. There was a taxi line, but no taxis – except prearranged. Newhaven was awful. I don’t know whether NCL went cheap here on port fees or what, but it was a 35 minute tender, and the dock at Newhaven can only accommodate one tender at a time in the mini-harbor. So, they would send out six tenders and then people just had to wait around for an hour until they started coming back, and then they filled up and went out again. We got there early – around 7:30 – but the tendering was very tedious, and I thinkthey didn’t really honor tender tickets. If you are gold or above, you can’t just flash your key like for most priority tendering. Instead, for the first 2 hours, you have to go to some lounge and be escorted, and once the tenders left it was an hour before they were back. We just waited it out and then jumped on a tender around 11:00. Once you got to Newhaven, there’s nothing there you could take a cab – about 15 pounds. NCL has an excursion – Edinburgh on your own –that gives you transportation into and out of the city center for 5 hours forabout $40 per person. For a couple this is a good deal – you get a priority tender spot and transport. It was sold out quickly, so book inadvance. For four of us, who could share cabs for about 35 pounds total, it didn’t make sense.

 

There were other bumps along the way as one might expect fora ship that hasn’t been to some of these places before. For example, in Reykjavik, it was a bit of a clown show getting the gangplank out – the ship was too heavy to use the deck four gangway, so had to rig something up on deck 5, cutting off one of the hallways to passenger cabins and putting a metal detector in the middle of the lobby. A long line gathered while they tried to make the gangway safe. I watched the Holland ship do it the next day as we were getting ready – they made it look so easy – they dumped a ton of seawater ballast, and the ship must have risen 10 feet to make the gangway work. It took about four minutes from when they docked to when people started getting off. (We were hustling to beat the crowds to blue lagoon, so I was watching while everyone else was getting ready,hoping they would take longer!)

 

That’s all I got.

 

 

We were on the same cruise. I have to agree with you on most things. New Haven needs to be ditched! I have never experienced anything like it. We were in the line for the return tender at 4:30 when the skies opened up. No shelter and the line went for blocks.