Our cruise voyage from New York to Iceland

A rugged, chilly vacation

Posted by brian on August 31, 2024 · 36 mins read

Contents

Iceland Cruise Day 1

When we almost leave for a vacation

Today is Friday and the cruise is on Sunday. We’ll spend two nights in Jersey City, giving us a full day on Saturday to tour around New York City.

We’re mostly packed and ready to head to the airport in 3 hours. Oh, as I was hopping out of the shower I saw a new text on my phone:

Well that’s certainly unfortunate.

Any other reasonable flights today on Delta? No. Any other reasonable flights today on any airline into Newark? No. Any other reasonable flights today into any of the 3 NYC airports today? No.

Our first instinct was to plan to drive from RDU to Jersey City instead. I even made a reservation at Avis. On further consideration, our leaving the Raleigh area at 2pm would put us driving up the eastern seaboard on a Friday afternoon with severe weather in the area. Given we still had a solid 48 hours to make it to the ship in Bayonne, NJ, I opted for a 7am United flight the next morning. We’ll keep driving as a last resort for now.

So much for day 1.

Iceland Cruise Day 2

An early morning flight and first family visit to New York

A 7am domestic flight means a 5am Uber which means a 4am wakeup time. On the other hand, 7am means improved chances of plane being there, crew being there, and weather not being a factor.

(I had 2 United Club free passes expiring in a few days)

So we made it to Newark.

“Luckily” we could go directly to our hotel room at the Hyatt House Jersey City, since we’d already paid for it for last night. I’ll tangent here for a moment and say that, despite it being 2024, hotels still can’t figure out reliable digital keys. I don’t know why I expected ours would work. Also, this Hyatt’s elevators are weird. Anyway.

We dropped our stuff, suncreened up, and hit the 10:10am ferry from Paulus Hook, about a two minute walk from our hotel, over to Brookfield Place in lower Manhattan.

The terminal is adjacent to Brookfield Place mall, so Sher and Siena grabbed crepes. We then sat outside the One World Trade Center entrance before our 11:30am reservation to go to the top.

They do a good job with the whole WTC experience. There’s an interesting-ish queue in the basement for the elevators.

In the elevator itself, all the walls are displays that show what NYC would’ve looked like over time from its founding to current day. I’m sure there were discussions during the design phase about making glass elevators; I’m glad they went in this direction. Once at the top, they queue people into a shuttered room where they have a 3 minute presentation and then do a “reveal” of the view by raising the shades. It was a clear, sunny day, so the effect landed. After that you’re free to move around 3 floors at the top at your leisure. They peer pressure you into taking a family photo, but this time we leaned into it since we don’t do photos of all of us that often. The view is, of course, spectacular.

We made our way back down to ground level, then over to the connected Oculus mall/station.

After checking this out, we had a decision to make. The forecast and radar showed severe storms the rest of the day, and we weren’t prepared for walking around a city in the rain. And before the storms’ arrival we had the promise of hot and sticky weather. Plus, all of us were operating on minimal sleep. So we bailed. We ferried back across the Hudson and crashed in our hotel.

Later, Siena and Sherri would brave the rains to grab Subway subs, and I ordered a miso salmon bowl from Sweetgreen. Once the rain stopped, me and the kids went outside to play on the playground next to the PATH station and take photos down by the river.

Throughout the day people were posting on the (unofficial) cruise Facebook group about their travel woes, canceled flights in Toronto, Tampa, and Dallas, all necessitating those people to embark on drives they weren’t planning on. We were feeling grateful we’d left enough time to get to the ship and that the air travel system worked for us that morning.

Iceland Cruise Day 3

Celebrity cruise embarkation in Bayonne and a stormy sail away

Embark day!

Siena and Brian grabbed Starbucks breakfast and walked on the Jersey City riverwalk for a bit. Rowan slept until the absolute last minute while the rest of us watched Olympics gymnastics and killed time until our noon departure.

Our Uber from Jersey City to Bayonne was smooth, same as our 5am one from our house to RDU. Our understanding was that it was a full cruise (they were even offering some people 150% future cruise credit to cancel!) so I expected chaos at the terminal but it was super-chill. Rolled right up, handed off the bags, walked through security, checked in, then right up to the ship. Once onboard, we found those crowds at the buffet.

We did the standard eat-and-explore-while-waiting-for-luggage day one routine. After awhile we were able to get into our stateroom.

Sailaway was at 4:00pm. There was an exceptional thunderstorm gathered around the NYC area, which lent an ominous backdrop to our voyage around and out of New York Harbor. Without getting rained on too much we were able to capture photos of the Statue of Liberty, lower Manhattan, and Verrazano Bridge as we were leaving.

The rest of the day was rainy and foggy, conditions that would continue the next few days. The clouds did break enough for us to capture a sunset, though, a theme that would recur multiple times through the cruise.

We found our way to the main dining room at 8:30, apparently 15 minutes late. The dining room food is… okay. There is a noticeable difference between Disney and Celebrity, with Disney providing the superior food and dining experience, but not so much of a difference where it’s a bad experience.

Iceland Cruise Day 4

Between NYC and Halifax, the first many sea days we’d have on this voyage

Sea day between NYC and Halifax. Nothing notable to report for today. It was foggy pretty much all day long, getting denser as the day progressed. The kids are, of course, racing around the ship and playing elevator tag.

Mid-afternoon the ship started sounding the horn every minute or so. Like I said: dense fog. It made for some cool photos in the evening, which were the only photos I ended up taking today. We’ve been missing out on a lot of pool tanning, though.

Iceland Cruise Day 5

A cloudy day in a familiar city, with lots of family

I was up by 5:30am or so to watch us come in to Halifax Harbor. The fog that’s been following us for a few days was still present, however, and I still couldn’t see more than 100 yards or so from the ship. Might as well grab some coffee.

An hour later there was some daylight and the fog had abated some, so I rousted Sherri as we were nearing downtown and we went up to the top deck to watch us come in. The ship nosed in to near the pier, then did a 180 so that we come along the starboard side.

Since our cell plan covers US and Canada we were able to catch up on emails, texts, and photos in the morning. We disembarked around 10am and made our way north along the waterfront to downtown proper, with plans to meet up with Ann and Greg and Shane, Katie, Will, and Sam at the “wave” around 10:45. Sher and Siena made the obligatory stop at Tim Horton’s for treats, then we found the others. We had a nice time walking along the water with everyone and catching up, especially since I hadn’t visited Canada over the summer and missed out on those times. Around lunchtime I peeled off with Rowan to return to the ship and grab lunch, while Sher and Siena headed toward Spring Garden and Lululemon with plans to shop and meet Amanda. After that she was able to connect up with Aunts Betty, Dorothy, and Kay.

My watch reports 8 miles of walking today, and Sherri’s has 14!

For sailaway, we enjoyed the unique perspective of sailing past McNab’s Island and Georges Island from 200 feet up. After sailing south out of Halifax, we made our turn to the NNE toward St. John’s Newfoundland.

We were able to capture tonight’s sunset with Siena:

The kids went to see the illusionist show in the main theater, after which we went for our usual dinner in the main dining room. For some reason, compared to previous cruises our dinners are fast! We’re basically in-and-out in an hour, almost unheard of on a cruise ship. I attribute this to being in the second seating, where the dining room isn’t packed to capacity. And I can’t believe I’m saying this but part of me is missing the entertainment and showmanship of the Disney dinners (except for that rad talking turtle in Animators Palate!)

According to the captain’s announcement this afternoon, some people with missed travel connections to New York were able to join the ship today in Halifax. While I’m sure they would’ve preferred avoiding all the travel headaches, they really haven’t missed much, and there’s lots of cruise ahead.

Regarding Halifax, we were both surprised by the amount of development along the waterfront, and how the fulcrum of activity has shifted south away from the Marriott and casino. Deloitte seems to anchor an impressive development of condos, offices, and retail. Further south, another large building, possibly called Cunard, seems to be being developed in phases. These units are not inexpensive, either.

Iceland Cruise Day 6

Sea day between Halifax and St. John’s, NL

Sea day == sleep in day

I managed 9 hours of sleep according to my CPAP. Sherri and I started our wanderings around 8:30 this morning, grabbing a light breakfast and then finding chairs to read on for awhile. We finally convinced the kids to get up around noon, then we headed for lunch.

It’s another overcast, gray day. Winds aren’t too bad and temperatures are in the mid-60’s. After the heat of NYC and Holly Springs, I don’t mind. It would be good to see the sun again, though.

Where do we live, Siena?

Since there’s not much to report for sea days, let’s talk about the overall cruising experience. I may be running out of patience for the near-constant sales pitches, nickel-and-diming, and gouging. Premium (acceptabie) Internet for 1 device for the whole voyage runs $400+. If you’re a drinker, the base drinks package runs $84/day. Per person. And if you have multiple adults in the same room they require all the adults to buy the package. If you don’t get a drink package and would like to a la carte the occasional NA beer, those cost $11 each. They do have a Zero Alcohol package that gets you premium coffee, juices, sodas, and NA cocktails; that’s $45/day. The least expensive short excursions in Greenland and Iceland run to hundreds of dollars per person; you could easily spend $1000 for one excursion for a family of four. We will pay close to $1000 for mandatory gratuities. Something that’s new to me: if you want room service, it’s $10 plus gratuity. I truly don’t mind spending for nice things but what’s fuzzy here is the sense that you’re getting value for your dollar.

The ship itself is showing its age, despite a refurb in 2017-18. Paint on metal that’s been coated on too many times. Scratches and scrapes in staterooms that make everything feel well-worn. The public areas seem nice, though.

Today’s sunset capture:

Iceland Cruise Day 7

St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador

An incredible weather day. Only a few scattered clouds, highs around 75.

We sunscreened up and set off from the ship around 10:15, heading up to the top of Signal Hill. We first went along the road, stopping 2/3 of the way up at a museum and cafe for waters (they didn’t have Diet Coke), and then onward to the station at the top of the hill. Naturally there’s a gift shop there. It’s also windy af (and the locals were saying “meh, it’s not that windy right now”). We puttered around there for a bit and checked out the fortifications, then picked up the second half a trail called the North Head Trail Loop.

We decided early on in the trail we wouldn’t want to be doing it in the reverse direction. There are lots of stairs, some in steep segments. Aside: I much prefer paths to stairs, even if it means multiple switchbacks, but I understand why they do it. There are rocks to scramble over, and much of the trail goes along cliffs that line the entrance to St. John’s harbor. While it was a fun hike and we were able to enjoy some incredible views, the consensus of the group was the hike was about 20 minutes too long.

We made our way along roadsides back into town.

Rowan peeled off to go back to the ship, while the rest of us walked down St. John’s main street, which the city closes to vehicle traffic on certain days through the summer. Siena was able to “borrow’ wifi from Tim Horton’s to download new episodes of a Netflix show, while I hit up a sushi place and had a huge bento box plus sushi for ~$20 US.

Back on the ship mid-afternoon, we relaxed and recovered from the hike – and watched some pretty bad driving on the road that goes along the water.

The warm, nice weather coupled with the geography of Newfoundland felt a lot like a Caribbean island.

A lot of people lined up at spots along Signal Hill to wave farewell to the ship as we left the harbor. I haven’t looked it up but I got the sense St. John’s doesn’t see a ship of our size too often.

Today’s sunset:

Iceland Cruise Day 8

Sea day 1 between St. John’s and Greenland

Today’s the first of two sea days between St. John’s and Greenland.

The water today has an odd look to it, like it’s simulated. Maybe it is. Maybe all of this is!

Temperatures have dropped since yesterday, with temps in the low 50’s. The days of mid-70’s are behind us now that we’re heading mostly north toward Greenland. Seas are relatively calm today. The captain has already warned of stronger winds (25-30 kts out of the west) and rougher seas (6-8 feet) tomorrow.

We’re around 1/3 of the way there:

We learned today from the Captain’s announcement that after we leave Akureyri, Iceland, we’ll briefly head north and cross the Arctic Circle. He kind of made this sound like a big deal that had been planned as a favor based on passenger request… but the Arctic Circle is only 100 miles north of Akureyri, and we typically sail at least a few dozen miles off the coast anyway, so I’m not buying that it was some special accommodation. Regardless: pretty cool.

In the evening we left the kids to their own devices (figuratively) and went to the Tuscan Grille specialty restaurant. We had an excellent view of the back of the ship as we made our way through the Labrador Sea. Food quality was definitely a step up from the main dining room, though still a step behind what you’d find at a higher end Italian restaurant.

Once back in the room we found out the kids had decided to go to the main dining by themselves, though 20 minutes late. Oh, and they finally – here on day 8 – managed to make some friends from the Teen Lounge that we’ve been pushing them to visit since the first few hours of being onboard. They stayed out to past midnight playing ship-wide Hide & Seek.

Despite being a bit beyond 56 degrees northern latitude, it ended up being a nice weather day. On our western-facing balcony, with the ship blocking the wind, it was shorts weather in the afternoon.

Tonight’s sunset:

Iceland Cruise Day 9

A special birthday sea day off the coast of Greenland!

Sea day 2 between St. John’s and Greenland.

Today is Rowan’s birthday! We had a great dinner at Le Petit Chef to celebrate. Before the first course they put on a show about the history of tomatoes, and then presented a tomato-oriented appetizer. Next, a show about the history of art, followed by a shrimp and cucumber thing (ok so that one doesn’t match). Then the main course and dessert. The show part was clever, truly. The food was main restaurant quality, with the main course being a step up. Rowan sucked down three Shirley Temples and then a (chalky) chocolate birthday cake.

Frankly I can’t recall much else about the day, as I try to write this the day after. The sea days are running together. Fortunately the kids have some friends now. Sherri and I don’t, but that’s status quo.

Iceland Cruise Day 10

Drizzly day in Qarqortoq, Greenland

Something funny about the ship wifi: if you don’t pay for a package, they still allow app notifications to leak through. I haven’t decided yet whether this is a technical oversight (unlikely), clever bait, and/or a dark pattern. It means you end up with badges on many of your apps (e.g. 30 unread emails, 8 unread Facebook notifications, etc.), which can make a certain personality type anxious 🙄. They do allow for Google Maps updates to come through for free.

Since Rowan’s birthday was yesterday, he could see he had lots of (presumably) Happy Birthday messages waiting for him on Snapchat, which a 24 hour expiration. Thus he was keen to get moving in the morning and get off the ship, since our plan was to head directly to a coffee shop up by Sermilik Lake which supposedly offered Internet service. We managed to tender, trek through the chilly rain, and arrive at the coffee shop by 9am… only to be informed by the person inside that the shop was closed to those not on a tour. Ok. On the one hand, I get why they’d want a group in there paying $120pp (or whatever) for a “tasting” instead of our $50… but it was still pretty disappointing to be told sorry, go away. Our only other interaction with a Greenlander was at the grocery store, where again we’d hope to be able to buy some things and use the Internet, but they didn’t speak English and for reasons I can’t fathom because I’m usually super on top of these things I hadn’t downloaded the Greenland language pack for Google Translate.

We walked up a hill in the spitting rain, took some photos of the ship, then tendered back. That was the sum total of our experience on land in Greenland. I was disappointed, but mostly with myself for not being better prepared with things like the Google language pack and more weather-appropriate shoes.

On the departure from Qaqortoq, the Captain and pilots took the ship near an iceberg and performed a few 360’s for plenty of photos and videos.

We did cake and singing at main dining tonight, since we were out at a specialty restaurant last night:

The Captain informed us that weather conditions would not allow for us to sail Prince Christian Sound, a sound located in southern Iceland on our way to Iceland. Further, we are expecting storm conditions tonight: winds to 50 knots, seas to 15 feet. This has been the source of a lot of … consternation … for some people in our cabin. I’ve tried to reinforce that this is a comfort concern not a safety one.

Anyway, tomorrow will turn into a sea day, with another sea day following. We are then arriving earlier than expected into Akureyri to allow for more time to enjoy that town.

No sunset photo tonight, so you’ll have to make due with an elevator one instead.

Iceland Cruise Days 11 and 12

Rocky sea days between Greenland and Iceland

I’m lazy and combining August 12 and 13 (cruise days 11 and 12).

We did encounter the forecast rough seas after midnight after leaving Qartotoq. The captain said later there were 60mph winds and 5 meter seas. The rocking was rough but not overly so.

The seas continued to make their presence known the next two days.

I wonder what the black squares are over Greenland:

I was making my way through a cold these days, so much of the time I was hermited in the room. On the second day I broke down and bought some pricy Nyquil from the onboard store and started dosing that. I still slept like absolute garbage for a few nights.

Rowan and Siena have spent most of their waking hours with their ship friends. I know they’re both dreading the last night of the cruise.

Our sunset for August 12:

Siena’s phone got itself into a state and we had to wait for the battery to die to fix it. It wouldn’t even respond to attempts to hard power cycle. As the parent of a teenage girl, I’m very glad that the hard reboot fixed it.

Iceland Cruise Day 13

The northern Iceland city Akureyri, and an educational shore excursion

Akureyri is the second most populated city in Iceland behind Reykjavik.

Today was our only booked shore excursion of the trip. BTW the shore excursions get really stupidly expensive if you wait to book them until you’re onboard, like $250pp to walk and have seafood, that kind of thing.

Since we weren’t able to cruise Prince Christian Sound the day before we were able to make it to Akureyri earlier than initially scheduled, arriving at 8am instead of 1pm.

We left for our tour at 2:30 and visited three different sites. Before leaving the kids were under the impression we were going hiking. In retrospect, perhaps they would’ve preferred a little more hiking and less history talking.

Laufás Heritage Site

From Laufás Heritage Site:

Laufás is a breathtaking farmstead surrounded by mountains and a picturesque view of the fjord with history at each footstep. Inhabited since the settlement of Iceland (874-930), it has been a church site since early Christianity in Iceland with a constant lineage of priests and ministers from 1047 to the current day. The heritage site contains a 19th century timber church and a vicarage. It is a maze of interconnected rooms, one of which is a unique bridal room from 1733.

Goðafoss Waterfall

(I was still pretty sick here)

Akureyri Botanical Garden

From the Akureyri Botanical Garden website:

The garden began as agricultural land which was set aside in 1910 for the formation of a park, the design of which was entrusted to the Akureyri Park Society, which unusually for its time, was composed entirely of women.

The park was officially opened in 1912 and was Iceland’s first public park. After subsequent donations of plant collections, the park was officially incorporated as a botanic garden in 1957 run by the municipality of Akureyri. The picture to the right was taken in the 1920s and shows the park in its formative stages.

Akureyri seems like a place I’d like to visit again, perhaps as part of a Ring Road vacation I don’t think the kids would have the patience for. As mentioned, it’s the second largest city in Iceland and felt like it had a good vibe.

There were a lot of trees here, too, which you can’t take for granted in Iceland!

Tonight’s sunset:

Iceland Cruise Day 14

Isafjordur, Iceland

We arrived at 8am to chilly temperatures and pouring rain. The town itself doesn’t offer much unless you’re embarking from here on a tour. It has a similar working town vibe to Qaqortoq.

The rain (mostly) stopped by midmorning, so Sher and I left the kids onboard to walk through the town and back, stopping at the tourist information booth on the pier to leech their wifi. We even spotted a Cybertruck:

I’m at the tail end of being sick and starting to get my bounce back, just in time to end the cruise. Unfortunately, Sherri feels like she’s starting to come down with it. We still have 5 more days before our long flight, so I’m very much hoping everyone is in decent shape by then.

Islafjordur reminds me of photos I’ve seen of the Scottish Highlights.

My view as I work on my journal:

Sailaway was beautiful.

This was our escort:

Iceland Cruise Day 15

The end of the cruise, Reykjavik

Our 12 night cruise from Bayonne, NJ, to Reykjavik, Iceland, comes to an end.

With the kids now 15 and 13, we opted not to put our luggage out the night before, figuring we could all walk off the next morning without issue. That worked well, and I expect that will be our norm going forward. For the unitiated, cruises like you to put your big suitcase(s) out the night before, and then pick it up on the pier the next morning so that disembarkation isn’t a total nightmare.

I’ll cover our ground transportation in the next blog post, where I’ll start a new series that covers the non-cruise part of our Iceland trip. We reported to our bus meeting spot in the theater at the appointed time but there was no signage or direction by crew members there, so we decided to make our way off the ship and find our bus. This ended up being the right call.

It’s a crisp, cloudless day, with temps in the low 50’s. Time to hit the road.

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