By Tom Neal
Bigfoot Trails Basecamp | Independent Adventure Media
In early August 2023, we ventured out on a two-week cruise. Myself, my wife, my mom, my son, and his fiancée, who is now his wife.
We left Seattle on a flight to Newark, New Jersey, with plans to spend one not-so-full day in New York before boarding our cruise ship. The wake-up call was 3:30 a.m., arrive at the airport by 4:30, and catch our 6:00 a.m. flight.
Yep, we stayed the night before at a hotel across the street because I wasn't about to wake up at midnight to drive to Seattle.
The flight into Newark was uneventful. Just the typical coach flight with cramped seats, no food, and screaming kids.
A boring flight is always a great flight!
We got off the plane, found the rental car, and hit the streets. Well, not so fast, because it's Newark and New York, and the traffic sucks.
We found our way to the hotel, got checked in, dropped our gear, and headed into New York City for dinner.
Now, I've dealt with Seattle, LA, Miami, and Chicago traffic a lot, but never with NYC.
It's a different ballgame in New York!
I have never heard so many horns going off, people cutting you off, cops cutting you off, buses, whatever. It was insane!
But we got the car parked, walked over to Central Park, and took a horse-drawn carriage ride through the park. We saw the John Lennon memorial and a bunch of other stuff.
Oh, I need to mention this part too.
About two months before leaving, my wife was mowing her parents' yard in flip-flops, like a dumbass, and stepped into a small divot in the ground. She sprained her ankle in two places, and it still hadn't fully healed when we left.
So as you read this, keep in mind she is RUNNING around New York in a walking boot.
New York was not a "stroll in the park."
We damn near ran everywhere.
Anyway, we wandered around Central Park for a while before figuring out our dinner plans. We decided on New York pizza, and Mom found what was supposed to be "the best in New York."
Well, that involved a subway ride.
I didn't want anything to do with the New York subway system, especially since I had no weapon for protection. I did, however, have a Marine for a son, so I had some other form of assistance if the need arose.
The subway ride was thankfully uneventful.
So was dinner.
None of us were overly impressed, but I think it was our own fault because we all hyped it up. I've had better pizza in Moab.
The atmosphere was pretty good, though. Noisy, but good. The service was okay too.
Don't ask me where we went because I never knew. I followed the girls.
Hell, I'm not even sure we made it to the place we originally planned. We may have just walked into the first pizza joint after getting off the subway.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel for another early-morning wake-up to get over to the Statue of Liberty.
We took the ferry over, did the tour, and went up as far as we could. We did have badges that allowed us to go all the way to the top, but with my wife's ankle and the time restrictions, we opted not to go.
Not to mention, the extremely narrow staircase going up did not look inviting to my fat body.
BUT, the Marine made the RUN up the stairs, took a couple of blurry pictures, then ran back down. He did this while the rest of us made our way back to the ferry, and he met up with us before we got out of the building.
We ended up giving our badges to another couple who mentioned they had tried to get them but they were sold out, so we felt good about helping them.
After getting off the ferry, we found the Twin Towers memorial nearby and visited it. We never did make it to Ground Zero.
We ran back to the hotel to get our gear and rush to the cruise terminal.
I dropped off my wife and the kids, along with the luggage, at the terminal. Then Mom and I dropped the car off a few miles away. The rental car company shuttled us back, although we were tempted to just walk it.
Mom was 74 years old at the time and in great shape. She walks at least five miles every day, for fun, not as exercise.
Getting checked in to this boat was WAY easier than the Mexico cruise.
After boarding, we found our room. It had a balcony and a nice view.
I totally dug this room!
Apparently, this ship was one of the smaller ships in the fleet. This was because we would be porting into smaller places, two of which required us to take the "tender" from the ship to the port.
The cruise ship was still big and had a lot going on. It was far superior to the Carnival cruise we did to Mexico. There were plenty of choices for food and activities, although apparently it was still lacking a lot from what I was told because of its size.
The ship itself was in great shape, and the crew was fantastic.
We set sail from Cape Liberty, New Jersey, with our first port being Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The first day out at sea was relaxing. Actually, ALL the days at sea were relaxing. We never had rough seas.
Halifax was not one of our "chill" ports, meaning we hit the ground running.
We picked up a rental car and drove from Halifax to Prince Edward Island, which ended up being about six and a half hours round trip.
We like road trips, so it's no big deal. Mom was still working on her Canadian province collection along with her country collection, so this was another one to check off the list.
As we ventured toward Prince Edward Island, we found the COWS Creamery.
Sounded like a great place to stop for ice cream!
So we ended up killing more time there than we should have. We had a TIGHT timeline to get back on the ship.
After dropping the rental car off, we still had to walk a mile to the ship, and my wife was still in the walking boot.
But we had a great drive back and made it all work.
The next port was St. John's, Newfoundland.
I loved this place!
This was a "chill" port where we hired a car and Dave from Jelly Bean Tours to take us on a tour up to Signal Hill before drop-kicking us at YellowBelly Brewery for lunch.
Dave was an awesome driver with a lot of patience. He was a comedian by day—or night, I don't know—but he was probably the best "tour guide" we ever had!
The food at YellowBelly was great, and the service was fantastic.
ALL interactions in Newfoundland were great.
We wandered around town after lunch, hitting different shops. I stopped at a mini-mart for some snacks and drinks to take back on the boat, and as I approached the counter at the same time as another guy, we both insisted the other go first.
I had my first "Newfy Standoff," as he called it.
Two people being too polite.
It was great!
After leaving cold, wet Newfoundland, we spent the next couple of days at sea before reaching Qaqortoq, Greenland.
This is the largest town in South Greenland, but the whole town can be reached on foot.
This was our first tender ride, where we basically jump into the lifeboats to get to shore because the ship is too big to dock at the port.
We got in on Sunday, and we're not sure if the town was closed because it was Sunday or because the ship was in port. The grocery store was open, and we hung out there for a while after roaming around town.
It seemed as though no local wanted anyone there, and I get it.
It seemed as though the ship tourists just took over the streets. Nobody wanted to move for the locals in the cars, so the locals would just honk once as they came through at 25–30 mph.
Don't get in their way!
I thought it was an absolutely beautiful area.
I also found a nice female police officer who was drop-dead gorgeous. I showed her to my wife and said, "I'd let her strip-search me anytime!"
She just rolled her eyes at me.
The next day was a sea day like no other.
We cruised through the Prince Christian Sound.
This was my first experience with icebergs and seeing glaciers in person, and it was AMAZING.
To make it even better, the ship's captain stopped in the middle and made the boat do a 360-degree turn. Not once, but twice.
That was impressive!
It was fun to see a lot of the ship's personnel up on deck in awe too. All the crew members wore name tags with their name and country of origin on them, so seeing people from Zimbabwe on deck in a place so far different from home, taking pictures, was pretty cool.
The best part was that we had about a half-dozen crew members there by us, but then their boss came out and they looked like they were in trouble.
Then the boss came over for pictures too.
You could tell it was her first time seeing it as well, and she was just as much in awe.
It was a great time.
Coming out of the sound, we passed another cruise ship heading the opposite direction, and I swear we could reach out and "high five" the other ship's passengers.
We FINALLY made it to Iceland.
I have wanted to go to Iceland for soooooooo long!
Our first port in Iceland was Akureyri. Just like all the other ports, with the exception of Newfoundland, we hit the ground running.
As we tried to figure out how and where to pick up our rental car, my son and I spotted two E350 vans lifted on 44-inch Mickey Thompson tires.
These were tour vans.
I told Mom we should just grab one of those.
But NO.
We get a small compact car and drive ourselves around.
I was thinking, take the van and drive ourselves around.
LOL.
But we picked up the rental and set off to visit Goðafoss waterfall, Húsavík, Hringsbjarg Cliff Viewpoint, and Black Sand Beach.
I think I found my summer home!
I want to live on Maui in the winter and Iceland for the summer!
The next Icelandic port was Ísafjörður.
Correction.
NOW I found my summer home!
We just drove around to numerous waterfalls and the stunning countryside.
Holy shit, it was absolutely amazing!
I can't pronounce 99% of the words, but I can definitely see the beauty in the country.
The last port was Reykjavík.
We were done with the cruise, but not the trip.
After leaving the cruise ship, we got another rental car and took off for the Golden Circle to see more waterfalls and geysers.
We were going to go to Blue Lagoon like everyone else, but opted for Secret Lagoon instead. Much smaller place with WAY fewer people, and it was pretty cool to motor around in a geothermal lagoon.
We ended up staying the night in Hella before driving to Selfoss the next morning to go on a horseback ride.
Icelandic horses are small and beautiful. We had four beautiful girls take us on a short tour and tell us the story behind the volcano Hekla.
We got to tour this beautiful area before Hekla decided to erupt and destroy/rebuild its countryside.
After leaving Selfoss, we cruised southern Iceland, making our way to the Bridge Between Continents with a quick stop and visit in Eyrarbakki.
We played between the continents for about an hour before we had to get to the airport.
Leaving Iceland sucked.
Well, the flight was FANTASTIC, as was the airport. I just didn't want to leave.
I could see myself living there in the summers.
We did opt for first-class flight home, as it was a straight-through flight from Iceland to Seattle. It was the first time in first class for all of us except Mom, and we all wanted to stay awake and enjoy the amenities of first class.
My wife was the only one to stay awake.
I felt so comfortable in that seat that I passed out once we were airborne.
Oh, but that was AFTER the amazing first-class lounge.
We were fed like kings. The seating was great.
Holy crap, all it was missing was a masseuse!
I would definitely like to return to Iceland, and I will do so by Icelandair.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Neal is the founder of Bigfoot Trails Basecamp and an independent adventure journalist. He doesn't go looking for stories. He goes out on adventures, and the stories usually find him.
From road trips and off-road trails to racing, travel, Basecamp projects, and the occasional questionable decision, Tom writes about the experiences, people, places, and unexpected shit that happen along the way.
