Cruise Lines Reportedly Canceling Iceland Port Stops Over Hiked Fees

If your cruise ship was scheduled to set sail to the land of fire and ice, you may need to anticipate some changes to the itinerary.

The Icelandic government began imposing a new fee on January 1 2025 which has prompted cruise ships to cancel their stops in Iceland, as reported by Iceland’s national broadcaster, RÚV. This new fee dubbed as an infrastructure fee is 2500 ISK (approx. $18 / €18) per passenger/day.

According to a letter from the MSC Cruises Port Operations Director, the new fee is five times higher than the Accommodation Tax which was implemented just before the 2024 sailing season. In the letter, the director wrote; “This new proposed Infrastructure Fee is at a level where it could affect our assessment of the viability of Iceland in our future itineraries and plans,” making clear that Iceland might no longer be as frequented by cruises as it once was.” 

The law was passed by the caretaker government before the new government assumed office. Sigurður Jökull Ólafsson, chair of Cruise Iceland (who strongly opposed the new fee), stated there was a lack of consultation and preparation. The new legislation was expected to generate 1.5 billion ISK (~$10 million USD) but that figure will need to be recalculated if the cancellation trend continues.

Norwegian Prima sailing in Eyjafjörður Fjord near Akureyri, Iceland

Already in January, harbormasters across the country have stated that there are now 80 cancellations after the change took effect. Take for example in Akureyri, the number of ship visits is set to decrease by 44 compared to 2024. Grundarfjörður has already experienced seven cancellations for the current year, with an additional 14 expected for 2026.

One of the chief complaints was that there was little notice before the fee was implemented. This is problematic as many customers had already reserved cruises for 2025 and 2026 at XX amount including taxes and port fees. So the cruise lines are now in a position where they would either need to charge customers more or bear the costs themselves which could be significant.

Sigurður Jökull Ólafsson, chairman of Cruise Iceland, emphasized the weight of the economic impact of these changes. “Take, for instance, a ship that makes 8 to 9 stops each at Reykjavik, Ísafjörður, and Akureyri during the summer; it will now face an additional operational cost of 440 million ISK in 2025,” Sigurður stated.

Last year, Cruise Iceland warned that the new fee would particularly impact ships that were circumnavigating the country. “We would have, first of all, wanted to see this implemented in stages so it wouldn’t hit operations as hard as it does now,” the site stated.

While not all of the cancellations are a result of the fee being assessed, the impact is significant according to harbormasters. And to what the effect will be long term, that remains to be seen but this could morph into something quite significant on Iceland’s cruise industry. As of now, the Icelandic government and cruise operators remain at odds on the issue, though the Cruise Iceland Chairman hopes the government will revisit the issue in due time. 

If your itinerary included Iceland, have you been notified of any changes yet?

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *