Our Ireland, Iceland and Scotland 2019 cruise/tour

[rjeffler]

Just wanted to give some exhaustive notes on my recent cruise to help out anyone else that might be traveling…especially with a large group.  

 

We did the Celebrity Reflection from Dublin that went to Reykjavik, Akureyri, Glasgow, Belfast and Cork before returning to Dublin.    We also did 5 days in London ahead of Dublin, but I won’t add any of that unless someone is interested in it! 

 

We had a group of 12 so I made plans on our own so that we could hit all of the important places we wanted to see, but not feel like we were in a cattle call with 100 of our closest friends from the ship.  

 

In Dublin, make sure you hit Kilmainham Goal, Jameson Distillery and Guiness Storehouse.  I would suggest purchasing tickets ahead of time for all of these as they are very popular.  We also did the Trinity College Library and the Book of Kells, but bought tickets to those as we walked in.  We did the HOHO bus (Do Dublin) and used that a few times as transportation around town.  We got one driver that did live narration and he was MUCH better than the pre-recorded one.  We did a meal in Temple Bar and walked around a LOT.  We also did a meal at The Bank.  It is between Temple Bar and Trinity College.  If you get a chance, do that.  You can stop in for drinks and snacks or have a meal upstairs.  The upstairs is very small so you definitely need reservations.   https://www.bankoncollegegreen.com/ We also took the train to Howth one day to do something different.  We had lunch at the Dog House.  It is very kitschy.  While Howth is a beautiful place, there is a bit of hiking and lots of restaurants….not much else.  We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn Custom House Quay.  It was very close to a LOT.  It was about ½ mile from Temple Bar/Spire/Ha Penny Bridge and there were bus stops out front for everything.  The EPIC Irish Immigration Museum was right next door.   There was even laundry facilities if you have been on vacation for a few days and want to get on the boat with all clean clothes!  The hotel is about a 5 minute cab ride to the port. 

 

Our first stop was Glasgow, Scotland.  We went with Timberbush Tours for this stop.  Our guide was Eric and we really liked him!  We left the dock and first went to the Falkirk Wheel.  If you’ve never heard of it, check it out:  https://www.scottishcanals.co.uk/falkirk-wheel/.   It is a lock that is a wheel.  Most of my group had done a Rhine River cruise and were interested in locks and some of us saw this particular engineering marvel on a TV show in the US, so we wanted to see it in person.  We did not take a boat trip on it, but just stayed at the bottom and watched it transit up and back down.  Even without the ride, it was worth seeing!  After that we made a stop at the Kelpies.  It was not a scheduled stop, but Eric through we would enjoy it and we truly did!  http://www.thehelix.co.uk/things-to-do/the-kelpies/ .  Then, we went to Stirling Castle which is the most popular thing in the area (my opinion).  Make sure to buy your tickets online ahead of time and miss the lines.  It was packed, but we wandered through the Castle and took lots of fun pictures.  Note here:  Make sure to get your drivers phone number!  We were all ready to go a bit before he was scheduled to pick us up and didn’t have a way to reach him!  Our last stop on the way back to the boat was Loch Lomond.  Just a quick photo/potty stop!  

 

We made it back to the boat with about 30 minutes to spare and felt like we really got our monies worth.   We paid $600# ($796) which worked out to $67/pp for the 12 with us.  The castle was an additional $16/pp.  Considering what the boat was charging for tours, I think we really got our monies worth!!

 

In Reykjavik, the most popular tour is the Golden Circle.  For that we booked with Arctic Adventures.  Our guide was Feeva(not sure exactly how to spell it).  She was a wealth of information and talked to us constantly throughout the tour.  We first stopped at Thingvellir National Park and walked through the crevasse made by an eruption many years ago.  The next stop was at Geysir which is like Old Faithful.  It erupts ever 3-5 minutes and is quite interesting to see.  Leaving this stop, we stopped on the side of the road to visit some local Iceland ponies.  This particular farm has set up a roadside stand for the tour drivers to stop at for photos.  They even have ‘horse candy’ for you to feed them.  They take great selfies!  🙂  Last stop for us was Gullfoss which was a giant waterfall.  If you bring a rain jacket, take the walk down and get closer to the falls.  It was really neat to be that close!  Then, you can walk above it to photo it was well.   No additional entrance fees required for this day.  It cost us $156,000 ISK or $1445 which worked out to $121/pp.  Again, much less than the boat and we got our own 18 passenger Mercedes mini-bus.  

 

The second day in Reykjavik we wanted to do the Blue Lagoon.  I was warned to go early, so we scheduled entrance for 9:00.  We simply had rented a bus from Rejkjavik Excursions for the ride to/from the Blue Lagoon.  I included 6 other folks that I met through cruise critic for the transportation here so that we could save a bit of money!  We paid $695 for the Bus ($43/pp) and then $82/pp for entry into the actual Lagoon.  A few of us were quite wary of the lagoon but it was so much more fun than we could have imagined.  You do have to shower (totally nude) before you get in but they have showers with doors on them so you can be as private as you want to be.  Make sure to put LOTS of conditioner in your hair (they have it in the shower for free) before you go into the water.  If you have curly hair, try to keep your hair out of the water.  Mine is straight and I had no problems.  They also have hair dryers and qtips when you get out!  No need for swim shoes.  Our driver on this day simply drove us back and forth and gave us no additional information about Iceland, so he was just the driver.  🙂 

 

Next was Akureyri.  We did our tour with FAB Travel.   Our driver was named Hawk (none of us could pronounce his Icelandic name).  If I heard him correctly, he was the son of the owners and worked for them in the summer.  We found out very close to the end of our tour that he was a geologist!   We did quite a few stops and I couldn’t pronounce any of them.  It was the Myvatn tour.  We did Godafoss waterfall, Dimmuborgir, Namaskaro and Jarobodin.  Many similar aspects as the Golden Circle in Reykjavik.  Jarabodin is the nature bath that is a lot like the Blue Lagoon.  It is very pretty, but much smaller…much less busy as well.   If you didn’t do the Blue Lagoon, you should do this one!   Namaskaro is a hot mud sulphur mine.  The smell here can be breathtaking…literally.  It is awful.   This tour cost us $170,000 ISK which was $1592.  At $135/couple, still a great deal! 

 

Belfast, Northern Ireland was our next stop.  Originally it was to be Lerwick on the Shetland Islands but I think they changed it to not have a tender port. 😞  While Belfast was nice, we would have LOVED Lerwick!  Our tour company here was McCombs Travel.  We had large mini-busses prior to this, so we were shocked when the 12 of us were given a full size 50 person bus!  Who knew?  We could have sold tours and gone for free! 🙂 We got in quick and drove straight to Giant’s Causeway.  We arrived about 20 minutes before it opened.  The driver explained that we didn’t have to pay to see the Causeway, just if you wanted to see the Visitors Center.   Just walk through the tunnel and down the road to get there.  If you can, go really early.  We were there early enough to be able to take photos without anyone else in them!  When we started walking back up the hill, there were literally hundreds of tourists walking down.  I did a bit of research ahead of time and was able to find The Camel and the Wishing Chair while we were there.  If you have a lot of time, you can take a longer hike, but we just walked down, wandered a bit and walked back.  Wear tennis shoes as it is a good walk and out on the causeway can be slippery.  We have a couple of scaredy cats with us so the next stop was just to look at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  Our driver stopped at a lookout over it for us to take photos of.  Truthfully, I thought it looked pretty neat, but I saw it from WAY above.  I might not have thought that way if I was on it!  We did a drive through Belfast and he showed us the Murals (let us sign on the wall) and told a lot of history of the riots of 2011.  There are still gates around many businesses and even into parts of town.  The last stop was the Titanic Museum.  If you have the time, plan for 2 hours here.  Of course, we all know what happened to the boat, but to see all of the first hand accounts was very interesting.  The full tour today was $625 for the bus and then $242 for the Titanic so a grand total of $146/couple.  What a deal! 

 

Our last stop was Cork, Ireland.  For some reason, they shortened our call here by 2 hours, so we didn’t get to do everything we originally hoped to do.  We drove directly to Blarney Castle.  We had not purchased our tickets in advance so I bought them online while on the bus ride there.  What a good idea. 🙂  Because there were 10 of us getting off the bus, I went to the tour/group line and showed the person the confirmation on my phone and they let us enter directly.  This saved us waiting in line behind 50+ people! If you are going to Blarney Castle, go there immediately and once you get in, walk straight to the castle/Blarney Stone.  There is a line to get in and up to the stone, so do everything else afterwards!  You have to wait in line to get inside the castle and the Blarney stone is at the top.  Truthfully, it is kind of anti-climatic, but we were there, so we did it!  There was also a really great photo stop (on the grounds) for the castle.  When you are leaving, it is on the walkway between the castle and the front.  There is a large rock with a hole cut in it.  It frames the castle so nicely!  We then stopped at the English Market in Cork for a late lunch.  We spent a bit over an hour here but didn’t have time to do anything else as the boat was leaving soon.   We were originally going to do the Jameson Distillery, but we did the one in Dublin.  They changed our extra stop to Kinsale, but we never had time to go there.   This tour was $818 or $140/couple + the tickets to Blarney which I bought day of.  

 

That is most of our trip so If you have any questions about tours, etc...let me know and I’ll answer if I can!

 

[gogiantsfan29]

Sounds like a great trip.  We were on the Reflection Cruise on May 26th to Norway and had a blast.  Thinking of doing a trip to Norway and Iceland in the future.   Thanks for the info.  

[SimplyCool]

Thank you for posting this information. We are traveling in 3 weeks from Southampton with NCL. Will check the tour companies to see if they are still available.

 

Thanks again😍

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, SimplyCool said:

Thank you for posting this information. We are traveling in 3 weeks from Southampton with NCL. Will check the tour companies to see if they are still available.

 

Just so you know, there are other tour operators in Iceland who are discussed in this forum and who get raves as well, so you do have other options. We did the South Coast tour this summer out of Reykjavik with GeoIceland, and it was a fabulous day with one of the best guides we've ever had.   Some others on our Roll Call did the Golden Circle tour with them and also had a good time.

 

Enjoy your trip!

[SimplyCool]

23 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Just so you know, there are other tour operators in Iceland who are discussed in this forum and who get raves as well, so you do have other options. We did the South Coast tour this summer out of Reykjavik with GeoIceland, and it was a fabulous day with one of the best guides we've ever had.   Some others on our Roll Call did the Golden Circle tour with them and also had a good time.

 

Enjoy your trip!

Thanks but  Geolceland /saga travel is sold out for the dates that we will be in Iceland and Norway, so trying to find alternatives.

 

Is there taxi at the port of Iceland and Norway?

 

Thanks  for any suggestions!!

 

Amy:)

 

[Nitemare]

Iceland has many ports.  Some have taxis.  Some don't.  Taxi is a very expensive way to get around in Iceland, which is a very expensive country.

[SimplyCool]

10 hours ago, Nitemare said:

Iceland has many ports.  Some have taxis.  Some don't.  Taxi is a very expensive way to get around in Iceland, which is a very expensive country.

Thank you !!

In Iceland, our ship will moor in Reykjavik from 12:00 pm to  12:00 pm ( overnight)

Also in Akureyri from 8 am to 4 pm.

 

[Turtles06]

4 hours ago, SimplyCool said:

Also in Akureyri from 8 am to 4 pm.

 

Ships dock right in town in Akureyri (or tender right there).  You can just walk around if you aren't going on an excursion.  No need for taxis.  BUT you don't visit Iceland for the towns.  In Akureyri, which is surrounded by natural beauty, I strongly recommending taking the "classic" Myvatn day tour out of town that gets you to the sites that are listed in the OP above.   We had a wonderful day seeing them, and a fabulous hour in the Myvatn Nature Baths.  (Thanks to weather, we had an unscheduled, additional day in Akureyri.  No offense to anyone, but it's just not that interesting.)

[SimplyCool]

21 hours ago, Turtles06 said:

 

Ships dock right in town in Akureyri (or tender right there).  You can just walk around if you aren't going on an excursion.  No need for taxis.  BUT you don't visit Iceland for the towns.  In Akureyri, which is surrounded by natural beauty, I strongly recommending taking the "classic" Myvatn day tour out of town that gets you to the sites that are listed in the OP above.   We had a wonderful day seeing them, and a fabulous hour in the Myvatn Nature Baths.  (Thanks to weather, we had an unscheduled, additional day in Akureyri.  No offense to anyone, but it's just not that interesting.)

Thanks for the tips. Yes, we are looking to get a tour to see Myvatn lake and Godafoss falls.

[gfkcruiser]

On 6/16/2019 at 8:28 AM, rjeffler said:

We have a couple of scaredy cats with us so the next stop was just to look at the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge.  Our driver stopped at a lookout over it for us to take photos of.  Truthfully, I thought it looked pretty neat, but I saw it from WAY above.  I might not have thought that way if I was on it!

We were there April, 2018 after our TA to Dublin.  Did a day trip to Belfast and although I am terrified of heights- we did cross the bridge and, if that is not bad enough, you have to cross again to get back!  Fortunately, it was a short white knuckle trip and the people in charge make sure that no one shakes it.   

[scubacruiserx2]

The rope bridge

 

 

Giant's causeway

 

 

 

Ring of Kerry

 

 

Cliffs of Moher