Norwegian Fjords Disney Cruise Line Report — Day 4
Day 4 of our Disney Cruise Line voyage through the Norwegian fjords had us stopping in Ã…lesund. We’ll do this the same way as our Day 3 report about Stavanger, with generalized Norway cruise planning info for Ã…lesund first, followed by anecdotes about our Port Adventure and experience.
Prior to the trip, Ã…lesund was the port that excited me the most. It also is the port that gave me the most stress while planning, as there were a few things I wanted to do. For the sake of others planning, I’ll go over some of the leading contenders here, including things we did not end up doing.
Actually, the main thing we wanted to do in Ã…lesund was simply explore the city. This city has a fascinating history…thanks to the entire town burning down in January 1904. The stated cause is supposedly a cow kicking over a torch–between this cow and Mrs. O’Leary’s, cows are quite the pyromaniacs.
Following the fire, German Kaiser Wilhelm II sent emergency assistance, and dozens of out-of-work architects descended upon the city. Art Nouveau was the international flavor of the time, and the vast majority of the city was rebuilt in a Norwegian flavor of Art Nouveau. Ã…lesund now stands as something of a case study in the style, with it dominating much of the city-center.
Aside from just wandering around taking in this unique city (and also visiting the Art Nouveau Centre (Jugendstilsenteret) to learn more about it), we had a few goals for this port. First, Sunnmøre Museum. This is an open air museum with 55 old houses allowing visitors to step back in time as it showcases bygone culture and building styles. Oh, and it also has viking ships.
My desire to visit Sunnmøre Museum was motivated mostly by the potential photo ops, but it sounded like the substance would be worthwhile, too. One thing to note is that Sunnmøre Museum is where Disney Cruise Line’s pricey Frozen meet & greet excursion takes place, causing the entire place to close to guests who are not participating in that.
Second, Aksla Viewpoint. Also going by the name Fjellstua Viewpoint, this is the #1 thing to do in Ã…lesund per TripAdvisor reviews. It’s easy to see why, as the photos I had seen from this location were stunning…and it’s free!
To accomplish the first and second items, we debated purchasing a City SightSeeing Hop-on Hop-off bus ticket. This company operates in most (all?) of the port cities, and we never ended up using them. We were dissuaded by some tepid reviews complaining of too few buses, but ultimately we learned that these are all very walkable cities. I’m glad we didn’t buy tickets for this bus, but your mileage may vary on that.
Third, the Majestic Island of Glorious Puffins. Officially known as Runde Island, I had read about the experience of taking a RIB Wildlife Sea Safari out to see these little birds. Doing a RIB (rugged inflatable boat) tour was on our list of things to do in Norway, but this ultimately did not make the cut for Ã…lesund due to a combination of cost (over $100), time, and alternatives.
Finally, the Path of Trolls or Trollstigen. This is basically a winding mountain drive with numerous hairpin turns that takes visitors through the Trolltindene mountain range and through Reinheimen National Park.
A ‘mountain drive’ might not sound particularly appealing, but there’s a good chance you’ve unknowingly seen photos of this–it’s breathtaking.
I had seen such photos, and as soon as I realized what Path of Trolls was, it became my #1 choice for Ã…lesund. Unfortunately, it’s not actually in Ã…lesund, and doing it would basically consume our entire day. That was not the only problem, either.
One of the downsides to booking last minute is that everyone else booking excursions can beat you to the punch. On our Caribbean cruises, this has never been an issue, primarily because I don’t really care about the Caribbean. Here, it was an issue.
First, I tried to rent a car in Ã…lesund so we could do the Path of Trolls ourselves. Not only would it be cheaper, but we could do it more efficiently and not have to wait for a group. Unfortunately, the Avis rental car agency in Ã…lesund was sold out by the time we booked the cruise. (To my knowledge, every other rental car place in Ã…lesund was actually at the airport, and not accessible from the port.)
Then, I looked to third party tour operators. Nothing. Finally, we considered a Disney Cruise Line Port Adventure. There were two options for this, one without lunch and one with lunch. The cheaper without lunch version was fully booked by the time we booked the cruise.
Even though this was the thing I wanted to do most in Ã…lesund, we went back and forth on booking this expensive ($165 each) excursion for weeks, until finally booking it 3 days before the cruise. Even though we were trying to do this cruise on a tight budget, we figured we’d really regret not experiencing this.
We’re both incredibly glad that we did the Path of Trolls. The tour was pretty efficient and our guide was knowledgeable and had a subtly wry sense of humor that was engaging. While I was concerned that the tour would be bogged down by a late start (potentially?) and an overly long lunch, it was actually a fairly tight experience.
If you have the option, I’d recommend booking the Path of Trolls Port Adventure via Disney Cruise Line rather than renting a car and driving yourself, unless you’re really comfortable behind the wheel and/or have a family and want to avoid paying ~$165 x4.
I’d avoid the version with lunch, but if you have no option, having lunch provided is not the end of the world. The buffet was surprisingly good, and–so long as you like salmon–you get decent value by Norwegian standards. We’ll cover the why behind both of these recommendations in our anecdotal report of the experience that follows…
After a quick meeting in the Buena Vista Theater, we were led out to the buses (before any other guests had gotten off the ship, I believe) and the bus left promptly.
This made me quite happy, as I had read a couple of reports about this Port Adventure getting off to a slow start. I was hopeful with our quick start that we’d have an hour or two to explore Alesund at the end of the day.
The drive began with a stop at Stordal Church, which gave us time to explore on our own for 15-minutes. This church was beautiful, with a tapestry of fresco paintings covering the interior. It may be an odd way to describe it, but this art felt almost like a tattoo sleeve.
Here are some photos from Stordal Church:
Our bus was the first to arrive at this small church (there were several buses), and we immediately raced off the bus to be the first inside the church once we stopped.
The downside of traveling in a large tour group is that you’re part of the kind of tour group that drives other travelers mad and overcrowds sites. 😉
At every stop along the Path of Trolls, we were the first off the bus and among the last back on it. Almost everyone was back aboard the bus well before the stated “end” time. I couldn’t quite understand this.
Getting off of the bus and racing into the church gave us a few minutes of it empty without others inside, and I was able to snap a few photos before it became chaotic. Quite clearly, this intimate space was not built to accommodate a few packed buses.
We always got back on with 1-2 minutes to spare, wanting to enjoy every last moment of the Norwegian mountains. I wouldn’t be surprised if us habitually being the last people back on the bus irritated others on our tour, but I didn’t do the Port “Adventure” to spend all day engaged in the perilous activity of gazing at Norway’s nature pass through a bus window. In any case, we never held up the bus.
The next stop was somewhere in Valldal valley along the waterfront, which was basically a stop for some photos, and a chance to get refreshments at a nearby cafe.
We noticed a grocery store across the street, so we went there to get snacks instead of the cafe. (No, that’s not a knock-off Surge…it is Surge, but without the S. I wonder if “surge” means something obscene in Norwegian.)
Following that, we headed to Gudbrandsjuvet. This is a narrow gorge through which the Valldøla River runs. Over this area, a beautiful boardwalk and observation platforms have been built.
The chaotic flow of the water here has created some really beautiful formations in the rocks, and the way the boardwalk is built above the river and waterfalls immerses you in the experience and is really great.
We would’ve never even known this place existed if we did this “tour” on our own with a rental car, and it ended up being one of my favorite stops along the way. The stops we had made up until this point made me really pleased that we did the Path of Trolls Port Adventure. Already, I was satisfied with the experience.
Gudbrandsjuvet is almost something of a base for the drive up to the Path of Trolls. Almost as soon as we had left this lovely little area, we began our ascent, entering Reinheimen National Park.
All of what we experienced up until this point was merely an opening act. Things had gotten progressively better as we passed through Reinheimen National Park, with some beautiful peaks that rivaled some of the best in the United States. However, I don’t think we were prepared for the jaw-dropping grandeur of the view from the top, nor did we comprehend what the Trollstigen had in store for us. On Page 2, we’ll cover driving through the Path of Trolls and returning to Ã…lesund…
Not sure what you decided on your Alaskan cruise, but tomorrow morning we are boarding the Disney Wonder for the second time in 11 months heading to Alaska. If you would have asked me a year ago I would never have thought we would be here, but after our DCL cruise in July 2016 we had such a great time and felt like there was so much more to see that we booked again after we got home! And this is 12 years after doing a cruise to Alaska on another line (before our kids were born) where my husband swore he would never go back. A bad ship and cruiseline could really ruin the trip. Clearly that isn’t the case with DCL, and we are so excited to be going back!
Another vote for the Alaskan Cruise, at least at some point down the line. We went in 2007 for my Grandparents’ 50th Wedding Anniversary on the Sapphire Princess. I had no expectations going in but it was really spectacular and all of our shore excursions were great (Skagway in particular had many more options that sounded appealing than we had time for).
There was a fair amount of the cruise itinierary that would be difficult or impossible to see by car. We spent a day sailing through Glacier National Park, another day through a different park, and Juneau (admittedly not the most exciting port) is completely inaccessible by road. I have no idea if you can get to the other places by car or even how you would.
Finally, the glaciers are stunning and they are rapidly melting. The famous glacier that everyone goes to see, the Mendenhall Glacier (?), was spectacular but had already deteriorated quite a bit compared to the older photos they showed us. I’d definitely recommend an Alaskan cruise, and sooner rather than later.
I hope you pulled the trigger on the Alaska cruise! I know your hold lasted through the 20th so here’s hoping you did! After doing a Caribbean cruise I had sworn off any other “American” cruises and then we did Alaska and it was so beautiful I forgot about my surroundings on the actual ship. We did have a balcony but I know your travel style and it’s not worth paying almost double for a balcony. (you can just do another cruise with that money, lol)
We did the almost same itinerary and if we went back I would not even get off the ship in Juneau (too touristy and dirty).
Skagway has this really cool train ride where you can hang off the back of the car and get great pictures- you would love it.
And then Ketchikan was the sleeper city for us- we were not expecting much from it but it is so quaint we have considered going back there to just hang out. And you will faint when you see the prices for the float plane tour with the bears there but you HAVE to do it. It’s one of my life highlights- you will get within 10 feet sometimes closer to these sleepy bears that are used to seeing tourists all summer long. They are all fat and happy eating the returning salmon so they have no desire to eat us humans.
And in other “news” I just googled “Disney Cruise Line” and this post popped up in the Google news section- that keyword gets 90,500 searches a month so hopefully you get a ton of extra traffic for this post! 🙂
Tom and Sarah,
We took the Disney Wonder to Alaska in the inaugural year, 2011. It was amazing, and still our favorite Disney Cruise to date. You will love it!
We are doing the Disney Alaskan cruise on the Wonder in 3 weeks! We are tying it in with an overnight in Seattle, train to Vancouver, and then 3 nights in Vancouver after the cruise. We are so excited!
I would highly recommend the Alaska cruise. I have not been fortunate enough to cruise Alaska with Disney but the Dawn Princess (Princess Cruise Lines) did a great job. Our first trip to Alaska consisted of car rentals, trains, and ferrys. That was spectacular, however, we realized how much we were missing. So much of Alaska can only be seen by water whether it is a smaller yacht cruise or big ship. So we took another trip to Alaska to experience the fjords and towns of Ketchikan, Sitka, Skagway, Juneau, Haines. A nice combination would be allowing time for land exploration on your own either before or post cruise. Denali National Park is a must! It is pretty easy to get there on the train out of Anchorage & a bus picks you up at Denail and delivers you to the resort in the park. The park runs buses for tourist, cars are prohibited otherwise. There is one exception on the vehicle rule, there is a lottery once a year, if chosen you may drive your own vehicle into the park. I really hope that you make this trip, it is awesome and you will see TONS of puffins. The wildlife viewing was very good.
Thanks so much for your informative review. The photos are great and your commentary is interesting and fun to read.
Beautiful pictures and I’m now adding this to my bucket list of places to visit! I’m sure you’ve said this before but what type of camera do you use for these?
This is such a great trip to read about. I will say, we did Norway a few years ago land based (Bergen, Oslo, and Halden, plus a little of Sweden) and I think this is such a different experience, I would consider doing this also some day! It seems such a small country wouldn’t warrant multiple trips, but alas it does! On our trip, we did see the midnight sun but didn’t go far into the north, which I thought we’d like to return and do someday, now I have even more–the Troll drive was gorgeous! One thing I most highly recommend from our “land” trip is the Flam cog railway–also BEAUTIFUL views!
If you are referring to the possibility of pregnancy and children, then definitely go ahead and do the Alaskan cruise. It will be a much different experience with kids and your ability to do adventures at ports will be more challenging with the stroller or toddler-carrying backpack.
We’ve had to cancel two cruises due to falling pregnant and then trying to travel with an 18 month old (plus the exchange rate tanked due to Brexit which was the final straw!). New plans are a 7 night Med cruise where we don’t get off the ship or if we do it’s a short walk around then back on board, but now we want to wait until he’s potty trained and over 3 years so he can go into the clubs!
We are on the second to last cruise on DCL this year. We can’t wait, its only our second cruise ever, so we have lots of expectations for this one.
I LOVE cruising Alaska. I’m platinum with DCL and have done 2 cruises there, but this last one went with Princess because the price was much better and the itinerary included Sitka and Glacier Bay. I found Princess to be DCL’s equal in service, better in food, and not as good in stage entertainment (but had really good live music throughout the ship). The nice thing is the ports are very easy to do on your own.
I have always cruised in May and while each cruise had very different weather (one freezing the whole time, one almost warm and one had a nice mix of cool/cold days), the experiences were all good. You won’t get the salmon, but you will get lots of gorgeous waterfalls while the snow melts.
Cruising is the best way to do Alaska! Though I am deeply devoted to Disney, I have done two cruises to Alaska with Holland America (the most recent being my much-delayed honeymoon this past fall), and have thoroughly enjoyed them. My parents have cruised Alaska with both Holland America and Princess, and have nothing but good things to report! I think the Disney Difference lies mostly in the quality of the entertainment, and the magical touches. But if you want to spend more time in ports and focus on the beauty of Alaska, I think you’d be safe with another cruise line. My husband and I cruised for a week in Alaska with a Veranda for less than $2500 total on a last-minute cruising deal. Regardless, you can’t go wrong with cruising throughout Alaska! Be sure to pick an itinerary through Glacier Bay for the BEST views (that you can’t get if you do Alaska by land).
I’ll vote for not taking the cruise. I’ve been on a couple Disney cruises and a couple of non-Disney Alaskan cruises. The Disney cruises were great, but so were the non-Disney Alaskan cruises. We spent so little time on the ship in Alaska that I would have felt that I was missing out on something we paid for (we have a 5 year old, so staying up until midnight and late dinner seatings are non-starters). We loved the Glacier Bay experience on our non-Disney cruise. But if/when we go back to Alaska, we will be looking at a land-based trip (or a cruise/tour). It sounds like you had an outstanding trip to Norway. Savor that, and save Alaska for another day.
We couldn’t afford Disney prices for the Alaskan cruise, and did Princess. It was a wonderful experience. We went the last cruise of the year (sept 5) and had gorgeous weather, and did a balcony for less than half of what we would have paid in June/July (interior). I would 100% do it again. We went out of Vancouver, spent 3 days in that beautiful city and then flew back out of Anchorage. We unfortunately had to get back to our kids and missed Denali (except from afar) so maybe that is back on the menu some day! Disney is disney, we had to lower our expectations and skip the stage shows, but the food, the staff and the itineraries (especially the naturalist on board during the Glacier park days) were certainly on par with Disney.
We did NCL to Alaska because we couldn’t afford Disney to Alaska either. The naturalist for Glacier Bay was excellent on NCL also (though if I were to go again, I’d probably go Princess). Glacier Bay is not to be missed before it melts.
I have done Alaskan cruise both on Disney Wonder (with kids) & on Celebrity (without kids). Disney by far was better for so many reasons except for price. As with everything, Disney does it better. I would book it.
We were on this same Norwegian cruise with our four kids (11, 7, 6 and 3) and did the Viking Village Experience & Giske Church outside of Alesund. At first, I questioned our choice, but by the end had determined it was a great pick. I believe this excursion was our kids’ favorite. That said, as to your Alaskan cruise debate, I say go for it. We did the cruise on the Wonder in 2015. While we had a blast a couple of weeks ago in Norway, I think the Alaskan cruise was even better. I also second the suggestion for getting a veranda. It’s a must if you really want to take it all in.
A verandah would be nice, but that’s (at least) $2,500 over the cost of an inside stateroom, so it’s a non-starter for us. We cannot justify spending that much more money, particularly when we barely spent any time in our room during this cruise. I’m sure we would have spent more time in the room if we had a verandah, but the deck is essentially a “free” verandah. I definitely understand the appeal for many people, but I’d personally rather put that ~$2,500 to a different use.
I hear you. $2,500 is a large chunk of change. Our cruise was booked well in advance, so I’m not sure how much of a “premium” we ended up paying on the verandah; however, with four kids in tow and an inability to get up to the decks on a moments notice, it was a life saver for us. All that said, keep up the great work on the blog. I’m very interested in your next piece on Geiranger…I’m still pretty upset about us missing that one and Disney’s excuse for it…
Tom,
My husband and I are roughly you and Sarah’s age and we were married on a ship in Alaska in 2013 and it is without a doubt our favorite trip we’ve taken to date. We went the last week of August and paid roughly $2700 for a balcony round trip out of Seattle on a Princess ship. I would definitely recommend a balcony if you can budget for it, as this is one cruise that you will not regret having it. We had fantastic weather that year in late August, with it being fairly warm in Juno and Skagway. Your Norway recaps have me missing Alaska and I’ve always wanted to visit Norway (pre Frozen). Sounds like something we’ll have to do soon! As for the price, Alaska always seems a little on the steep side. I guess it is up to you guys if you feel the extra cash is worth it for the Disney value and experience. Either way, you really must do Alaska at some point! I think you would love it.
We can justify the price, the difficult (at least in part) is justifying spending more when we know we could have (or could have had) a better deal in the past. I guess that’s something we just need to “get over” because our schedule more or less dictates paying more to do it now, or waiting.
My two cents is to let the Alaska cruise slip away and choose another line that does a one way, not the round trip circuit. Most likely it will drop you off in Seward and take the train tour. It will be one of those things if you don’t do it you will regret it. Also if you go in late summer it will be the rainy season in Alaska. So make sure you have your rain coat.
I know this is a Disney Blog but really consider taking another cruise line for this trip.
For now, the Alaska cruise with Disney is all that’s on the table. Not only because this is a Disney blog, but because we’re very satisfied with the DCL experience.
Separately, a “someday” trip for me is spending a while in Alaska, visiting all of its National Parks. That’s definitely much farther down the road, and obviously would be a non-Disney thing.
Loving the sounds of this trip, just been looking at dates/prices for it in 2018- so next I’m off to hunt out blogs on getting cheapest deals for DCL! Or price up other non-Disney ways . Stunning scenery, and some fascinating culture. Congratulations on the ‘next phase’ 🙂
Beautiful pictures, and a great read!
If you have any questions about julenissen, your Norwegian audience will be happy to answer as best we can, Tom 🙂
What significance does Julenissen have in modern Norwegian culture?
Disclaimer: I have not seen the ‘Sigrid and Julenissen’ storytelling in person (I had to google it right now).
In Norway, there is a difference between ‘nisser’ and ‘julenissen’. Julenissen is the main guy during Christmas, he is our Santa Claus. He ‘brings our gifts’ on Christmas Eve, wears red, is older and kind. Then we also have an older ‘nisse culture’ in Norwegian folklore, which predates ‘julenissen’. When I think of ‘nisser’ (plural of a nisse, because there are many of them), I mostly think of fjøsnisser (nisser that lives in barns on farms). They look something like garden gnomes perhaps, but they are not gnomes. They can do mischief if they are not treated well, but also help around the farm if they are. When I was a child, we would put out porridge for the ‘fjøsnisser’ in the old farm house near our house (I didn’t live on the farm) for Christmas.
It’s a bit hard to explain properly perhaps, but there are basically two kinds of ‘nisse’ in Norwegian culture today – the julenisse (Santa Claus) who brings gifts for children on Christmas Eve, and just other ‘nisser’. They are both part of the Christmas celebration, there are quite a few ‘nisse decorations’, and they are both in many stories and songs (although the julenisse only in the more recent modern ones). Main point: the julenisse brings the gifts (and so is more popular with kids), and the other ‘nisser’ are mythological creatures, smaller and more mischievous.
They are definitely still very present during the Christmas celebration in Norway today! Not sure if that answers your question exactly.