Around the World. Week 25 Wrap Up

From the freezing north to the icy onboard experience, come along for the last full week of the Around the World Cruise!

Schedule

• Day 169 / June 24: Isafjordur, Iceland

• Day 170 / June 25: Reykjavik, Iceland

• Day 171 / June 26: At Sea

• Day 172 / June 27: At Sea

• Day 173 / June 28: At Sea

• Day 174 / June 29: At Sea

• Day 175 / June 30: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Day 169 / June 24: Isafjordur, Iceland

Early morning to leave the ship to walk to another boat - don’t worry! It’s not as logistical crazy as when we were in Indonesia with ships and buses and boats and canoes!

This time the boat was taking us to an island that is the home to a PUFFIN colony. For those of you not familiar with Puffins, they are these cute little sea birds, who primarily live in cold regions. One crazy fact is they can dive down almost 200 feet into the ocean to catch food! When our guide told us that, we Googled to confirm we heard correctly. For a bird that is about the size of an NFL football (not to be confused with a World Cup football), it’s crazy to think they can dive the depth of a 20-story building.

One other bit about the puffins is they are very awkward creatures in how they land and take of from the water; Almost as if they are on hot lava as they tip toe across the surface.

Because we are in Iceland and it’s cold out, the boat had an enclosed seating area so not many photo opportunities as we rode out to the island. Once in the vicinity, we were able to go out on the decks to watch the birds in their habitat, flying and diving and floating and basically being birds. But they are really cute! Especially with their colorful beaks and weird looking eyes!

After freezing for a bit, we headed back to the main land.

You’d think given my tendencies to nap and after such an early morning, I’d head back to the ship, but surprise! Instead, I went to find coffee. Since I had visited this port a few years ago, I knew exactly where to head because they also had fantastic pastries as well as good coffee.

Once caffeinated, I wandered about, but ultimately set my target for the local brew pub. They had soft pretzels calling my name. I realized that they had WiFi and with quite a few hours left before departure time, I should go get my laptop and start uploading all these Port Recap videos to Facebook and YouTube. (Side note - If you want to see them or share them, I’ve set the settings to Public, so you should be able to share from https://www.youtube.com/@thetravelingspreadsheet or Facebook “LeAnne - The Traveling Spreadsheet”)

And that took most of the afternoon, so headed back onboard shortly before departure to get ready for dinner and the evening show. Tonight’s entertainment is the Music Triangle, which is one by the Production Cast. I have only seen this one once before because there’s not much room for variation. Kind of a once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it deal. However, this is the first time I saw it with the new Production Singers, so I’m very glad that I went!

Day 170 / June 25: Reykjavik, Iceland

I should have been keeping track of rain days while we traveled around the world because I’m fairly certain we’d be above 50% in terms of weather impacts. In case you couldn’t tell, it was raining when we arrived in Reykjavik. My original plan was very outdoorsy, so at the last minute, I had to pivot to figure out more indoor things.

Taking the shuttle into the city, we were dropped off at the Harpa Concert Hall, which also happens to house something called The Volcano Express. It’s not at all like the Polar Express where might get to see Santa! Instead, we strapped into our seats and were taken on a 4D adventure through Iceland. Since we couldn’t take any photos or videos, I’ll try my best to explain using just words.

Heading into the theater, they give us a Safety Briefing about buckling up and not being able to unbuckle until the show was over. They also mentioned that if at any time you need to stop because of back or hip pain to raise your hand so the attendant that’s watching can pause the ride. Yes, ride. Because I did zero research on this activity before hand, I literally didn’t know it was going to move. After the briefing, we filed in to our seats, strapping in as directed. Once the workers confirmed everyone clicked, they started the show. As the lights darkened, our seats started to rise slowly so our feet were dangling over the edge. Then, they tipped the chairs forward as the screen reflected us flying over the city towards the concert hall, while cool air was blown in our faces to create a more realistic effect.

The narrator explained the history of the island, being formed from glaciers and volcanos. All of a sudden, we were tipping forward again, but this time with hot air winded in our direction as we were now flying over erupting lava! There was a lot of seat bouncing at this point to as it mimicked the earthquakes that typically accompanied the volcanic actions.

Eventually, we were whisked back to the concert hall, where they lowered us back to the earth to safely exit the theater. Overall, it was a worthwhile experience and I highly recommend it if you’re ever in the area!

Hoping the rain had stopped, I headed outdoors. It had not, but I had an umbrella! My main mission was to eat a hot dog. Iceland is known for hot dogs as they are mostly lamb based and served with special sauces (mostly mustard based). Even though it was only 10 am, I still had one and it tasted like a hot dog. Probably should add that I am not a huge hot dog fan and therefore should not be taken as a credible critic.

Once that box was checked, I continued to wander, landing next in a coffee shop that had the most amazing WiFi ever! (Or at least that I’ve experienced in the past 6 months) Within an hour, I was able to finish uploading the remaining Port Recap videos to Facebook. The only reason I didn’t finish the ones to YouTube was because it stopped raining!

Heading towards the famous Reykjavik cathedral became my next mission. On my way, I saw quite the variety of street art and murals, which were always colorful! Along with the Rainbow Road that lead the way up to the church.

At the church, there is an option to pay about $10 to go up to the top of the tower, but the line was pretty long, so I just did a quick tour of the chapel areas and headed back outside. It was time to find real lunch. However, I found a brew pub that had soft pretzels...

While I was munching along, I got a message that two of the guest entertainers who had just disembarked were at a nearby pub, so I went to meet up with them. Knowing that the last shuttle was at 6pm from the Concert Hall, I kept an eye on my watch. That is, until it was 6:15pm… Time just flew by. Luckily, all aboard wasn’t until 7:30pm, so I still had time to grab a taxi. Yes, taxi because Uber / Lyft does not operate in Iceland.

One of the local ladies told me the name of the reputable taxi company in the area and highly suggested that I stick to them so I get to where I want to go. The only problem was that it was now after 7pm and I couldn’t find any with that logo on the streets. I ended up finding one that agreed to take me the whole 3 miles for $35 US cash. With fingers crossed that I picked a good one, we headed in the direction of the ship. At this time, I checked my phone to see that I had a few missed calls from a Miami phone number and a voicemail that started with “Miss Bock, this is Oceania Cruise Line. We just want to make sure you are on your way back to the ship as all aboard is at 7:30pm tonight…”

Thankfully, there were no shenanigans with the taxi and he dropped me off at the terminal entrance at 7:15pm. As I raced through the building to the ship, I knew I was the last one to arrive as they started closing doors and pulling the ramp immediately after I stepped back on the ship. Within 15 minutes, the ship was backing away from the dock and heading towards the open ocean once more.

In my defense, I was not late, but I did end up just calling it a night and went to bed early.

Day 171 / June 26 thru Day 174 / June 29: At Sea

With four (4) sea days in a row, I’m just going to hit the highlights.

Most of my time was spent working on finalizing the Around the World Recap Video, which pulls together the ports visited, areas and activities on the ship, and entertainment we’ve seen over the past six (6) months. The output is fairly simple, but it takes a lot of time to get them all consistent and labeled correctly.

We also had our final Sunday Brunch! Yes, I made it a local activity, getting there at 9:30 am when they opened and staying until 1:30 pm when they were clearing up. In that time, the others at my table changed out a few times, so I got a chance to catch up with those I hadn’t seen in a few days.

I also had the chance to Crowd Source for the upcoming Around The World Auction. Yep, one exclusive activity for the ATW cruisers was to bid on 16 different activities with the funds collected going to support the crew. The activity I was after is called “Cruise Director for the Day”. Apparently I was not the only one who wanted me to do this as I quickly collected pledges to be able to bid up to $1,500. My activity was the last to be called, so I (im)patiently waited for it to be on the auction block. Finally, it was my time to bid!

The starting offer was somewhere around $300, but we quickly got up to $1000. Hoping not to have to go past my budget, we ended up with the final at $1,200, but in the end, we donated the full $1,500 as planned. Win Win all around! (Thank you to everyone who contributed & sorry to those I didn’t get a chance to talk to before the auction!)

Anyway, I’ll be Cruise Director for the Day on July 1 aka Canada Day! AND they raised $10,000 for the Crew Wellness Fund!!

The following day, we had a “White Elephant Action”, but I’d call it more of a Flea Market, where everyone could donate items that they didn’t plan on taking home. These items were sorted and then presented as actioned off for the same Crew Wellness fund. I didn’t hear how much was raised for the White Elephant, but it also seemed pretty successful.

Day 175 / June 30: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

With a 9am arrival time, I set my alarm to 8am so I could watch the entry into the harbor. Naturally, I woke up at 6am and realized we were no where near land. Switching between the Bridge Camera Channel (where we can see from the front of the ship) to the Navigational Channel (where they show our relative location in comparison to land), I estimated we were still more than a few hours away from Halifax harbor.

Sure enough, around 9:30am, the Captain came over the loud speakers to inform us that there was an issue with the ship and we would be arriving in Halifax closer to 12:30pm.

I probably should document more about this day in the moment, but I really don’t want to. We’re still in the middle of the saga and as my Storytelling teacher told us, “Write from the scab and not the wound.” Since we’re still at the Halifax harbor and not halfway to New York, I don’t think I can paint a fair picture of the current situation until we learn more.

I will say is that I ate a lobster roll that I’ve been dreaming of for the entirety of this trip. I got to Shoppers and Dollarama to pick up sour gummy worms, Miss Vickies Chips, and decorations for Canada Day!

Also, with the assumption that we’d be at sea on July 1, I got to film the Vista Today show with Peter, the Cruise Director! At the time, neither of us knew what the next day held. Albeit, the day had already been a bit chaotic with the late arrival and changes in departure times.

For next week’s update, I’ll elaborate more on this once we have more information, but understand that it’s been a bit of a roller coaster. Since I was supposed to be Cruise Director of the Day today, somehow people decided that meant that I wanted to hear all of the complaints about the delay to the point of feeling like people were pointing fingers at me for not communicating well enough. For those of you who read this that are onboard, please remember that at the end of the day, I am still a passenger and do not actually have a direct line to the Captain or Miami office to demand answers.

And on that not very positive note, on to the last week of the trip!

#2026AroundtheWorldCruise