Iceland Ports Pulled from Cruise Itineraries
A new passenger fee has cruise lines canceling upcoming Iceland port visits.
Photo: Ceri Breeze / Shutterstock.com
While Iceland has been growing in popularity with tourists – including cruisers – over the past several years, it’s looking like fewer cruise lines will be including the island country in its itineraries.
The pullback is thanks to a new fee targeting cruisers that the government put into place on Jan. 1, 2025 with little warning. The new fee is 2,500 Icelandic Krona (ISK) or about $18 per person. It is about five times more than the previous fee and is a per night charge, which makes it particularly burdensome for cruise ships doing circumnavigations of the country.
In response, ports around the country are seeing large numbers of cancellations, the country’s national broadcaster RUV reports.
According to RUV, Icelandic ports have so far reported 80 cancellations.
For instance, RUV reported that the port of Akureyri will receive at least 44 fewer visits this year than last. Grundarfjörður has been notified of seven cancellations for 2025, and 14 for 2026. Vestmannaeyjar and Faxaflói have also reported cancellations.
However, when checking in with several cruise lines that have upcoming visits to Iceland scheduled, all indicated they have not made any cancellations. This includes MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line, and HX, all of which have multiple Icelandic ports of call scheduled in 2025.
