Electric fjord cruise review
My verdict: this is the lowest-rated of the six, at 4.4 from about 2,396 reviews, and it is also the only boat here with a lift on board. Both of those go in the same paragraph, because for some readers the second one settles the question and the first one is noise. It is a fully electric boat, heated and air-conditioned, two hours off Rådhusbrygge 4, with multilingual audio commentary and no live guide.
4.4, said out loud
It is the bottom of this list and I am not going to bury it or dress it up. I am also not going to treat it as a warning, because the number does not support that reading.
Three tenths of a point separate it from the top of the site. Four of the six read 4.5. A 4.4 built on about 2,396 opinions is not a bad boat; it is a large operation carrying a lot of people through two hours of ordinary weather, and a large operation collects ordinary afternoons. Somebody who had a perfectly fine time on a grey Tuesday writes four stars and moves on. Do that a few thousand times and you get a 4.4.
The comparison that actually matters: this 4.4 rests on about 2,396 reviews, and the island trip’s 4.5 rests on 158. One tenth of a point separates them and one of those numbers could move by half a star next season. Ranking the 4.5 above the 4.4 on that basis would be arithmetic with the evidence thrown away.
The lift, which is the real headline
No other boat on this site has one. Three of the six state wheelchair access; exactly one has a lift on board, and it is this one. If getting between decks under your own power is the question you came with, the star ratings on this page are irrelevant and this listing is the answer. Alexandra, from the United States, wrote about it in exactly those terms: battery-powered, warm inside, and it even has a lift.
Heated and air-conditioned matters for the same group of readers and for a wider one. Two hours is a long time to be cold, and the inner fjord is cold for most of the year — a couple of degrees in the water in late winter, high teens at the very peak of summer. What every boat here states about access.
Rådhusbrygge 4 is also the quay Ruter’s island ferries use, so the pier is busier than the others and there are two quite different queues on it. Check the boat, not the pier number, before you join one. Why the ferry and the cruise share a quay.
What the reviewers keep saying
- Simon, United Kingdom — the scenery around the islands was lovely and the commentary genuinely interesting
- Alexandra, United States — battery-powered, warm inside, and it even has a lift
- Lea, France — a booking mix-up, which the staff sorted out by waiting for her on the right day
Simon’s line is worth pausing on, because it is unusual: he praises a recorded commentary. Most audio-guide files on this water praise the boat and say nothing about the voice. Lea’s is worth pausing on for a different reason. A booking mix-up is exactly the kind of thing that happens more often at volume, and waiting for somebody on the right day is exactly the kind of recovery that does not show up in an average. Both halves of that are true at once.
The reason somebody gives this four stars
Volume, and the absence of a person.
A boat that carries thousands of passengers a season through a heated saloon on a fixed loop is running an operation rather than staging an occasion. It will be competent. It will rarely be memorable. Multilingual audio is useful and it does not produce the sentences people write about a live guide who was funny. Four stars is the honest score for fine.
Then there are the mix-ups. Lea’s was resolved. Not every one is, and the ones that are not end up in the file. What booking ahead actually buys you here.
And there is the expectation gap, which this boat shares with all the others. Two hours around the inner islands is a harbour trip. The fjords in the photographs are 300 to 450 km away. Read that before you book anything on this water.
What works
- The only boat here with a lift on board
- Wheelchair accessible, heated and air-conditioned
- Fully electric, so it is quiet on the water
- Multilingual audio commentary rather than one language over a speaker
- Two hours, long enough to work around the near islands properly
- About 2,396 reviews, which is a serious sample by any standard
- Rådhusbrygge 4, in front of the City Hall
Worth knowing
- 4.4 from about 2,396 reviews is the lowest score of the six, and this page says so rather than hiding it
- No live guide — nobody to ask
- A high-volume operation, with the mix-ups that come with volume
- Competent rather than memorable, which is what a 4.4 usually means
- No landings; you stay aboard for the full two hours
- Shares its water with four other boats from three other quays
What the listing commits to
- Two hours on a fully electric boat
- A lift on board, which no other listing here has
- Heating and air conditioning
- Multilingual audio commentary
- Step-free access
- A return to Rådhusbrygge 4
What it does not
- A live guide, or anybody to ask a question
- Any landing on an island
- A seat with a name on it, or a view guaranteed from it
- The western fjords, which are on the other side of the country
Who should book it, and who should not
Book it if a lift on board is the deciding factor, in which case nothing else here competes. Book it if being warm for two hours is worth more to you than one tenth of a star. Book it if you want commentary in a language an English-only live guide cannot give you.
Do not book it if you want a person talking, which is the silent boat off Rådhusbrygge 2, English only. Do not book it if you want the largest, most settled review file on the water, which is the Langkaia cruise. Do not book it if two hours in a heated interior sounds like the wrong way to spend an afternoon on the water — the wooden ship is the opposite proposition, and it promises no seat.
The alternatives
The silent boat below is the only one with a live guide, in English. The island trip from the same quay area is not wheelchair accessible and involves walking and climbing.
The only live guideOslo: Guided Sightseeing Fjord Cruise on Premium Silent Boat
Leaves from LangkaiaOslo: Scenic Fjord Cruise with Audio Guide Commentary
Lands on five islandsOslo: The Five Pearls of the Oslofjord Boat Tour
Frequently asked questions
Why is the electric cruise the lowest rated?
Because it is a large operation carrying a lot of people on a fixed loop, and large operations collect ordinary afternoons. 4.4 from about 2,396 reviews sits three tenths below the top of a very tight range. It is what competent and unremarkable looks like at volume. Why the spread is inside the noise.
Which Oslofjord cruise has a lift on board?
This one, and only this one. Three of the six state wheelchair access; exactly one has a lift. If that is your deciding factor, the rating is beside the point. Every boat's stated access.
Is there a live guide on the electric cruise?
No. The commentary is multilingual recorded audio. The only city cruise here with a live guide is the silent boat off Rådhusbrygge 2, and that one is English only. Live guides versus audio.
Where does the electric cruise leave from?
Rådhusbrygge 4, in front of the City Hall. That is also Ruter's island-ferry quay, so there are two different queues on the same pier. All four quays.