Today was a scheduled “sea day” as our ship crossed between Iceland and Greenland.
I need to get better at writing during trips, or at least taking notes, so that when it’s weeks later and I’m trying to write about a day I have a clue beyond the photos we took. The only photos we have from this day are from us eating. Which, honestly, isn’t too far from the truth of most of the time spent on board.
Two of the three photos are of us eating at O’Sheehan’s. We probably ate here 8/10 days on this ship. On this day we scored a window booth. It’s the only 24-hour dining venue onboard, and I’ll choose a sit-down restaurant over a buffet any day of the year. It’s not great food but it’s not bad either. Scott would say, “I have no issue.” The venue appeals to us because it’s casual and easy, but it can get repetitive. I would bet my life that Scott started this meal with a cobb salad.
As part of our “Free At Sea” package deal we got one specialty dining restaurant meal on this cruise. On our last cruise in 2021 the promotion came with more meals, and our favorite had been Moderno Churrascaria. So on this ship we decided to repeat the Brazilian steakhouse-themed restaurant. Since this ship was quite a bit smaller, the atmosphere in the bar/restaurant wasn’t quite as nice, but it was fine. The staff were super attentive and friendly and wonderful, and I could’ve eaten my whole meal just from the fantastic “salad” bar that also had sushi and other appetizer-type snacks. There were a lot of meat options that came around to the table (maybe 7 or maybe 9 options?), and then the super yummy pineapple.
The only reason my face looks like this is because I was pointed directly at a dude (maybe he was 16, maybe he was 28?) who was watching videos (or maybe facetiming?) with the volume on during the meal. He also… brace yourself… picked his nose and… seriously, brace yourself… ATE IT during the meal.
Today’s port was Isafjordur, Iceland. Per Wiki, “Ísafjörður experiences high winds and very few clear days throughout all the year”… well suck it Wiki, because our day was freaking epic and gorgeous.
I honestly kind of squealed when I saw this view from the ship the morning we arrived.
You can’t really see too much out of a tender boat when you’re in one, but I haven’t ever seen a cooler view of a tender boat from the outside before.
We landed on shore a bit before our planned activity, so had time to wander around town. I don’t know if they differentiate the two sections as locals, but the area we landed in is the kind of small peninsula here, then you walk around this sort of inner bay to find more of it. The initial exploration in that peninsula was a ghost town. It felt like all of the locals saw the ship coming, scampered inside, closed their curtains and turned off the lights. Who can blame them, really?
A ghost town, but a lovely, colorful ghost town. With a friendly cat. Sadly, the local yarn shop was closed.
That inner bay was really cool on its own with a miniature statue of Scott! Seriously why does he look like a toy in this photo? I was only maybe 20 feet away from him when I took it.
Finally we were ready for our previously scheduled activity: an ATV tour with a local company! Once again we scored leaving the ship excursion options behind.
We paid around $385 for the both of us. There’s an option to pay less if you share an ATV but we know ourselves and knew it would be worth it for each of us to have our own bike. We were the only ones in our group of maybe 10 people that chose this though; everyone else rode as couples. I think I had ridden as a passenger on an ATV once in my 20s, but have never driven one. Scott said he has never driven one either. But these were super easy – fully automatic and the guide took a few minutes with each of us individually to make sure we understood what we were doing. We rode through the town then up to two different lookout points and then to a waterfall. I found myself wishing that we had a GoPro. It was so fun! Highly recommended. If you’re going to this town book this tour!
Afterwards we found our way over to a local brewery: Dokkan Brugghus. Their website is only in Icelandic, but you can visit this site for some information, including the fact that Dokkan Brugghus “is the Westfjords first and only brewery”. It was a great space with both indoor and outdoor seating. In addition to their taps they had food, but we just grabbed beers before heading back to our floating all-you-can-eat buffet that we had already paid for.
Next cruise port stop: Akureyri, Iceland. Long, but good day. Long, but (you decide) post.
Again I looked to see what we could do on our own vs. a ship excursion. In researching the area we decided we were most interested in seeing the Godafoss waterfall, and checking out the Myvatn Nature Baths. The ship offered an excursion that included the waterfall but nothing that included the nature baths. Local tour operators offered coach bus trips out to Myvatn but their cost didn’t include the admission to the nature baths.
Then I looked up local car rentals and was pleasantly surprised by how easy and (relatively) affordable that option would be. Alaska Airlines got us a discount via the local Akureyri Avis/Budget rentals office, and the local office was literally only a 5 minute walk from the cruise port. We failed to get a pic of our little chariot from the outside, but here’s a lovely little photo I like to call, “Why Did I Gain Weight On This Trip?” Did I crop the photo to remove my gut from view? Maybe? Absolutely yes.
Another bonus to this option is that we are considering doing a Ring Road trip in the future and this was a chance to check out driving in Iceland, and it was easy. Roads were fine, well-marked, etc.
First destination was Godafoss Waterfall, just a little over 30 miles away. We went this slightly longer route to avoid a toll road/tunnel and the car rental fella said it was more scenic anyway.
Scott took photos along our route but it was rainy and difficult to catch good shots. These two are pretty nice, though! They do a good job of capturing the scale of the land I think.
Godafoss itself was a great stop, and completely free! Well unless you buy candy in the extensive souvenir shop (ahem, Scott). But he earned it by being our official photographer for this stop, and doing a fantastic job. He especially enjoyed playing with the long exposure setting on his phone camera today.
Here’s a menagerie of other photos that he took of Godafoss today…
Then a few long exposure ones he crafted that are cool…
And here’s a little bonus video short for y’all…
The waterfall was gorgeous of course, but I was super enamored with the flora around the site.
As well as this old local guy who climbs down a very steep ladder to fish here just a bit downstream from the waterfall.
After some time here we jumped into the car and headed towards Myvatn. Along the way we stopped at a little fish & chips stand that was really good. Oddly it was called “Fish & Chips Lake Myvatn“. Recommended!
The area around Myvatn Lake was really gorgeous. At times a moonscape, and others really lushly green.
Then we made it to Myvatn Nature Baths which we had prebooked. Brace yourself for an unpopular opinion here: I didn’t love it. And my disappointment really had nothing to do with the facility itself, honestly. This was my first time ever in a geothermal hot springs environment, and while I had heard that they smell a bit like eggs, I didn’t realize how little I would love sitting in hot egg-smelling water. I really just couldn’t figure out how to relax and fully enjoy the experience feeling like I was becoming a hard boiled egg. Well, considering the deteriorating status of my waistline due to overeating on vacay, perhaps I should say a soft boiled egg. For other folks that enjoy it – more power to you! And for those that have never tried it before, definitely try it yourself and form your own opinion. I definitely feel like I’m in the minority with these feelings based on my internet perusings.
But then again, any time with my hun is a good experience. Sorry, I know, gag. But he’s just the cutest.
So, suffice it to say, we didn’t stay long. We had a lovely drive back down to return the vehicle – the entire rental process was easy peasy. The gas refill wasn’t bad either – the car was really gas efficient and we ended up paying around $28 to refill before we turned it back in.
We got back in plenty of time to wander around the town center. Unfortunately a couple of places we really wanted to go were closed, including a yarn shop and Einstok’s Brewers’ Lounge. The town was definitely appealing though and made for a great leg stretch before getting back on the boat.
A short walk back to the pier and we got back on board…
In the evening we tried a complimentary dining venue called Ginza that served “Asian” food. I had a decent dragon roll, and Scott enjoyed some sake that was included in our beverage package.
Then we went and enjoyed the cover band that played nearly daily – The Excell. They did a good job I thought, definitely a ship favorite based on attendance at their shows (especially after dinner).
Today the planned cruise port stop was Djupivogur, a small town on the south east coast of Iceland. I’m so glad I blog and don’t vlog because I can’t pronounce this town’s name.
The ship’s shore excursion options weren’t particularly appealing, and they ranged in price from $199-$499 per person. Even if they had been great I still would have gone in search of a local operator to see what other options were on offer – always the better choice! I was actually pretty shocked on board to see people at the shore excursion desk throughout the cruise making last minute choices for what they were going to be doing at ports.
Thanks to prior planning I totally scored and found the Berufjordur Experience from Arctic Fun. This is a kayaking outing into a fjord that lasts about 2 hours for ~$113 pp if doing single kayaks (we don’t do double kayaks because we value our relationship). By local Seattle standards that price is absolutely outrageous – you can rent a single kayak at a good location (without a tour guide) for $25-$30 pp here. But by ship excursion standards this was a steal – NCL wasn’t offering a kayaking excursion at this port, but at an upcoming port they were charging $429 pp.
I had a couple of questions for this company before I was willing to book and they were super responsive to email. Just prior to the cruise they wrote and asked if we minded pushing our start time back a half an hour due to other cruise passengers’ requests that would also be in our group and of course that was no problem. Then the morning of our scheduled stop we got an email explaining to us that the weather was a bit sketchy but might clear up later, and did we want to cancel for a full refund or wait and see. We said wait and see.
Well… then as the morning progressed we started hearing from the ship’s captain that the weather was sketchy and our docking would be delayed, possibly cancelled. Then later… yup, cancelled due to weather and unsafe conditions.
Now, I don’t remember checking to make sure the kayaking experience was fully refundable for a last minute cancellation, but that’s what Arctic Fun did without hesitation. They submitted the refund back to our credit card within 24 hours. I’m sad for them that their small business had to take a hit like that, but so thankful we weren’t out the $226! So consider this a little free advertising for them – if you are stopping in Djupivogur as part of a cruise or Iceland road trip or whatever – book with Arctic Fun! They also do a bicycle tour if kayaking isn’t your thing. When we go back for an Iceland road trip I will be booking with them again!
So… unexpected ship day #1, making this cruise now at least 4/10 days of ship time. Should have paid for the Thermal Suite.
The views from the ship were lovely though. We spent the day eating, drinking, reading, knitting, people watching. Scott is looking out the window from Proof Whiskey Bar. My mental health was better today dealing with the crowds. Did the liquor help? Maybe. Did the good night’s sleep help? Absolutely.
Since apparently we have more Hilton status than I realized, we joined about a hundred of our closest friends at the hotel breakfast buffet. But oh my goodness it was really good. I’m generally not a fan of buffets, to be honest they kind of creep me out. But if they are very well attended and the food is turned over frequently, then I can be down. And also since Reykjavik attracts a pretty geographically diverse tourist crowd, this buffet had the good stuff like cheeses and olives and grilled tomatoes and good bread.
During my early trip planning in looking at options from getting from our hotel to the cruise port, I had decided that we could just walk there, weather permitting. If we could save on the taxi fare then why not? Although the route was a little long for dragging rolling suitcases, it appeared to be flat on the map. And taking the city bus would only save us half the walking distance, but add the extra time and brain work.
Not only was the weather really nice, we had seen yesterday during our walk that Reykjavik has great sidewalks and walking paths. The walk was a nice start to our day, meandering through neighborhoods and even a park. Eventually we got the first close glimpse of our ship as we walked along the dock… I present to you the Norwegian Star.
Then we had the embarkation experience. And my mental health started taking a beating that would last through most of the day.
NOTE: The rest of this post is pretty whiny. I probably shouldn’t put this out into the world, but I want to document both the greatness and sometimes disappointing nature of travel honestly. The reader can simply scroll away if they want. You have been forewarned. We had some great experiences after today, though!
Because we walked to the port, we didn’t approach like the busses and taxis. We kind of rounded a corner and landed right at the entry for the security/check-in line. So we just got in it. After we had progressed a bit through the line I started to realize many other people didn’t have their luggage and that we had missed wherever it is you can drop your bag for delivery to your stateroom later. That would later culminate in finding a place were we could drop our bags for safekeeping on board, but we were expected to come grab them later and bring them to our room ourselves. I know this sounds super princess-y, but that’s really how a cruise ship should operate.
I was honestly a bit surprised at the rudimentary nature of the port. This place gets a LOT of cruise ship traffic, yet it’s mostly a pop-up building. I’ve only been on a couple of other cruises (out of Venice and Rome) but they had big appointed buildings with bathrooms and sitting areas; Scott says the Seattle port is also well-appointed. This was very, very bare bones. And the gangways up to the ship were from the dock to I think Deck 4, which were steep, narrow, and had thick nonslip ridges in them that made walker and wheelchair accessibility impossible. I noticed a little lady with Parkinson’s really struggling to get onboard. I think it’s time to invest a bit more in your tourist infrastructure, Reykjavik?
As is typical, our room wasn’t expected to be ready until 15:00. After we dropped our bags we started to explore the ship. I knew from research that this is an older, “smaller” ship originally built in 2001 that had been refurbished in 2021. I have laughed in the past at people online saying they were skipping an itinerary because the ship offered was “too small”. Are you kidding me? How can a ship that carries 2,300 passengers and more than 1,000 crew members ever be considered small?
Well, I have become one of these people now. I was so overwhelmed by people as we walked around the ship. Claustrophobia-induced anxiety set in. The walkways felt so narrow. Poor Scott just had to follow me around while I muttered things like, “I need to find a quiet space”. I am so blessed with a patient partner! I seriously don’t know how he does it.
We went and found the spa area, and checked out the space known as the Thermal Suite (video is 7 years old, from before the refurbish, but the layout is the same). I believe anyone that purchases a spa service can access this area before the treatment, but you can also pay $250 for an unlimited pass for the duration of the cruise. The Suite has a heated pool, hot tub, sauna, and loungers that overlook floor to ceiling windows of the back of the ship. Most importantly they limit passes to something like only 60 people, and there are no kids. A quiet haven. Did we buy passes? Were we willing to add a last minute $250 pp for this? Nope, too frugal. Honestly kind of a big mistake, considering how much ship time we ended up having on this cruise (spoiler alert). Next time, this is a non-negotiable I think.
I think all-in-all we had around 3 hours of time on the ship before our room was ready. Again, poor Scott had to deal with this face the whole time.
This was my first time in an inside cabin (meaning no windows whatsoever). We booked it to be frugal, and submitted a $300 bid to upgrade to a balcony which failed. The cruise was 100% booked so no go on the upgrade. I didn’t take any pics but this is a good tour video if you’re curious. The room was pitch black for sleeping which was fantastic in a 24-hour daylight situation. I was super happy with the shower size, too. The only thing I missed about not having a balcony was the chance for a comfortable sitting space in privacy, but I think it was typically too cold to enjoy balcony sitting anyway. And of course our cabin steward did a great job of tidying it up every day. Usually we use the Do Not Disturb sign liberally on hotel rooms, but on the one day we left it like that on the cruise it seemed to cause some staff anxiety.
This was my least favorite day on our trip, but hey – we made it onboard and were on our way! And look how cute my mans is.
The sun never set during our polar-route flight from SEA > KEF. This is a shot we got over Greenland in the middle of the night.
Landed in Iceland to beautiful clear views. And had a fun time watching our shadow on the moonscape.
Despite the lack of sleep on the redeye (per uzhe) I felt pretty alert and oriented when we landed. That is until we tried to navigate our way to the Flybus counter. Obviously one would follow signs to baggage claim to find ground transportation, but for some reason the fact that you have to walk through the A-gates terminal to get to baggage claim was highly confusing to my sleep-deprived self. But we got there eventually and it was really easy to use. We had pre-purchased our r/t tickets to take advantage of a savings code, so we just had to go get in line next to the big bus. I got this one picture in before I fell asleep for the remainder of the ~45 minute journey to the central bus station in Reykjavik.
That would be a plume of smoke coming from the volcano that had just erupted a couple of days earlier. Per the Icelandic Meteorlogical Office, “there was a 200-meter (656 feet) long fissure on the slopes of the Litli Hrútur mountain, ‘from which lava is emerging as a series of fountains.'” We never saw it up close; you had to hike several hours to get to a safe vantage point to see the lava, or spend hundreds of dollars on a helicopter ride.
At the central bus terminal in Reykjavik Flybus divided us into little vans based on the locations of our hotels, then it was maybe a 5-10 minute ride to the Hilton. Nice hotel, nothing out of the ordinary for a Hilton. On check-in we were surprised to hear we would get complimentary breakfasts in the morning “due to our status”. Ummm… we don’t have that kind of Hilton status, but OK. Room was clean, comfortable, well-appointed, blah, blah, blah. Best part – FREE using Hilton points. Travel hacking saved us $320!
The only downside of the hotel was it was a bit of a walk into the central part of Reykjavik. Not terribly far, but far enough that the idea of walking 15-20 minutes for food made us sacrifice a little judgment. We were starving and in big need of a nap. The nice gal at the Hilton front desk said if we walked across the street we would find a couple of fast food type options. What did we find? A burger joint with a severely concerning name.
Yes, we ate there. Nothing bad, nothing great. But yes, $40 for two burgers, fries, and drinks. Yes, the trope about food in Iceland being expensive is true.
We were done with our lunch around 12:30 and our next scheduled event was a food tour at 16:00. We napped HARD. When the alarm went off I must have still been in REM sleep. But we made it out the door and had a lovely walk into town, partly along the glorious (albeit windy) waterfront.
The meeting place for our tour was Harpa, the city’s concert hall. We were a few minutes early and had the pleasure of walking around for a bit. Gorgeous building and lived up to the hype. Especially on this gorgeous day with all of the light streaming in.
The basalt columns design took me back to my Giant’s Causeway visit in 2011…
OK, highlight of the day… FOOD TOUR! Much anticipated. We did our first food tour in Mexico City last year, and loved it so much we expect to do them regularly and was an immediate point of research for Reykjavik during our planning. The only one I found was from Wake Up Reykjavik but since it was so highly rated I didn’t hesitate to book it. I also found this YouTuber’s video on it which helped sell it. And the cost seemed reasonable – I think we paid $120 for the 3ish hours, and made 5 stops. Considering how expensive food is in Iceland (remember the $40 for 2 at that meh burger joint earlier today?), this seemed really reasonable.
Our guide had one of those Icelandic names that English-speaking people can’t handle, so he told us to just call him “Day”. He said this was his side hustle on the weekends, and that during the week he’s a sportscaster interviewer. He said he has a “famous hand”… for holding the mic in shots. Glad he clarified.
First stop: Fjallkonan. Lovely place with a big outdoor patio and beautifully appointed interior. We sampled their Lamb & flatbread, and their Arctic char & blini. Small bites, but this is a marathon.
Second stop: Messinn. Here we had generous portions of their Icelandic Plokkfiskur with Bearnaise Sauce, and their Arctic Char. Both were super tasty but everyone was particularly wow’d by the Char. For an extra fee Scott and I ordered cocktails which were also super tasty and helped wake me up a bit. We were offered rye bread, but I passed worried it would fill me up too fast.
Third stop: Baejarins Beztu Pylsur aka the famous hot dog stand. Here was the best part of this stop today – we were offered a coupon for a free hot dog for another day if we wanted. And yes, we wanted because we could already feel the fullness coming on after the last stop and knew we had two other stops to go!
Fourth Stop: Islenski Barinn aka The Icelandic Bar. Thanks to the internet I knew this was where we would get to try fermented shark if we wanted. I’m usually game for weird tastes so I knew going in that I was doing it. Scott, however, completely surprised me when he said yes, too! It might have helped his interest that the traditional way to do this (for an additional cost) was pair it with Brennivin. Day educated us that this was the moderate level of fermentation for the shark, and it comes in milder and rougher forms in other places. We were instructed to chew it a minimum of 5 times to get the flavor, then follow with the shot. Basically the shark just smelled and tasted like ammonia, or pee if you prefer that visual. The Brennivin immediately removed the flavor from my mouth, kind of like how a pickleback works.
After that, we each had a small beer and a lovely bowl of hearty lamb stew.
I just looked at their menu online and saw that they offer other dishes with fin whale, reindeer, sheep’s head, or puffin if you want to be a monster. No judgment.
Fifth stop: Cafe Loki. I 100% failed to take any pics at this place, so I’ve stolen one from the internet. Two best things about this place are the view and the rye bread ice cream. The ice cream was good, like super good. They also gave us what I think they called a Kleinur which is a traditional donut that grandparents serve, and like what a lot of grandparents serve it was too dry for my taste.
The view from our top-floor table was of Hallgrimskirkja, the famous Lutheran church that you see on any internet search of Reykjavik. We didn’t go inside today but the structure is really beautiful. And although Reykjavik itself is pretty flat, they managed to place this perfectly on the one hill to give it a lovely, iconic vibe to be seen from pretty much everywhere. Oh and we took a group photo from the food tour here.
Small world moment – one of the women on this tour has 9 Instagram friends in common with my friend Erin. And they’re both liberals from Kentucky. Maybe there are only 10 liberals in Kentucky and that’s why they know the same people.
Here are some random photos we took that day of art that caught our attention:
Overall a fantastic first day in a new city. Clean spaces. Fresh air. Beautiful weather. Full bellies.
We walked back to the hotel and crashed. Unfortunately I didn’t fall asleep until around 2:00 AM thanks to time zones. Thank gawd for friends in earlier time zones to keep me company (shout out to Kelly and Erin).
Oh, but first, let’s get everything done that I coulda done yesterday. Or a few things I coulda done a couple of weeks ago. 🤦🏻♀️
I finished Scott’s gloves. I used this yarn (the top one) that I bought at the Spincycle store in Bellingham back in April. I picked the store, Scott picked the yarn. Lovely first experience with Spincycle (both the store and the yarn).
I kinda followed the pattern for “Gloves with Fingers or Fingerless” by Mary Garing. Except my partner has man hands and required thicker fingers. I didn’t make the cleanest stitch additions, but the yarn hides it well when he’s wearing the gloves. Overall we are both happy with them. They should serve Scott well on our trip. Luckily they were completed literally on the last possible day.
I also finished all of my school paperwork. Hallelujah. Amen. Also wrapped up the housework. Fist bump.
Uneventful transit to the airport. Pretty long security line but doubtfully painful enough to get us to get our TSA pre-check actually sorted.
Per usual very little sleep on the 7.5 hour red eye but was able to get some work done on my vacay project.
Kjar-ied Away 