If Greenland, Antarctica, and the Panama Canal are on the bucket list….

$1000 per person, per night, double occupancy. Over $150K minimum for a couple in the lowest class cabin. Airfare is included.

All I need to do is find someone to look after the house for 3 months...... hmmm

Much better to do separate cruises. I taking a transit cruise of Panama Canal this fall. Cost for a solo traveler is $164 a day. Nothing like the crazy prices of the Grand Voyage.

We did the Panama Canal transit and it is fantastic.

Iceland is wonderful, Greenland, from what I read and what other have told me is not worth it.

Antarctica cruises I researched and apparently for about half of them the weather is so bad that you don't get to see it.
Also, those cruises are very expensive.

My advice is to enjoy a cruise around the horn of South America; an Alaska cruise that goes to Glacier Bay and a cruise up the coast of Norway to the North Cape.

Greenland, from what I read and what other have told me is not worth it.

That's not what I've heard and Mickliz97 wrote a raving trip report about it. I think it sounds wonderful. I'm sure it's not to everyone's taste, but it would be to mine. She did say that it is very expensive; even more so than Iceland, so if you are more of a budget traveler, it probably wouldn't work for you.

I taking a transit cruise of Panama Canal this fall.

Carol, that sounds interesting!

I am not a cruise person, so this does not interest me.

That said, we loved Greenland and doing it on our own was definitely the way to go. We will definitely return, next time hopefully to the east side the country. When we were there, many off the locals were not happy with the cruise ships. There were protests about them a few days after we left. Iceland is great, but a cruise could never do it justice since there are only a handful of stops and some of the best of the country is not in those spots and it misses the interior entirely.

Carol: what does $164 get you, a canoe?

Protests against cruise ships would be off putting to say the least. I do wonder if we will get to the point where at any given time half of the world is on a ship cruising looking at the other half.

Mardee--Everyone I know that has been to Greenland loved it. The scenery is out of this world, and the people were so kind, probably more than any other place we have been to. They take such pride in their country and want to share it with you. IMO, it is not a place that words can accurately describe.

What was so great about Greenland? What did you see and what made it special?

geovagriffith--I did a trip report so you can read that. The people were so helpful and really wanted to share their culture with us. The person we rented the apartment through offered to pick us up, and he helped my husband with his missing luggage, he called taxis for us (you can't do that unless you have a local number), and he took us back to our apartment at 1am after the midnight sun boat ride. Kayaking between the icebergs was a huge highlight for us. Having an arctic fox come straight towards us, coming pretty close, before veering off. Taking a boat ride out to Eqi Glacier was as well, and we saw whales on our way out. In Ilulissat, hiking the trails that look straight out to the icebergs that are just right there, not far out at all. A midnight sun boat ride amongst the glaciers was great, but it was not super light out as our trip was mid-late August. We were crunching through the ice in the boat and were the only people out there. Still enough light to see things, but not like in June. Disko Island was another place that we went. They have their own version of diamond beach like Iceland does, but then as you stand there there are a handful of enormous glacier just right there in your face. Hiking the Kaunnit trail where if we looked one direction we could see the canyon and waterfalls, and if we turned around, we could so the huge glaciers. Learning about their culture was fascinating. Literally everywhere we went, there were enormous glaciers right there. Bigger than you could ever imagine, and each one so beautiful and unique. Every experience we had was just magical and we said if we could never travel again, this would be the trip to go out on.

I understand why you liked Greenland.
Our interests are a bit different. Not interesting in Kayaking between icebergs.

@toby. Why so negative? $164 a day gets me 16 day transit from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles in an Oceanview cabin on a Princess Cruise ship. My transportation, food, lodging included. In addition there will be enrichment lectures aboard as well as a variety of activities and port stops. It may not be for you, but why not for others?

Carol:

I wasn't really being negative, it's just a big comedown from $1000/day. The $164 seems too good to be true, are you a good cruise shopper, or is that a typical rate?

@Toby. The answer is yes to both. Yes, I work at finding cruise bargains and yes, a Panama Canal Transit Cruise traditionally runs at a lower cost than some other itineraries.

I did the Panama Canal for around £105 a night- just over £5,000 for the 50 nights from London Tilbury to Sydney.
On a 1,000 pax ship with twice daily enrichment talks and proper port talks. Yes we had the usual sell for cruise line excursions, but also a lecturer to give independent port talks.
Also we had a feature length film about the building and history of the Canal on the Cabin TV's for a couple of days before, day off and a couple of days after.

I cruised Greenland for around £130 a night, ports it would have been deeply challenging to get to under my own steam, with a real depth of insight into the Greenlandic lifestyle and culture. It isn't all about scenery.
One port we diverted into with 24 hours notice due to weather, the first (possibly only cruise ship) in that year. Welcomed with open arms for the huge economic boost we gave.

There is way more to the country than just Ilulissat and Nuuk, Nuuk in many ways is not especially representative. I know how little of the Country we could visit in a week or so. But those two towns are what can easily be reached.
I am deeply worried about the impact of the wider scale tourism which the direct flights to the new airports is bringing. I know the Greenlandic government is as well. They see it as a neccesity, which it probably is, but at what cost?
The most I've ever paid for a cruise was about £150 a night through the Kiel Canal, for the lovely old historic ship, the MV Astoria - sadly no longer with us. So small it was as close as I will ever get to being on a private yacht.

isn31c--May I ask when you took that cruise? Our trip was last summer and while we were there, there were no protests, but they started the following week. In Ilullisat the local guides are especially not happy with them as most (not all) do not use the local guides and bring their own, so it doesn't add to their economy. Our guides expressed the same concern that you did about the new airport there too. As it is, the town does not have the infrastructure to accommodate more people. That is one reason why we were glad we went when we did. In Disko Island, the locals really disliked the cruises, but at least there they are the small ones. Our last day there, a cruise ship arrived and it drastically changed the feel of the area. The locals that we interacted with were not pleased at all and were hoping that they could find a way to stop them from coming. I agree, the Greenlandic lifestyle and culture are a very big thing there and they hold it close. We loved being able to see some of that, especially at Disko Island. We are still in touch with one of our guides, so we hear some of what is going on. My husband will be back again this summer, but on the east side. That is where we hope to go together on our next trip there.

I’m just burned out planning trips. Ran all over the US and Hawaii last year with a pile of Southwest points and a companion pass, like 11 airplane trips. Just barely finished planning an Ireland/England trip that starts in May. Haven’t even started planning a Patagonia hike that’s less than a year out. Both those trips involve others which adds a lot of planning stress since people carelessly throw out demands that require a lot of work from me.

Since you are both good cruise shoppers, what’s a good process to pick a cruise? I’m looking at Antarctica cruises and the costs run up to $1000/day.

Maybe my first cruise should be less ambitious. How do I find a good Panama Canal transit cruise, hopefully in January or February? Don’t know where to start.

@toby. There are a few search engines and strategies you can use.

First search engine, vacationstogo.com
Put in the months you are interested in( Jan/Feb 2027). Destination (Panama Canal) and preferred cruise lines if any. I would put in Princess to start with since they generally have reasonable prices.

Second search engine, cruiseplum.com
This has several different ways to search including a search for low to no single supplements.

Strategy: plan far ahead, up to two years, and book a cruise when it is first released. That usually runs the lowest price for high demand areas that run more expensive such as Antarctica. I have an Antarctica Cruise booked for myself and my son that I booked for Jan 28. It booked at $196 a day per person. This is an excellent rate for Antarctica. Our cruise will be on Celebrity, but Princess just released their Antarctica sailings for 2028 last week. This would be a good time to check their pricing.

@toby- For Panama I would start by looking at the repositioning cruises from the Caribbean up to Seattle/Vancouver (for the Alaskan summer) round about now westbound and in early October eastbound.
They tend to be cheap because they are one way trips (so you find your own way home), and often have fewer ports than many are used to. Depending on how you view a cruise that may be a good or a bad thing.
I've seen ones which start in Florida (or in the Caribbean), then non stop to Colon (Panama) for the day, then (after Panama) Los Angeles, San Francisco and then Seattle/Vancouver, sometimes adding in Astoria. Others also do Mexican ports on the way up.

I was 9 straight sea days out of Panama across the South Pacific- which suited me down to the ground, but bored others rigid, in spite of all the enrichment talks, the book club, ship's choir etc.

Thanks!

I’m not really anti-cruise, I just don’t like to be herded around and lined up like 8 year olds in grade school are. Also I love being more or less feral when traveling, but as I said I need a break from major planning. And some destinations are just perfect for a cruise.

Mikliz,

I went in 2019, the first port (after Kirkwall, the Faroes then Eskifjordur and Akureyi in Iceland) being Tasilaq (Ammasilisk) then Manlitsoq (the so called Venice of Greenland, our emergency port having had to go round Cape Farewell due to icebergs in the Prince Christian Sound), then Sisimuit, the West Fjord up to Kangerlussuaq , Nuuk and Qaqortoq (Julianehab)- which has the only town square and the only fountain in Greenland.
I am disappointed (to say the least) to see that yet another new international airport is opening at Qaqortoq in April 2026.

Truly I was there in the Golden Age of tourism in Greenland.

As well as employing three ice pilots between Akureyi and Reykjavik (so all the time in Greenland) we had a Greenlandic guide on board ship throughout, and certainly we employed every available local guide at each port call- the excursions were thin on the ground and very limited availability, due to low numbers of available guides and buses (where there even were buses).
Even Nuuk struggled to provide buses.
Our call at Tasilaq was on a Sunday- there were zero excursions available because whatever local guides exist don't work on a Sunday (yes, really). One of the nice things there was seeing the Inuit at Church in their Sunday best traditional dress (something I saw again at a wedding at Nuuk Church).
Looking at the Visit Nuuk website there is no obvious section listing guides, also I can say that at the tiny cruise terminal in Nuuk there was little if any information about guides and no-one touting their business (unlike many other ports I have been to), so maybe instead they need to get some publicity going- people can't employ guides who we don't know exist. I'm serious with that statement. While I truly appreciate their integrity in treating Sunday as sacred, the business sense could be debated.

Another way of experiencing the coastline (ie- not flying everywhere) is to sail on the Arctic Umiaq line (their version of the AMH or the Hurtigruten) which serves numerous ports between Ilulissat and Qaqortoq via Nuuk.

Also if there is such limited accommodation even in Nuuk (let alone anywhere else) then cruises are bringing people who otherwise couldn't physically visit, and (at least among Brits) do spend and spend well.

I've known about Arctic Umiaq (and the Royal Arctic Line, who also used to take pax) for decades and had always expected to use them to visit Greenland. I had never expected to have the 'easy' option of a cruise which was one of my greatest.

isn31c--My husband sailed from Reykjavik to Greenland and back to Isafjordur two years ago and is doing it again, but in reverse this summer. He will be on a 68' yacht though with only 9 people total. Tasilaq is one place they will be stopping at for a few days. That is great that you had a Greenlandic guide on board! I don't doubt the Sunday thing at all. My husbands bag was delayed and on a Sunday we were desperately trying to find him some basics, and were out of luck. Even the clothing areas of grocery stores were closed off. We took the ferry from Ilulissat over to Disko Island and it was a few hours, so really nice to see iceberg after iceberg the entire way. If you get the chance to go there, I highly recommend it. The town is only 800 people and you really get a feel for the local culture as everyone we encountered wanted to share it with us. I am anxious for my husband to do his sailing trip again, and wish I almost wish I had the skills to do it;)

We are absolutely not cruisers, but have signed up for a Princess cruise of Eastern Canada in Sept 2027. We usually prefer to stay longer at destinations, but since we just want a taste of these ports, this one appealed to us. I think it was $1250 pp, not including the excursions, of course. I got the idea for this from someone on this forum, maybe bostonphil

Finally looking into this and cruises have their own peculiarities. Looking at one of the websites listed above trumpeting a Panama Canal cruise at “50% off.”

For reference we spent $3000 over 15 days in Mexico in January, about $200/day, for what I consider a nice trip with quality lodging, many good meals and lots of sightseeing. So when I saw a 15 day Panama Canal trip at $1900, I thought that’s not too bad, times 2 that’s $3800 so about $250 day.

Then I got to the nitty gritty. Add a window, several hundred more, add a balcony that’s $2000 more, want to choose your cabin (kind of like having to pay to choose a seat on a plane) several hundred more, want to not be in the aft again several hundred more, want the deluxe package with any restaurant and 2 shore excursions, another $2000. When my wife said, “so we’re talking $10,000– well THAT gave me pause.

Must be doing something wrong if the price for a “half off” cruise is over triple the cost of a nice independent trip.

I’ve enjoyed several repostioning cruises over the years. I really enjoyed one from Seattle to Puerto Rico years ago. I enjoyed a cruise out of Boston to Amsterdam with a couple of stops in Greenland, Iceland and the Faroes, along with stops in Norway. I prefer the much smaller ships, especially Windjammer, until they went out of business. But, my job finally turned me away from cruising. We had to stop several ships from stopping in port where I live due to outbreaks on board. I became very ill on my Boston to Amsterdam cruise. There are no guarantees, but I prefer land base travel now.
I really enjoyed Greenland and Iceland, as ill as I was. Sorry, but the Aussies brought a horrible respiratory bug onboard). I was on the mend though. Heading to Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia in October, if there is jet fuel available.