in Switzerland for 3 days - want pickup in Basal off river cruise - Bernase Oberland

Linda,

If you want to see the Berner Oberland, that's very easy. Take a Taxi from the cruise dock to Basel SBB station, and then connect with a train to the Lauterbrunnen Valley. You'll change trains at Interlaken Ost and board the small Berner Oberlandbahn, which will take you to Lauterbrunnen. I'd suggest staying in either Lauterbrunnen or Mürren. Gimmelwald is not very big and easy to visit for a few hours as a "day trip".

You likely haven't booked your flights yet but if you book a flight departing ZRH in the afternoon, it only takes about 2H:40M from Lauterbrunnen direct to the Zürich airport.

Find out where your boat docks in Basel. They often dock at St. Johann and there is an easy and inexpensive bus from there to city center.

Linda, based on what others have told me, the cruise staff may ask how many people need taxis upon disembarkation and may order them ahead of time for you. Take the taxi to the Basel SBB station, and go from there.

There are three different places the cruise boats dock in Basel: St Johann, Klybeck and Dreiländerecke. From what I've heard, they don't know where they will be able to dock until the get here.
St Johann is the original location, and has a tram stop, not a bus (No. 11) which connects to the city centre and Basel SBB station. The other two (Klybeck and Dreiländerecke) are in the docks and ~10 minutes walk to the nearest transport. Whenever I walk past there are taxis waiting, the taxi drivers know it is a good place to pick up trade from people who don't know Basel. Expect a taxi fare of CHF 25-40 to get to the station. Tram costs CHF 3.80.

Once you get to the station, there are trains to anywhere in Switzerland,

Thanks for the clarification and greater detail, Chris. What's the difference between a tram and bus? Is a tram on tracks? In any case, Basel has excellent transportation.

Jules, a tram is a train that runs through the streets.
This is what a Basel tram looks like: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/Basel-blt-tram-10-stadler-882129.jpg
45 metres long; 6 segments so it can go round corners; 101 seats, plus 167 standing; a lot bigger than any bus. And all routes (including the No. 11) run every 7½ minutes. Being on tracks it can run through the car-free city centre with tight clearances where there is no room for buses.
In the suburbs it runs on its own tracks like a normal suburban train.

Thanks for your responses....I should have included in my question that there will be a group of us (possibly 18 or so). I'm hoping for some tour suggestions where we all can get picked up and taken to a hotel say in Grindelwald or Lauterbrunnen for a home base, then visit Murren/Jungfrau/Lucerne, etc.

Any hotel recommendations that are fairly reasonable in Grindelwald? Thanks for any recommendations!

Linda

OK, looks like you need to contact a charter bus company. Here's just the first one I came across, and they are located in Grindelwald. And they have, among others, a 22 passenger bus.
https://www.grindelwaldbus.ch/en

Edit
You could move the group by train. It is 76.20 CHF per person from Basel SBB station to Grindelwald, so for 18 it would nominally be 1299.60 CHF. However, if you buy at least 3 days in advance, you can buy a group ticket. 1 of each 10 rides free, and the others get a 20% discount. So then the cost would be 981.92 CHF. But you still have to move the group from the dock to SBB station, and from Grindelwald station to your hotel.

A charter bus will solve all of that, picking you up at your docking location and delivering you right to your hotel. My sense is that the charter will cost less than 1000 CHF.