I'm on a cruise ship going round Iceland AMA

[Imdunfer]

As title and we have a day at sea tomorrow so I'll be around to answer.

The evening show starts soon so you might not get a quick answer tonight.

That is some serious underthinking.

There is no denying that there is an environmental impact to everything, all forms of overseas travel. But it's also true that cruise ships visiting ports have a positive impact on the local economy. Smaller ships like the OP is on or the expedition ships get into smaller ports. There has been lots of chat in Scotland about cruise ships visiting places like Kirkwall and Lerwick. Orkney estimates £15 to £20 million into the local economy, and that's EXTRA income from people who wouldn't visit Orkney otherwise as it's so far from most people. Local tour guides, bus drivers, the staff in the port, passengers spending money in local shops, buying coffee, ice creams.

Throughout Scotland, the cruise industry is worth £343 million and supports over 4500 jobs. https://www.lerwick-harbour.co.uk/news/crucial-role-of-cruise-tourism-to-scotland-revealed-with-343-million-economic-contribution

@LaliqueSaltGrinder You absolutely can avoid people! I’m very good at swerving people who I’m not keen on! You don’t sit with them! There’s options in lounges, dining spaces etc. I’ve got great antennae! You are not expected to socialise at all! I’ve been on around 10 trips on small boats and there’s always a good number I’ve not spoken to. On the 12 person voyages it’s very different and I’ve certainly come across people I hope I don’t see again! But DH and me are good at being ourselves and enjoying the experience as opposed to making small talk with others.

That's good to hear!! I think I am scarred by the first evening on my last Fred cruise when I was on my own, I was "befriended" by an elderly brummie woman who just moaned at me for 20 minutes about everything from her cabin to the view out of the window before I managed to get away, I spend the rest of the time avoiding her!!

Just looked up Noble Caledonia and they have cruises on a proper sailing ship! If I was rich I'd go on that, its been my dream even since I was a child reading Arthur Ransome books (though going on a ship as crew like my mum did once would be even better)

Well as I've already tried to say, but the point has been ignored, we are all different. You like different things from me and that's fine. I would hate the number of people being so small that you all know each other and are expected to socialise together.

There are experts and talks on this ship. There have never been 1400 people leaving the ship, never mind at the same time.

We were fantastically lucky with the whale watching trip today. Straight out of the harbour we were approached and then surrounded by a pod of dolphin diving and leaping. Then a humpback surfaced and dived repeatedly very close to the boat, showing off his magnificent tail fin. Further out into the bay we went round a puffin island and I've now seen more puffin than anyone needs to see in one day, there must have been a few hundred thousand on that island. On the way out we passed a minke, or possibly two, and two more pods of dolphins, one with some small juveniles. That's a bucket list experience today, for sure.

@Imdunfer I’ve said repeatedly that you don’t socialise together! Absolutely not expected. There’s choice about a table for two or join a group. I certainly don’t know 100 people on a cruise! I’ve been on the larger ships and they just are floating towns. It’s too impersonal for me but if you like being in a huge group, so be it. I think descending into small villages and islands in those numbers is not great. Does everyone stay on the ship then and not get off? We walked into towns and villages from the harbours. When you go ashore, you also see the puffin burrows and see the puffins going in and out of the burrows. They are not just flying about. Anyway, glad you saw some. There’s still not many whales about by the sounds of it.

Not everyone gets off and those who do, don’t move en masse.

I defy you to be on a 100 person boat and avoid the annoying person who is determined to make a friend of you unless you stay in your cabin or are prepared to be rude to the point of risking creating bad feeling to get rid of them.

I saw puffins going in and out of burrows, there was an island full of them and we were close by. That experience was not unique to your preferred ship.

Can't we just agree that the ship (and price point) I chose is right for me and the one you chose was right for you?

Exactly. And hen there has been more than one coach full going to the same destination, they have staggered the departure times so that not everyone is at the same place at the same time.

So people go to Iceland and don’t get off the ship? In Iceland?? What’s the point of that? I think over 1000 would get off though but people are odd!

I am quite interested in cruises by Fred Olsen op. Please can you tell me which UK port you left from?

If she's on Bolette, Liverpool. Balmoral usually sails from Rosyth or Newcastle. Borealis from Southampton. This might change next season.

I fhink @MeetMeOnTheCorner you are misunderstanding. Some people won't get off the ship because they are elderly or have walking issues, because they lack confidence to explore on their own and don't fancy any of the shore tours, or because they're happier sitting on deck looking at the scenery. That is a valid choice. Not one I'd make, but a valid choice.

The rest of the people are not leaving all at the same time like a school trip. Departure times for shore excursions are staggered, mainly so we make sure we get the right people on the right buses going to the right places - yes I am the person standing there with the clip board checking people are on the right bus. Helps manage the flow of people off the boat and traffic. And yes, so that you've not got 8 coaches all arriving at the same destination at the same time.

People who are not going on organised excursions have all day to do their own thing. Ships are generally in port 8am to 6pm ish so you can get up, have breakfast, leave the boat. Or lie in, have lunch, leave the boat for the afternoon.

The bigger ports in Iceland are few and far between. You need tours or you see nothing much. I have been to Iceland twice and I have been on larger cruise ships. Luckily I can afford better now. Anyway - I’d simply not try and holiday in Iceland on a huge ship. I’ve seen cruise ship coaches lined up and I do know how they work.

Are you unable to understand, or simply unwilling for some reason to acknowledge, that your "better" is not everybody's "better"?

We've used the tender boats to get ashore in 3 out of the 5 ports we've visited so far. I think it adds to the fun, but it would probably stop some of the disabled and infirm older passengers, and anyone afraid of a small choppy boat, from getting ashore.

I have heard people talking about being on cruises when the rough seas prevented transfer by tender and they were stuck on the ship and missed their booked trips. I'd have been very unhappy if that had happened and on booking there is no warning that it might unless it was buried in small print.

If you think that pointing out that cruising is one of the most environmentally damaging methods of travel is ‘bullying’, do report, @chillyputsomesockson, and see if it meets the Mn criteria. You might want to look up the definition of ‘bullying’, though.

I've been looking up the numbers and whale populations around Iceland have increased every year since 1987 and the huge revenues from whale watching by cruise ship visits is credited with preventing the resumption of whale hunting because it's worth a lot more to the economy.

Gods you can't beat this experience
Mid Atlantic without land in sight for nearly 24 hours and a humpback has just skipped across the sea in front of us while the excellent band plays behind us and the G&T sits on the table and the sun shines in the starboard windows.

Glad to be alive this evening.

A pod of at least eight humpbacks has just breached right in front of the ship and swum off down the left hand side!

Lol at the virtue signalling on steroids on this thread 😂

Crack on and enjoy your wonderful trip OP. I have been to Iceland and loved it.

Just think, you could have been somewhere in the UK, in a tent, eating veggie chilli without your phone, contemplating your virtuousness. You are missing out.

Believe it or not, some people actually take pollution, climate change and living minimally damaging environmentally-damaging lives seriously.

It always amuses me that the default on here when someone's behaviour is criticised is to accuse the critic of 'virtue-signalling'. As though that's worse than plastic grass, driving everywhere and throwing everything in landfill.

Well, I'm glad that these things make you feel great about yourself.

Personally I think your life sounds really dull.

I have lived and worked in 4 other countries, and travelled the world. I am also able to be mindful of how I live when I am not travelling. Experiencing other cultures and learning other languages has massively enriched my life beyond belief.

Wow! It must be an absolutely enormous branch of Iceland to fit a cruise ship in it 😂