Greenland/Iceland cruise!

[Harrylinden]

We just booked a Greenland/Iceland B2B on the Eclipse from NJ and returning to Boston for August 2024. Suggestions wanted for shore excrusion's from anyone who's done this cruise! We have no idea what to do to get the best experience while there!

[1025cruise]

You might want to check the ports of call boards.

[RichYak]

Search for live from threads by Ken the Cruiser and Jim & Iain who both did the same B2B this past August.

[RosieRoo]

This cruise has been done for the last couple of years on the Summit.  Look for the roll calls from previous sailings. There’s tons of info there. 

[Jim_Iain]

I would suggest you book everything and anything that may remotely interest you.   They book the excursions quickly and many of the ports don't have the infrastructure to add more.

 

In Greenland we booked the Small boat trip to an ancient Island -  Great tour but VERY EXPENSIVE.   The boat only held 8 of us.   On the trip to Iceland there was also a small tour via Zodiac to a Glacier.   People were raving about it and was going to do on the way back to Boston but they didn't offer it an unable to even book it on my own.

 

Join you Roll Call -  Many of the tours we took were tours arranged by other from CC.   If you read the Roll Call for our trip in 2022 you will see many of the tours that were offered.    

 

We also took the ships tour to Peggy's Cove with a Lobster Lunch -  Great tour and one of the best lobster lunches  I have ever had.

[jwlane]

https://www.gtice.is/hot-golden-circle/ in Reykjavik.

Edited January 16, 2023 by jwlane

[AstoriaPreppy]

We did the NJ-Iceland leg of the sailing this year.

 

Most of the Celebrity shore excursions were not worth the price in Canada. Halifax and St. Johns were very walkable, with a lot of the excursions just being a ride with a guide to a location that was walkable/quick taxi ride from the ship.

 

Qaqortoq was tiny. The cruise ship excursions were mostly wandering the town with a guide, or visiting someone's home. They're not really set up for tourism like a typical port. 

 

Iceland was a bit different. The excursions were plentiful, and generally well packaged, but were limited in scope. For example: in Akureyri, instead of taking a town tour and stopping at Godafoss, we rented a car and drove to Godafoss, saw the steam vents and thermal features at Hervir, and finished out at Dettifoss. This cost less money than an excursion, and maximized our time. 

Also, there's lot of different thoughts on doing this as a B2B, but we really enjoyed spending a few days post cruise in Reykjavik with a rental car, which gave us the ability to do the south coast (which this cruise skips entirely). 

[AstoriaPreppy]

Thought 2023 had an overnight at the start of the second leg, but it's 2024... deleted my comment!

Edited January 16, 2023 by AstoriaPreppy

[kathynorth]

Research private tours and book early! The Celebrity tours were almost double what private vendors were charging. 

[jwlane]

30 minutes ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

we rented a car

We were almost identical in Akureyri, hit Hverir, circled Myvatn visiting Dimmuborgir, Hofdi, Skutustadagigar, then Godafoss on the way back.  Basically one step ahead of the tour busses the entire day.  We did all this in about 5 hours.

Edited January 16, 2023 by jwlane

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Harrylinden said:

We just booked a Greenland/Iceland B2B on the Eclipse from NJ and returning to Boston for August 2024. Suggestions wanted for shore excrusion's from anyone who's done this cruise! We have no idea what to do to get the best experience while there!

We just did this B2B in August and posted pictures of the Celebrity excursions we did at the various ports. Hope this gives you some ideas. 

 

 

[haleindia]

For those that rented a car in Akureyri, can you share which company/location?  Easy to get and return?  Looking to do this in August. 
 Thanks!

[son3cruisers]

4 hours ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

We did the NJ-Iceland leg of the sailing this year.

 

Most of the Celebrity shore excursions were not worth the price in Canada. Halifax and St. Johns were very walkable, with a lot of the excursions just being a ride with a guide to a location that was walkable/quick taxi ride from the ship.

 

Qaqortoq was tiny. The cruise ship excursions were mostly wandering the town with a guide, or visiting someone's home. They're not really set up for tourism like a typical port. 

 

Iceland was a bit different. The excursions were plentiful, and generally well packaged, but were limited in scope. For example: in Akureyri, instead of taking a town tour and stopping at Godafoss, we rented a car and drove to Godafoss, saw the steam vents and thermal features at Hervir, and finished out at Dettifoss. This cost less money than an excursion, and maximized our time. 

Also, there's lot of different thoughts on doing this as a B2B, but we really enjoyed spending a few days post cruise in Reykjavik with a rental car, which gave us the ability to do the south coast (which this cruise skips entirely). 

I will second everything AstoriaPreppy just posted. We followed the same plan. In Greenland you do not  need a tour. You can easily walk around and follow the one road to the highest point. The views are spectacular.

 

We also rented a car in Akureyri, We rented a car from Akureyri rent a car. 

https://akureyrirentacar.is

Car was waiting for us ( with an agent ) in the first parking lot leaving the ship and was an easy drop off to the same place. I would highly recommend . 
Isafjord we rented ATVs ( private tour) 

https://atv-isafjordur.is

Again, an amazing tour of the both city and off road.

Once we arrived in Reykjavik we rented a car and headed to the Southcoast for 4 days of site seeing. That was the most amazing part of the whole trip. I recommend if you are travelling all the way to Iceland, you might want to stay a couple of extra days to see  it all, We also stayed a night at the Blue Lagoon. So much to see and do  .

Here is Qaqortoq Greenland: 

Edited January 17, 2023 by son3cruisers

[horseymike]

5 hours ago, Harrylinden said:

We just booked a Greenland/Iceland B2B on the Eclipse from NJ and returning to Boston for August 2024. Suggestions wanted for shore excrusion's from anyone who's done this cruise! We have no idea what to do to get the best experience while there!

 

[horseymike]

Celebrity has just announced on this cruise all the ice you can eat at no extra charge.

[jwlane]

13 hours ago, haleindia said:

can you share which company/location?  Easy to get and return? 

We used Europcar---a little tricky.  They weren't physically at the pier location---after calling, they came and picked us up and took us to their main office a few blocks away.  This took 30-40 minutes out of our port time.  Return was right at the pier, so no problem.

[AstoriaPreppy]

16 hours ago, haleindia said:

For those that rented a car in Akureyri, can you share which company/location?  Easy to get and return?  Looking to do this in August. 
 Thanks!

In both Akureri and Isafjdour, we used Europcar.

 

In both instances we used port or port-adjacent locations.

 

In Akureri, they have a shipping container at the port that works as the rental counter... but no one was there when we arrived, so we had to call and wait a few minutes for someone to come over. In Isafjdour, the location was in a hotel a block or two from the tender pier. Again, very easy but had to wait a few minutes for someone to come over. 

 

We got off early enough in both places that the slight amount of waiting wasn't an issue. 

 

In Reykjavick, there was a 2+ hour line for taxis at disembarkation, so we walked to the Europcar about 30 minutes from the port, dragging our bags. Ended up being well worth the walk. 

[Ken the cruiser]

11 minutes ago, AstoriaPreppy said:

 

In Reykjavick, there was a 2+ hour line for taxis at disembarkation, so we walked to the Europcar about 30 minutes from the port, dragging our bags. Ended up being well worth the walk. 

I remember that line, as we were sitting in our excursion bus waiting to leave! Thank goodness it didn't rain that day! 

 

 

 

[AstoriaPreppy]

6 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

I remember that line, as we were sitting in our excursion bus waiting to leave! Thank goodness it didn't rain that day! 

 

 

 

 

I will say, walking past this line was *great* for reconnecting with the cruisers who vanished into quarantine after contracting COVID on the cruise. Lots of "where have you been the last three days!?" etc. 

[drowelf]

Take a look at Saga Tours, we used them for several tours when we did a circumnavigation of Iceland in 2018. Private is the way to go, as it will be cheaper than the ship tours, but be aware that everything is very expensive in Iceland. When we went out to the geysers, our lunch of chicken fingers and fries was about $25 and that was for one order that we shared. 

Edited January 17, 2023 by drowelf

[RichYak]

On 1/16/2023 at 5:29 PM, jwlane said:

We were almost identical in Akureyri, hit Hverir, circled Myvatn visiting Dimmuborgir, Hofdi, Skutustadagigar, then Godafoss on the way back.  Basically one step ahead of the tour busses the entire day.  We did all this in about 5 hours.

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I've been spending time today researching what do do in Akureyri and I'm all in on this itinerary. Seems like a great way to spend the day in the area. If there's anything else you think I need to know, I'm all ears.

[Ken the cruiser]

For what it’s worth starting at post 323 and again at post 407 I describe what we did when we stopped at Akureyri twice on our below B2B this past August on the Celebrity Summit.

 

 

 

[Arizona Wildcat]

On 1/16/2023 at 3:19 PM, kathynorth said:

Research private tours and book early! The Celebrity tours were almost double what private vendors were charging. 

In Greenland there were almost no private tours.  Ship locked up everything.  In Akureyri renting a car would be great.  Cars in short supply.  Lots of great scenery nearby.

In Reykjavik be aware there are very few taxis and a 5 mile ride can cost $40.  People waited in line for 1-2 hours to get a taxi.  Definitely a ship's tour.

Isafjordur is very small.  Car rental possible or a ship's tour of simply visit town and an excellent museum within easy walking distance. 

[RichYak]

35 minutes ago, Arizona Wildcat said:

In Reykjavik be aware there are very few taxis and a 5 mile ride can cost $40.  People waited in line for 1-2 hours to get a taxi.  Definitely a ship's tour.

I have a group from our roll call. We’re doing a private tour starting at the port when we disembark in Reykjavik. It ends with drop offs near downtown hotels. 

[jelayne]

A few years ago in Akureyri 4 of us did a tour with Taxi No. 17.  It was a great day and would recommend it highly.