Ice Lagoon Zodiac Boat Tours — Local services in Iceland

We were really excited about getting up close to the glaciers and seals, but sadly, we were unable to complete the tour. We booked all our tours in Iceland through Arctic Adventures (4 in total) and received vouchers for each tour, 3 of which were through partner companies. We received very detailed and extensive information for all the other tours -- where to go, where not go so as to avoid confusion, when to arrive, and even when things didn't go as planned due to weather, we received kind and courteous customer service (shoutout to Midgard Adventure and Vik Horse Adventure -- they were fabulous!). However, the voucher for this Ice Lagoon zodiac tour was very brief with just time of tour and meeting place. When you put in the company on Google Maps, it says that they don't open until 9am (it also says that on TripAdvisor). We arrived at the lagoon parking lot at 8:35am. Unfortunately, we happened to park right in front of a truck that said Zodiac Meeting Point. I asked a lady there if this was the right place and she said I needed to check in at the ticket office first. So I waited in line, and when I got to the front, she said that I can go straight to the blue Ice Lagoon truck at the other end of the parking lot, and that I don't need to check in there because they are a different company. Having never been to the lagoon before, I didn't know there were multiple zodiac tour companies there. As I walked over there, I watched their bus leave at 8:52am. Two minutes after the start time! I arrived at the truck at 8:53am. At 8:55am, an employee from the back of the truck saw me and when I said we were here for the tour, she said I was too late. Then she radio'ed her team and said she would bring us to the boats if I was able to find my friend (who was also searching for the right place to go) within 60 seconds. I ran around screaming for my friend, and everyone was staring wondering if something was wrong. When we got back to the truck in 60 seconds, she said I'm sorry, you're too late. We asked if we could wait for the next tour at 10am. She said it is full but we can see if someone doesn't show up. So we waited. Everyone showed, but they didn't leave until 10:10am. All this to say that had we been given the same grace of 10 minutes, we would've made our tour with ample time to spare despite the confusion in the parking lot. When I sent a message to Arctic Adventures about the disappointing and unreasonable experience, they blamed Ice Lagoon Adventures for giving us poor instructions on their voucher and said they should give us a refund. Ice Lagoon Adventures blamed Arctic Adventures for misleading us and said they should give us a refund. Meanwhile, no one has given us a refund. They said they called me on the phone. I didn't have cell phone service while in Iceland and even now that I am back home, there are no missed calls. They said they tried to call my name through the parking lot. I never veered from the checkin and ticket areas, I didn't even go to the bathroom, so it is surprising that I wouldn't hear someone calling my name. Neither company wants to take responsibility, and neither will agree to issue a refund. I will take responsibility that I went to the wrong place and was misdirected by a kind stranger who was just trying to help. But considering there is nothing on the voucher that says to arrive any earlier than 8:50am (though we did arrive in the parking lot area 15 mins early) and their own business profiles on Google Maps and Trip Advisor saying they don't open until 9am, their bus left at 8:52am (2 mins from what it said on our voucher!), it is misleading and unprofessional. We lost about $200. I don't write reviews often, but I don't want anyone else to experience this disappointment. Iceland was absolutely beautiful, the people were so kind, welcoming, and accommodating, and the other tour companies provided stellar service, which made this incident stand...

Avoid this dishonest company.

Do not trust on this company. I had a tour booked with them for the Zodiac Tour in the Glacier, and I was entitled to a discount. However, they informed us that the tour would be cancelled due to bad weather. Instead, they offered us the amphibian tour as an alternative. The weather outside was perfect and sunny, but we trusted their judgment since they are supposed to be the experts. To our dismay, just 10 minutes later, we noticed a group from the Zodiac Tour, walking down towardsthe boat. I inquired and was told that they were indeed on the Zodiac Tour.

I strongly believe that they cancelled our tour because we had a discount, and they likely wanted to sell the full-price tickets to others. This decision completely ruined our plans. We had to travel there, incurring expenses for transportation, accommodation, and more, all for nothing. Even the video I had planned for my blog turned out to be a waste of time, due to the amphibian tour is not what you would expect, it is full and you can't move to take videos or pictures, and the boat goes very fast since is only 40 min in the bout, impossible to make a good shot of glaciers.

They should have at least informed me a day in advance if they couldn't honor my booking with the discount, so I could have made alternative arrangements, like booking the kayak tour with Iceguide.

This experience was not only disappointing but also highly dishonest. I recommend booking with any other company and avoiding this one...

Updated my review, as the company has taken care of my complain, professionally and replied to it, still the experience wasn't great.

Unfortunately, we don't think the tour was safely managed, and our experience was not the best.

Firstly, the girl giving us the clothes and life jackets, she didn't help us at all, she gave the lifejackets and say you'll figure it (lucky we knew how to do it and help others as she didn't).

Weather that day was windy, fair enough, but the guide on our boat instead of slowing down (which you should consider when conditions aren't appropriate), speed up on the way back, we were jumping above 30cm over the zodiak constantly, holding the ropes as hard as could as we were literally going to fall to the glacier, the guide said hold at least with one, we were with two and literally jumping and my husband holding me too as I was going down, the other zodiak from your company put people on the floor as it wasn't safe, but not in our case. Water was coming to the zodiak and ended up with our clothes under your clothes wet due to the high speed.

The activity wasn't easy as stated on your website as we had pain 2 days after in the arms due to the force holding us to avoid falling...