Iceland’s Akureyri hosted a quadruple call on July 2, with the Viking Mars, Silver Spirit, Star Pride and Le Bellot in town with over 1,800 cruise guests.

The ships ranged in size from the 180-guest Le Bellot operating for Ponant to the stretched 312-guest Star Pride from Windstar, the 596-passenger Silver Spirit, which has also been stretched with the addition of a midsection, to the 930-guest Viking Mars.

The town and region easily absorbed the passengers from the four ships. The population of Akureyri is 18,191.

Tours ranged from whale and bird watching, cultural tours, and mountain hikes, geological and nature exploration.

A shore excursion representative said the port expects ship calls every day for the season.

Iceland, which had a record cruise season last year, expects another strong season benefitting from ships being re-deployed from the Baltic and also being discovered as a new soft expedition destination.

The season runs from April 14 with the AIDAsol starting it off, through September 28 with the Norwegian Prima at finish.

In 2023 Iceland hosted 1,193 port calls.