Star Legend Review
Rating by category
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It’s not the purpose of this newsboard to compare cruising with independent land travel. But there was little overlap between our 4-nights with a car rental in Eastern Iceland, and our 7-nights “Around Iceland.” I’m saying that the excellent sights of the Southern Coast and the Golden Circle were completely out of reach of our ports. Our last port, Grundarfjordur, did provide excellent access to the popular Snaefellsnes Peninsula “loop”. Because we’d been there by car already, we used Hopp rental scooters to re-visit a waterfall 1.2 miles from the ship, in that port.
In that sense, taking a long ship Excursion was useful in showing you how uninhabited most of the country is. But most of the best waterfalls, and the un-missable Thingvellir National Park are unreachable from the ports. I feel that the Tahiti and Canary Islands gave you a good sense of the whole destination. I’m not suggesting that a French Riviera cruise pretends to show you (all of) France!
Spring came late to Iceland in 2023. Check weather reports just before you pack your bags. We had rather poor weather until the last two days. But we heard that the weather had been worse on the previous cruise. Snowing in one mountain pass during ship Excursion. Locals were surprised, they said there'd been no snow since May 15.
Cabin Review
Ocean View Suite
Just returned 2023 from "Around Iceland" on Star Legend. Seemed the same cabin as before the stretch, even to having only one 120 volt outlet. We find Windstar motor-yacht cabins spacious and comfortable. Air conditioning could not keep up with sunshine on our window side. Acceptable on other days.
The shower floor was laid wrong in the shipyard, so the steward has to squeegee 1.5 cm of water from the end without the drain when he cleaned the room. No problem with the drain itself. Two wall tiles broken at shower floor level. I don't mean it unkindly, but the new dual sinks did not add a lot to a bathroom that's only "spacious" for one person at a time. New shower (only) stall was spacious, rain or hosed head choice. Loads of hot water and pressure.
It seemed like the vacant cabin (198 passengers on ship) beside us (common hallway niche) was perhaps offered to meritorious crew members (? We got this idea from our Steward). We heard the door slamming ten times a day, but never at night. Looked unoccupied every time the door happened to be left open.
Cabin was in good condition, very well cared for by our steward, whom we tipped separately. Window had many water spots on it by the time we disembarked, but that's normal.