FrenchGiant Posted July 23 #1 Share Posted July 23 I am cruising in Iceland in 2025 with Princess Cruise, and when I look at Ship Excursions, they are double, even triple the price of private excursions. I'm gonna be a first-time cruiser, and need advice if I should book through the ship and pay the extra OR if private tours are reliable? We will be in Akureyri from 9am to 6pm and in Reykjavik from 7am to 6pm. I am looking at the following two excursions : - Lake Myvatn & Godafoss in Akureyri with the Ship (Triple the price) OR Iceland Everywhere Tours - Golden Circle & Kerid Crater with the Ship (Double the price) OR Iceland Everywhere Tours Thank you for your input! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marys350 Posted July 24 #2 Share Posted July 24 18 hours ago, FrenchGiant said: I am cruising in Iceland in 2025 with Princess Cruise, and when I look at Ship Excursions, they are double, even triple the price of private excursions. I'm gonna be a first-time cruiser, and need advice if I should book through the ship and pay the extra OR if private tours are reliable? We will be in Akureyri from 9am to 6pm and in Reykjavik from 7am to 6pm. I am looking at the following two excursions : - Lake Myvatn & Godafoss in Akureyri with the Ship (Triple the price) OR Iceland Everywhere Tours - Golden Circle & Kerid Crater with the Ship (Double the price) OR Iceland Everywhere Tours Thank you for your input! My husband and I did the Golden Circle & Kerid Crater Tour with Iceland Everywhere Tours in June and were very happy with the small group experience. Our minibus was clean and comfortable and Siggy our driver/guide was excellent. Pick-up and drop off was right at the cruise port. The cost was about 1/3 of the price of NCL's shore excursion and we received a discount for paying at the time of booking instead of on the day of tour. Excellent cancellation/refund policy. I'd suggest emailing Iceland Everywhere Tours before you book and ask if you will be back to the ship in time. We were in port overnight so we didn't have to worry about missing the ship's departure. As a first time cruiser, make sure that you allow extra time to get back to ship before official all aboard time. We've done many private non-ship sponsored tours and like to get back to the ship at least 90 minutes to 2 hours before sail-away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwatts15 Posted July 27 #3 Share Posted July 27 BE CAREFUL WITH ICELAND EVERYWHERE. We just got back from our cruise 2 weeks ago. One of our stops was Grundarfjordur. Well it was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas. We had a tour booked with Iceland Everywhere and I called them when the Captain made the announcement that morning that we could not tender into port. They were very nice and said that they refund 100% if the ship cancels port. They said they would send an email to me. When I got the email I was surprised. It said my refund would be processed in 2 to 6 weeks and then after the processed was started it would be another 4-8 days to see the refund. This is unreal!!! We also had an excursion booked with Artic Adventures in Reykjavik go snowmobiling. They picked us up at the port and when we got up to the glacier the winds were gusting up to 40mph so they cancelled the tour. I called the company when we got back to the ship and told them what happened and they said they would email me and send refund. I had the refund in my account in 2 days. Big difference. Iceland Everywhere has great refund policy but it doesn't say 2-6 weeks to get your money!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cwatts15 Posted July 27 #4 Share Posted July 27 We stopped in Akureyri too. We rented a car with Akureyri Rental Cars and drove ourselves around the Diamond Circle to see all the sites. It was much cheaper. The route is very easy. The rental car pick up was at the port. So easy. We were in port 9-6 We ended up paying about $250 for the day, but we split it with some other passengers. The excursion prices were so expensive!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FrenchGiant Posted July 27 Author #5 Share Posted July 27 7 minutes ago, cwatts15 said: BE CAREFUL WITH ICELAND EVERYWHERE. We just got back from our cruise 2 weeks ago. One of our stops was Grundarfjordur. Well it was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas. We had a tour booked with Iceland Everywhere and I called them when the Captain made the announcement that morning that we could not tender into port. They were very nice and said that they refund 100% if the ship cancels port. They said they would send an email to me. When I got the email I was surprised. It said my refund would be processed in 2 to 6 weeks and then after the processed was started it would be another 4-8 days to see the refund. This is unreal!!! We also had an excursion booked with Artic Adventures in Reykjavik go snowmobiling. They picked us up at the port and when we got up to the glacier the winds were gusting up to 40mph so they cancelled the tour. I called the company when we got back to the ship and told them what happened and they said they would email me and send refund. I had the refund in my account in 2 days. Big difference. Iceland Everywhere has great refund policy but it doesn't say 2-6 weeks to get your money!!! To me, delays is not a problem. A lot of companies have longer refund policy, as long as they refund, I am good with it 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leaneff Posted July 30 #6 Share Posted July 30 On 7/24/2024 at 7:16 AM, marys350 said: My husband and I did the Golden Circle & Kerid Crater Tour with Iceland Everywhere Tours in June and were very happy with the small group experience. Our minibus was clean and comfortable and Siggy our driver/guide was excellent. Pick-up and drop off was right at the cruise port. The cost was about 1/3 of the price of NCL's shore excursion and we received a discount for paying at the time of booking instead of on the day of tour. Excellent cancellation/refund policy. I'd suggest emailing Iceland Everywhere Tours before you book and ask if you will be back to the ship in time. We were in port overnight so we didn't have to worry about missing the ship's departure. As a first time cruiser, make sure that you allow extra time to get back to ship before official all aboard time. We've done many private non-ship sponsored tours and like to get back to the ship at least 90 minutes to 2 hours before sail-away. How many people were on each bus? We have this tour booked, but I am curious how large each group is. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marys350 Posted July 30 #7 Share Posted July 30 7 hours ago, leaneff said: How many people were on each bus? We have this tour booked, but I am curious how large each group is. Thanks! The mini bus holds approximately 16-18 people and there were just 9 people on the bus the day of our tour. There was a center aisle with rows of two seats behind the driver, single seats across the aisle and 3-4 seats across the back of the bus. The bus was clean and comfortable and it was quick and easy to get on and off the bus. Siggy was a great driver-guide, the tour was well paced with ample bathroom breaks, and an opportunity to eat lunch at the geyser center facility. Enjoy! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeW Posted August 3 #8 Share Posted August 3 Ship tours with Princess were great a few years ago, but we had a couple of 85 year old twins that only went to the gift shops and guide had to go get them at each stop. Around 40 on buses and ship had 17 buses on the two circle tours. We were late getting back in Rjekavik, but we were the first bus and had the Captain's wife with us. Last bus was an hour late. Trying Iceland Everywhere for next cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare tupper10 Posted August 5 #9 Share Posted August 5 We used Saga for these tours and both worked out very well for us. https://sagatravel.is/. We had some issues with a meet up point and Saga's driver drove to get us. I would use them again. They were also wonderful when we had to cancel our cruise last summer, we moved our reservations for the excursions to this summer and they kept the same price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCJack Posted August 15 #10 Share Posted August 15 We took a golden circle tour in Reykjavik and the Lake Myvatn tour in Akureyri, both with independent tour operators. A couple of thoughts: Golden Circle tour is largely transportation between the sites. We walked through the sites on your own, and I suspect you do with a ship's tour as well. So, it makes sense to go with the cheaper option, since it is mostly just transportation. However.... our golden circle tour arrived back at Reykjavik 1.5 hours late. Iceland has a lot of 2 lane highways and we ran into a long backup due to construction just as we approached Reykjavik. Our ship overnighted in Reykjavik so it was not an issue. My general rule of thumb is the farther an excursion goes away from the ship, the more I tend to favor a ship's excursion. The golden circle tour will take you a long ways from the ship. Agree with Marys350 make sure your independent excursion is scheduled for return 2 hours prior to all aboard. With a 6 pm departure this may be an issue. Our Lake Myvatn excursion went well, no issues. There was a bit more commentary than on Golden Circle. For our independent excursion the driver was also the commentator, and he was very good. On a ship's bus you may have a driver plus a guide, and I suspect they would be good as well. Myvatn has quite a bit of driving as well but I don't think as much as Golden Circle. Have fun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhenry1 Posted August 15 #11 Share Posted August 15 What tour companies did you use? we overnight also so no problem. Did you use a private transfer to airport and if so what company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CCJack Posted August 15 #12 Share Posted August 15 (edited) We used Iceland Horizon / Saga travel for both excursions. We found Icelandic people to be very friendly but a little casual with the planning, etc. As such when we exited the ship, there were vans from different tour companies but they all seemed to know each other and would put their overbooked passengers on another company's van, etc. So I wouldn't swear we were even on a Saga van. I think they all run these tours very similar. Our ship was in Reykjavik overnight but ours was a roundtrip cruise out of Amsterdam, so we did not need Reykjavik airport transfers. Edited August 15 by CCJack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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