I'm reading too much...

[Birdie dog]

Last evening, my daughter and I booked an ABD to Iceland. We're excited about the trip. But, I'm reading too much and now having second thoughts that we picked the right trip.
My worries are mostly related to the amount of bus time on the trip. The amount of waiting on the group (few bathrooms etc) and quite frankly the food. I am a little freaked out with the whale, lamb (and even horse?) menu options. I've traveled quite a bit, but I can usually find fish or chicken. The menu isn't appealing to me at all.
Anyway, since we booked last night, we are considering moving to either Italy & Switzerland, Amalfi Coast or Scotland (I've been to Scotland in the past, but have wanted to see more there).
What should I do? Am I just freaking myself out and I'm going to love it? Or should we change trips?
Thanks.

 

[Barshall]

Settle down!! Iceland is a great selection. We went on this trip in September, 2019 and loved it. Food: I didn't see whale or horse on any of the menus, but wasn't really looking for that. There is alot of Lamb but it is delicious. There is also alot of yummy fish, my favorite was the Arctic Char. Not sure about chicken as that is never my first choice. There is quite a bit of time on the bus, but our Guides made the time pass fairly quickly. The adventures are wonderful and I think you will love Iceland. We have also done Italy and it was also wonderful, but a very different trip. That would be hard to choose.

 

[BluesTraveler]

Here are my notes from when we did the trip in 2018. I'm happy to answer any questions. To your specific concerns - we loved the food, we loved the activities, only one day felt really long on the bus, and we hated the large group size:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/iceland-wrap-up.3696183/

 

[sayhello]

As the others have said, the food, for the most part, was very good. Horse and whale were never offered to my memory. Definitely not enough lamb, as I ADORE lamb. Lots of amazing fish, and definitely chicken options. You are given the opportunity to *try* a tidbit of rotten shark, which is definitely a local thing, but it's literally a morsel, and not part of a meal.

I did this trip the first year it was offered in 2018, so maybe things are better by now, but a couple of the places were not really up to the challenge of feeding a large group all at once. So food was occasionally cold or came out in waves, so some people would have to wait. But the selections were mostly great.

The bus time can be an issue on this trip, although, honestly, it's totally worth it to see what you see and do what you do, and that's going to happen no matter who you go to Iceland with. It's just very spread out. I was told by one of our Adventure Guides that this trip has the most bus time of any of the ABDs. But the Guides really work hard to make the time pass quickly. The only time it was an issue is the day down south near Vic (Day 3), as you put in some extra travel time that night to get to a hotel that is that much closer to the airport in Reykjavik, so that you don't have to get up in the wee hours of the morning to make the flight to Akureyri. Oh! But now that I look closer at this year's itinerary, they have totally cut out going to the Jökulsárlόn Glacier Lagoon on that day, so you head back to Reykjavik instead of over-nighting it in Vik. I don't know if that makes for a shorter bus day or not, but I'm sure it's not as late of an evening as before, or as early of a morning the next day. (Plus not having that extra day of packing/unpacking). That's a shame, as Jökulsárlόn is really a special place, but I'm assuming too many people complained about the length of that day.

To me, the biggest issues were the group size and the lack of adequate bathrooms for the large group size.

That said, it's an amazing trip. Iceland is fabulous, and beautiful, and you do some amazing things on this trip (the river rafting on this trip is phenomenal!). I think you'll enjoy it.

I have a link in my signature to my in-depth Trip Report for this trip. Check it out if you want a really good feel for how it goes (a few things are ordered a bit differently on the first and last day now, and there are the changes to Day 3 I mentioned above, but otherwise, it's still pretty much the same, and I think the changes they made were good ones - although I'm still sad about Jökulsárlόn.)

Sayhello