ljandgb

https://www.luggagelockers.is/locations.html
 

I think you should be able to store your luggage at the main bus terminal. A bonus is you could then take the Flybus from there to the airport. 
 

There’s a contact us link at the bottom you could ask for dimensions. 

I haven’t actually used any of those tour companies. The one I did use did not survive the pandemic. The frequently mentioned ones on TripAdvisor have good reputations. 
 

Just trying to stay between the lines here! 😀

I believe there is luggage storage at the main bus station in Reykjavik.  You could take a taxi to the station (BCI Terminal), pick up a local tour there, return to BCI,  then take the Flybus or a taxi to the airport.

I can't mention names of tour companies here, but you can go over to TripAdvisor for recommendations on local companies.  

I'm assuming by terminal they mean the BSI bus station, which is the main bus station.

I'm sorry, I don't know where the ships dock.  I've only ever done land trips to Iceland.

FWIW, you have to go thru a dummy booking to see the transport options.  It's the last option before you commit and purchase.  There isn't a pickup at the port, but you could take a quick taxi to the main bus station and catch the shuttle from there, or from a number of bus stops in town.  It's very easy to store your luggage there.  

It might be worth finding a private tour.  A guide would be able to suss out what is open, and what is safe to eat, and provide transport there.

Our first cruise I was hesitant to book our own excursions, so did half with the ship and half on our own.  We were traveling with the kids and my parents, so a group of 8, which made it cost effective to do private tours.  We all agreed our private tours were significantly better than the ship ones, for the reasons you mentioned, and then some.  

Enjoy Iceland.  My daughter liked it so much she just did a semester abroad there, and we're going back in May for a week, renting a car, and exploring the west coast.

We've done it both ways.  It depends on your threshold for cost and ease of transition.  Once we just stayed across the street from the official hotel, as it was significantly cheaper for that one night.  

Either way, I'm a huge supporter of going a day early.  We have terrible luck crossing the Atlantic.  Our flights seem to be frequently canceled or delayed.  I'm also terrible with jet lag and really just need to sleep in that first day.

I'll just add that there really aren't "various animals" to see in Iceland.  You will see sheep, more sheep, some horses, and more sheep. There are reindeer and foxes native to the island, but it's not very common to see them.

I can say that our dinner at Lava several years ago was amazing, and yes, all food is expensive there, save the ubiquitous hot dog.

The Flybus into town is convenient, and as noted, requires a transfer to another smaller bus, which will then drop you off at a bus stop.  You may still need to walk a bit to your hotel.  Or, take a taxi from the bus station.  If there is more than two of you, a taxi from the airport may be just as economical.

Any hotel in the 101 postal code is convenient to downtown.

Iceland is amazing.  Go a couple days early and explore areas you won't be stopping in.  The south coast is gorgeous and probably not on your port call.  I like to go at least a day early for tours/cruises anyways just to be safe.

I'm fairly certain there is no Uber.

Our experience in Tallinn was the same. Our guide, who was our age, talked about where she would get Levi's on the black market, her grandmother being the only one of her family to survive the Soviets, and how their family has an exit plan to Finland even now.

Great review, thanks so much!  I loved Amsterdam and would love to spend more time there and in the Netherlands in general.  A Tulip Time cruise is very much on my radar.

We did a walking food tour with our multigenerational group.  It was a lot of fun.  That was one port where I was really glad to have a tour guide.  Not so much for the leading us around, but for the local's perspective.  Estonia has a fascinating history, including events that happened during my lifetime.  Hearing it first had really made an impression on me.  And the food was really good.

I saw Alan Jackson at the Houston Rodeo way back in the day.  He does give a good show!  Rodeos are a lot of fun.  I'm not a cowgirl, per se, but definitely appreciate that aspect of Texas life.  I live in a very rural area and know several real life cowboys who work for ranches around the state.  

As for Bucharest, we did a tour to the former home of Nicolae Ceaușescu (had to cut and paste that to spell it right!). It was really interesting, maybe more so because the museum guides were over booked so we had our local guide do the tour.  He was up front with the level of corruption and scheming that made him Romania's leader.  The house is not that grand by today's millionaire standards, but it had fountains, tiled mosaics in every room, an indoor pool and garden, and a health suite with sauna, hair salon, etc, all at a time when the population had limited electricity or food.  

His wife had an elementary school education, but gave herself a doctorate and her name is to this day still being removed from scholarly publications.

It was a fascinating tour.

You'll love Transylvania.  It was one of our favorite places on our Prague to Romania trip.

As a complete aside, if you'd like to liven up the dressage coverage, find some videos of Snoop Dogg commentating during the Olympics.  I'll admit, as a Texan used to rodeos, it is also a bit underwhelming to me, but that commentary was hilarious without being snarky.

Arctic Adventures, Troll, and Saga are respected companies.  Book direct with them, not thru a third party like Viator.

Iceland is one of my favorite countries.  I've got trip #3 planned for May.  I really think it is best done as a land trip.  I disagree that it would be hard to combine a Norway cruise with this.  There are plenty of flights from Iceland to Europe, and IcelandAir offers up to 7 day stopover either coming or going. You do lose a day to travel, but the benefits are you get to see much more of Iceland.  For younger travelers, that means more access to all the active adventures Iceland has to offer - snorkeling between the tectonic plates, glacier hiking, hiking to isolated geothermal heated pools and streams, rafting glacier rivers.

Even if you do the combined cruise, consider coming in to Iceland 2-3 days earlier, renting a car and exploring outside of Reykjavik.  Most of the "ports" in Iceland are small, with limited choices on activities shared with everyone else on the ship.  Striking out on your own, you can see and do more.

The caveat to this is if you're looking at this summer, lodging is already tight outside of Reykjavik.  Since you don't have a specific plan, you could see where you could find lodging for 4 and build an itinerary around that.  The Westfjords, Snaefellnes, around Myvatn, or anywhere along the south coast would make a great 3-4 day trip. Bungalo.com is the Icelandic version of AirBnB.  My upcoming trip is a combo of Bungalo and booking.com bookings.

Good point.  Ok, we'll get together again and go back to the drawing board.

So what everyone is saying is that we'll need at least a month. 🙂

Seriously, thanks so much for all the help.  At least it gives me good info to bring back to the group so we can plan better.  I'm ok with 3 weeks off, but the others not so much.  I do agree that if we're going all that way, seeing as much as possible for as long as possible, is the way to go.

Next question, one of our group is a tax accountant, and our Spring and Fall is bad for him.  Is it poor planning to come in our summer (June or July?)  We're from Texas and coming in the middle of your summer does not appeal to me if it's very hot - I get enough of that at home.

We went this summer, got there when it opened, and had the Abbey practically to ourselves.  By the time we left, it was getting very crowded.  It gets up to 15,000 visitors a day.  Coming from that distance, there is no way you could get there early enough to beat the crowds.  You might tick the box, but it may not be a pleasant experience.

I'll second just planning a couple extra days and seeing it on your own schedule.  If you want help planning, we've used a French company for 2 different trips and I can't recommend them highly enough.  They planned a week in Paris and Provence, and then 12 days in Normandy, Brittany, and the Loire a few years later.  https://www.france-justforyou.com

We're planning with another couple.  I'd like to see the Great Barrier Reef.  One of us wants to see Sydney.  Another Tasmania and Uluru.  We will need to really pare down what we want.  Or consider a land tour to see the highlights. My husband wants to do Australia and New Zealand.  If we do NZ, I want to do it by land.  I actually prefer land trips, so we can settle in to a pub at night and people watch, poke around towns, etc.

I, obviously, don't know a lot about the area, and personally would like to see more than just a couple places but time is the biggest constraint.  I could do 3 weeks, but the other couple is closer to 2.

I looked at Coral Expeditions.  Those Kimberly cruises look amazing, but I don't think I can sell it to the rest of the group.  I'm the "go as far away from other people as I can get" sort of traveler.  The rest, not so much.

Thanks so much for all the info.  I appreciate it!

Good visual!  I'll also check out that link.  We're in the planning stages for 2024, so have some time.

Thank you.  Makes sense.  That's like folks that post on travel boards about coming to see the US, list off 7 very disparate destinations, then say they're doing it in 7 days.  Um, no you're not! LOL

Back to the drawing board.

We're considering a trip to Australia and New Zealand.  I think I'd rather do a land tour of NZ, but was thinking a 7-10 cruise for the Australia portion might be better to hit the highlights.  We'd prefer a small ship for this, though, say Oceania-sized or smaller.  Looking around, I'm not sure this exists.  Everything I'm seeing is more NZ based, or is 15 days Australia only, which would not leave us enough time to see NZ with our work related time constraints.  Am I missing something?