Rekyavik disembarking question

[jannan]

We are schedule to arrive into port Rekyavik at 7AM per the ship itinerary.  If I line up super early can I make a 1150 AM flight back to the states?

[Mlake09]

Personally I would NOT risk it…we disembarked in Reykjavik late this summer and used the NCL transport to the airport (that took about 50 minutes and we left right on time).  It took us HOURS to get though the security line and that was not on a holiday or weekend, etc.  Ultimately we were glad to have waited for the evening flight! 

[jannan]

Thanks.  How long did it take you to get off the ship?  We have to be back home the next day.

[jannan]

Meaning, how long did it take the ship to allow passengers to disembark after the posted port arrival time?

[Mlake09]

I can’t say for certain how much time passed between when we docked and when people started getting off the ship, because I was not in a rush to disembark (and we had breakfast), but I know some people were in a rush and were frustrated with whatever the delay was.  Others in my roll call were also upset because when they were got off the ship, the luggage wasn’t out and sorted yet, and they were further delayed. It was fine when we got off later in the morning, so it must have just been an issue for the people who got off in the first group. I hope that helps.

1 hour ago, jannan said:

Meaning, how long did it take the ship to allow passengers to disembark after the posted port arrival time?

 

[cruisinginmay]

We didn’t plan to leave Reykjavik the day we docked, but NCL kept encouraging passengers to take their shuttle instead of a cab. Around 8:00 am, there was a line of about 100 people waiting, and cabs arriving about 1 every 5 minutes.  Someone told us they were in line 2 hours to get a cab to their hotel.  So definitely plan to take the shuttle.

[PittGrrl04]

We had  a flight scheduled at 1145am after disembarking from the Star in Reykjavik in July. I think we were off the ship by 715am. We carried our luggage off the ship and arranged a door-to-door transfer with a shared shuttle through Airport Direct. It was around 50 usd per person (I think the ncl transfer was 75 usd), they showed up right on time when we scheduled (730) and we ended up being the only ones on the shuttle anyway. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to make the flight although be prepared to stand in alot of long lines. I'm a nervous Nelly about getting to the airport early but I would feel good about doing it this way again.

[casofilia]

Personally I would not wait for a "off the street" taxi at any port.   Book and pay for some form of transport.   In Reykjavik a shuttle type booked in advance would be far cheaper than a taxi; remember that Iceland is VERY expensive.   Look at the Greyline website for some ideas.

[dexddd]

9 hours ago, PittGrrl04 said:

We had  a flight scheduled at 1145am after disembarking from the Star in Reykjavik in July. I think we were off the ship by 715am. We carried our luggage off the ship and arranged a door-to-door transfer with a shared shuttle through Airport Direct. It was around 50 usd per person (I think the ncl transfer was 75 usd), they showed up right on time when we scheduled (730) and we ended up being the only ones on the shuttle anyway. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to make the flight although be prepared to stand in alot of long lines. I'm a nervous Nelly about getting to the airport early but I would feel good about doing it this way again.

Did they actually have transport right off ship?  We were there a few weeks ago and either had to walk or take a two minute bus ride to a small gift shop for further transport.  Our trip didn't end there though.

[MagnoliaBlossom]

Wevdisembarked the Star on 8/24 and we were off surprisingly early.  Do NOT plan on taking a taxi.  The line for taxis was probably 100 people long and there were very few taxis.   We were waiting for a tour to pick us up at the pier and we’re amazed at how slow the line moved.   During our three days stay we learned that Reyjakvik is striving to reduce the number of vehicles on the street which is why there were so few taxis.

 

the security line was very slow and it seemed we had to do two checks but I’m a little fuzzy on that.  If you can possibly swing it, stay at least one day and do a golden circle tour.  It is amazing.

[ontheweb]

Staying a day will be easy as our Prima cruise next summer ends with an overnight in Reykjavik.

 

And we have previously done a land trip to Reykjavik, and agree with you about the Golden Circle.

[AstoriaPreppy]

19 hours ago, cruisinginmay said:

We didn’t plan to leave Reykjavik the day we docked, but NCL kept encouraging passengers to take their shuttle instead of a cab. Around 8:00 am, there was a line of about 100 people waiting, and cabs arriving about 1 every 5 minutes.  Someone told us they were in line 2 hours to get a cab to their hotel.  So definitely plan to take the shuttle.

 

7 hours ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

Wevdisembarked the Star on 8/24 and we were off surprisingly early.  Do NOT plan on taking a taxi.  The line for taxis was probably 100 people long and there were very few taxis.   

 

 

21 hours ago, jannan said:

We are schedule to arrive into port Rekyavik at 7AM per the ship itinerary.  If I line up super early can I make a 1150 AM flight back to the states?

 

Unless everything works out perfectly, an 11:50 am flight on disembarkation morning from Keflavik is a horrible idea. We did the Celebrity Summit NJ-Reykjavik sailing in August, and were astounded at the taxi line. Hundreds of people with the waits going upwards of 2.5 hours. Our friends did walk off disembarkation first thing, and had been in line for 1.5 hours (and still weren't at the front of the taxi line) by the time we made it off. The manager of taxis ended up telling us it would be much faster to take our bags and walk 45 minutes to the rental car location instead of waiting... it probably ended up saving us two hours in line.

 

The cruise line shuttle will almost certainly be cheaper and faster than the taxis, but then you're at the mercy of the shuttle schedule and other passengers... a noon flight is probably not going to happen.

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

We were recently on a Celebrity Summit B2B where we stopped on transition day (Aug 19) in Reykjavik. There were 3 other cruise ships in port that day, all of which had passengers disembarking that were either heading to the airport or hotel. 

 

We had booked an excursion around the area and while in the parking lot waiting to leave, here is the line we saw around 9 am (of disembarking Summit passengers only) waiting for taxis to take them to either the airport or a hotel. We later heard a taxi was coming about every 2-5 minutes. Needless to say many of them heading to the airport probably wished they had booked a ship-airport transfer. I'm sure it was just as congested at the other cruise ship pier locations.

 

 

 

 

BTW these are some pictures of what @AstoriaPreppywas talking about in the previous post.

 

Edited October 26, 2022 by Ken the cruiser

[PittGrrl04]

14 hours ago, dexddd said:

Did they actually have transport right off ship?  We were there a few weeks ago and either had to walk or take a two minute bus ride to a small gift shop for further transport.  Our trip didn't end there though.

 

Here is a picture taken from our balcony on the Star. You can see the NCL transfer busses on the left and the taxi line on the right. Our third party transfer was waiting at the curb on the other side of the black roofed building, pulled up right to the curb in between the buses and taxis.

[dexddd]

9 hours ago, PittGrrl04 said:

 

Here is a picture taken from our balcony on the Star. You can see the NCL transfer busses on the left and the taxi line on the right. Our third party transfer was waiting at the curb on the other side of the black roofed building, pulled up right to the curb in between the buses and taxis.

That is the gift shop area we had to transit to, we were docked to the left of this.  Why we did not dock here, not sure as we were only ship in port.

 

They were taking down the large white tent back in September.  Not sure of purpose other than maybe shelter while waiting for transportation?

[jannan]

So the issue is not getting of the ship in a timely manner (which seems to happen fast) rather the transport.  If I pre-book a transfer at 8:00 that will solve the taxi line issue.  1 hour to the aiport...say arrive at 9:30 as a hedge for delays... about 2.5 hours before our flight. 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

20 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Staying a day will be easy as our Prima cruise next summer ends with an overnight in Reykjavik.

 

And we have previously done a land trip to Reykjavik, and agree with you about the Golden Circle.

We were supposed to have an overnight in Reyjakvik but when the Prima decided to launch and film their promotional videos there we were bumped and our 11 day became a 10 night.   So we had to add a day to our hotel reservations which cost us about $250.   Very disappointing but we truly lived our time in Reyjakvik and would do this cruise again.

[ontheweb]

36 minutes ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

We were supposed to have an overnight in Reyjakvik but when the Prima decided to launch and film their promotional videos there we were bumped and our 11 day became a 10 night.   So we had to add a day to our hotel reservations which cost us about $250.   Very disappointing but we truly lived our time in Reyjakvik and would do this cruise again.

Did you receive any compensation from NCL for them cutting the cruise one day short and/or for the extra hotel expense?

[crazycatlady82]

We disembarked from the Star on 8/4. If you want to make that flight--get up EARLY and be the first in line to disembark. I once made a 9:30AM flight out of FLL this way, but I don't recommend it and it was super stressful. Also, like others said, do not wait for a street taxi. Book your own transportation with either Grayline (private car!) or a taxi--it will be about the same price. 

 

We weren't flying out until 4PM so we had extra time. I had already prebooked a taxi that showed up on time--now, get ready for a cluster because it will also be up to you to find which vehicle is yours. Disembarking for us didn't take too long nor did the lines at the airport take too long for us but we were early afternoon by that point (we were amongst the big crowd of people just siting at the airport for hours lol). 

[MagnoliaBlossom]

On 10/27/2022 at 7:50 AM, ontheweb said:

Did you receive any compensation from NCL for them cutting the cruise one day short and/or for the extra hotel expense?

No

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, MagnoliaBlossom said:

No

I don't understand how they can get away with that. I do understand that the cruise contract pretty much allows them to do anything, but that is outrageous.