For shore excursion managers

Shorex Builder

Put in the call. Build the programme. The panel at the top never leaves the screen, and everything is calculated in your browser — nothing is sent to the port.

Last updated 2026-09-13

JavaScript required

The builder needs JavaScript

Every calculation runs in your browser, which is why nothing you type is sent anywhere — and why there is nothing to run with scripting off. The rules it applies are written out below, and the catalogue is published as plain pages.

Shore excursion manual Full catalogue

Step 1

The call

—

Guides and coaches default to the port's own fleet and the season's staffing. Put in your own figures where you have contracted extra capacity, and the timeline is rebuilt against those.

Step 2

The programme

Find an excursion

Departures

Step 3

The timeline

One row per vehicle. A coach that fits two departures counts twice — which is the whole point: capacity here is coach-hours, not coaches. Blocks in red have nowhere to go.

The same timeline as a table

Every planned departure, in start order
Excursion	Version	Departs	Back	Vehicles	Assigned	Guides	Guests

Step 4

What the plan is missing

Step 5

Cost

The port does not publish excursion rates, so the builder ships without any. Put in the rates you hold and it will cost the programme up: the figures stay in this browser and are never written into the share link.

The builder plans programmes, not prices — rates come from the port's commercial team.

Estimate cost

Your rates, applied to this programme
Line	Basis	Amount

Your own arithmetic, not a quotation. For a quotation, write to shorex@skjoldenport.com.

Step 6

Send it on

The whole plan lives in the address of this page. Copy the link and it opens on someone else's screen exactly as it is on yours. Your rate card stays behind.

Send it to the shore excursion desk

The model

How a call is planned here

The window is the call minus an hour

The half hour at each end is not margin for comfort — it is gangway time and marshalling, and it is the same on every call. Whatever is left is what the destination has to work with. The rule itself, and the curve behind it, are on the shore excursions page.

Capacity is coach-hours, not coaches

A coach that gets back in time to go out again has carried two loads. On a long call the fleet turns over; on a short one it cannot, and the same number of vehicles delivers half the programme. That is why the builder puts everything on a timeline rather than in a list — a list cannot see the second departure.

The shuttle is the release valve

Best of Skjolden, Oscarshaug, Berdalsnosi and the Urnes shuttle can be run as shuttles: the coach turns at the viewpoint and goes straight back out, moving several times its own seat count over a call. It is the standard answer to a call with more guests than seats.

The rules the builder applies

Shore programme starts: ETA + 30 minutes Gangway, clearance and the walk to the coach park
All guests on board: ETD − 30 minutes The last tour must be back at the gangway by then
Usable shore window: Call length − 1 hour 10 hours at the port gives 9 h ashore — the window the port's capacity figures are stated in
Vehicle turnaround: 20 minutes Between two departures on the same vehicle
Guide turnaround: 20 minutes Between two tours for the same guide
Recommended call length: 10 hours at the port Measured ETA to ETD; it leaves 9 hours ashore
Preliminary numbers: 90 days before arrival (one month accepted)
Final numbers: 48 hours before arrival

Confirmed with the Port Director, 2026-08-11. Fleet and capacity figures from the port's own operations documents.

What a shorter call costs you

The port's own advice to the lines. Both columns are given, because the two are an hour apart and the difference is a whole rung on this ladder.
Hours ashore	Call length	Programme	What happens
9 hours	10 hours	Full programme	up to 3,000 guests on tour, both eight-hour tours, two coach waves with the statutory break inside the day
8 hours	9 hours	Full, without slack	Every product still fits once, but the eight-hour tours reach all-aboard with nothing in hand and the second coach wave shortens to 3½ hours, back to back with no break
7 hours	8 hours	Long formats out	Ice Tunnels and the Norwegian Mountain World no longer fit; the second coach wave is a two-hour shuttle; the catamaran runs once
6 hours	7 hours	One wave	Six-hour tours fit with nothing to spare; a coach runs one tour and a short shuttle; the catamaran still runs once

The fleet the builder schedules against

One row on the timeline for every unit below
Resource	Units	Seats	What makes it scarce
Standard coach	10	45	47 physical seats; 45 sold — two held for escort/photographer.
Mountain coach (under 10 m)	3	34	Tindevegen and the Berdalsnosi road take nothing longer than 10 m. Mountains & Fjords and Skjolden's Secret draw on the same three vehicles — two at 34 seats and one at 39; the planner uses 34 as the conservative floor.
Midi coach (under 12 m)	3	34	The road to Urnes takes nothing longer than 12 m.
M/S Holly	1	73	One hull. Every product that uses the catamaran queues behind the one before it.
RIB	3	12	Three boats, run in multiples on the same departure.

Guides and coaches are staffed in equal numbers — 24 of each in high season, 16 in shoulder season — so the builder assigns one guide per vehicle by default. 13 coaches are owned outright (577 seats); the rest is contracted, which is why you can raise the pool for a call where you have booked more.

Two limits come from the destination rather than the fleet, and the builder flags both on the departure. Urnes admits about 1 group an hour, of no more than 25 guests, on the morning slot only, and the road takes nothing longer than 12 m. The mountain coaches under 10 m are the only vehicles allowed on Tindevegen and the Berdalsnosi road.

Group limits, durations, seasons and full itineraries are in the catalogue and the shore excursion manual. Rates are not published; Christian Hellumsand, Shorex Manager & Dispatch, quotes them from shorex@skjoldenport.com.