Is Isafjordur ALWAYS CANCELLED????

[CruiserBruce]

1 minute ago, bluesea777 said:

 

The ship that docked was HAL Zuiderdam! Much lighter at 82.3k gt than NCL Prima at 143.5k gt, and also narrower by 30ft.

 

Zuiderdam, upon leaving the port, had to reverse up past the town before it can turn around to leave the fjord forward.

 

 

The port is not a large area...cruise ships with all their thrusters and azipods are nice, but there isn't a lot of room to work with here. 

[Nitemare]

I can't imagine that port handling two ships at the same time.  Not even one 3000 person ship!  There just isn't the infrastructure and tour buses and things to do for that many folks at one time.

[Burrata]

According to Cruise Mapper (still waiting to hear from someone on board) NCL Star was anchored off Isafjordur today.

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Burrata said:

According to Cruise Mapper (still waiting to hear from someone on board) NCL Star was anchored off Isafjordur today.

There seems to be no problem with the NCL Star, but the NCL Prima has skipped the port every single cruise this year so far.

[Doh15]

We were interested in maybe doing a private excursion here, especially since our first choice for the ship's excursions seems sold out, but I am very hesitant to book one if there is decent chance we will miss the port because most companies do not seem to have a refund for a missed port.  

 

Anyone have suggestions?

[kitkat343]

11 minutes ago, Doh15 said:

We were interested in maybe doing a private excursion here, especially since our first choice for the ship's excursions seems sold out, but I am very hesitant to book one if there is decent chance we will miss the port because most companies do not seem to have a refund for a missed port.  

 

Anyone have suggestions?

Do you have trip insurance or does your credit card offer any protection?  

[Doh15]

1 hour ago, kitkat343 said:

Do you have trip insurance or does your credit card offer any protection?  

We are relying on credit card insurance this trip (knock wood) but it didn’t really occur to me that it would cover this. Interesting. 

[kitkat343]

36 minutes ago, Doh15 said:

We are relying on credit card insurance this trip (knock wood) but it didn’t really occur to me that it would cover this. Interesting. 

You'd need to check with them but it's worth looking into prior to booking your independent tour.  

[ontheweb]

We booked a private tour before this was a known issue. The tour provider did say that if the ship does not make the port, we will get a refund. IIRC, it may be less 5% for her handling fee. But that is such a small amount that the loss of it would not bother me. Losing the tour, which both DW and I feel sounds very interesting, would bother me.

[onyx007]

I have returned from the Norvegian Star and was in Isafördur last week on the 22nd of June;

we had to tender as someone already pointed out by showing the port activity on that day and there was the Viking Saturn, a much smaller ship at the pier...

 

While in Akureyri (the second biggest town in Iceland after Reykjavik) tons of local tour companies where at the pier looking for customers, there where none at the pier in Isafördur and just inside the town a small booking agency which sold out very fast....the bord tours from NCL are often double the price which they should be and run with 50+ big busses. So no need to book anything in advance for Akureyri but if you like to go out of Isafördur (which is a really small place with not much to see and do) you should book your tours in advance but as you might have to tendering always with a good start after arrival...if your ship arrival is 9 am as ours was, you would either have to get up really early for tender tickets (if you need to have them) or choose a departure of your tour not earlier then 10.30 am...

[v3cruiser]

Thats great news. We are on the star starting on the 13th July. I was concerned about missing this port. We dont have any excursions as this stop was the last to post any and all but guided tours in town were $350 person or more. I think we plan on just hanging out in port as it seems operators are understandably limited. 

[Doh15]

On 6/27/2023 at 5:31 PM, ontheweb said:

We booked a private tour before this was a known issue. The tour provider did say that if the ship does not make the port, we will get a refund. IIRC, it may be less 5% for her handling fee. But that is such a small amount that the loss of it would not bother me. Losing the tour, which both DW and I feel sounds very interesting, would bother me.

Can you share the tour provider?

[fishman620]

2 hours ago, ontheweb said:

 

Mid-August? Are you on the same cruise as us, August 6th from London (Southampton) to Reykjavik? 

 

Hoping here also, but really beginning to doubt.

Yes, we are on the Aug. 6th sailing too🙂

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, fishman620 said:

Yes, we are on the Aug. 6th sailing too🙂

OK, maybe we'll meet. Are you on the roll call? We joined way back in 2021.

[fishman620]

11 hours ago, ontheweb said:

OK, maybe we'll meet. Are you on the roll call? We joined way back in 2021.

yes, we are on the roll call....my first post was of excursions in January 2023.

[ontheweb]

7 hours ago, fishman620 said:

yes, we are on the roll call....my first post was of excursions in January 2023.

OK, I thought I recognized your screen name, but was not sure.

 

Let us hope the situation with Isafjordur is fixed at least by the time of our cruise. 👌

[Capt_BJ]

took this picture last week showing the pier work still underway. Viking Saturn was at the pier facing "into the port" or southwest.

 

Am MSC ship was anchored and tendering. I'd mention that not only is the distance to the land off the left side (port) in this picture not too far .... a dredge was working the area the entire time we were there.

 

Edited July 22, 2023 by Capt_BJ

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, Capt_BJ said:

took this picture last week showing the pier work still underway. Viking Saturn was at the pier facing "into the port" or southwest.

 

Am MSC ship was anchored and tendering. I'd mention that not only is the distance to the land off the left side (port) in this picture not too far .... a dredge was working the area the entire time we were there.

 

Thanks, I truly hope it is completed by August 15th.

[PhillyTravelBug]

11 hours ago, ontheweb said:

Thanks, I truly hope it is completed by August 15th.

Same here. We sail the 17th.

[ontheweb]

4 hours ago, PhillyTravelBug said:

Same here. We sail the 17th.

✌✌ for both us and all our fellow passengers.

 

Your scheduled stop should be only a few days after ours, so the chances are we will either both be in or out of luck.

[kitkat343]

Good luck to everyone scheduled this summer!

 

I'd really appreciate it if you could report back with your experiences after you sail.  It's always been a dream of mine to visit Iceland, but we have 3 small children so travel is a little harder for us now.  Our last cruise was very difficult for my husband because we pulled our kids out of school since my daughter was obsessed with monkeys and we were supposed to go to a monkey reserve in the Dominican Republic, and see giant toirteses in Antigua.  But NCL cancelled the DR port stop and the morning of Antigua to help save the environment a month before we sailed and since the toirtise place is only open in the mornings we missed both excursions.  

 

So I'm a little hesitant to book a cruise to Iceland, since we usually only book private tours (if my kids melt down I'd hate for them to ruin everyone else's tours) and it seems like private tours are tough to book in Iceland.  

Edited July 23, 2023 by kitkat343

[Nitemare]

19 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Good luck to everyone scheduled this summer!

 

I'd really appreciate it if you could report back with your experiences after you sail.  It's always been a dream of mine to visit Iceland, but we have 3 small children so travel is a little harder for us now.  Our last cruise was very difficult for my husband because we pulled our kids out of school since my daughter was obsessed with monkeys and we were supposed to go to a monkey reserve in the Dominican Republic, and see giant toirteses in Antigua.  But NCL cancelled the DR port stop and the morning of Antigua to help save the environment a month before we sailed and since the toirtise place is only open in the mornings we missed both excursions.  

 

So I'm a little hesitant to book a cruise to Iceland, since we usually only book private tours (if my kids melt down I'd hate for them to ruin everyone else's tours) and it seems like private tours are tough to book in Iceland.  

Iceland is REALLY easy to self drive.  Especially with kids, you can set your own pace and see what you want to see without worrying about wind conditions or something else interfering with docking

[ljandgb]

4 hours ago, Nitemare said:

Iceland is REALLY easy to self drive.  Especially with kids, you can set your own pace and see what you want to see without worrying about wind conditions or something else interfering with docking

 

100% yes.  Iceland is really a much better land trip, and it is so family friendly.   Kids are welcomed pretty much everywhere.  Every town has a local pool that is a family gathering place. Lots of small cottages all over so you can self cater, many with hot tubs.  Lots of nature to run around in, and once out of the city, practically no traffic to speak of.  We did a week in May with a rental car and had a great time.

[Meander Ingwa]

Totally agree.  I would self tour Iceland myself.  So much better access to what you wish to see

[dronnygirl]

Can really recommend Iceland Guided Tours. We did tours in Rekjavik and Akureyri and they were fantastic. They were waiting at the port and there were 8 of us on the small bus so we were given choices of some of the places we wanted to visit. Lots of stops so the kids won't get bored and plenty of comfort stops. 

Fabulous place, lots to see and kids would love it