Monday, July 24, 2023

This is the day we traveled home from Reykjavik, so here’s the post-mortem on this trip.

The Wins

Scott still wins as best travel partner I could ever hope for or dream of. I am so, so lucky to have him as my life partner.

Reykjavik is a lovely city. I’m really glad we had some time here before and after, with the bonus day due to the cruise itinerary change. I don’t think it’s a candidate for a long-term stay during retirement but when we come back for a road trip we will definitely budget in some time here again – maybe a week? We love a city stay where we don’t feel the need for a car.

Both of our Reykjavik hotels were good and the breakfast buffets made us smile. Unless I could get a similar rate at a hotel up by Laugavegur, I would stay at the Storm Hotel again for sure. And using travel hacking/Hilton AmEx points to get a free stay at the Hilton was a big win.

Another food tour FTW! Wake Up Reykjavik knocked this out of the park. Highly recommended to anyone that will listen. This is the post where I detail what we did.

In addition to the hotel breakfast buffets and the food tour we also had good food and beverage experiences around town. I’m looking at you, Einstok, Te & Kaffi, Icelandic Street Food, Bastard, and Bjor Gardurinn.

Walking to/from the cruise port worked out really well for us on this trip. Obviously it saved us some money but there is so much sitting on a cruise that the walks also just felt really good. This won’t be a realistic option in a lot of cases, but in this situation the city’s walking culture, the weather, and the hotel locations made it work well.

Renting a car in Akureyri was the right call. Super simple and convenient to the cruise port (the Avis/Budget office) and we had a fantastic day of freedom in the countryside! Godafoss was a highlight of this trip. And I learned that driving on Route 1 aka the Ring Road is super easy – well signed, well paved. Well, at least the section we did that day. Confidence for a future Ring Road trip boosted! Here’s the post about that day.

The ATV tour we did in Isafjordur has put ATV tours on our radar for future vacations. We had so much fun! This is the post where I detail what we did.

I saw icebergs for the first time ever thanks to Greenland. Epic. The first picture is horrible because it was a frantic “THIS IS MY FIRST ICEBERG EVER!!!” photo, but keep scrolling the rest are better.

Overall the weather on this trip was better than we could have hoped for, with loads of sunny days and pleasant walking weather. We had that rain on our Nanortalik port stop day, and high winds kept us out of Djupivogur. Climate change made us miss two stops in Greenland. But overall I think we just really lucked out since all of our days in Reykjavik were super pleasant for long meandering walks, and on the day of our ATV tour in Isafjordur the tour guide said it was the best weather he had seen all summer.

Airalo FTW! I’m going to do a post about this app for eSims eventually, but this was my first time trying it and it was fantastic. The coverage was inexpensive – I paid $4.50 (incl. $3 off for first time user with a referral code) for Iceland for 15 days/2 GB and $8.10 for Greenland for 7 days/1 GB. And if we were on the boat and sitting next to a window with view of land the coverage actually worked from the boat! My referral code is STACY6621 if you want to try it and get your own $3 off. But more details to follow in a future post…

The Lessons Learned

I learned a lot about how I can make cruising work better for me in the future. I anticipate we will be on a cruise ship at least once a year for the rest of our lives, so this knowledge is good to accumulate. There will always be a bit of a discomfort just because I’m so introverted, but I know I can figure out how to enjoy them since I do love me some down time.

Unless there’s some sort of extenuating circumstance, I doubt we will ever go on the Norwegian Star (or any other Dawn class ships) again. Looking back on it I think my main complaint was the minimal natural light anywhere inside the ship. The windows felt small. And the sea weather wasn’t good for any outside time. It just felt crowded and claustrophobic.

We should have spent the money on Thermal Suite passes. In the moment the extra $500 felt like a lot, but considering the lack of natural light in the ship, how crowded everywhere felt, and the extra sea days I think it would have helped a lot to have these lounge chairs available (not my photo).

Although I’m a knitter which is the best downtime hobby in the world (I’ll fight you), I need to have more downtime hobbies because cruising is a lot of downtime. Especially if you’re introverted and a bit snobby when it comes to typical onboard entertainment offerings. My ADHD is pretty bad so reading books is like impossible. I could use downtime to be better about keeping up on this blogging hobby. I could. But what else can I get into with minimal packing needs that could hold my attention? Maybe Scott and I should learn how to play cribbage and a couple of other card games.

Next time I will take a closer look at the cancellation policies of any tours/activities we book for cruise ports if they are booked with a local operator (i.e., not thru the cruise excursions). We completely just lucked out this time that the kayaking operator in Djupivogur refunded all of our money when that port was cancelled due to weather.

I learned that I don’t think I like geothermal hot springs because of the smell. I think I’m willing to try one more time at another location to make sure, though.

Next Time Cruising

I’m very glad that whenever we cruise next with NCL we will have Platinum status. This will get us priority embarkation (which should improve my mood that day) and priority tender boat boarding (never again with a 3 hour wait to get off the ship). We will also get a free bag of laundry and an extra specialty dining meal.

On all future cruises I will be looking more closely at the common areas that are available on the ship. And I need natural light! We’ve begun looking at doing an Alaska cruise next summer, and the NCL Bliss has this observation lounge that looks perfect.

Unless it’s a particularly scenic cruise (like Alaska maybe) I’ll be fine with booking a cheaper interior cabin again. Especially if I book a Thermal Suite pass like I plan to on all future cruises. Again, the NCL Bliss seems to have what I’m looking for…

Next Time in Iceland

We definitely want to go back and spend more time on land in Iceland. That will likely look like a Ring Road trip with a side quest up to the Westfjords. Previous to this trip I assumed we would want to do a campervan trip but now that I’ve experienced the cold and the wind even in a warm summer month, I’m thinking this will be more of a road trip with scattered hotel stays. Being able to get warm every night and have hot showers will increase my interest in all of the outdoor exploration – hiking, kayaking, etc. – that Iceland really deserves. This next Iceland trip will probably happen post-retirement so we don’t feel rushed, and when we can again stack up points and miles for flights and hotel stays.

Overall Rating… Great trip! I’m glad I memorialized it here for future reminiscing. Peace out from Keflavik airport on our way home.

Thursday, July 20, 2023

Originally, today was our port stop for Nuuk, Greenland. Then Plan B was to go into a fjord/glacier situation and then another smaller town south. Then Plan C was to skip the fjord and just go into the smaller today today. Well, ummm… not. The vast drift ice and currents just weren’t on our side. The captain said that they looked back at charts for the last 10 years and this is the worst year they’ve seen. I was disappointed that we had to miss Nuuk as it’s the capital and we had a full day planned there including a whale watching tour, a local yarn shop, and a brewery. Ugh.

Since the failure of the original itinerary, Plan B, and Plan C we are at a count of 5/10 sea days on a cruise that was originally supposed to be 3/10 sea days. But some good news in the mix… the captain is going to head back to Reykjavik a day early for an added shore day, so instead of 6/10 sea days we will stay at 5/10 sea days. Yes, we should have paid for the thermal suite on day 1 (or when booking, honestly).

At this point our sea days are pretty monotonous… sleep in, eat 2-3 meals at O’Sheehan’s, have a drink or two at Proof Whiskey Bar, have a drink or two at Gatsby’s, spend a little money on the slot machines in the casino, do some reading/knitting/spreadsheet work.

But Scott’s a happy boy on a cruise ship, generally. It’s his favorite way to travel. He says, “you can do as much or as little as you want”. It’s not my favorite way to travel, but there are appealing things about it when it’s set up right. So I’m going to consider this trip a learning opportunity, and we’ve already started talking about how we will plan cruises for the future. And since my love enjoys them so much, I can’t exactly call it a burden to plan one a year into our vacation planning. I mean… boo hoo for me, right?

And since my partner is so loving and easy going he’s fine with the types of things we are talking about to make future cruise trips work for both of us. For example, I will investigate the ship we are considering booking in a little more detail and make sure it has plenty of space and quiet areas for me to do my introversion thing in. And I will likely book us thermal suite passes on future trips. I used to think I would need a balcony room to make me super happy, but after this cruise in an interior cabin I think I’m ok with trading the cost of a balcony cabin for the cost of the thermal suite. We also have NCL status racking up, so within a couple more cruises we will have the status that gets you priority boarding and tender boat access (this means less lines for me to wither in), not to mention a free bag of laundry.

I think the NCL Bliss has our name on it for next summer…

Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Today was supposed to be Paamiut, Greenland. But mother nature says no.

It was pretty early in the day that the captain came over the intercom system to let everyone know we would not be stopping at Paamiut today due to weather and difficulties navigating the drift ice surrounding the port. So today was a sea day, but I couldn’t be too sad with these awesome views.

The new plan is to travel up a fjord to see a glacier tomorrow, and likely replace the port of Nuuk with Qaqortuk. Bummer I will have to miss the yarn shop in Nuuk! But c’est la vie!

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

Next stop – the first of three port stops that made me choose this cruise itinerary – Nanortalik, GREENLAND bitches! I appreciate an obscure destination. Although we were visiting with 2000+ other cruise ship passengers which would kind of negate the idea of obscurity, right? Whatever, it’s still cool.

But before I even saw land I saw my very first iceberg. MY FIRST EVER! I was inordinately excited about the idea of seeing icebergs for the first time ever when booking and anticipating this trip. So that would explain this truly horrible photo of an iceberg I took through a dirty window in a ship restaurant, and why I’m saving it here for all eternity as record of my FIRST EVER ICEBERG SIGHTING.

Don’t worry, the iceberg photos get a little better. Like these!

And then these shots of them with land that is green(ish). So epic.

As you can probably tell from the photos the weather wasn’t the best. It was really overcast, there was a little rain, and it was windy. The captain announced that they wouldn’t start the tender boat process to go onshore for a bit due to weather, and then when tendering started it was 3 hours before Scott & I were able to get on one. There were 4 boats in process, but there was only one small dock onshore for them to use and it took a really long time to get people on/off the tender boats.

My first honest thought getting off the boat was that we didn’t belong there. I mean this town is teeny tiny. The internet says that as of 2020 there were 1,185 inhabitants, and the number of passengers on this ship was north of 2,000. We might have seen 50 locals on-shore out and about while we were there. I know a lot of people didn’t disembark due to the tender boat slowness, but still. And there weren’t even many opportunities on land to spend money for the community, very few in fact. We tried to buy some Danish candy in the grocery store and then realized it was cash only. Hopefully NCL had to pay a hefty fee for this intrusion.

Regardless of my big feelings, I really did enjoy stopping here. It was really beautiful. It was raining on us for a lot of it, but my favorite color is gray so that just added to my enjoyment honestly.

After walking around for about 90 minutes, we then stood in the tender boat line for about an hour to get back on board. Despite the time inefficiencies and colonizer guilt I’m glad we walked around town, especially since (spoiler alert) this would be our only Greenland opportunity.

Bon appetit and good night from the buffet!

Monday, July 17, 2023

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.

Peace out.