Reykjavik Iceland excursion

[abja09]

I am sailing on the 11 night magic cruise in June to Norway and Iceland. I plan on doing most excursions on my own or privately except for an excursion in Iceland. When I started researching excursions for Reykjavik my son and I wanted to do a tour to the glacier safari 4x4 and ice cave. The cost for the DCL excursion was about $299pp. Due to the length of the tour and the location I felt it was best to book with DCL. My booking window opens in a month so today I was reviewing the excursions again. The price for the glacier safari 4x4 and ice cave that last month was $299 is now $749! That is crazy!! I'm starting to think I may have misread it when I first looked because I never would have considered it at that price but I don't think I did.
Has anyone seen this before with an excursion price? Does anyone have an experience with this excursion through DCL or privately?

 

[Luvmypetz]

I am sailing on the 11 night magic cruise in June to Norway and Iceland. I plan on doing most excursions on my own or privately except for an excursion in Iceland. When I started researching excursions for Reykjavik my son and I wanted to do a tour to the glacier safari 4x4 and ice cave. The cost for the DCL excursion was about $299pp. Due to the length of the tour and the location I felt it was best to book with DCL. My booking window opens in a month so today I was reviewing the excursions again. The price for the glacier safari 4x4 and ice cave that last month was $299 is now $749! That is crazy!! I'm starting to think I may have misread it when I first looked because I never would have considered it at that price but I don't think I did.
Has anyone seen this before with an excursion price? Does anyone have an experience with this excursion through DCL or privately?

Specifically, no but I am reserved on the 8/16/18 cruise. Recently started my own search and came upon Extreme Iceland and Solstice Tours
Good luck! Maybe post a review when you get back of any or all.

 

[abja09]

Specifically, no but I am reserved on the 8/16/18 cruise. Recently started my own search and came upon Extreme Iceland and Solstice Tours
Good luck! Maybe post a review when you get back of any or all.

I will definitely look into some private excursion but am not sure of how the timing will work out. I knew nothing about Norway and Iceland when I booked this cruise. It have done a lot of research and am so excited for this cruise! Cruise critic is also a great resource for info.
I will post some reviews when I get back. Happy planning!

 

[Pens Fan]

We used Discover Iceland https://www.discover.is for both days in Reykjavik (our cruise overnighted there). They were wonderful!!! Best two days of the entire cruise, by far. We did the Golden Circle + Glacier Super Jeep tour and the Reykjanes Peninsula and Blue Lagoon tour. They aren't inexpensive, but if you are even considering paying Disney that amount of money, you can book a completely private tour for that amount or even less. Taking the super jeep across the glacier was a hoot. I highly recommend it.

 

[Mickey&JoshNut]

When we visited Iceland with DCL in 2015, we used IceLimo Luxury Travel...they were AWESOME!!!!! Got to do so much more than we could have with DCL.

 

[Snyders22000]

We also used IceLimo and loved them. We arranged for a Golden Circle Tour the first day in Reykjavik and then had them take us to Blue Lagoon the next morning. We had our kids with us and they had made special a little souvenir book for our kids to take home with the Disney characters exploring Iceland. Our guide was awesome and really went the extra mile. They even arranged for a car seat for our little one. We were nervous about booking outside Disney but were so glad we did!

 

[abja09]

We used Discover Iceland https://www.discover.is for both days in Reykjavik (our cruise overnighted there). They were wonderful!!! Best two days of the entire cruise, by far. We did the Golden Circle + Glacier Super Jeep tour and the Reykjanes Peninsula and Blue Lagoon tour. They aren't inexpensive, but if you are even considering paying Disney that amount of money, you can book a completely private tour for that amount or even less. Taking the super jeep across the glacier was a hoot. I highly recommend it.

Thank you! The super jeep across the glacier sounds amazing. My son would love it! I will check them out. Did you contact them to let you know you were coming in on a cruise? I'm not sure how that works. TIA

 

[abja09]

When we visited Iceland with DCL in 2015, we used IceLimo Luxury Travel...they were AWESOME!!!!! Got to do so much more than we could have with DCL.

Thank you for the reply. I will look into icelimo. I definitely want to do something amazing as this is not someplace you visit everyday.

 

[abja09]

We also used IceLimo and loved them. We arranged for a Golden Circle Tour the first day in Reykjavik and then had them take us to Blue Lagoon the next morning. We had our kids with us and they had made special a little souvenir book for our kids to take home with the Disney characters exploring Iceland. Our guide was awesome and really went the extra mile. They even arranged for a car seat for our little one. We were nervous about booking outside Disney but were so glad we did!

Thank you for the info! I am a little hesitant to book outside of Disney too but I may have to for this trip. I also want to do the golden circle tour so I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

We were on the 2015 sailing and several of us used Reykjavik Excursions https://www.re.is/?gclid=CMaE6bS4tdICFdg8gQodAzwFRQ and we were extremely pleased and wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Their busses even had free wifi which was a nice perk. We did the evening Golden Circle Tour and also used them for getting to/from the Blue Lagoon. I think our Golden Circle was around $230 total for all three of us

Have fun!
Heather

 

[Pens Fan]

Thank you! The super jeep across the glacier sounds amazing. My son would love it! I will check them out. Did you contact them to let you know you were coming in on a cruise? I'm not sure how that works. TIA

Yes, you will definitely need to contact them in advance. I set everything up a good 5 or 6 months ahead for all of our ports. They were really great to work with and very responsive. Being that they do mostly private tours, you can customize things to do just what you want. You will love Iceland. Before that cruise I had never really thought about going there for vacation. It was incredible! The scenery, the lovely people - ahhhh - sitting here now and remembering it all, I just want to go back. Have fun!

 

[SDJEL]

We just went to Iceland over Christmas. Nothing there (and I do mean nothing) was cheap. It has become such a popular destination that the price for everything doubles in the summer. It was amazingly beautiful and everyone we worked with was awesome. I didn't have a single email that wasn't answered within 24 hours. Everyplace was scrupulously clean and I felt all the guides were very honest and eager to show off their beautiful country.

 

[MotherKnowsBest]

We went last summer and used Extreme Iceland for the Golden Circle. The tour was great and very thorough but it ended up taking about 10 hours and I was just done at that point. When we go on the cruise in 2018, I think we are going to rent a jeep and drive the Southern coast ourselves. There were some things on the Golden Circle tour that we would have liked more time at and some we would have skipped over, so this way we can do our own thing.

Are you going to Blue Lagoon? It was pricey but an absolutely awesome experience. Totally worth doing!

 

[abja09]

Yes, you will definitely need to contact them in advance. I set everything up a good 5 or 6 months ahead for all of our ports. They were really great to work with and very responsive. Being that they do mostly private tours, you can customize things to do just what you want. You will love Iceland. Before that cruise I had never really thought about going there for vacation. It was incredible! The scenery, the lovely people - ahhhh - sitting here now and remembering it all, I just want to go back. Have fun!

Thanks again!

 

[abja09]

We went last summer and used Extreme Iceland for the Golden Circle. The tour was great and very thorough but it ended up taking about 10 hours and I was just done at that point. When we go on the cruise in 2018, I think we are going to rent a jeep and drive the Southern coast ourselves. There were some things on the Golden Circle tour that we would have liked more time at and some we would have skipped over, so this way we can do our own thing.

Are you going to Blue Lagoon? It was pricey but an absolutely awesome experience. Totally worth doing!

10 hours is a long time! Not sure I would be able to last that long either.

I don't think we were going to do the Blue Lagoon. Although I hear it's pretty great, it's not on the top of our to do list.

 

[msmama]

We were on the 2015 sailing and several of us used Reykjavik Excursions https://www.re.is/?gclid=CMaE6bS4tdICFdg8gQodAzwFRQ and we were extremely pleased and wouldn't hesitate to use them again. Their busses even had free wifi which was a nice perk. We did the evening Golden Circle Tour and also used them for getting to/from the Blue Lagoon. I think our Golden Circle was around $230 total for all three of us

Have fun!
Heather

Just curious - did the bus pick you up at the ship (or near the ship) or did you have to make your way somewhere else?

Has anyone done the Blue Lagoon through Disney? I see on the Blue Lagoon website, there are different levels of tickets and wondering which one you get through Disney (some have the towels/robes included and drinks).

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Just curious - did the bus pick you up at the ship (or near the ship) or did you have to make your way somewhere else?
.

Sorry for the delay in reponding ~ just got off the Dream today. As I remember, we opted to be picked up in town for our evening Golden Circle tour and this way we could do some things in town beforehand. For the Blue Lagoon we were picked up at the ship and I believe we got off in town afterwards again to explore more then took the free shuttle back to the ship.

Thanks,
Heather

 

[bekkio]

Specifically, no but I am reserved on the 8/16/18 cruise. Recently started my own search and came upon Extreme Iceland and Solstice Tours
Good luck! Maybe post a review when you get back of any or all.

We used Solstice Tours last summer and had a great time! Jon has a huge van, with wifi (which thrilled my internet starved daughters). He had lots of great information to share, and he gave us lots of space to enjoy the areas we visited without hovering. Highly recommend!

 

[GeneMachine]

I don't have any specific tour company recs, but our plan of attack for this sailing is to rent a car and do things on our own. We are going to spend the night off the ship, allowing us to drive along the south coast and see what we want to see and check out some natural geothermal baths near Selfoss.

Renting a car will cost about $150.00 for 24 hours. You could easily pick up a car in downtown Reykjavik and tour the Golden Circle highlights on your own, and at your own pace. We spent a few days in Reykjavik in 2012 and found the drive very easy to do and it was easier to avoid the crowds this way. A tour bus really affects the enjoyment of whatever you are trying to see. Probably some of the private tours above will be better than a Golden Circle excursion. (drive time from Reyk to Thingvellir: 35 minutes; Thingvellir to Geysir: half an hour; Geysir to Gullfoss: half an hour; Gullfoss back to Reyk: hour and a half)

Also, if there is a shuttle from the ship to the Blue Lagoon, I recommend finding out when the Disney Excursion is, and then planning to go afterwards. The Blue Lagoon is less crowded in the evenings, and since it will be light until about 10:00 (and on this itinerary, the BL is open until midnight), you've got a lot of time! Be sure and book ahead of time on the Blue Lagoon site if you do it on your own (it's about 50$ a person, towels EXTRA! Not sure how much Disney is charging for this excursion). The BL is nice, but weird. It's not a natural hot spring, but is heated by the water output from a nearby geothermal power plant.

 

[RRBB]

I am sailing on the 11 night magic cruise in June to Norway and Iceland. I plan on doing most excursions on my own or privately except for an excursion in Iceland. When I started researching excursions for Reykjavik my son and I wanted to do a tour to the glacier safari 4x4 and ice cave. The cost for the DCL excursion was about $299pp. Due to the length of the tour and the location I felt it was best to book with DCL. My booking window opens in a month so today I was reviewing the excursions again. The price for the glacier safari 4x4 and ice cave that last month was $299 is now $749! That is crazy!! I'm starting to think I may have misread it when I first looked because I never would have considered it at that price but I don't think I did.
Has anyone seen this before with an excursion price? Does anyone have an experience with this excursion through DCL or privately?

We didn't do this excursion when we were in Reykjavik last summer, but I still have all my notes and research. All I have to say is that's crazy. Last year the price for this excursion through DCL was $299 (ages 10+) and $289 (ages 8 to 9). If this is something you really want to do definitely check into booking on your own and not through DCL/Port Adventures. That's just a crazy jump in price!