British Isles cruise tours reviews (just back!)

Our 1030 arrival in Dublin was scheduled long before they discovered the techical issues with the Caribbean princess, so it may have had more to do with berth or pilot availability or similar on that particular Sunday than the ship.

 

And yes, our late departure from Greenock, followed by a sea day, was solely to accommodate the Tattoo (which didn't end until almost 11 pm).

 

ETA Be careful of Monday closures too. Some museums and the like were closed Mondays.

Found your review to be helpful. I have this tour booked on Celebrity for August 2018, including the tattoo and I have been dealing with Catriona on line. In spite of the glitches, I think I will book them. I have one question that I cannot seem to find an answer to: Are you docked in Edinburgh or tendered? Catriona talks like we're tendered but nowhere on Celebrity of here does it say for sure.

Found your review to be helpful. I have this tour booked on Celebrity for August 2018, including the tattoo and I have been dealing with Catriona on line. In spite of the glitches, I think I will book them. I have one question that I cannot seem to find an answer to: Are you docked in Edinburgh or tendered? Catriona talks like we're tendered but nowhere on Celebrity of here does it say for sure.

We went to the Tattoo from Greenock (near Glasgow, about an hour and a half from Edinburgh), but when in "Edinburgh" itself a few days later, we were actually tendered to South Queensferry (about half an hour into the city?).

Which is just one of the many options in Edinburgh. I don't know which port the Celebrity ships use for Edinburgh.

Celebrity Eclipse is scheduled to be at South Queensferry next August. If that's your ship, you will tender at the port. You'll get your overnight at Edinburgh, so time won't be a crunch.

We took a taxi to the Belfast excursion centre (GBP 10 ) and then took the HOHO Bus tour which was very good indeed. After that we had a drink in the oldest tavern in Belfast (White's?) in the Entries and walked to the Crown Liquor Saloon then caught an uber back to ship.

Thank you for that. I've never used Uber in Europe. Did you have to do anything special or did you just use your app that you use at home?

Celebrity Eclipse is scheduled to be at South Queensferry next August. If that's your ship, you will tender at the port. You'll get your overnight at Edinburgh, so time won't be a crunch.

Thanks Geoherb....I have also heard that the tender doesn't run past midnight. If the tattoo gets out at 11:30ish, there's no way we wold make it back to Eclipse on time. Do you know what hours the tender runs?

Thanks Geoherb....I have also heard that the tender doesn't run past midnight. If the tattoo gets out at 11:30ish, there's no way we wold make it back to Eclipse on time. Do you know what hours the tender runs?

What time does your Tattoo performance start? Ours started at 9 pm and finished at around 10:40 pm, although getting out of the venue takes a few more minutes, obviously.

I've heard that tender hours can be variable, but I'm sure the tenders will run as long as it takes to get the ship's excursion passengers back on the ship, and they are usually slower than smaller independent groups. Even with our delay leaving Edinburgh (Catriona running up and down the Mile looking for our missing passengers), we still made it back to Greenock before a number of the Princess excursion buses.

I don't know how long the tenders run. We had our overnight in Dublin. Perhaps someone on the Celebrity board would know if there was a similar itinerary this year.

What time does your Tattoo performance start? Ours started at 9 pm and finished at around 10:40 pm, although getting out of the venue takes a few more minutes, obviously.

 

I've heard that tender hours can be variable, but I'm sure the tenders will run as long as it takes to get the ship's excursion passengers back on the ship, and they are usually slower than smaller independent groups. Even with our delay leaving Edinburgh (Catriona running up and down the Mile looking for our missing passengers), we still made it back to Greenock before a number of the Princess excursion buses.

I believe it starts at 9 p.m. and due to walking problems, I am planning on doing a private tour starting around Noon and ending after the Tattoo. Catriona assured me they will get our tix for the Tattoo as well as handicapped parking which should allow us to leave sooner but with heavy traffic it might not. I've never done an evening excursion on an o'nite before so you can understand why I'm obsessed with getting back to the dock in time! I do know we're supposed to dock at Greenock. I cannot book with X because the buses park at the bottom of the hill and walking downhill on cobblestones would be asking for trouble!

Celebrity Eclipse is scheduled to be at South Queensferry next August. If that's your ship, you will tender at the port. You'll get your overnight at Edinburgh, so time won't be a crunch.

Darn, I was told the Eclipse was tendering at Newhaven in August 2018. Where did you find your information?

I believe it starts at 9 p.m. and due to walking problems, I am planning on doing a private tour starting around Noon and ending after the Tattoo. Catriona assured me they will get our tix for the Tattoo as well as handicapped parking which should allow us to leave sooner but with heavy traffic it might not. I've never done an evening excursion on an o'nite before so you can understand why I'm obsessed with getting back to the dock in time! I do know we're supposed to dock at Greenock. I cannot book with X because the buses park at the bottom of the hill and walking downhill on cobblestones would be asking for trouble!

We had a private 16 seater coach chartered from Glasgow to the Tattoo in 2013 from our Roll Call. We had read from a Roll Call the year before to leave when the solo piper started so we could beat the crowds. We could hear the piper as we walked.

The Celebrity Silhouette overnighted in Edinburgh (Newhaven) for the Tattoo this August. The tenders were scheduled to run until 2:00 or 3:00 AM. (They may have run even later that night due to some issues with weather and passenger numbers. )

Thank you for your commentary and information on excursions..very helpful when trying to decide what to take. We will also be travelling with Royal Princess but leaving on May 13th.

Dublin

 

It's a fair ways from the ship into town, and you wouldn't want to walk it, as the port is very commercial/industrial. Princess was running free shuttles to and from Merrion Square (drop off/pick up right across from the Oscar Wilde statue), and they ran frequently enough that we never really waited.When we arrived the first day, I noted that they had about a dozen double-deckers ready and waiting. Taxis, incidentally, were impossible to find. On the second day we were in Dublin, I asked the people waiting in the taxi line (which was about a dozen people deep)how long they'd been waiting, and they said that they'd seen only 2 taxis in 45 minutes! But it was fairly easy to flag down taxis downtown. I'd take a shuttle and then flag down a taxi if you need one.

 

We started our first day in Dublin,after taking the requisite photos with Oscar Wilde, with a tour of Trinity College:

https://www.tcd.ie/visitors/tours/

which was very entertaining (highly recommended) and included admission to the Library/Book of Kells. But note that the tour does not allow you to skip the line at the Library. You can book timed tickets to the Library separately (and then pay less for the tour) if you don't want to wait, but the line,even if it looks long, does move fairly quickly. (My daughter and I waited about 20-30 minutes. She read a book. I had a snack.)

 

There are so many things to see in Dublin. We chose to visit the National Museum of Ireland – Archaelogy and the Chester Beatty Library at Dublin Castle, both of which are good museums . . . although we had to see both quickly as not only did our ship not get in until 10:30 am (which was scheduled), but it was a Sunday and places closed around 5 pm. Take note of days of the week when planning.

 

As it was drizzling, we wandered overto the very old Brazen Head pub early and had a pint before ourFolklore Dinner:

http://irishfolktours.com/

This was fun. Our hostess and themusicians were both personable, although I would have enjoyed more folklore and fairy tales: a lot of the evening was spent eating (there was quite a bit of food: the starter warm chicken salad is as much as I usually eat for a meal) and in conversation with my CruiseCritic tablemates.

 

The next day, we went on Mary Gibbons'Newgrange and Hill of Tara Tour:

http://newgrangetours.com/

This takes you out of Dublin and if it's your first time in Dublin and you only have one day, you'll probably want to stay in the city. But if you've seen Dublin or have more time as we did, I would recommend it. I'd thought Mary's narration as we drove would focus more on early Irish history (or rather prehistory), but she covered everything from the Neolithic to the Troubles, often in response to questions that people called out.

 

Note that the Hill of Tara is reallyjust a photo stop (it's a grassy hill with mounds and ditches and anamazing view), and Mary doesn't accompany you onto to the hill, so dostop and read the signs and map at the entrance so that you know the significance of each of the mounds and ditches.

 

At Newgrange, you have ample time to have some lunch (a little expensive, but the soup and bread were very good) before you meet the buses to take you to the site and your archaeologist guide, who does take you into the passage tomb. Older than Stonehenge, this Neolithic site is impressive for its abstract rock carvings and stonework – the tomb itself is watertight, and wehad a good demonstration of this as we had no idea until we exited that it had started to pour rain while we were in the tomb! We then had time to visit the exhibition before meeting the buses and returning to Dublin.

 

FYI, her bus had WiFi, which I appreciated as it was the only bus of our entire trip that did!

Thank you for sharing your trip with us. We will be doing this trip in August and would like to also do the Old Brazen Head Pub Folklore dinner. Can you tell me how to got back and forth to the ship? We just don't want to get stuck after dinner without transportation.

Thank you for sharing your trip with us. We will be doing this trip in August and would like to also do the Old Brazen Head Pub Folklore dinner. Can you tell me how to got back and forth to the ship? We just don't want to get stuck after dinner without transportation.

More than half the people at the Brazen Head dinner were from the ship, so we just shared taxis back. It was trivial to flag down a taxi in that area at that hour. Nor was it expensive -- I think we wound up paying about 6 Euros for our share of the taxi?