This is a guest trip report written by Carol, who sailed on the most recent 10 night cruise to the Norwegian Fjords and Iceland on the Disney Magic on August 16, 2018. You can start the trip report from the beginning by clicking here.
Day 6: Reykjavik, Iceland
This day brought us to our most anticipated port (at least for us, and I know for many of our fellow cruisers) – Iceland!!! We arrived in Reykjavik at 12:30 pm and as we were docking there overnight, there was no all aboard time. We had the morning to enjoy a leisurely breakfast and get ready for our time in Iceland. We decided before we started the cruise we would book a private tour for our time in Iceland to maximize our time. We booked a private tour guide through Tours by Locals. We used Gudrun Helga as our guide , and she is just amazing! She is a local to Iceland and is very knowledgable, kind and willing to accommodate whatever you wish to do. We combined 2 very common tours into one during the first day, which made a long day, but it was SO amazing! We combined the South Coast tour and the Golden Circle Tour. Gudrun Helga was an amazing guide with so much information to give.
Our first stop was Solheimajokull Glacier, one of the many glaciers in Iceland. We could walk very close to the glacier and it was so impressive! While we were there, a piece of the glacier fell off into the lake, it was so cool to watch! We really enjoyed our time there – but had to keep moving as we had much to see.
Next we went to Skogafoss waterfall, one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland. This is such a beautiful and overpowering site – its so amazing to be that close to such power and force. We were blessed to also have a double rainbow appear while we were there. Standing at such a beautiful site was just awe-inspiring – it was so hard to leave! I was reassured there was more amazing sites to come, though.
Next we went to another waterfall (in case you haven’t caught on, Iceland has a LOT of waterfalls), this one is called Seljalandsfoss. This particular waterfall was very neat in that you could walk all the way around it, so you could see if from the back as well. We were very glad we had brought our rain gear so we could do this and keep our clothes relatively dry. It was not an exceptionally difficult hike, and it was so beautiful out (as you can see we had a beautifully sunny day) so we really had a great time! It’s so hard to choose one waterfall over another. We also were treated to a rainbow at this waterfall as well!
We continued our first day in Iceland with the Golden Circle Tour. This is a very popular tour for visitors to Iceland and consists of three world-renowned sites including the Geyser Geothermal Area, Thingvellir National Park and Gullfoss Waterfall. To me, this is the advantage of booking a private tour guide over going with a Disney excursion. While we often book Disney excursions when we cruise, when we visit places where we would like to see multiple sights in a short period of time (or it may be a place where it might be our only time visiting) we often opt for private tours as we can customize the tour and see much more than if we were in a large group.
After finishing the South Coast tour, we then went to the Geyser Geothermal Area. This has several geysers and hot springs, although most of them are dormant. There is one active geyser called Strokkur, which sprouts water as high as 100 feet in the air every few minutes. When we got there, our guide told us that the geyser went off about every 6 minutes or so, and it went off just as we walked up to it. It is so surprising and it makes you jump back several feet! We then waited to watch it erupt again, which actually took closer to 10 minutes, but it was just as exciting the second time! It was so amazing to see the hot water erupt so high in the air. The power of nature is just so amazing!
After our visit to Geyser Geothermal Area, we then went to Gullfoss Waterfall. Like I said, Iceland has a lot of waterfalls, and we had already seen 2 beautiful ones earlier in the day on the Southern Coast. This one was just as beautiful and equally amazing! It was hard to imagine that another waterfall could put us in as much awe as the other 2 we had seen, but this one was unbelievable! The water plummets about 100 feet down in 2 stages into a rugged canyon. The power of the water is amazing and overwhelming!
Our final stop on our very busy and very full day was Thingvellir (some people call it Pingvellir) National Park, where the North American and European Tectonic Plates are separating and you can actually walk between them. Part of Iceland lies on the North American plate and another part lies on the European plate and in Thingvellir National Park you can actually see the separation and walk between them. There is actually an area where you are in neither the North American Plate nor the European Plate – our guide called it “no man’s land” and also called it rift valley. If you are interested in the history and geology, there is good information to read here. We really enjoyed seeing this, especially my oldest as she had learned about it in school and seeing it in person for her was very “cool” as she put it! The rock and lava formations were just so incredible and the thought of being between 2 different continents was just unbelievable! It was amazing to walk the path and see all the formations.
My daughter standing between the North American plate (on left) and No Man’s land (on right):
North American plate on left and No Man’s Land on right:
The European Plate in the distance:
We finished our day with a return to our ship for the night. We had more touring to do in the morning and needed to get a good meal and some sleep. We were greeted with our ship lit up beautifully at night – it was breathtaking! A great end to an amazing day! We were looking forward to seeing more of beautiful Iceland tomorrow.
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Up Next: Day 7 – Reykjavik Day 2
Click here to visit Carol’s blog about her family’s travels all over the world.
Excellent! We’re still trying to decide between a Disney Golden Circle tour or a private one, we will look into the tour company you used. Thanks for the information.
You are welcome – the company was great and our tour guide was amazing!!! We saw so many things and she was very flexible!!! I am glad you are enjoying my report!!!
Can’t wait till next day’s report . Like I said not many blogs about this kind of cruise with Disney out there. For a planner like me I look for all info I can get and you’re giving a lot. Thanks.
Sorry but forgot to ask this question on previous day report– when you referenced “pit stop” at the top of the 400 odd steps. Were public toilets pay toilets? Read somewhere they were. If so how did you pay?–credit card or did you have to have the coin of the relm?