Off to Boston for a 24-day cruise to Iceland
August 1st – San Diego to Boston
Our cruise is a round trip from Boston that will circle Iceland with some stops in Greenland and Canada along the way.
Post #1 – Circle Iceland with The Inside Cabin
Our flight left on time tonight and we are over Arizona heading to Boston for our 24 day Circle Iceland cruise – round trip from Boston. After one night in the Hampton Boston Seaport, we will head over to the Black Falcon Cruise Terminal and board the ms Nieuw Statendam.
This cruise has 17 port days and only 7 sea days.
We will be joining a Craft Cruises knitting group of about 50 people. Knitting classes will be held on sea days. More about that in the days to come.
Getting your bags packed and hoping that your flight is on time used to be the source of most last-minute cruise stress. Where have those simpler days gone?
Now you have to get the mandatory last minute COVID test, holding your breath until you open the email with the words NEGATIVE in all the right places. Then you need to navigate several apps; ARRIVE CAN, VERIFLY, NAVIGATOR. Not too hard, but if you don’t have a smartphone, iPad/iPod or similar your experience will be much more difficult.
Our challenge today was to get a NEGATIVE COVID test. We ended up getting three COVID tests, but only one official email with a NEGATIVE result acceptable to Holland America.
Here’s what happened.
There are plenty of free COVID tests available in San Diego County. Our first test was at the Chula Vista City Hall. There was no line and this was advertised as a Rapid Antigen test, with results via email in a few hours. Great!
After we arrived, we learned that the website was incorrect and they only had PCR tests, with results in 1-2 days. Ok – that won’t work as we didn’t want to fly to Boston only to learn we were positive. The helpful staff at city hall directed us to the Chula Vista South Library where we could get a Rapid Antigen test.
Once we arrived at the library I verified that I could get results quickly – they said I would get written results in 20 minutes and an email a few days later – Great! We get our test.
Twenty minutes later we are handled a small, form with our name handprinted and the “Negative” block circled. I uploaded this to Verifly and it was promptly rejected – No handwritten test results are acceptable. The staff said they would try and expedite the email results, but they didn’t sound very optimistic. 12 Hours later – still no results. On to my 3rd option: LHI aka Optum health offered free COVID tests, and I made a back up appointment for 1 PM.
After a 45-minute wait in line for the test, we were swabbed and got our NEGATIVE email result 50 minutes later. Good to go! I have an emed proctored kit ready to go, but that is always my last resort and I save it for a situation where this is my only option.
Back home we finished packing and did our COVID DOC DANCE on our Condo deck.
I plan to post daily – but with a little less detail than usual as I don’t want to fall behind. After the cruise I will go back and fill in some more detail so those who are using these posts for future planning will find more information.
Here is our itinerary – off to the right, you will find blocks where you can click to see a cruise map, a itinerary with the menus, entertainers and other information.
Nice Itinerary – but very port intensive!
This is our first time visiting Greenland and Iceland – Please leave a comment about what food we should try and what we shouldn’t miss.
Hot dog in Reykjavik at the famous hot dog stand. We also had the best artic char ever in Iceland
Thanks. The hot dog is on my list !
We spent nearly 2 weeks in Iceland in 2018. It’s an amazing place! Hot dogs are not like our North American hot dogs. First, they are made from lamb and served on steamed buns. Order one with everything! The original stand, and the one preferred by locals is located downtown Reykjavik at:
The Bæjarins beztu hot dog stand is located on Tryggvagata 1, 101 Reykjavík.
They open at 10:00am but close at 1:00am. Lines can be long but staff get paid per hotdog sold so lines move quickly. Otherwise fish is a very good option and is very fresh.
Thanks. We are looking forward to the hot dogs. Appreciate the address
I forgot…there is a very popular and highly rated on TripAdvisor, walking food tour of Reykjavik where they visit the hot dog stand I mentioned earlier. It’s a 3 hour tour…but not on a boat so no worries about ending up stranded on a desert island!
Thanks!
Hi Pete & Judy! It looks like we’ll be a few days behind you as we’re sailing on the 12 night Celebrity Summit to Greenland & Iceland. Guess we’ll have to wait till GWC2024 to meet in person. Anyway, don’t eat all the hot dogs in Reykjavik…save some for us! //Cathy & George
Thanks for the note – sounds like a nice cruise! Looking forward to meeting you.
See as much as you can in Iceland. It’s a fabulous country. Like being on another planet – incredible waterfalls, geothermal areas, the meeting of two continents, geysers, volcanoes, gorgeous beaches, blue lagoon, the Icelandic horses. Just see as much as possible.
Thanks!
Hello fellow San Diegan & Cruiseaholic.
We live in Rancho Bernardo & have done 100+ cruises.
LOVE your blog…..one of the best!!
We have never done the “Iceland” cruise you are on nor stayed in an inside cabin.
We are thinking of doing so on HAL in 2023. (With minimal sea days – we think this would be a good time to try an inside cabin)
The HAL ship for 2023 will be the Zaandam.
Are you in an inside cabin on this current cruise?
Do you have a suggestion for inside cabin ##/location?
Thank you — Enjoy your cruise
We will certainly enjoy hearing about it.
Hi Carolyn, Thanks for the kind words. I no longer stay in inside cabins – and we are in a veranda this cruise. The most popular insides on Zaandam are on deck 1 and deck 2.
Center of the ship. Cabin J2645 and J2619 on popular. 100+ cruises Wow! What cruise line have you sailed with most often?