Anyone done iceland on cruise before

[bellybee]

What tours do you recommend I am on the Arcadia in June.


These are our ports of call

20 Jun Reykjavik

21 Jun Isafjordur

22 Jun Akureyri

24 Jun Torshavn

25 Jun Kirkwall

We normally like to spend one day on the ship whilst everyone explores but we do have a few more sea days than normal. We are looking to save some money so if you can tell me what can be done independently even better. Has anyone seen whales from the ship rather than a whale watching tour. I was keen to do Blue Lagoon but is it worth almost £70 each?

[Kenmo1]

Bellybee - there is an excellent report by Not So Ancient Mariner under the Oriana Cruise Reports headed X315 to Ireland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands which will answer a lot of your questions in detail.

We did the Golden Circle Tour and Jewels of the Tour excursions provided by PO and, although expensive, we were so glad we did them. There are places there like another planet - hot springs, boiling hot mud springs etc. We saw one whale spouting some distance away and one as we sailed out of Akureyri but still some distance away and needed binoculars to see.

We are hoping to make a decision on either this cruise on the Arcadia or one to Venice later this week once we receive the quote today or tomorrow from the builder for doing our garage roof and various other jobs. If it is too much we won't be going anywhere.

Maureen

[Quizzical Bob]

Hi Bellybee, we are also looking at this cruise but are waiting on the outcome of events beyond our present control. We have seen whales from a ship several times but usually some distance off. The best views were in the middle of the night just south of Spitsbergen where the sea everywhere was teeming with them in full sunshine of course. We also saw several killer whales spy-hopping north of Trondheim which was quite spectacular. For the best and closest views we have done specific whale trips from Kaikoura in New Zealand where we got as close as we could to sperm whales and Honolulu where the humpback whales were leaping out of the water so I would hope that a local boat trip would give you the best chance of spotting them.

Don't forget that this trip coincides with the a World Cup so whether we go or not somebody in our household is going to be disappointed.

[Dark Knight]

BellyBee
we are doing a similar cruise, though not wih PandO
I have done a bit of research and found there is a local travel company in Iceland that does exactly the same tours as the cruise ship for a fraction of he price.
I am about to organise a Whale watching trip, which is half the price of the company tour , for exactly the same tour, contact details below, try these guys before booking via PandO, you may save a lot of money


Sirrý Laufdal Haraldsdóttir

Sales & Operations






Bríetartún 13 | 105 Reykjavík | Iceland

Tel: +354 578 2080

[arcadialover]

We did this last year on Arcadia, although not all the ports are the same. In Reykjavic went to the blue lagoon and spent about 2 hours swimming in the lovely warm water, would definitely do this again when we go back on a cruise to Iceland.

[bellybee]

Thanks for the responses I must admit I am quite drawn to the blue lagoon I can't swim but I understand this isn't a problem. Did you go with P&O or do it yourself when we were going around Norway we did no tours and didn't feel like we missed out but I cant imagine getting back to Iceland at any point so don't want to miss anything

[Kenmo1]

BB - just be aware that PO on our last cruise had shortened some of their stays in port so it might pay to check what time they are departing the ports if you are considering booking private excursions. Maureen.

[Dark Knight]

Bellybee

try Nordic visitor web site, they have dozens of trips at much lower prices than the company tours
I have had an e mail back from them today and they are very helpful, their whale watching tour was less than half the price of the one offered by Thomson

[The Tinker]

Bellybee

try Nordic visitor web site, they have dozens of trips at much lower prices than the company tours
I have had an e mail back from them today and they are very helpful, their whale watching tour was less than half the price of the one offered by Thomson

My daughter went on a land holiday to Iceland last year and had lots of trips included in their package. The whale watching tour was not very successful - she ended up wet, cold, very seasick and saw no whales! It was also not very well organised - too many minisbuses not knowing who they should pick up, etc. Will find out the name of the companies they were booked on with for you all.
Other trips were successful- the blue lagoon, the waterfalls and a boat trip to spot the northern lights.

We went with p and o and visited the Blue Lagoon, the geysers and various other landmarks - one of my favourite cruises and quite surreal as the daylight hours are so long.

[arcadialover]

Re Blue Lagoon - we booked the P&O trip, not sure about DIY. We arrived early and there were no queues but when we left there was a big queue to get in. Don't worry about not been able to swim, the whole pool is one depth and you can stand up with no problem. You float more than swim.

http://www.bluelagoon.com/

[Manoverboard]

We gave the Blue Lagoon a miss ... didn't seem too healthy somehow

[The Tinker]

We gave the Blue Lagoon a miss ... didn't seem too healthy somehow

Mob - the blue lagoon has 'allegedly' healing waters and is very good for any skin disorders!

[Kenmo1]

We have now had our quote for the garage etc sob, sob, so now definitely decided on the Iceland cruise so long as nothing else needs repairing or OH travel insurance isn't too astronomical due to age and heart condition. Have had a reminder from Age UK that it runs out on 6/3/14 and is not automatically renewed even though we have kept them up to date with changes. Also waiting to hear from friends if they are interested in joining us although they usually prefer sunnier places - mind you, with what is tipping down outside at the moment I'm beginning to see their point.

We now have to decide whether to go select before 28/2 and get some OBC plus choose our cabin number or go early saver or even wait to see if there are any late deals so I have been doing some dummy bookings and, lo and behold, our 'personal contact' at PO ( get us -how posh is that!) has just phoned us to see if we intended booking a cruise this year. Now my suspicious mind is thinking have they picked that up from my dummy bookings or is this cruise not selling well and they want as many people to book before 28/2 and then they will drop the price like a stone or was it sheer chance that he phoned. Or it could be that most people are still waiting until the last minute to book cruises having got caught out before and they are now desperately ringing round past customers to try and drum up business.

Decisions, decisions.
Maureen.

[david63]

... our 'personal contact' at PO ( get us -how posh is that!) has just phoned us to see if we intended booking a cruise this year. Now my suspicious mind is thinking have they picked that up from my dummy bookings ...

Almost certainly been flagged up when you did a dummy booking. I would also suggest that before try another online booking (be it dummy or real) that you delete all the P&O cookies on your computer.

[Kenmo1]

... our 'personal contact' at PO ( get us -how posh is that!) has just phoned us to see if we intended booking a cruise this year. Now my suspicious mind is thinking have they picked that up from my dummy bookings ...

Almost certainly been flagged up when you did a dummy booking. I would also suggest that before try another online booking (be it dummy or real) that you delete all the P&O cookies on your computer.

David -I would need instructions in words of one syllable to know how to do that or wait for my son to visit at the weekend. Having said that, we had already decided to use Thomas Cook for the booking once we make a decision as they have proved helpful in the past. The only useful thing was that the contact was able to look up to see if a particular cabin was still available even though it didn't show up in the availability box when I dummied a select booking and he advised it was so that may persuade us to do s select booking before 28/2 if it remains available.

Maureen.

[bellybee]

We ummed and ahhed about doing select or early save and in the end we did select so we could choose cabin location dining and on board credit as that covers most of our spending money and hopefully leaves us little to worry about in terms or cost

[Kenmo1]

Hello BB - we are still dithering about select or saver and will make a decision over the weekend. Our friends have decided not to join us this time.
However, we had a bit of a shock yesterday when we went to the local insurance office to sort our annual travel insurance. I am now in the age group 65 to 69 and my husband has moved into the 70-74 age group for insurance so the premium has increased considerably. Until last year we did annual worldwide insurance but that increased last year so we decided to cut down to European Insurance and this year that has virtually doubled in cost because of our ages and husbands heart/blood pressure problems. To make matters worse, when the agent put in our information the system was playing up and it came up saying they could not insure my husband !!!! The agent said the system had been playing up so said he would check situation and would ring us in the afternoon. We spent a stressful lunch hour wondering if that was the end of holidays and cruising for us but the agent phoned after lunch and confirmed there had been a problem with the system.

The cost for annual insurance for us for Europe has increased to over £500 but he did two dummy single quotes, one for Iceland which came to £126 and one for a 2 week cruise to the Canaries for later in the year and that was £223 so in total those two only amount to approximately £350 so it looks like it will be better to do single insurances in future. I think it is unlikely we would do more than 2 holidays this year.

It just goes to show that you should do as much as you can when you are young and healthy, the only trouble with that is that often the money isn't available because of mortgages, children etc.

Maureen

[bellybee]

Have you compared insurance prices online to make sure you are getting the best possible deal. Yeah we are the ones stuck with mortgage and bills cannot truly afford this cruise but have a payment plan in place and we are going to do it.

[Kenmo1]

Hi BB - yes we did some dummy quotes on line yesterday while we waited to hear back from the Age UK agent, just in case they wouldn't cover Ken, but they all came out about the £475 to £550 mark. We have had to claim from Age UK twice - once when OH collapsed on a cruise due to a stomach bug and dehydration and once for a small cheap camera which he dropped. They have paid up without any problem and we also find it useful to talk face to face with an agent to make sure that we cover everything. The silly thing is that the heart attack and subsequent by pass was over 20 years ago and he returned to work as a lorry driver for a further 15 years after that until he retired at 63. He is probably fitter than me!

Maureen.

[Mervyn and Trish]

I would also suggest that before try another online booking that you delete all the P&O cookies on your computer.

David -I would need instructions in words of one syllable to know how to do that or wait for my son to visit at the weekend.

I find the simplest way to get rid of cookies is to eat them.

[Kenmo1]

I would also suggest that before try another online booking that you delete all the P&O cookies on your computer.

David -I would need instructions in words of one syllable to know how to do that or wait for my son to visit at the weekend.

I find the simplest way to get rid of cookies is to eat them.

Especially the Maryland ones

[Kenmo1]

We ummed and ahhed about doing select or early save and in the end we did select so we could choose cabin location dining and on board credit as that covers most of our spending money and hopefully leaves us little to worry about in terms or cost

BB -Have made the decision today and booked the select fare - now watch the price plummet like a stone. Like you, we decided to choose a cabin rather than have one allocated and also know that we have OBC to cover tips and some drinks.

Had to cough up the full amount today because Thomas Cook asks for the money about 4 weeks before PO. Still, at least we know it is settled, just got to sort the insurance with Age UK before our annual insurance runs out next month.

Maureen

[bellybee]

Oh fab whereabouts have you picked a cabin and what dinner plans? I am quite excited I have a countdown timer on my phone only 120 days to go. We paid in full but on my credit card I now need to set up a payment plan lol.

[Kenmo1]

Oh fab whereabouts have you picked a cabin and what dinner plans? I am quite excited I have a countdown timer on my phone only 120 days to go. We paid in full but on my credit card I now need to set up a payment plan lol.

Hi BB - we have opted for an obstructed view cabin. We have had one before and found it very convenient and liked the large floor to ceiling window even though it has a lifeboat outside. Just got to remember to not open the curtains until dressed as the crew often work on the lifeboats and it is easy to get caught out. When we were on Arcadia in September we had an outside cabin on G deck but, although a really excellent deck to be on, we found the window small and we felt more closed in with that type of window than the obstructed view ones. We made the unfortunate mistake of moving up from an inside cabin to one with a view and it isn't so easy now to go back to an inside, although by having one of those it meant we could afford to do a couple of cruises a year. We daren't opt for a balcony because we know we would always want one although we tend to spend most of our time up on deck.

We asked for second sitting but it is yet to be confirmed. Don't forget that you will need layers of clothes as the weather can change considerably within a few hours even in June.

Maureen

[bellybee]

We have gone for a balcony but this is probably our last cruise until after we have kids and save up again so gone all out. We chose A deck as we previously had inside cabin on A deck and it was a fantastic location for us. We have opted on freedom dining as the fear we might have a horrible table scared us. At least we might meet some nice people on freedom and choose to meet up and diner together rather than just be flung together.