CCJack

We found the ship shuttle bus to town was about the same price as taxi (for two of us - for a larger group taxi likely cheaper.) Easy taxi ride to town, taxis were available at the ship. Very nice city to walk around in. I cannot comment on restaurants as we ate on the ship. If you are looking for a $1000 winter coat, you are in luck. It seems like every other store was a high end outerwear store. Note: Store clerks told us you can get your tax back but it has to be done at the airport. Not true, our ship would refund our tax money on the ship, however, it had to be done before the ship leaves the dock (in other words as soon as you board the ship go to guest services). Not sure how other ships handle this.

I agree this is a good trip for a 7 day, price seems good. RCCL is a safe bet. We have been on many European trips, all have their pluses, but I would put a Norway cruise near the very top of the list - especially if you are active and enjoy outdoors. I prefer Amsterdam over Southampton as departure - but you got a good price out of Southampton. If you have not been to London spend a couple nights there before taking the bus to Southampton. Have fun....

We are on the Joy next September. Does anyone know if the specialty restaurants are open for lunch on "at sea" days. If so, can you use your "free at Sea" specialty meal for lunch then eat at the MDR for dinner? Would the menus be the same for specialty venues at lunch vs. dinner? thanks.

me too. The whole thing is so sad on so many levels. Lets hope and pray that we see some positive developments soon.

If it were me, I would not book another tour. Take advantage of the extra time and relax a bit. As suggested walk around the town, possibly to the state capital area. Another option is take the tram up Mt. Roberts. Don't need to prebook tram, just buy tickets if weather is good that day. . It is close to ship. Can do the whole tram up and down in an hour or less I would think.

We had a band on the ship that was from Belfast. They recommended during their show to visit the Duke of York for Irish music ... (perhaps this was a paid endorsement!!) Anyway we walked by while we were in Belfast and it looked like a fun place, but we were short on time and did not stop.

Our ship got rescheduled from Cobh to Ringaskiddy shortly before our cruise began. So just anticipate that is a possibility. A little more difficult (not impossible) to get a taxi there - it is an industrial area and they keep the taxis a few blocks away from what I recall....

We also walked from cruise terminal to train station with luggage and had no issues. Follow GPS on your walk however, as it is not intuitive what route to take. If raining, you can catch a cab.....

We took a taxi from ship to Titantic museum (the museum is very nice). Then after our museum visit we walked from museum to city center. That is an easy 20 min walk. Then we caught a taxi from city center back to the ship. You could do the reverse order - taxi to city center than walk to museum and taxi back. You cannot walk from the ship to either (at least where our ship docked.)

Our tour was with SAGA tours. They had two vans going to the Lake Myvatn stops but in different order so they would not overlap. Then both ended up at the natural baths in the afternoon at the same time. People who didn't want to do the baths could board one of the vans and go straight back to the ship while those who wanted to do the baths could stay longer. Our intention was to do the baths at blue lagoon and not do the baths at Myvatn, but the first van back to the ship was full. So we volunteered to stay a bit at the baths (45 min) for them to return to take us to the ship. So we hung out there but we did not get in the water as we did not have our swim gear. However since we had a taste of the natural baths we opted to skip blue lagoon in favor of golden circle. In hindsight, probably should have taken our swim gear to Myvatn baths, but it all worked out in the end. I am glad we did the golden circle. Those stops were really nice.

I would do the golden circle, and while in Akureyri do the Lake Myvatn tour with the natural bath option (similar but less famous as blue lagoon) - that combo tour is a lot less than 11 hours if I recall. We went to Akureyri before Reykjavik so we did the lake Myvatn with natural bath first. We had blue lagoon excursion reserved in Reykajavik but after seeing the one near Myvatn we cancelled blue lagoon and went on golden circle. I am glad we did. Golden circle is really 3 different stops / excursions in one already (without adding blue lagoon.). Here is the link to the natual baths at lake myvatn.. https://myvatnnaturebaths.is/ Have fun !

Cruisemom42.. I am also planning our first cruise to this area so I cannot help much. However, I am glad others have provided input to you since you are an All Star on these boards! Normally you are the giver of very good and well researched advice for other destinations....

Following our trip, I left a mixed review on my customer survey. I said land tour was great in all aspects except lack of information ahead of time. Looks like my review didn't cause any improvements !!! We were with the same people each day on the same main transportation bus which took us city to city (not excursion vans/bus). Our bus was about 75% full and everyone was from the same ship. At the time, RCCL buses were much nicer than Princess and others that I saw. I would suspect that Princess has upgraded their buses by now though. Princess had the edge in lodging, they have their own properties near Denali, where as RCCL (and I suspect Celebrity) lodge in independent properties. Many people recommend DIY instead of the cruise tours, but I actually really enjoy meeting some others on the group tours. I also really dislike driving while on vacation, so for us it worked out really well. Not sure about the hotel question.. we did not go to Fairbanks. RCCL lodged us at the Marriott in Anchorage, but I do think that RCCL told us that ahead of time, so if we wanted to stay longer we could have booked there.

My info is a couple years old, but we went on RCCL cruise tour... Good news is that it was really well run, with a good guide on board and we had a great time. Bad news is we got very little info. ahead of time. If I remember right the guide on the bus with you described the excursions and then asked about your interest. I got the impression there wasn't a concern about excursions selling out like on the ship. Things are in much smaller numbers than on the ship, and the guide spent time on the phone on the calling ahead to arrange enough guides / vans for people who were interested. We went on very few excursions, I didn't think it was necessary. We did a lot of hiking on our own, etc. They picked us up and took care of all hotel reservations and check-ins, etc. I recall most dining was not included however. the tour guide who will be with you with your group is important. They seem to make all the arrangements.

Our booking for 2 (my wife and I) included the free at sea promo. a couple of questions: 1) it indicates 2 specialty meals as part of the promo, I assume that is 2 for each passenger? 2) the specialty restaurants have menus online with al a carte prices. How does that work with the promo? Are you allowed one entree? etc. 3) how soon can we book reservations? One of the perks of club balcony suite was to book out 120 days. We opted for a regular balcony and not club, but our online account gives a date to check back to reserve and it is 120 days prior to sail. So maybe that really is not a perk for club balcony but everyone get to book 120 days out? thank you.

Thank you... that helps. Pre book dining likely worth it.

We are new to NCL. Looking at a cruise on NCL Joy. A club balcony suite is only a little more $ than a balcony. However I see the floorplans look nearly identical. Are there any perks to the club balcony suite that I am missing? It doesn't look like a suite to me !! thanks...

Thanks! This is very helpful.

thank you. We have no interest in bumper cars etc! we are empty nesters now... However, we didn't want a run down ship or bad service. We may try HAL.

I am also interested in booking our first cruise to this area, although we have sailed on many cruises elsewhere (mostly on Celebrity and RCCL, but some on Cunard, NCL) We are interested in a one way cruise that includes Quebec City. It seems like the ships that mostly do this are NCL Pearl, NCL Joy, HAL Zuiderdam, RCCL Jewel OTS, and Princess Caribbean Princess. Leaning towards Zuiderdam due to the itinerary, but it is an older ship and we have never been on HAL. I believe the ship was refreshed in 2017. A lot of these ships are older, is there a reason the newer larger ships don't travel in this area. Perhaps there isn't the demand and they cannot fill the larger ships like they can in Europe or Caribbean, etc. For us the ports are the most important, but we do like good food in the MDR, etc. We did go on NCL out of Rome a few years ago and we felt it was not as high quality as Celebrity.. So I am hesitant to try the NCL Joy although that itinerary looks good to us as well..... Any thoughts? Thank you.

Clarification on my post above... I did not mean to imply Celebrity made the decision to dock at Ringaskiddy the morning of arrival. They did tell us before the cruise started (however just before) that it had changed to Ringaskiddy. The comment from the tour bus driver about changing the morning of arrival I think meant that they (tour guides, taxi drivers, bus drivers, etc.) sometimes are not informed until last minute of changes and causes frustration for them the morning of the tours. VMax1700 correct in that port schedule is likely work in progress up until very shortly before arrival.

It's more than Ok, it is a beautiful and interesting walk. No issues at all.

We were on Apex last June with a stop at Cork (Cobh). First off the Apex is our new favorite ship -fantastic - but that is for another forum. Our stop was changed from Cobh to Ringaskiddy - I understand this happens frequently. Not sure who makes these decisions or why so late - but anyway they moved the Apex to Ringaskiddy - so you may want to anticipate that possibility. It is right across the bay - we could see the other ship docked at Cobh, however due to the shape/size of the bay it appears to be a good drive - maybe a 45 minute drive between the two. Ringaskiddy is an industrial area. Not friendly to walking, tourism, etc. They allowed the cruise ship excursion buses up close to the ship but taxis and independent excursions appeared to be lined up outside of the port area. Certainly walkable to taxis but a good walk. Ringaskiddy is closer drive to Kinsale than Cobh is to Kinsale. I think this stop is a good choice to take a ships excursion due to the two different port areas - let the cruise line get the buses to the right port. We took the ship's excursion to Blarney. I was pleasantly surprised... the grounds were beautiful. Our bus tour guide (a local) said they sometimes get calls the morning of whether to go to Cobh or Ringaskiddy. Enjoy your trip on the Apex, we certainly did.

Yes. I would be uncomfortable with 11:30 even though you may make it. 1:00 much better. The airport has had major problems this last summer and passport control could be an hour. I understand that is getting better however....

I don't recall seeing many (maybe none) hikers on our trip down. I would guess both bikers and hikers are allowed, but I don't know that for sure.