02 Mar 2023
It takes talent to sell expensive excursions, watch them go off the rails and absolve yourself of all responsibility but congratulations to Viator-they did it.
Oslo-Bergen, self-guided, with the Flam Railway (25 minutes, Myrdal to Flam) and a 2 hour fjord cruise (Flam to Gudvangan) being the reason for the excursion-the rest was transportation, mainly by train.
In a nutshell, the cruise didn't happen. They knew it wouldn't happen-all earlier cruises were cancelled and it wasn't due to weather or other natural causes-but they did absolutely NOTHING to address or assist. We were stranded in Flam for two hours in the pouring rain-Flam is tiny and 95% shut down for the winter, with only a tiny cafe and shop open. We were then bussed to Gudvangan, which is even smaller, and had only a hotel reception area open, where we were stuck for more than an hour before being bussed to the Voss train station where, you guessed it, we waited for more than an hour in the wind and rain for a train.
WHY?? Why was there no Plan B? Why was there no coach or something to take us from Flam to Voss to pick up one of several earlier trains? We could have at least salvaged part of the day instead of having to sit around, cold, wet and miserable, wondering why we'd paid £350+ for one of the worst travel experiences ever.
They refunded a tiny portion of the cost and said it was for the cruise part, but that's nowhere near enough. It's inexcusable that they seem to think that this is acceptable.