2025 Transatlantic Cruise Southampton to Boston

After our 2025 travels in Europe and the UK, we returned to the US by our favorite means, a cruise ship!  Since it was my 60^th birthday, I chose the ship and the itinerary; Kevin was along for the ride.

We boarded the Magestic Princess on my birthday, after a nice lunch in a waterfront restaurant in Southampton, England.  I was thrilled to be back at sea and loved the beautiful sunset view from our balcony.

After several days at sea, our first stop was in Reykjavik, Iceland.  This was our second time visiting the city.  We revisited a waterfront walking trail, went to a new for us area of the city to walk around a lake in a park, and then had what is maybe the best meal of our lives at Fish Company (or Fiskfélagid in Icelandic).  The restaurant does not have any Michelin stars yet but probably should.  If any of my foodie friends and family ever get a chance to visit Reykjavik, this restaurant should not be missed!  It was expensive (everything actually is fairly expensive in Reykjavik), but absolutely worth every penny.  Everything was made with local ingredients and extremely interesting and delicious.  And the funny thing is we ended up there somewhat by accident – we needed a restroom after our walk, and it was lunch time, so we started reading menus posted outside restaurants and thought this one sounded good.

Our next stop was Isafjordur, Iceland.  We spent the morning walking around the port area and the town and found a nice hike with views.  Isafjordur is a town of approximately 2600 people and is the northernmost place we have been, just south of the arctic circle.  It is the most populous town in the region.  As a small town, there are a limited number of restaurants even though cruise ships stop there, particularly when there are two cruise ships visiting in one day, as there were for our visit.  We had planned to have lunch at the local brewery, but it was full, so we returned to the ship for lunch.  After lunch and a nap, we returned to the Dokkan Brugghús (brewery) for some beer and a snack (a pretzel).  The beer was good and it was a nice finish to our time in the town.

 Our final stop in Iceland was Grundarfjordur.  This small town has a population of less than 1000 people.  We were shuttled in by tender boats to the town since there is not a dock that can accommodate larger cruise ships.  It was a very rainy day.  We walked around the town and found a rocky beach to walk on.  There was really only one restaurant in town, and of course it was full, so we returned to the ship.  Unfortunately, the wait to get the shuttle boats back to the ship was long and wet; I got completely soaked despite my raincoat.  We are glad we went to shore and saw the town and beach.  The only photo is from the ship since it was too wet to take the phone out to take any photos onshore.

After a few days at sea, our ship next visited Canada, starting with Prince Edward Island.  We were docked in Charlottetown, the island’s largest city with approximately 40,000 people.  The island is known for its food, so of course we had to try a few restaurants.  We started with a waterfront walk, followed by our first food stop at Salt and Sol for the island’s mussels.  Next, we walked towards the ship along the waterfront and had some oysters and a salad at Grotto before reboarding the ship.

Our next stop in Canada was Sydney, Nova Scotia, a city of approximately 40,000 people on the island of Cape Breton.  Tourism has replaced steel as the primary industry for the city and island.  We spent the day walking around the city and had lunch at a local brewery.

Our final stop in Canada was Halifax, Nova Scotia, our second time visiting this beautiful city by cruise ship.  We started our day with a somewhat disappointing walk; our idea was to visit a natural area, and it seemed like the route we chose would be good.  But it was mostly industrial and very long.  After our walk, we found a restaurant for lunch, Drift.  One fun thing about lunch was that someone who used to work for Princess Cruises, who we had sailed with twice previously, was now managing the restaurant!  It was fun to visit with Robbie in addition to enjoying a nice meal on the waterfront.

Highlights for us onboard the ship often revolve around food.  Activities onboard often revolve around the Piazza, the central area of the ship.  Here are a few highlight photos from our time onboard enjoying various activities on the Piazza.

After another day at sea, we ended our cruise in Boston, the first time visiting the city for both of us. Our trip to Boston was short and a little challenging because we were not able to re-activate our Mexican phone number, so we were not able to use Uber.  We enjoyed several restaurants near our hotel and also went to a local (non-tourist) beach area nearby for the few days we were in town before traveling to Minnesota for our next adventure, buying a summer home.