Port of Skjolden · NOSLN · ISPS NOSLN-0001 · Standard arrangement, all cruise calls

Port operations plan

One arrangement, used for every cruise call at Skjolden: three shore gates, the phases of the day, who provides what, and the ship-to-ship transfer that takes guests off the gangway altogether. Read this before arrival.

Last updated 2026-09-13

Before you arrive

Two things are defaults rather than decisions — gangway positions and the ship-to-ship option — confirmed on arrival or agreed by email in advance. Everything else here is fixed. Headline figures on one printable sheet: the fact sheet.

Download the operations plan PDF · 3 pages · dated 4 July 2026 Ask the port a question

The PDF carries the scale drawing — gate positions in metres along the berth, coach bays, the turning area and the pavilion — and everything written on it is reproduced as text here. Where the two differ, this page is the later.

The standard arrangement

Applies to: Every cruise call Alongside at the cruise pier
Shore gates: 3 Terminal · Coach gate · Marketplace
Controlled ISPS strip: 6 m along the quay The three gates are the only crossings of it
Shore excursion pavilion: 200 m², covered Holds 8 bus groups, about 400 guests, under roof
Assembly deck: About 500 m²
Coach drop zone: 4 coaches at a time Along the road above the plaza
VHF: Channel 12, Channel 16 standby Applies to all movements at Skjolden, including the ship-to-ship transfer.
Quay to Bryggjehuset: 900 m Paved and flat, to the service building on the quay: the souvenir hall, restaurant, pub and tourist information.
Quay to the village centre: 1200 m Where a coach can stand
Ship-to-ship option: M/S Holly, up to 73 guests per crossing Seaward shell door — no load on the shore gates at all

Source: Skjolden Port Operations Plan for ISPS facility NOSLN-0001, dated 4 July 2026. Berth figures are held on the technical page.

The cruise pier from directly above: angled coach bays numbered 2 to 8 marked in yellow along the apron, linear bays beyond them, a white pedestrian crossing to the terminal, the turning area with its direction arrow, and the pier itself running out into turquoise water — The arrangement as it is painted on the ground: angled coach bays 2 to 8 reversing to the grass, linear bays north along the road, the crossing to the terminal, and the turning area worked counter-clockwise at the far end.

The point of a standard arrangement

The same quay, the same way, every time

Skjolden takes ships from 228 lower berths to 5,200 at the same 127.5 m of quay. The arrangement does not scale with the ship and is not redesigned per call.

It is fixed, drawn and published, so the questions a ship would otherwise ask on the morning of arrival are already answered.

3 gates: the only crossings of the controlled quay strip, all manned in the first and last hour
400 guests: wait under a roof at Gate 2, in 8 bus groups, sun or rain
73 guests: can leave by the seaward shell door instead — no gate, no gangway queue
11:00–12:00: the hour that decides the call: morning tours return as independent guests head back

The ground everything happens on

The quay, gate by gate

One piece of ground does three jobs: it lets guests off the ship, it holds the coaches, and it keeps those two apart.

Three gates, three roles

The terminal building and its timber deck from directly above, with the blue-striped crossing marked DROP 1 leading to the entrance, DROP 2 marked further along the kerb, and coach bays 7 to 10 numbered in yellow on the apron opposite — The terminal forecourt from above. The blue-striped crossing marked DROP 1 runs straight to the terminal entrance, so a guest off a coach reaches Gate 1 without entering the coach park. DROP 2 lies further along the kerb, numbered bays on the apron opposite.

The three shore gates, what each one is for, and when it is open.
Gate	Role	Open
1 Terminal	The main gate, two-way for the whole call, running through the terminal building — whose main exit opens onto the marketplace plaza, not onto the road.	The entire call
2 Coach gate	Outbound shore excursions, through the covered pavilion. Barrier tape steers guests into the pavilion's 5 m entrance; guides wait under the roof with signs carrying the ship's own excursion codes — YELLOW 1, RED 4 — and walk each group to its coach.	While shore excursions depart
3 Marketplace	Activity tours assemble on the plaza. The coach drop zone runs along the road above it, 4 coaches at a time. Inbound to the ship from about 11:00; earlier returns through Gate 1.	From about 11:00, and through the surge hours

Where the coaches actually stand

The limit on a call is not how many coaches the destination owns, but how many fit on the facility at once — 19.

Angled coach bays numbered 4 to 8 marked in yellow herringbone along the apron, a car standing in one of them, the turning arrow painted at the northern end, and the pier deck running the length of the frame across the water — The angled bays, numbered on the ground along the apron. A coach reverses towards the grass and pulls straight out into the through lane — no turning manoeuvre between standing vehicles. The painted arrow at the northern end sets the direction of the turning area.

Coach capacity at the facility and at the tender pier, all behind the barrier.
Area	Coaches	Use
Marked bays	13	Angled bays on the apron, linear bays along the road
Drop zones	2	Set down and return, 4 coaches at a time, without crossing the coach park
Waiting area	6	Holding space between departures
On the facility	19	The working ceiling for a call alongside
Tender pier car park	16	300 m away, beside the tender pier. Serves the vessel at anchor — her guests come ashore there

The northern end of the coach standing area from above, with bays marked and numbered along the road, the white pedestrian crossing and the second drop zone beside the terminal, and two coaches drawn up at the far end of the run — The northern end of the run, with two coaches at the far end for scale. The white crossing and the second drop zone lie beside the terminal.

The barrier

The whole area sits behind a physical barrier. Nothing reaches the quay that has not been approved in advance. An independent operator therefore cannot collect guests at the ship. This is a different gate from the three on this page: it admits vehicles, not guests, and it reads registration plates. Access & security gives the nearest legal pick-up point and how a coach gets a plate onto the day's list.

The coach park beside the tender pier seen from above, with coaches drawn up in rows on the gravel apron, more standing along the road beyond it, and the floating pontoon and its RIBs at the water's edge — The remote staging area beside the tender pier, 300 m from the cruise pier. The pontoon at the water's edge is why the coaches stand here: guests from the vessel at anchor land on it.

What is where, and why it is there

The port office

The PFSO and dispatch sit together in the terminal building, in the upper corner facing the coach park, marked on the drawing. Both are on the quay for the whole call.

Default gangway positions

Forward in line with Gate 1, midship in line with Gate 2. Default berthing is bow at the terminal end of the 127.5 m quay, and fendering is Yokohama, 2.4 m. These are defaults drawn from how ships normally lie here, not requirements: door positions vary by vessel and are confirmed on arrival.

The controlled strip

The hatched 6 m strip inside the dashed line is controlled ISPS area, and Gates 1 to 3 are its only crossings. Gate positions are given in metres along the quay ruler, to be matched against a ship's own doors before arrival. Passenger flow is logged in the port facility security plan for NOSLN-0001.

The quay on a still morning: the timber deck and the yellow-painted quay edge with a mooring bollard in the foreground, and the fjord running straight out between the mountain walls, mirror-flat under a clear sky — The berth with nothing on it. Deck 3.1 m above lowest astronomical tide, tidal range 1.5 m — the two figures a gangway is rigged against.

The coach park

Angled bays reversed to the grass, a through lane to a turning area worked anticlockwise — marked “counter-clockwise” on the drawing — and linear parking along the road. The drop zone above the plaza takes 4 coaches at a time and is marshalled, because guests move through it in both directions all call.

The pavilion and the assembly deck

The shore excursion pavilion is 200 m² under roof and holds 8 bus groups — about 400 guests — with the assembly deck beside it at roughly 500 m². Guides wait under the roof holding signs with the ship's own excursion codes, so a guest looks for the code printed on the ticket.

Linear coach parking bays numbered 10 to 13 painted along the shore road, with the shorex pavilion deck and the pier at the top of the frame — Bays 10 to 13 on the shore road, pavilion deck at the top of the frame. Up to 8 groups stand under that roof while their coaches wait down here.

Guests on foot

The village footpath joins the plaza at its top-western corner. Every walker routes via the plaza to the terminal or Gate 3, never across the coach park. The village centre is 1200 m away on that path.

Two people and a dog walking the paved shoreline path in the rain past the small white boathouses, with the cruise ship lying alongside the pier across the water and cloud halfway down the mountainside — The shoreline path into the village, past the boathouses. A guest who walks it is outside the controlled strip and comes back in through a gate.

Straight-down view of coach bays 7 and 8 outlined in yellow on the apron, a car standing in one of them, and the barrier across the access road at the point where it reaches the terminal building and the timber deck — The barrier across the access road at the terminal building — the one way in for any vehicle. Bays 7 and 8 are outlined in yellow beside it.

The shape of the day

Phases of the call

A surge out, a long quiet middle, a surge back — the gates are worked differently in each. The line worth reading twice is in the last hour.

How the three gates are worked through the call.
Phase	Arrangement
First hour ashore	All three gates open and manned — the full outbound surge.
Mid-call	Gate 1 two-way. Gate 2 outbound shore excursions only. Gate 3 opens at about 11:00 for the lunch returns.
Last hour before all-aboard	All three gates manned. Returning coaches alternate: every other drops at Gate 2 — the only time it runs inbound — and the rest at the drop zone for Gates 1 and 3.
Maximum load	Guests walk east inside the 6 m quay strip to the pavilion. Never across the coach park.

A cruise ship alongside the pier seen from the quay in the rain, her tiers of balconies and orange lifeboats rising above the white quayside building with its veranda and Norwegian flags, guests walking past two parked bicycles on the wet apron, and cloud lying in the mountainside behind — A call in progress, from the quay rather than from the air. Ordinary Skjolden weather — and why the plan puts waiting guests under a roof.

Ashore and afloat

Who provides what

Not negotiated on the morning: the port mans the gates and moves the traffic, the ship rigs the gangways and screens the guests.

Port of Skjolden — shoreside

A security officer at each open gate, carrying out the cruise-card check
Crowd barriers, barrier-tape lanes and marked queues
A traffic marshal at the coach park
The PFSO on site for the entire call

The vessel

Gangway rigging and operation
Full guest screening — scanning and ID
Screening staffing at each active gate and gangway

The port provides no shore gangway; ships use their own (Technical port information), and where they normally land is above. What is owed if something goes wrong is the liability and insurance clause.

Ship-to-ship

M/S Holly bow-to-shell-door

Fjord excursion guests board M/S Holly directly at the vessel's seaward shell door, without going ashore. Every crossing moves up to 73 guests without touching the shore gates or the gangways.

Per crossing. T is the agreed pick-up time, not the arrival time.
Time	Action
T − 15	M/S Holly on station off the vessel's seaward side. Bridge contact on VHF Channel 12, Channel 16 on standby.
T − 10	The ship opens the seaward shell door. M/S Holly approaches perpendicular, bow-first, dead-slow on the final.
T 0	The bow hatch mates with the shell door. Guests walk from the ship's interior into M/S Holly's sheltered bow lobby, two crew supervising.
T + 10	Up to 73 guests boarded, safety briefing given. M/S Holly backs off and proceeds.
Return	The same interface in reverse — M/S Holly re-mates with the shell door and guests re-embark directly.

Pick-up times are agreed per call with the shore excursion office. Indicative pattern: outbound around 08:30, back around 12:30. The times follow the programme.

M/S Holly — vessel particulars.
Item	Value
Type and build	Aluminium passenger vessel, 2014, built by Kewatec AluBoat (Finland). Call sign JXMJ.
Dimensions	LOA 23.10 m · beam 6.10 m · draft 2.36 m · GT 90
Capacity	74 passengers, on the NMA passenger certificate
Insurance	P&I: Gard — passenger liability to USD 2 bn. Hull: Gard — NOK 8.5 M (2026).
Operator	Fjord X AS, Kaupanger. Master: Arne Glenn Flåten.

Why the interface works

M/S Holly is purpose-built for this, and the transfer has been performed many times alongside a cruise vessel's shell door. Four features carry it:

Bow hatch (baug-luke) opening onto a built-in boarding lobby
Flared bow wings forming a sheltered transfer zone
Freeboard 1.2–1.5 m, matching typical cruise ship shell door sills
Raised forward wheelhouse for full 360° visibility when manoeuvring bow-first

The freeboard match is the one thing checked per ship rather than assumed — hence the sill height and expected draft on the list below.

Before arrival

What the port needs from the vessel

Four answers settle the arrangement. They go to shorex@skjoldenport.com with the excursion programme, or to ships@skjoldenport.com if the call is still being arranged.

What to confirm before the call, for the ship-to-ship transfer.
What	Why it is asked
Confirmation	That the bow-to-shell-door arrangement is agreed for the call.
Shell door specification	Side, door, sill height above the waterline and expected draft on the day, so the freeboard match can be confirmed before the ship arrives.
Coordination contact	The bridge officer or shore excursion officer responsible.
Timing and numbers	Confirmed pick-up times and group size per crossing — maximum 73 guests.

And for the gates themselves

Which doors will be used, and where they lie against the quay ruler.
Whether any midship door will take guests in both directions.
Roughly how many guests are expected ashore in the first hour, and how many on organised tours.
Whether afternoon tour guests can be sent down early on a tight programme.

And what the port confirms back

Gate positions against your door positions, in metres along the berth.
Which gates are manned in which phase.
Agreed pick-up times and group size for each M/S Holly crossing.
Whether another vessel is in port that date, and how the coach park is shared.

Berth requests, allocation policy and the booking checklist: Schedule & booking. Excursion deadlines and capacity: Shore excursions.

On the day

Who to reach, and how

The people on the quay and on the water during the call itself. Anything that can wait, or that changes the booking, belongs in the mailboxes.

Contacts during the call.
Where	Who	Contact
Port of Skjolden	Viggo Sundvold Port Director, PFSO and PSO	viggo@skjoldenport.com +47 458 98 229 Mobile and WhatsApp
M/S Holly	Arne Glenn Flåten Master, Fjord X AS	post@fjordx.no +47 913 00 946
Shore excursions, shoreside	Christian Hellumsand Shorex Manager & Dispatch	christian@skjoldenport.com +47 949 89 908 Telephone and WhatsApp

Working channel for all movements: VHF 12, standby 16.

Download the plan (PDF, 3 pages) Technical port information Access & security Schedule & booking

Emergency muster area

The designated shoreside assembly area is the tender-quay parking area, by Adventure Tours Norway — north along the access road from the cruise berth — about 350 m from the berth, a walk of roughly 5 minutes. Via Gate 1 (terminal) or Gate 3 (marketplace plaza) onto the plaza, then the access road north — wide, paved and flat, closed to all other traffic and marshalled by port staff.

Muster area — particulars. Basis: the port's emergency plan; assembly points are defined for both port areas.
Ground	Asphalt and compacted hard standing — open, no overhead structures. Staff marshal guests into the area on the day; nothing is pre-painted.
Size	Parking for 16 coaches — a large open area, well clear of the berth
Who decides	The PFSO, who is also the port's emergency manager, decides whether to evacuate — in dialogue with the police where possible — and confirms the assembly point for the situation
Shared use	Used for tender operations when a vessel lies at anchor — coordinate with the port on double-call days

Emergency contacts.
Fire	110
Police	112
Ambulance	113
Non-urgent medical	116 117
Police, Sogndal og Leikanger	+47 57 66 99 00
Fire, Gaupne	+47 57 62 96 00
Lærdal hospital	+47 57 64 00 00
Kystverket 24 h ISPS (Brevik VTS)	+47 35 57 26 25 — Number under change per Kystverket — treat as provisional

Download the Port Operations & Muster Plan (v4, 19 August 2026, PDF) →

Questions ships ask about the arrangement

Who carries out passenger screening at Skjolden — the port or the ship?

The ship. The check at the shore gate is a fast cruise-card check by a port security officer; full screening — scanning and ID — is the ship's own operation, staffed by the ship at each active gate and gangway. The port provides manned gates, barriers, the traffic marshal and the PFSO on site. The ship rigs its own gangways; the port provides no shore gangway.

Our midship door will take guests in both directions. Does that matter?

Yes — tell the port in advance. The standard arrangement keeps Gate 2 outbound-only so departing groups and returning guests do not meet in the pavilion entrance; where a midship door takes flow both ways, the port routes the inbound stream elsewhere. Agreed beforehand it costs nothing; discovered on the morning it costs the first hour.

All frequently asked questions →