Iceland's Natural Beauty General - 2022

[Peregrina651]

1 hour ago, Donaghadee said:

Another thing to consider...  The ship will cast off and head to the next port around dinner time, and won't arrive at the next stop until early morning.  If you think you're going to spend your evening texting or calling your friends and relatives with tales of your adventures, you are mistaken.

 

Cell service at sea ranges from spotty and weak to none. Get a text/voice over WiFi app.

 

 

 

 

The Verizon international plans apply only when you are in range of the cell towers, that is, when you are on land or docked. Services at sea is a separate plan. It is all covered at the same link I gave above, you just have to keep scrolling down to find it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Donaghadee]

16 minutes ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

The Verizon international plans apply only when you are in range of the cell towers, that is, when you are on land or docked. Services at sea is a separate plan. It is all covered at the same link I gave above, you just have to keep scrolling down to find it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aungrl]

5 hours ago, StuLaurie said:

Verizon also offers a $10.00 Travel Pass. You get unlimited Talk, Text and Data for 24 hours.  The data has a limited amount of high speed before it gets slowed down but unlimited. You have to text a number to activate it on your phone. You might want to ask about it when you go to the Verizon store. We have used it many times. 

Plus 1 on Verizon Travel Pass.  When we aren't able to use ship or other wifi for whatever reason, we've used the Travel Pass option.  Some countries used to be - in the before times - only $5.00, but most, as I recall, were $10.  Well worth it for the additional 'belt and suspenders' coverage of having cellular service if necessary.   But zero charge if you don't use it.  It's really easy to set up, and once you establish it, it remains an established feature on your account - which means you don't have to go through the set up process every time you leave the country.  

[SantaFe1]

1 minute ago, aungrl said:

It's really easy to set up, and once you establish it, it remains an established feature on your account - which means you don't have to go through the set up process every time you leave the country.  

Thank you.  Really good to know,

[aungrl]

Just now, SantaFe1 said:

Thank you.  Really good to know,

Important caveat:  As someone above noted, this is a great feature ON LAND.  It's not for when you're actually sailing in the evenings or overnight.  But then, you have access to whip Wifi, and all the other ways to access phone-calling type capabilities mentioned above via wifi.  

[Donaghadee]

9 minutes ago, aungrl said:

Important caveat:  As someone above noted, this is a great feature ON LAND.  It's not for when you're actually sailing in the evenings or overnight.  But then, you have access to whip Wifi, and all the other ways to access phone-calling type capabilities mentioned above via wifi.  

Thank you, thank you.  I've been pounding that drum all afternoon and no one seems to comprehend the concept.  Also the fact that cell signals don't penetrate a steel ship seems lost to so many...

I'll just give up here and go have a drink...

[NeilP57]

Given the ShoreX situation I think on this cruise we will have more hours on board than normal docked or near land on the tender ports to use both the cell coverage from outside or from our balcony. 
 

Not sure what the cell phone coverage will be in some of the more remote ports of call, they do seem somewhat isolated. 

[NeilP57]

For UK travellers who are on the Three network the good news is that Iceland is one of the 71 countries around the world where your UK based calling plan covers usage abroad. So your included data and calls can be used in Iceland. 

 

Provided you can get a phone signal of course and you have not accidentally connected to the expensive on board satellite phone signal provider. ( can’t recall if this applies to VO or not) 

[snoopy2001]

15 hours ago, TayanaLorna said:

This will be our 3rd "summer"cruise to either the top or the bottom of the world.  I am happy to report that the blackout curtains in the stateroom work very well.

Into the Midnight Sun in June 2018. The sun did not set for 2 full days.  The blackout curtains were great. Use a clothes pin the keep them shut.

[BQEC]

On 5/23/2021 at 1:35 PM, id4elizabeth said:

Thanks BQEC - that answers my question! 

You are most welcome.

[BQEC]

On 5/23/2021 at 2:25 PM, SantaFe1 said:

I noticed this morning that Iceland has already made a couple of changes to its entrance requirements, even ahead of the June 1 change.  It now lists countries by risk, and USA is on list 1, the lower risk level.  It appears to be done week by week.  I don’t think it changes anything for vaccinated pax yet, but here is the link.  Maybe someone else can glean a bit more than I did:

https://www.covid.is/categories/travel-to-and-within-iceland

Wow!! I'd need some alcohol with rhubarb to address this!!! Thank you for the link.

[Doc who loves to travel]

10 hours ago, snoopy2001 said:

Into the Midnight Sun in June 2018. The sun did not set for 2 full days.  The blackout curtains were great. Use a clothes pin the keep them shut.

We use the pants hangers from the closets with the spring clips. 

 

[Clay Clayton]

One of the July Bermuda cruise rollcall folks that hadn’t been able to book excursions just reported theirs are finally up.  How bout Iceland’s?

[StuLaurie]

2 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

One of the July Bermuda cruise rollcall folks that hadn’t been able to book excursions just reported theirs are finally up.  How bout Iceland’s?

Nothing for July 27th. I just checked. 

[anaco_angler]

Nothing for July 13 either.

[cfgrandma]

Nothing for July 20th.

 

[Clay Clayton]

Sorry for the false alarm 😢

[StuLaurie]

Clay, what would you suggest when our excursions do become available to book. Should I add all the paid excursions first and check out and then go back in and add the included excursions?  I’m just wondering if I am able to add something to my cart could it then become sold out before I can complete the purchase. 
 

Thanks

[Seaharvest]

13 minutes ago, StuLaurie said:

Clay, what would you suggest when our excursions do become available to book. Should I add all the paid excursions first and check out and then go back in and add the included excursions?  I’m just wondering if I am able to add something to my cart could it then become sold out before I can complete the purchase. 
 

Thanks

Yes, your optional excursions are not yours until they are paid for. Just being in your cart does not save them for you. I plan to quickly put the four that I really want in my cart, pay for them then go back and do my other optional ones and the included ones. 

[StuLaurie]

Sounds like a plan, thank you!

[Peregrina651]

51 minutes ago, Seaharvest said:

Yes, your optional excursions are not yours until they are paid for. Just being in your cart does not save them for you. I plan to quickly put the four that I really want in my cart, pay for them then go back and do my other optional ones and the included ones. 

 

 

Good plan!

[Clay Clayton]

Agree with the answers above.  One thing that screwed us up was because of the difficulty we had in making dinner reservations for 3 (DMIL is traveling solo), we ended up with 5:45 dinner each night. The system won’t allow you to book an excursion that returns to the ship within some time period close to another of your reservations. So for day 7 we were not able to book the last included excursion even though it is scheduled to be back by 5.
 

This is one of the issues I’m hoping to resolve once we are aboard. I tried to get help via chat, phone rep and tellus who then had someone call, but none could assist. 

[Dukefan]

We gererally book our two highest priority excursions - then checkout.  Then book our three next most important excursions and again check out. Finally we book all our remaining excusions and check out.   This sytem has worked will on every Viking cruise as we have been lucky enough to always (knock on wood) get our choices.  This works well mainly because most folks go after the same excusions.  For example on this cruise, I would guess the Golden Circle (Reykjavik) and Northern Iceland's Natural Treasures (Akureyri) were probably two excursions that went fast.

[cfgrandma]

8 minutes ago, Dukefan said:

We gererally book our two highest priority excursions - then checkout.  Then book our three next most important excursions and again check out. Finally we book all our remaining excusions and check out.   This sytem has worked will on every Viking cruise as we have been lucky enough to always (knock on wood) get our choices.  This works well mainly because most folks go after the same excusions.  For example on this cruise, I would guess the Golden Circle (Reykjavik) and Northern Iceland's Natural Treasures (Akureyri) were probably two excursions that went fast.

Thanks for the recommendation of selecting and paying.  Golden Circle and Northern Iceland our first choices for our July 20th cruise.

[gramfrog]

1 hour ago, cfgrandma said:

Thanks for the recommendation of selecting and paying.  Golden Circle and Northern Iceland our first choices for our July 20th cruise.

Golden circle is awesome. We've been there a few times. But try pronouncing the national park where it's at, Thingvillir or whatever hahaha.