Cruise to Greenland/ Iceland
One of MANY waterfalls we saw
Cruising to Iceland: August 2023 Adventure
In early August 2023, we ventured out on a 2 week cruise, myself, my wife, my mom, my son and his fiancé (now wife). We left Seattle on a flight to Newark New Jersey with plans to spend only 1 not so full day in New York before boarding our cruise ship. Wake up call was 3:30 AM, arrive at the airport by 4:30, and catch our 6:00am 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. We got off the plane found the rental and hit the streets fast, well, not so fast because, it's Newark and New York, and the traffic sucks! We found our way to the hotel to get checked in, drop our gear, then went to New York City for dinner. Now I have delt with Seattle, LA, Miami, and Chicago traffic a lot, but never with NYC. It's a different ballgame in New York! I never heard so many horns going off, people cutting you off to include cops, 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, saw the John Lennon memorial, and much more. Oh, I need to mention this part too....... about 2 months prior to 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 2 places, and it still hadn't fully healed when we left. So as you read this, keep in mind she is RUNNING around in a walking boot. New York was not a "stroll in the park", we damn near ran everywhere! Ok, back to the story, So we wandered around Central Park for awhile before figuring 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, but so was dinner. None of us were overly impressed, but I think it was our own fault that we all hyped it up. I have had better pizza in Moab. But the atmosphere was pretty good, noisy, but good and the service was ok too. Don't ask me where we went because I never knew, I followed the girls.... Hell, I'm not sure we even made it to the place we originally planned, we may have just walked into the first pizza joint after 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 all, went up as far as we could. We did have badges so we could go all the way to the top, but with my wife's ankle, and time restrictions, we opted not to go. Not to mention, the extremely narrow staircase going was going up did not look inviting to my fat body. BUT the Marine made the RUN up the stairs, took a couple blurry pics, then ran back down. He did this while the rest of us made our way back to the ferry, and he met up before we got out of the building. We ended up giving our badges to another couple who mentioned they tried to get the badges, but was 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 the luggage at the terminal, then mom and me dropped the car off a few miles away. The rental car company shuttled us back, though we were tempted to just walk it. Mom is 74 years old, and in great shape, she walks at least 5 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, totally dig this room!
Apparently this ship was one of the smaller in the fleet, this was because we would port into smaller places, two of which we needed to take the "tender" from the ship to the port. This cruise ship was big, and had a lot going on, it was far superior to the Carnival cruise we did to Mexico. Plenty of choices for food and activities, but apparently was still lacking a lot from what I was told, due to it's 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 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 6.5 hours round trip. We like road trips, so it's no big deal, and mom is still on her Canadian Providence collection along with her country collection. As we ventures to Price Edward Island, we found the COW Creamery, sounded like a great place to stop for ice cream! So we ended up killing more time there than we should, we had a TIGHT timeline to get back on the ship. After dropping the rental car, we still had to walk a mile to the ship, and my wife is in the walking boot. But we had a great drive back and made it all work.
Next port was St. John's Newfoundland. I loved this place!!!! This was a "chill" port where hired a car, Dave from Jelly Bean Tours, to take us on a tour, up to Signal Hill before drop kicking us at the 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, the service fantastic. ALL interactions in Newfoundland were great! We wandered around town after lunch hitting different shops, I stopped off 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, 2 people being too polite. It was great!
After leaving cold wet Newfoundland, we spent the next couple 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 in the life boats 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's Sunday, or because the ship was in port. The grocery store was open, and we hung out there for a few after roaming the 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, no one wanted to move for the locals in the cars, so locals would just honk once as they come on 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 that 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 Price Christian Sund (sound). This was my experience with icebergs and seeing glaciers in person, it was AMAZING. To make it even better, the ships 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 personnel up on deck in awe too. All the crew members wore name tags with their name and country of origin on it, so seeing people from Zimbabwe on deck in a place far different from home taking pictures was fun. The best part was, 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 as well, and 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 goers.
We FINALLY made it to Iceland, I have wanted to go to Iceland for soooooooo long!! First port in Iceland was Akureyri, just like all other ports, with the exception of Newfoundland, we hit the ground running. As we tried to figure out how/ where to pick up rental car, my son and I spotted two E350 vans, lifter 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!
Next Icelandic port was Isafjordur, correction, NOW I found my summer home! We just drove around to numerous waterfalls, and the stunning country side. Holy shit, it was absolutely amazing! I can't pronounce 99% of the words, but I can definitely see the beauty in the country!
Last port was Reykjavik, we are done with the cruise, but not the trip. After leaving the cruise ship, we go 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, 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 4 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 it's countryside. After leaving Selfoss, we cruised southern Iceland making our way to the Bridge between Continents with a quick stop/ 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, as 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 to pass out once we were air born. 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 will do so by Icelandic Air! Have you been to Iceland or Greenland? What was your experience like?
Final Thoughts
Iceland and Greenland were incredible. The people, landscapes, and experiences were unforgettable. I will definitely return, and next time, it’ll be with Icelandair.
Have you been to Iceland or Greenland? What was your experience like?
