108 cruise ships to Iceland this season

Saturday was the official start of the Icelandic winter, according to a tradition dating back to the ancient Icelandic calendar.

This year, the day was marked in a new symbolic way with the arrival of the last cruise ship of the 2015 season – the AIDAmar, carrying 2,190 passengers.

This is the latest in the year Iceland has ever been visited by an operating cruise ship, and the cruise season is stretching at both ends.

This year, Iceland saw a total of 108 cruise ships, arriving from as early as March right through to 24 October. A total of 100,000 passengers were on board these vessels.

The AIDAmar arrived in Iceland from the Baltic Sea – on its way to the Caribbean, where it will be operating winter cruises – and left at 6pm yesterday.

There are already bookings for cruise ship arrivals in Iceland in March and October of next year.