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P&O Fjords cruise
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Getting up early (i.e 4-5am early), grabbing a coffee and being on deck, at the front if possible, for the sail in is well worth doing.
You can claim tax back, it can now be done via an app (it was receipts and cash refund paid on board from a Norwegian Customs officer when we did it many years ago!). Shop owners will help if you spend enough, not difficult to spend loads in Norway - its expensive!1 -
The long daylight hours is one of the wonderful things about Scandinavia in the summer!
OP - don't expect Norway to be cheap. Many of the ports can be explored on foot, but I would recommend booking excursions independently - take a look at Cruise Critic for tips. And look out for a choppy North Sea crossing, I made the mistake of going on a small vessel did not enjoy this aspect of the voyage. But you should be ok on P&O.
No man is worth crawling on this earth.
So much to read, so little time.1 -
Does the ship have a kids club suitable for a 3 year old ?
Some lines cater for young children much better than others.
I don't wish to sound negative but I would be hesitant about taking such a young child on a cruise - just my mindset.
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All down to the child, but we did our first cruise with our daughter when she was just over 3. She saw a kids club as her usual day when at home was in nursery. We didn't want the same for her whilst away as the holiday was for all of us to spend time together, not pack her off to be looked after.
We did quite a few cruises when she was in school as we found them to be the one holiday where school holiday pricing silliness could be avoided by choosing the right ship and destinations.1 -
Stavanger and Haugesand are bigger, so I'd suggest you develop some ideas for good and bad weather. Do check out the local buses (Googlemaps, look for the bus stop icon near where you want to go and click on it to find the timetables). If the weather is good, go to the farthest place as soon as you disembark and come back well in time to do the stuff close to the ship. So Stavanger, perhaps the Iron Age Village and Botanical Garden by bus (half hourly) back to the museums and Gamle Stavanger. At Haugesund, the Viking village is also accessible by half hourly buses. It also means that if people want to return to the ship early, they can do so independently.
Flam and Olden are much smaller and 5K folk arriving will be almost overwhelming. Flam is essentially a rail head and ferry connection with supporting tourist structure. At both I'd book excursions. Olden I'd trust the local company for Loen.
I did "Norway in a Nutshell" independently, adding Sognfjord, over several days. Transport was very well connected but timetabling can be challenging.
The trip daveyjp suggest is about 6 hours and combines coach, train to Myrdal and then down the Flam railway.
If I had to rely on getting back to a cruise ship I'd definitely use a tour provider, possibly even the cruise provider. And if I had a choice, I'd do the Flam railway down from Myrdal, not up from Flam. It's not as scenic as you might expect but doing loops inside mountains is interesting. But there are other good trips bookable through local providers.
If you've time at Flam, there's a bit of a park near the ship and at the other end of the town a small farm/farm shop with animals, so somewhere low key to let off steam.
It's possibly worth exploring at least one person getting an e-Sim. Then you can book local activities and tickets on-line when it's clearer what the weather is like, no point going to the Stegastein in the fog. And not be fighting on the quayside or missing out altogether.
If you're a large group, at least one e-Sim in each family could make arrangements much less fraught.
If you've have not made a mistake, you've made nothing1 -
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There is a kid's club - I'll have to look into what it exactly offers though. He should be okay on the ship - not sure how child friendly some of the excursions are but he loves the outdoors - farms - so I'm hoping there will something that interests him!
I understand about being reluctant - it's a family holiday for my mum's 70th so we didn't really have much say on the matter!
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These are excellent tips - thanks! I think I need to look at a map of each place to see where everything is located from the ports. Also, didn't think of an e-sim!
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Norway is an expensive gig - alcohol on our cruiseship was noticeably cheaper than supermarket booze prices.
One interesting aspect - local officials were onboard when passengers returned from trips to offer refund of tax on goods purchased ashore, upon receipt of sales receipts which the shops readily advertised and produced on request.
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Stavanger is definitely worth a walk around, and the Oil Museum as mentioned is interesting for both adults and children - there are plenty of interactive exhibits.
It's worth noting that some of the communities visited can be quite small, so a cruise ship the size of Iona may book up all available tour operators making it difficult to arrange travel independently. If there's any 'must do' excursion, I'd suggest paying a bit extra to book the ship excursion.
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