Possible tender

[JudyC]

Our Norway and the Fjjords cruise has a possible tender for the port of Flaam. Does it mean it'll take us a lot longer, or does it all work pretty smoothly. I wanted to book the Flam railway independently rather than as an excursion, so don't know what time would be best now.

[Omega1]

That's a tough question because no two tender operations are the same - it all depends on the conditions on the day. Last month we did a tender that we walked straight on to and it was a 10 min ride to the jetty. Other times, when it was a bit choppy, we've had to wait well over an hour to even to get on a tender. When we did the Flaam train independently, we were docked from 8am -6pm but still decided to book an early afternoon train (13.35). This gave us time to wander around the town before the train ride. Could you do something similar then it's not as critical if you have a delay with the tender?

[BevS97]

Flaam is tiny. We were docked right on the dock so walked straight off. But even with a tender you don’t have far to walk once you are off.

We were late to dock in one port so I wouldn’t book the earliest time anyway.

We booked for 9:45 which worked well for us.

[Melanie R]

You won’t have any issues with it being choppy in the fjord, and in 4 visits to Flam, we’ve never tendered even though they all stated possible tender.
In the event you do need to, bear in mind they do give priority to people booked on their excursions, so give yourself plenty of time to get off the ship before the train.
I would never pay excursion prices for the train - they are usually double the actual cost!

[BevS97]

We had to go to the excursion desk after our visit to Flam and there was a queue of people complaining that they had over paid and had nothing to show for it above what we’d had (booking direct). In fact we got to board first and had seats and those on the ships excursion boarded after and many had no seats.

[JudyC]

I'm hoping it won't end up with a tender, but will book an early afternoon train just in case.

[katiec68]

What time of year are you going?

We went in early Sept and just booked when we got off the ship - we were on the 1030 train - or something similar.

You can also check how many ships are in port in any one day on various webites. ITs not always accurate but on our recent trip it worked well for us!

If you are going with P&O the classical sailaway is a must - DH thought it would be rubbish and we were both nearly in tears

[JudyC]

We are sailing with P&O on 8th June. Can you direct me to a website which shows how many ships in the port on 11th June? It says we arrive early morning and leave afternoon, so not sure what time departure would be.

[Omega1]

Originally Posted by JudyC

We are sailing with P&O on 8th June. Can you direct me to a website which shows how many ships in the port on 11th June? It says we arrive early morning and leave afternoon, so not sure what time departure would be.

See more...

Brittania is the only ship in port 08.00-17.45
aurlandhavn.no/cruise-2/ship-arrivals-2019/

[JudyC]

Originally Posted by Omega1

Brittania is the only ship in port 08.00-17.45
aurlandhavn.no/cruise-2/ship-arrivals-2019/

See more...

That's really useful thanks . I wonder why our schedule says possible tender 😕