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Zuiderdam/Iceland


Dawn Poore
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My husband and I are booked on the 14-day Northern Isles cruise in July 2018. Is there anyone here who took this cruise this past July? Would love to hear some details! I know the ship is being refurbished right now. If anyone has anything to share, or tips on the ship and ports, that would be great. This will be our sixth cruise, but our first on Holland America. Thanks!

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My husband and I are booked on the 14-day Northern Isles cruise in July 2018. Is there anyone here who took this cruise this past July? Would love to hear some details! I know the ship is being refurbished right now. If anyone has anything to share, or tips on the ship and ports, that would be great. This will be our sixth cruise, but our first on Holland America. Thanks!

 

Hi, Dawn Poore, and welcome to the world of HAL! We have cruised on several lines and have loved them all, but seem to gravitate towards HAL itineraries most of all. Congratulations on your Northern Isles booking, looks like a wonderful trip.

 

We have sailed on the Zuiderdam x3 and really like the ship. If you have the chance, have a dinner or two in the Pinnacle Grill (specialty restaurant, extra cost), absolutely delicious food and a nice romantic dinner. Not sure if the PG manager is still the one we knew from a few past cruises or not, but if so, he's smart, funny, friendly and really made our visits special. Also, the PG has lunches on some sea days for something like $10pp, very tasty too. I hope you were able to swing a veranda cabin, we love having a little private space of our own! Dinners in the MDR were always good, IMO, but food is very subjective. We like the ship and have enjoyed the various lounges, especially the BB King Blues Club. If you received the specialty beverage package as a booking 'perk', be aware it includes bottled waters and "fru-fru" coffees, as well as alcoholic and non-alcholoic drinks, hooray! Sea day mimosas or bloody Mary's by the pool are a favorite pastime of ours!

 

As far as your cruise goes, we haven't done that exact itinerary, but we took the Zuiderdam last June/early July from Copenhagen round trip, to a few different stops in Norway, and out and around the UK, including a magical day in the Shetland Islands. Really fabulous, weather was great, seas were wonderful, sights were incredible. Seriously had a fantastic time.

 

With regards to Copenhagen, if you can swing it, go in early for a few nights and spend some time in the city. We've been there twice now and can't wait to return (and are, in fact, planning a land-based trip for next August with 4 nights in Copenhagen and 4 nights in Iceland, more on Iceland later). Each time we've visited Copenhagen, we stayed at the Hotel Bethel right on the canal in Nyhavn (easy to get there from the airport, take the Metro to the Kongens Nytorv stop, then it's up to street level, walk across the street at the light, turn left, turn right at the head of the canal and walk down about 3/4 of the way of the canal, it's on your right). It's a lovely little hotel with small yet comfortable rooms and (IMO) a very nice breakfast spread included in your cost (DO try the Danish on the first day, don't wait until the last day like I did, because .....well.....Denmark, right?? ;p). Definitely take advantage of breakfast, as food is expensive in Copenhagen. The Bethel isn't fancy but the location is fantastic. Walking distance to a lot of the sights (Amelianborg Palace and the changing of the guard, Frederick's Church where you can sit and marvel and rest your feet, even the Little Mermaid and the Kastellette, and the twisted spire church in the other direction....maybe easier to reach now that the "kissing bridge" is up and running as far as I know!), and if you prefer, I believe there's a HOHO bus stop nearby. We walked up the Storget to Tivoli on our first night/first visit, so it's within range too. If you decide to book the Bethel, see if you can book a corner room, as you'll have great views AND you can open the windows for a nice breeze (there's no a/c in the hotel, but it's always been cool when we've visited in June). Also if you can manage it, make reservations at Ida Davidsen's for a fabulous smorrebrod lunch! Expensive, but worth it! There's another smorrebrod restaurant even closer, Told & Snaps (but we're partial to Ida's). On the street kitty-corner across the bridge from the hotel (the bridge goes up sometimes when a ship comes into the canal), there's a nice little ice cream shop called Vaffelbargaren, I think, and their ice cream was delicious. Lots of touristy places to eat nearby along the canal, with sidewalk dining and lots of good people watching.

 

Just FYI, we recently booked the Bethel for next August and also booked Ida's for lunch on the Friday that we'll be visiting. Surprising we could book this far out, but the Bethel is a small hotel with a limited number of rooms, and Ida's is a Monday-Friday lunch only restaurant, so limited hours and days there, too! I haven't looked lately, but there is a wonderful young man, Danish Viking, who has a "Wonderful Copenhagen" thread on Cruise Critic, and I hope you'll look for his postings. He was fabulous about answering questions and has a wealth of information in his threads.

 

In the Shetland Islands, we booked a private tour with Gordon of Tour Shetland and had a really wonderful day seeing the sights. Highly recommend him and the company. Our day there was one of the highlights of our cruise.

 

Our stops in Norway were different than yours, so I won't expound on them!

 

With regards to Iceland, we've never been there by ship, but we visited there twice in 2015. Once was a 2 night stopover on our way to Copenhagen and a Baltic cruise (June 2015), and once was in November of the same year to try and see the Northern Lights. On our first visit, we stayed in Keflavik near the airport, rented a car and spent the days driving to and fro. We made it as far south-east as Vik, and as far north at Stykkisholmur. Iceland is a really amazing country, and we're definitely looking forward to going back. On our second trip, we stayed in downtown Reykjavik as part of a tour and didn't have a car, so we spent some time in the city. There are a lot of very neat sights to see, including the big church Hallgrimskirkja, which pretty much takes up the entire frame of a photo! The Perlan, the Sun Voyager, the old harbor. Reykjavik also has a Chuck Norris grill (food and beer surprisingly good, BIG chuckle from all the Chuck Norris "facts" on the walls), and (cringe!) the Iceland Phallological Museum :eek: (we didn't have the courage to go into the museum, but definitely bought a shot glass in the gift store!). Since you'll be in Reykjavik for an overnight (?), you may want to rent a car and drive yourself around (check your spare tire if you rent a car!). If not, I'm sure there will be all kinds of excursions offered. The Golden Circle is great for a first visit to Iceland, you'll see Gullfoss Falls (beautiful and thundering!) and the Pingvellir Park, where Iceland's parliment gathered from the 10th to the 18th centuries. The really amazing thing there, though, is that the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet right there. Take the walk up the rift if you have the chance, it's pretty phenomenal. You'll also likely see Geysir Strokkur on this tour, I think it's one of the biggest geysers in Europe. It's no Old Faithful, but it was still very interesting to see! If you have the chance and desire, the Blue Lagoon is a fun place to spend a few hours, a big (HUGE) thermal hot tub that's the number 1 tourist attraction in Iceland. We were there in November 2015 and while there were hundreds (and hundreds) of people there with us, it didn't feel crowded at all. Be aware that Icelandic law (not sure if it's law or just custom) requires a full shower without bathing suit before entering any of their pools or thermal pools. I remember the women's changing room as being rather chaotic with a lot of body parts of all shapes and sizes, although there ARE private (tiny) shower cubicles. ALSO, please trust them when they say the water will definitely affect your hair. I used the supplied hair conditioner before going into the Lagoon (AND had my hair up on my head with a clip), but the steam rises and gets into your hair anyway. More conditioner afterwards in the shower, and I could still barely get a comb through my hair!

 

Sorry, I'm a little enthusiastic about Copenhagen and Iceland, two of my favorite places to visit. If I can figure out how to post any pictures here, I'll try to post a few. Anyway, have a FABULOUS trip, it's going to be one for a lifetime!

 

Best wishes!

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Wow, thanks for all the info! We will be spending one whole day in Copenhagen before we embark, so we definitely have some choosing to do. We had planned on visiting Tivoli because, why not? The main reason we booked this cruise is because we'll be spending five days in Iceland, so you're comments were particularly welcome. I'm just glad we have almost a year to make some decisions!

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We'll be flying from Minneapolis, Minnesota. We live in western Minnesota. Love the pictures!

 

Glad you like them! They're a little small but I couldn't figure out how to post them otherwise.

 

The reason I asked about where you're flying from is that Iceland Air sometimes has reasonable flights to Europe. When we first started looking at prices for our Baltic cruise a few years back, we were aghast! Another member of our roll call suggested we check on Iceland Air. They only fly from a few spots in the US, including Denver and Seattle among others...... but they also offer flights from Minneapolis! Their prices were quite a bit less than their competitors. And (what we really liked) they offer a free stopover in Iceland! Of course, you have to pay for your lodging and meals and everything, but they don't charge you for stopping either on your way to Europe or your way back from Europe (or both!). Your mileage may vary (LOL), but I picked some random dates in July 2018, with an "Icelandair Stopover" for 3 nights on the return flight and came up with flights under $1k pp. Anyway, you may be tired of Iceland by then, but if you want to maximize your time there, you may want to think about a pre- or post-cruise stop on the way over or back!

 

Best wishes and have LOTS of fun with the planning!

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We are just at the beginning stages of flight planning, but I have noticed that Iceland Air seems much cheaper than Delta, which is the go-to in Minnesota, of course. I'm not crazy about Delta, but sometimes it's our only choice.

 

I hear you! We're flying Delta to Paris in November and they've changed our flights about 5 times already (and of course we've lost our picked seats each time they've changed). We've flown Iceland Air twice to Iceland and enjoyed the flights as much as they can be enjoyed (free TV/movies, bring your own ear buds), food for purchase that was surprisingly good, and efficient no-nonsense flight attendants. The flights to Europe DO stop in Iceland each way, though, and Keflavik can be somewhat chaotic when you change planes.

 

We ended up flying to Denver on Southwest tickets (points) and caught up with Iceland Air from there on our first trip; second trip was Alaska Air to Seattle and then connecting to an Iceland Air flight.

 

Good luck with your choices!

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We took a similar cruise in 2015 on a different ship with all the same ports except Seydisfjoro.

 

We took HAL tours so I can't comment on outside tours. Most cities in Iceland there isn't much to see walking out of the port (except Isafjordur).

 

My memory of the tours isn't so great so I had to refer to the notes.

Lerwick: Walked around the city and visited the Shetland Museum, food in the cafe there was decent. A good basic history of the Islands.

Torshavn: A boat tour of the Vestmanna seaclifs (not isn't for people that get seasick), interesting but not a great day for bird watching.

Reykjavik: Tour of Thingvellir national park, Gullfoss waterfall, a geothermal power plant.

Isafjordur: Self guided tour around town enjoyed the colorful cottages.

Akureyri: Walked around town (tour of Lake Myvatn sold out)

Alesund: Walking tour of a few of the churches.

Bergen: Walked into town for Bryggen, the market and lunch. Afternoon tour of the Edvard Grieg house, beautiful setting for a theatre and the house was well preserved.

 

My highlights were Thingvellir national park and the Geothermal plant, Bryggen and the market. In Torshavn I wish we had seen more of the city as it was bigger than I expected.

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