On July 23, Iberocruceros’ 1,248-passenger 48,200gt Grand Mistral will visit Reykjavik for the first time bringing Spanish passengers on what appears to be the first ever fly/sail cruise to Iceland and Greenland. The operator is offering two seven-day Iceland cruises and a 14-day visit to Greenland out of the Icelandic port.
“What is exciting about this cruise is that if it is a success this might be the new trend for the South Europe source market to cruise the North Atlantic,” says Agust Agustsson, marketing manager Associated Icelandic Ports.
Up until now the Port of Reykjavik has mainly received turnarounds of 100 to 500 passengers with no need for passenger terminal facilities. Iberocruceros will require check-in and related passenger facilities which the port is going to provide.
Another first for the port is that in 2009, Princess Cruises began testing an 18-day transatlantic voyage and is repeating the itinerary this year on 600-passenger Ocean Princess. The itinerary begins in New York and takes in Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes before going on to mainland Europe.
Up until last year most of the transatlantic cruises to Reykjavik arrived from Europe and were repositioning cruises from Europe to New England taking place in September, explains Mr Agustsson.
Over the last two years a number of vessels have been making an overnight visit in Reykjavik with 20 such calls being booked for 2010 establishing what may be a new trend.
This year the port is expecting 75 calls and 70,000 passengers compared to 80 calls and 69,000 passengers last year. Three years ago the port opened a new 450m long pier with a depth of 12m.
