ColdCruise

Hi @Wulfwyn Our embarkation - its at the new cruise terminal, Skarfabakki you can see the port schedule for cruise ships as a calendar here (best with a larger screen like a tablet) https://portal.dokk.is/embed/calendar/5 Or search here (screen capture above) https://www.faxafloahafnir.is/en/ The 1 September pier assignment isn’t posted yet (use above link to check in a couple weeks?)

When we went to Nuuk in 2017, we walked from the port area (industrial port) up the side of a cliff to the town. That ship did not have any transport laid on for people not on excursions. So everyone walked - most passengers were British and I think they (or majority on our ship) were just bigger walkers than people I usually find on NCL ships. Greenland is a great walking around cruise itinerary. After we got up to town level, we walked around meandering our way over to the Ethnographic museum and spent several hours there. It was a great museum - some geography & some geology about the island formation,a lot of information on prehistoric migrations and how the island was settled by Inuit ancestral people like the Thule etc. very good displays. Similar to the type of displays you could find at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. I think we were in Nuuk on a Sunday because I remember most stores we walked by were closed. We walked around the city talking our time returning to the ship in time for dinner and sailaway. Bug netting to cover your head & especially your face due to the “mossies” and gnats - major excursions from Akureyri got to Myvatn (very worthwhile) … Myvatn translates to “lake of midges” - kind of like gnats. Qaqortoq in Greenland was literally swarming with mossies or gnats. We made a beeline to the store to by nets because we’d left ours behind. People who got to the Qaqortoq store late were out of luck, they’d all been purchased. This time we are bringing them. Not a fan of bugs in my eyes and mouth. Get it from Amazon or somewhere, like these: Stansport Mosquito Head Net (709) https://a.co/d/2zaJjw4 (best worn over some type of hat)

Forgot to add …hope to meet both of you onboard @BRC6C & @300dtc !

id recommend waterPROOF rain pants as well @BRC6C - REI has a couple that are rain & wind proof that can go on over your regular pants and one of the pairs I have unsnap along the side seams so they’re easy on/off as needed and pack down small (and for PLAY weight restrictions are light). Iceland can be very windy ! I have a pretty good packing list for polar/near polar travel. I’m very casual on vacation and get a couple wears for most things (except the obvious). It doesn’t hurt that we’re both platinum so get a couple free laundry bags per cruise, so reduces packing. A lightweight merino wool, long sleeve T-shirt is good (I like Smartwool’s 100 series cuz I don’t want to bulk up) and I also bring 1 or 2 of Costco’s 32 Degree undershirts and tights - thin for layering, lightweight, pack small but add warmth. Plus the 32 Deg hand wash and dry overnight and merino doesn’t hold body odors, so if they need to be worn more than once as a layer, it’s all good. I have put on some weight this past year (trying…unsuccessfully..to loose) so thin layers are essential as I don’t want to buy a bunch of larger clothes. I WILL loose that extra poundage some day! as @rritter25 said, a hat & gloves might be handy. Didn’t need them in that 21-day I mentioned earlier but ya never know. I needed them on other trips. They’re in my packing pile. I also have a pair of Merrel hiking shoes (most boots rub my boney ankles) that are waterproof- I’ll wear those on the plane and bring sneakers and recovery sandals, maybe a pair of flats. A polar fleece, scarf or buff, a puffer jacket, a raincoat. Of course bathing suit for the pools -probably doing Myvatn and there’s an outdoor hot tub/sauna at our pre cruise hotel And the bug netting @300dtc mentioned! We did need that at Myvatn one trip and didn’t have it in Qaqortoq and desperately needed it. I think our ship bought out the towns entire supply …but not everyone got to the market in time 😜

@rritter25 Hi & thanks for sharing that info and for popping in on my trip report (to be). Yes, I was following reports of your cruise. Did you do a review or trip report? If so, would you mind linking? So sorry your itinerary got changed and you missed out on 3 good ports. After hearing about the changes, I went and found some ice pack maps - both Qaqortoq & Nanortalik had a lot of ice but several other ships were able to make port during those days. I think it depended on the ship, the company and the captain 😜 There’s quite a bit of comments, links, maps and photos from our roll call on your situation… as well as conjecture about what we will get, found buried here in our roll call: We did a 21 day Faroes, Iceland & Greenland cruise 11Jul - 1Aug in 2017 (wow, didn’t realize it was so long ago!) and had fantastic weather every port day (1 medium rough sea day). Really surprised how good it was … and it was our 1st cruise to boot (well other than a 4 day weekend NCL “booze cruise” to see if we got sea sick or not before booking the 21-days). Fingers crossed 🤞 we get just as lucky this time … and that I won’t need the gloves, hat and warm layers on this trip either! recent reports are the ice in Qaqortoq harbor is breaking up, again 🤞

La Romana while the Dar has built a nice pool complex at the port, it’s basically just the pool. The pool is large, lots of loungers, some shade but it on a built up area that overlooks the ocean. There are a handful of places to buy a drink or get a bite but not a lot of choice. A few shops, a lot of larimar. That’s it. there is not a lot to do in La Romana itself and most excursions go to Punta Cana (45-60min drive) or to a nearby resort. There’s a couple snorkeling sites, Catalina Island right offshore from La Romana and the rest 1 hr+ away. I’d look at the shore options, but if I wasn’t really motivated by any or the price was more than I think they’re worth. I’d go ashore use the pool, meander around (little shade) and reboard for lunch and stay aboard. In February we had a cruise that left from La Romana, originally planned to fly in a day early and stay downtown near the beach. But didn’t see a lot to do without having to arrange transport. So we flew in a couple days ahead and stayed in Punta Cana till getting a van to La Romana for embarkation. Also that cruise changed our 1st port from a new area closer to Haiti to the island I mentioned above, Catalina. That is a short small boat ride offshore, and our port day there was tendering to an isolated beach. Kind of like going to a stripped down GSC. We did go ashore and did about an hour snorkeling to check out our gear before snorkeling in ABCs. Best thing that day was watching a whale off the starboard side.

Ten days till we fly to KEF. We booked our flight with PLAY Airline. They are a relatively new airline based in Iceland. This is our first time flying with them - I can't wait to see their operations. Flight is just over 5 hours so if it sucks, it’s only 5 hours … but I hope to get a few hours of shut-eye. We didn’t book this cruise and, therefore, our flights until Memorial Day, so barely 60 days in advance. I was worried flights would be exorbitant but our one way flights were just $614 (307pp) for 2 tix with extra leg room seating, including 20kg checked bag, carry-on & personal item. Other airlines were charging double or more. I’ll be sure to post a debrief on PLAY once we are in Iceland. I hope they work out well because they have some very good promotions to Europe. Their flights are organized pretty much like IcelandAir (and my much missed WOW) - everything transits their hub at KEF, with the option for an Iceland stop-over. A lot of their European flights may fly in/out of secondary airports and in the winter they have a lot of warmer-climate destinations. 🤞 and at least they are competition for IcelandAir.

Thank you @LauraS - I hope it’s at least a bit informative if not entertaining to at least a few readers 😛

I don’t know about fellow shipmates wanting to hear my take on the cruise … they’ll be living it large themselves. But I’m flattered @julie3fan - hope to meet you on the 27th!

NCL Star out of Reykjavik is $99 for paid tour, available to book in app.

I’ve done the climb up or down those plane stairs out on the back 40 several times and never noticed a lift! very observant, I’ll have to see if I can remember to look for them now I know they exist!!

I can only wish. Hate the iPhone keyboard and my large fingers

This is such a sad situation with mist NCL port stops in Victoria - vast majority arrive after 6pm just long enough to satisfy the Jones Act foreign port requirement. my big “want to” here is a daytime visit to Butchart Gardens. I’d love to do an Alaskan cruise with a full day in Victoria but guess i need to use a different cruise line or make it a pre/post cruise extension.

Good luck organizing this! bar crawls are great fun on a sea say, even if nit a bug drinker. You get several hours yo talk to like minded cruisers, much mire than at an hour-long M&G. best one we attended was on Prima - it started about 10 in the Belvedere and worked its way upwards. Prima has a lot of good bars for this. I think we ended up not hitting every bar … too much of a (good?) thing 🤣 I've not been on Jade but I’ve sailed on Gem a couple timed. I think the bars are nicely spaced out for a crawl. @The Traveling Man had a good suggestion about the roll calls, also check out some trip reports for posted FSDs. enjoy your cruise 🚢

@jacketwatch we did a transatlantic on Viva in November 2023 ((Lisbon to Miami), the Viva was fully outfitted with Starlink and was quite good. I even did a Skype job interview from the middle of the Atlantic and doubt the other side even noticed anything off. (I was the job seeker) I think if the 300 minutes are enough time for you, you probably won’t need to upgrade. If you do upgrade, I think there’s a slight advantage in doing it onboard before night 2, if you haven’t used your minutes till that point. However I forget the nuances but think they’re covered by others here.

Hi @Seas2mountains I must have been scrolling through your recent opus and posting while you were here. Prima/Viva are lovely ships and you were blessed with great weather for you fantastic cruise. it sounds like the new veterans programs keep getting better, we haven’t had the neat spoon apps yet, they looked fun 🫡

I probably share some of your concerns @catbro, but we were on Sky (about same age, without nit-picking) in March and although it was showing its age in some spots and was a huge change from our previous November cruise on Viva, we got along well enough for a port intensive cruise. This is another (IMO) port-intensive cruise with only 3 sea days, so I don’t think the lack of the latest amenities will be too much bother. Although the loss of a great observation lounge like a Spinnaker might be missed, it just depends on how close the captain will sail along the various coastlines. My biggest concern is based on the trouble Star had making her itineraries this past winter in South America & Antarctica. And the current run off Greenland isn’t instilling confidence. However if she can pull off this itinerary as scheduled it will be a fantastic cruise (weather permitting)! We did a 21-day round trip from the UK to Faroes, Iceland and Greenland a few years back 9-28 July on another line and it was fantastic (if a little long) - great weather most of the way, only missed 1 port due to, reportedly, sea ice and the ship found a good substitute. Hoping our luck continues!

Hi @Nilbog I hope I leave some useful information for you, then. Please don’t hesitate to hop on and ask questions. We’ll be glad to pass the baton in NYC!

Great trip review @Seas2mountains - good presentation style and really good quality photos. I popped in based on a comment from @mking8288 in my jump-start trip report. We’re getting ready to take a cruise from Reykjavik to NYC shortly, and I found your Iceland port info interesting. We will be on the Star, first time on her. However, your report has brought back many pleasant memories of our almost-inaugural Prima cruise - love that class of ships! And love the SJs. We’ve been to Iceland 5 times from as short as 2 day layovers to 10 day RV trips, but this cruise will be our first time in Grundafjordur & Isafjordur. Unfortunately both are early and short port stops (6ish to all aboard around 1400), but we’ve rented a car for Isafjordur and will walk out to the waterfalls and viewpoint towards Kirkufell (although it looks like we should have a good view from the ship) both are tender ports, I believe 4 ships will be at Isafjordur the same day 😳 I’m really glad you enjoyed this cruise. We’ve been to Norway (combo land and Svalbard trip) but are thinking about a fjord- focused cruise in fall 25 before some of the cities start limiting cruise ship access. I sympathize with the locals’ feelings but some locations I think are best by cruise ship … and we like traveling often, not expensively so the small boutique luxury lines are probably not where my money is going. So need to get there via a mainstream cruise before I can’t. Hopefully I can find this thread when planning time comes!

Yes @Asawi - that is what it says and what I read … what can I saw? Maybe my PCC has insider info? Just relaying what I was told, up to you to follow up with your PCC or TA if interested.

@julig22Refresh your browser - I made a clarifying edit, probably while you were typing…. also thought it was clear that I called my PCC to ask about both “current CN CF promotions” since NCL’s site has BOTH differing promotions at this time. 😘

@mking8288 I spoke with my PCC this morning (7 July 24 in case this becomes a zombie thread down the road) and asked about current CN CF promotions and was told the a CN DoubleUp currently can be applied to ANY stateroom. We are looking at an Asian cruise in a couple years …. Prices are high so we are considering an inside and I was gonna but a CF to shave off the $250. We have a lot of CNs but we haven’t pulled the trigger yet.

Thanks truly unfortunate @BirdTravels I’m grateful that has not been our experience with Palomar on the 2 times we’ve dined there (aboard both Prima and Viva). Perhaps because we cruise less often, we have better odds of a good meal? (Of course the odds could work the other way.) For anyone interested, my review of our Palomar experience on Viva is at post #128 here

Back to regular programming… This cruise will kick us over from Platinum to Sapphire. It appears that our cruise is sold out … or 99.9% there. It’s no longer on the NCL site, despite being 3 weeks away. Although we have upgrade bid options for all the suites in our offer, I called our PCC this morning to see if there were actually any suites available to upgrade to for money. Occasionally people reported in the forum that they were able to pay for an upgrade for less than the minimum bid. That was luckily our experience on our Viva TA last November. Alas, that is not my lucky time. The only remaining suites are Club Balconies for an additional $1,000 per person (there were 2). Just not worth it for us for the extra space since the amenities package doesn’t really give you more value (IMO). I think minimum bid was $250. We may decide to bid on something just in case there’s a last minute cancellation or no-show, but the odds are extremely long. Perfectly happy with our starboard balcony location for this mostly westerly and southerly cruise, so I hope for some beautiful sail-by scenery if the captain stays close enough to shore. Here are NCL’s itinerary details: An even mix between tendering and docking. I hope our Platinum status gets us on the tenders early enough for our shorex plans. We only booked 1 excursion with NCL, the rest just cost too much - almost all were in mid-to-high $200 pp. We've rented cars in several ports, were traveling with friends and the car rentals are about the cost of 1 NCL shorex. Plus I am NOT a fan of sharing a bus with 50 people for long hours and we’ve been to several ports before.

Props to @Host Kat 👍 She speedily made the requested edit within minutes of sending my edit request via the Report option found in the ellipses next to the post number. PSA here if only my change requests at work were so promptly resolved ….