Anyone done/have opinions on the Iceland transatlantic

[Archaegeo]

There is one cruise each year that is a transatlantic that goes via Iceland ending up in Boston.

 

Anyone done this cruise and have an opinion on it?

 

We want to do a crossing, and figure a stop in Iceland so much different than the normal crossings.

[windjamming]

This is one of the most popular cruises and is almost always sold out. Many people do it multiple years. We've only been lucky enough to make the TA crossing once, on the Jewel, and absolutely loved it. You are right - it is a unique itinerary, and Iceland is a very special place. Strongly recommend, and get your reservation in early!

 

 

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[jjdc]

There is one cruise each year that is a transatlantic that goes via Iceland ending up in Boston.

 

Anyone done this cruise and have an opinion on it?

 

We want to do a crossing, and figure a stop in Iceland so much different than the normal crossings.

 

The cruise for this year just left out of Harwich today. I was on the previous sailing with quite a few people who were staying on for the Transatlantic. I suspect that you'll likely get more responses once they return. You may want to consider posting on their roll call once they get back to ask the views of those who sailed it this year. They had a very active roll call. I think it sounds like a great itinerary.

[Archaegeo]

Looks like it is shifting to the Legend of the Seas next year leaving from Hamburg, Germany on the 7th of Sept for Cape Liberty, NJ. 16 Night crossing.

 

And all suites already gone, wow.

[Rala]

Looks like it is shifting to the Legend of the Seas next year leaving from Hamburg, Germany on the 7th of Sept for Cape Liberty, NJ. 16 Night crossing.

 

And all suites already gone, wow.

 

There is more than one Transatlantic crossing every year. I am sure they will still have the Canada-New england cruises next fall and will need to move a ship from Europe to Boston to let these cruises happen. The Legend may be scheduled to do the winter cruises out of Cape Liberty.:)

[Archaegeo]

Seems to be very few though that stop in Iceland as a part of the crossing. That's the appealing one.

[cruisenfever]

Looks like it is shifting to the Legend of the Seas next year leaving from Hamburg, Germany on the 7th of Sept for Cape Liberty, NJ. 16 Night crossing.

 

And all suites already gone, wow.

Brilliance will be doing her 14 night repo cruise on August 31, 2014 from Harwich to Boston which will include stops in the Faroe Islands and Reykjavik, Iceland.

Edited August 31, 2013 by cruisenfever

[TexasRCH]

We did the cruise both ways last year onHAL. They call it Voyage of the Vikings.

We missed Greenland, Red Bay, and Prince Christian Sound going across because of weather and icebergs. Fog and icebergs is not good for cruise ships in these waters, remember Titanic? HAL added a port in Norway to compensate and we picked them up on the way back.

Prince Christian Sound is great. Think about a six hour cruise through a fiord that in places it seems only about as wide as the ship is long! There are many glaciers along the way. HAL charters a helicopter to fly through first to check on icebergs.

Iceland is great with hot springs, glaciers, and waterfalls. For me though Norway is better with all that plus mountains and trees.

Either though will be a great trip.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Looks like it is shifting to the Legend of the Seas next year leaving from Hamburg, Germany on the 7th of Sept for Cape Liberty, NJ. 16 Night crossing.

 

And all suites already gone, wow.

 

The Legend is a small ship and does not have many suites.

[dallasnanny]

Brilliance will be doing her 14 night repo cruise on August 31, 2014 from Harwich to Boston which will include stops in the Faroe Islands and Reykjavik, Iceland.

Has anyone arranged a group excursion in Reykjavik? Two would like to join on the brilliance of the seas, august 31, 2014

Edited December 7, 2013 by dallasnanny

[NorbertsNiece]

Has anyone arranged a group excursion in Reykjavik? Two would like to join on the brilliance of the seas, august 31, 2014

 

I see you've already asked this question on the roll call..... that's the best place to arrange excursions :)

[luvscruising2007]

On our Jewel TA in 2009, NEGC, a frequent poster, arranged a private tour for the Golden "Circle tour". I think that was the name. He takes this cruise quite often and maybe he will pop in and respond.

We did the ship's tour and it was a wonderful experience.

[3DobermansDZS]

DH and I are looking to make this cruise our big trip for next year. I hope someone returning from this years will offer some experiences!

 

My next door neighbor was stationed via the Air Force in Iceland before moving back to the states. Her stories have made me want to go and throwing in Dorset for Stonehenge/Salisbury and day in Paris- sounds like the perfect trip.

 

So far airfare is pretty steep though.

Edited December 8, 2013 by 3DobermansDZS

[negc]

We have done this cruise for several years now, previously on Jewel of the Seas but this year on Brilliance which has assumed Jewel's itineraries. It is very popular and has a large number of veteran and repeat cruises. Iceland and the Faroe Islands are among our favorite ports of call. There is already an active roll call for next year's cruise (last year's had to be split into two segments because it was so active) and you will find a number of folks who will set up private (non-ship sponsored) excursions. Among the most popular are the Golden Circle Tour, a South Coast tour which will take you to the site of the volcano that erupted a few years back, and one that will take you to the Blue Lagoon. Since the Brilliance spends overnight in Reykjavik, it should be possible to take at least two of these tours. We are doing a Norwegian Fjords cruise next summer on Adventure of the Seas and it spends two days in Reykjavik and a day in Akureyri, Iceland.

The Brilliance Transatlantic is wonderful for us since we live in a town south of Boston so we only have to fly one way (to England to pick up the ship) and then sail back to Boston and our home which is less than twenty five minutes away.

You should book asap as this is a very popular sailing and prices are more likely to go up than decrease as the sailing date gets closer.

[NorbertsNiece]

One of my daughters lived in Reykjavik for 3 years..... on one of my trips to visit her we took a short island flight to Helmaey, Westmann Islands. Absolutely fascinating.

 

The posts are attached to the roofs of houses that had been consumed by a volcanic eruption.

 

[138east]

This was a fantastic cruise this year! Weather was excellent until we hit Iceland, where it was cloudy with a little rain.

 

Here's the web site for this year's cruise - lots of information about the tours that folks arranged privately. The Tora Tourist tour in the Faroes was superb.

 

 

http://www.katedencruises.com/brilliance2013/home.html

 

If you're interested in Paris, my advice would be to do Paris pre cruise and take the easy Eurostar train from Paris to London. The excursion to Paris from Le Havre is a super long day on this port intensive cruise. IMO much better to do something more local like the Normandy beaches, Honfleur, or Mt St Michele.

Edited December 8, 2013 by 138east

[negc]

We have done this cruise for several years now, previously on Jewel of the Seas but this year on Brilliance which has assumed Jewel's itineraries. It is very popular and has a large number of veteran and repeat cruises. Iceland and the Faroe Islands are among our favorite ports of call. There is already an active roll call for next year's cruise (last year's had to be split into two segments because it was so active) and you will find a number of folks who will set up private (non-ship sponsored) excursions. Among the most popular are the Golden Circle Tour, a South Coast tour which will take you to the site of the volcano that erupted a few years back, and one that will take you to the Blue Lagoon. Since the Brilliance spends overnight in Reykjavik, it should be possible to take at least two of these tours. We are doing a Norwegian Fjords cruise next summer on Adventure of the Seas and it spends two days in Reykjavik and a day in Akureyri, Iceland.

The Brilliance Transatlantic is wonderful for us since we live in a town south of Boston so we only have to fly one way (to England to pick up the ship) and then sail back to Boston and our home which is less than twenty five minutes away.

You should book asap as this is a very popular sailing and prices are more likely to go up than decrease as the sailing date gets closer.

I should mention that it was SueL who made the arrangements for the Golden Circle tour. We were merely among the large number of CCers who took this wonderful excursion. This year KateDen arranged the tour of the South Coast which took us to an area in Iceland we hadn't seen previously.

[smoosh21]

Seems to be very few though that stop in Iceland as a part of the crossing. That's the appealing one.

 

I did a land vacation in Iceland this past Autumn. Iceland Air had some very good rates during November (yes, the days were quite short). :eek: However we still had plenty of time to see everything, except the Northern Lights as it was cloudy. :(

 

I agree that Iceland is a very amazing place.

 

If the Premium is too high for this, you could also look into a Reykjavik Layover on your way to pick up a different Transatlantic ship and that way you will still get to see Iceland

[onthelake]

We have booked the Indy TA from Port Everglades to Southampton with a few days in London. flying back with Icelandair which will give us two days to do the Golden Circle Tour and the Blue Lagoon. Best news, Icelandair was the most economical one way airfare back to North America. So, don't despair if you cannot book the Iceland TA, just book another itinerary and stop in Iceland for up to a week on your one-way flight. I sound like a commercial but we are really looking forward to this stop.

[kccrzr]

We spent several days in Reykjavik in 2012 on the way to Stockholm via Icelandair for a Baltics cruise and had a great time. We are looking to go back, but unfortunately can't swing it for the TAs due to college schedules.

 

We did the circle tour (Gullfoss is awe-inspiring), went to the Blue Lagoon, visited the excellent National Museum, did a self tour and had drinks at the beautiful opera house - the list goes on - just lots of fun, interesting things to do in and around Reykjavik.

Edited March 13, 2014 by kccrzr

[franl24fan]

I was on the Jewel in 2012 and the stop in Iceland was one of my favorites. As mentioned, we had awesome folks on our cc thread that arranged private tours in every port, twice the tour for half the price and the chance to really get to make a lot of new friends. The Golden Circle tour is not to be missed, can't spell the name, but the waterfall was breathtaking, made Niagara Falls seem like nothing. Be sure and check out the Choice Air rates, I used that for my one way to Heathrow, originally booked with flex fare, after price drop changed to another airline, ended up saving 50% over usual airline price for same flight.