knotheadusc

You’ll see there are a few of us in the Hebridean forum.  I know some don’t consider Hebridean Princess to be luxury, but after five cruises, I can say that the experience was more luxurious than SeaDream, which I’ve sailed three times and loved.  Hebridean is unique and once you’ve paid, everything is taken care of.  That, to me, is very luxurious.

The first time my husband and I sailed on Hebridean Princess, we did a back to back.  On turnaround day, they booked a cab for me, my husband, and another lady doing a back to back.  We went to see the Burrell Collection in Glasgow and had lunch.  The ship paid for the taxi and our lunch, and while we were gone, even did our laundry for free.  😄  

It's great to know people enjoy the blog.  I try to be honest and candid, as well as charitable.

It's hard to believe three months have passed since we were onboard.  Seems like so much has happened in that time.  With any luck, we'll be back onboard again before too much more time has passed!  I'm ready to try a new itinerary, or if not that, a new theme other than whisky.

On Hebridean Island Cruises, every room has its own private decanter of scotch.  🙂

Awesome, isn't it?  I still use the leather wallet they gave me on our last cruise with them in 2013.  It's perfect for credit cards!

Aww... that is adorable.  I am surprised you didn’t have the stuffed Highland cow around for tea!

3 hours ago, commodoredave said:

Knotty, why don't you and Bill think about joining us. i think we'd make a great foursome!

 

I'll give it some thought.  My husband's company's contract is in negotiations right now, so we're not exactly sure where we'll be in a year.  But I am always game for a Hebridean cruise. 😉    

I hope you and your wife were able to make some new friends on your trip.  I have found that Hebridean cruises are great for that, too.  Really nice people who have fascinating backgrounds!  I especially like talking to the very elderly, because even though they're so old, the ones who cruise on Hebridean are usually still spry and have long memories.  We have met some incredible octogenarians on that ship, including several men with fascinating military backgrounds.  

On our first cruise in 2012, we met a man who was in World War II as a young guy.  He was amazing to talk to, since he still had a lot of memories of his time in the war.  On another trip, we met a man who served thirty years with the British Army, then did another fifteen for the Canadian Army, and lived in Baden-Baden, Germany, not far from where Bill and I used to live until last year.  On our last trip, we met a man who lived in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) for twenty years as a public health officer for the British Army.  One of my degrees is in public health, so he was very interesting.  And, like me, he's a musician!

That’s awesome!  Which one are you doing?

I think they do have some books on where they’re going in the library, although to be honest, I don’t spend a lot of time looking for reading material when I am on the ship.  I did notice the books when we sailed in August, though, and I don’t remember seeing a lot of fiction.

You had some great staff members!  We sailed with Egon and Iain in 2016 when we did the Spirit of Scotland cruise.  At that time, Iain was not yet a purser.  I am so glad to see he was promoted and is doing such a fabulous job.  And Egon is an excellent bartender and really knows his whiskies.

Sounds like you had a wonderful cruise!  Thanks for sharing!  Makes me want to book again.

My favorite SD Caribbean itinerary was to the southern Caribbean.  We started in Antigua and went to Barbados.  I loved visiting all of the different flavored islands.  Barbados was a real treat, too.  Such beautiful beaches!

We had a wonderful time visiting the Piedmont region of Italy, up near Turin.  It's beautiful there, and not overrun with tourists.  There's also wonderful wine.  Find a nice, small town, like Pinerolo, and get a taste of the real Italy.

We used Rome Cabs to get from the city to the pier.  It was money well spent!

Enjoy being piped on the ship!  

Sounds like your Edinburgh digs are a lot better than ours were in August!  

If you like seafood, you're in luck.  Here in Germany, we don't get as much fish as I'd like.  I always overdose on Hebridean Princess.  Especially when they do the fabulous cold seafood buffet!

Thanks so much for reading!  I noticed when we were in Glasgow about to embark on an earlier cruise, we had dinner at a steak and gin restaurant at the Glasgow train station and they had what looked like bottomless liquor decanters hanging like lamps.  We were given a bunch of similar decanters as wedding presents in 2002, so I immediately noticed how they'd been repurposed.  If I were a craftier sort, I might have tried that myself with ours!

I've never not had a great time on Hebridean Princess, although we have had some strokes of bad luck afterwards.  So far, we've done five cruises, one of which was a back to back.  After two of them, I've wound up getting sick.  After the other two, I've had dogs suddenly die of cancer.  I'm sure it's coincidental in the cases involving our dogs.  The cases involving my getting sick have only taught me to wash my hands more often, never share utensils or dishes, and use the hand sanitizer religiously!  That's good advice no matter what!

As for Bill and his kilt... well, it took a lot of work to convince him to get one, and he looks amazing in it.  He will keep wearing it.  I will insist.  I'm not sure what the future holds for us, but I'm sure we'll do another Hebridean cruise at some point, after my credit card has recovered.

7 hours ago, commodoredave said:

So here we are a week away from flying to Scotland and two weeks from the start of our cruise. Hurricane Gabrielle looks to be heading to Scotland later this week, and British Airways, with whom we are scheduled to fly, begins rotating strikes tomorrow. It seems the universe is lining up against us! DW is worried, so I just gave her a good 12-year single malt. Now the universe is looking better!!

Sigh... I remember two years ago, it was Hurricane Irma.  The captain did take good care of us, though, and rearranged our itinerary so that we would be safe and comfortable.  It resulted in a bit more time on the coach and some last minute changes of plans, but it was all good in the end.

Try not to worry.  You're going to have a great time!  And soon you and your wife can enjoy all the gin and whiskies you want!

Yes, and that was the only time on five cruises I have ever run into midges.  

We did run into them at one stop.  The crew made midge repellant available at reception and it wasn’t an issue.

Great!  I'll check it out.  I'd actually love to explore parts of South America.  If we hadn't moved to Germany, we probably would have finally gotten down there.  I don't know how much longer we'll be over here.  I'm not in a hurry to move back to the States.  I have heard the Galapagos are amazing.

No, I haven’t yet been to South America.  Maybe someday we’ll get there.

It’s hard to believe I was on the ship a week ago.  Reality bites.  

Ha ha...  well, I didn’t get that impression.  He was actually great all week.  I think maybe he had too much whisky that last night.

I am glad you enjoyed the series, although I think you probably read about 2016’s cruise.  In 2012, I didn’t have a travel blog, so that first one got limited coverage.  I reviewed it on the now defunct Epinions.com.  I also did a series in 2017.

I have just finished the series, which runs for fifteen posts.  Those who want to start at the beginning will find the link in the first post on this thread.  Those who want to start with the cruise should start here.  I'll probably write a brief summary post tomorrow for those who don't want a blow by blow.  

Hope this is helpful for those who are curious.  We didn't have a perfect cruise, but it was our favorite of the five we've done so far, mainly because we had a great group and a mostly great staff.