Question for those of you have done an Iceland cruise?

[Disneygirlxo91]

We are currently deciding between two itineraries this summer. Would love to go to Iceland, but I’m starting to wonder is Iceland a good choice to do on a cruise, or would it be better to do a separate iceland vacation one day and drive all around Iceland?

11-Night Northern Europe Cruise from Copenhagen ending in Southampton
sailing to
Kiel, Germany Nynäshamn (Stockholm), Sweden Fredericia, Denmark Skagen, Denmark Oslo, Norway Amsterdam, Netherlands Zeebrugge (Brussels), Belgium Southampton, England

And

10-Night Iceland, Norway and France Cruise from Southampton ending in Copenhagen
Sailing to
Cherbourg, France Reykjavik, Iceland Ísafjörður, Iceland Akureyri, Iceland Alesund, Norway Copenhagen, Denmark

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

We sailed out of Copenhagen last August 2022 and Loved it.

The big thing that is going to separate these two for you is which set of destinations do you want? Iceland is insanely expensive to visit as a tourist. Think Disney prices for literally everything. They have more people that want to visit than they have hotel rooms. A cruise is a great way to experience Iceland while having a nice home base. That cruise is going to be a bit more "off the beaten path" with adventure options (Horse back riding, hiking, etc).

The 11 night is definitely a "Great Northern Cities" tour with so many great options there. That is going to be more history and city experiences. Neither of them are bad choices, going to really depend on what you want to do/get out of your vacation.

I would encourage you to go to the DCL website and look at the individual port adventures that DCL offers to get a good idea of the offerings in each location and see which one looks like a better itinerary.

The 10 night also looks like it could be more "relaxing" with less ports and more sea days.

No matter what you decide, enjoy.

 

[DCLMP]

I’ve done both, both are great. I’d probably pick whichever one is less expensive and better airfare.

 

[disneyfaninaz]

We absolutely loved Iceland. We were supposed to go to Ísafjörður, but the port was not ready last August. Therefore, we got to spend a night in Reykjavik, which in turn allowed us to have a 13 hour tour of the Southeast coast of Iceland as well as the Golden Circle tour, plus a couple of hours in Reykjavik itself. It was amazing. We also went to Akureyri. If you do one thing there, go to the Godafoss falls! They are simply gorgeous.

If you're into old world cities, take the first itinerary. If you're interested in some fantastic scenery, take the 2nd.

 

[TikiThunderPirates]

I would approach this by asking the question what do you want to get out of this vacation? Are you interested in a general overview of places; either cruise will be great. The 11 night Northern Europe cruise will be very heavy on port days, and the pace can be challenging if you want to go and do something in each city. The cruise provides an easy home base and a lot of the travel details worked out for you.

If you are more interested in being immersed in a place, I believe a 10 night land trip to Iceland will provide that more than nightly stops in each port. Iceland is a gorgeous country that is worth the time if natural wonders interest you. But doing so on your own without a cruise means you have to be in charge of details like lodging and food each day. It requires more work, but provides more opportunity for new experiences.

There is no wrong answer here. If I was deciding I'd ask myself "what is the goal for my next trip?" And then "which trip fits that goal better?"

 

[Annabell]

We´ve done a land vacation in Iceland and loved it. You need more days to see this beautiful place.

 

[KristaZ]

Personally, having been to Iceland, I'd do a land trip there.

 

[holula]

Personally, having been to Iceland, I'd do a land trip there.

Same. Also the Iceland one is likely to need more expensive tours. The more city based on you can generally wander around the ports on your own.

 

[braysmommy]

We spent 4 nights in Iceland after our Med cruise and we loved it.

 

[jalapeno_pretzel]

We did 11 nights driving around Iceland on our own. We did the whole ring road. It was amazing. Getting into the more remote areas was really neat.

 

[auntlynne]

 

[Marthasor]

We did Iceland as part of a DCL cruise in 2015. We had two days in Reykjavik and one day in Akureyri. We did the Golden Circle with Family BBQ, some boat cruises to view wildlife and a tour of waterfalls and other areas around Akureyri. It was absolutely amazing and I feel like we got a good sense of Iceland on that cruise. As other PPs have noted, it really depends on what you are looking for. If you feel you might need a more in-depth look at Iceland, perhaps consider a land tour. I actually liked that we had a full 3 days in Iceland (as opposed to one night in France, one night in Denmark, etc.). It was enough Iceland for me, but others will feel differently - it's all a matter of personal taste.

 

[auntlynne]

 

[anjuan]

My DD asked to go to Iceland as her graduation present. While I'm platinum on DCL, the DCL iteneraries and timing did not meet what we needed so we're branching out to the NCL Prima and doing a 10-day cruise that starts in Iceland at the end of May. We were able to add on 3 days prior to the cruise and it also goes to Akureyri and Ísafjörður as well as several ports in Norway, etc. There are other cruiselines to consider as well unless you are really set on DCL.

 

[SleepyDeb]

We're going to be on the 10 day and looking forward to it. The pics of Iceland look amazing! We're also really looking forward to D Day beach excursion. We're doing a few days in London and a few in Copenhagen. We used to live in England so we're well acquainted with London, so just going to look for things we haven't done before. Copenhagen has been on my husband's bucket list for 50 yrs, so I'll just be following him around, doing what he wants to do there.

 

[DCLCruiseFan09]

Some of Iceland could be better than no Iceland, ever.

One of the other things that most haven't mentioned: Land travel in Iceland is some of the most expensive in the world. This may be the only opportunity to see Iceland.

 

[Mango7100]

We did a land tour of Iceland on our own pre-covid. It was fairly easy to do—we stayed in Reykjavik for 2 nights, then rented a car and drove the island for several days and then back to Reykjavik for 3 nights to do Golden Circle as a day trip on our own and Blue Lagoon. There is literally one road that goes around the island so it’s pretty hard to get lost and there are so many amazing sites just along the roads. Wee went in mid May so it was shoulder season and crowds were very low. We have pics of it being 11 pm and daylight and we are the only car on the road for long stretches at a time.

 

[Hubie]

We hit Iceland on the way back from our Northern Europe cruise. Iceland Air lets you stop over either on the way to Europe or on your way back from Europe. I have details and pictures at the end of my trip report. https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...day-6-11-2017-northern-europe-cruise.3687237/

 

[EddieK76]

For those that have done Iceland were you able to see the Northern lights or is the itinerary too late in the year to do so?

 

[o&smom]

For those that have done Iceland were you able to see the Northern lights or is the itinerary too late in the year to do so?

It varies. I have seen some reports of seeing the lights. Also depends on cloud cover. I think we should have been able to see them, but it was cloudy.