British Isles Cruise Tour Reviews

[phabric]

I did see on your roll call that you had Timberbush booked in October of 2012. So they did seem to change their procedure this year, saying they won't be reviewing their plans until February. I do have to admit I find that uncomfortable as we were planning to buy tickets in two weeks. I know how popular the Tattoo is, and I really don't want to purchase tickets and not be able to arrange transportation.

 

Once again, you have been extremely helpful. I will check out your Easter Dates in Britain thread for more insight.

 

Thank you so much!

 

You could try calling them and inquiry about reserving, mention that this year's August 21 reservation was able to reserve in Sept/Oct.

[deb63]

I just heard from Anne with Timberbush this morning. I had mentioned to her that I was concerned about buying tickets now, then not having transportation. She responded with saying their director was on holiday until next week -but when he got back she would try to get an answer out of him for us.

 

So, here's hoping we can get this settled.

 

They both (Great Scot & Timberbush) seem like good options. I just wanted to make sure all 32 have transportation. . .and Great Scot could commit, but not transport that many. And Timberbush vice versa. LOL.

[bconley351]

2. Great Scot Tours (Gordon Ross). Our guide was Gordon’s friend, David Frooth. David was dressed in his kilt and was a joy to tour with. We were picked up on time at the Greenock port and got a fantastic tour of the Loch Lomond area. We toured the magnificent Stirling Castle with David as he pointed out things we should see. He then drove us to Edinburgh and dropped us off within a ½ block of where we had dinner reservations (a few businesses away from the entrance to the Tattoo. After the Tattoo we all met up at the designated corner with his big red umbrella and he led us to where he parked the car nearby and got us back to the ship by 12:30AM (which we believe was the first group back from the Tattoo). I know we beat all the Princess busses which arrive between 1:30 and 2:30AM

 

 

Bonnie -

It looks like we will also be using David as our tour guide for our Tattoo day next August. Gordon Ross advised me that he was retiring, but he arranged with David to be our tour guide for Tattoo Day. We will be a small group (only 6). I have a couple of questions:

1 - Where did you eat dinner? And how much time did you allow for dinner to guarantee you had time to get to your seats in a timely manner?

2 - Where was your lunch stop?

3 - Did your group provide David with a ticket to the Tattoo or did he just meet up with you after the event?

Lorraine

[BonnieGreen]

2. Great Scot Tours (Gordon Ross). Our guide was Gordon’s friend, David Frooth. David was dressed in his kilt and was a joy to tour with. We were picked up on time at the Greenock port and got a fantastic tour of the Loch Lomond area. We toured the magnificent Stirling Castle with David as he pointed out things we should see. He then drove us to Edinburgh and dropped us off within a ½ block of where we had dinner reservations (a few businesses away from the entrance to the Tattoo. After the Tattoo we all met up at the designated corner with his big red umbrella and he led us to where he parked the car nearby and got us back to the ship by 12:30AM (which we believe was the first group back from the Tattoo). I know we beat all the Princess busses which arrive between 1:30 and 2:30AM

 

 

Bonnie -

It looks like we will also be using David as our tour guide for our Tattoo day next August. Gordon Ross advised me that he was retiring, but he arranged with David to be our tour guide for Tattoo Day. We will be a small group (only 6). I have a couple of questions:

1 - Where did you eat dinner? And how much time did you allow for dinner to guarantee you had time to get to your seats in a timely manner?

2 - Where was your lunch stop?

3 - Did your group provide David with a ticket to the Tattoo or did he just meet up with you after the event?

Lorraine

 

Lorraine: You will love David! Our group was also 6 and it was a perfect day. We ate dinner at The Whiskey Experience in the Amber Room. I believed we had 5:30 reservations and we were a little late due to heavy traffic, but we called and they were fine with that. David dropped us off about 1 block from the restaurant. It is about 25 steps from the Tattoo Entrance. You get to cross the barricades to get to the restaurant. Be sure to have your email confirmation printed out as proof that you have a reservation at that restaurant. The food and service was great and we had plenty of time. We stayed until just before the Tattoo started. (Be sure to use their restrooms before you leave. David will tell you that there is no time to visit the restrooms after the Tattoo is over...the crowd is crazy getting out.) We sat in the bottom of the U shape.

 

David had a place where he told us he would pick us up. He had a big red umbrella so that we can see him. He just drops you off for dinner and then he spends the time finding a parking place. The car was just around the corner from where he picked us up. We were on our way back to the ship so fast we were the first ones back! He does not expect a ticket to the Tattoo or even to be invited to dinner.

 

I really don't remember a lunch stop....I think we just snacked along the way in anticipation of our big dinner.

 

Hope that helps you! Bonnie

[Lady222]

Our Butler tour was booked online and we were the first bus at Blarney Castle , everyone had plenty of time to see all of Blarney Castle and kiss the stone...and shop...and we had lunch and quite awhile in Kinsale...it was Sunday and very busy with locals ...Cork is very nice and since we had seen the Heritage Center while on the land tour we skipped that and went back to our ship. The sail away on port side was nice in Cork. Ship docks right at The Heritage Center.

I posted a few comments for you on The Ring of Kerry roll call...if you do not see it and want that info let me know at jtamchay at yahoo dot com.

 

Thank you for the information. We are on the British Isles cruise in May 2014 and have booked Butlers Tours. They are not sure if they will have time to do Blarney Castle + Kinsale in the time allocated. How long was your tour? We have a 6 hour tour. We would love to do both Blarney Castle and Kinsale!

[jlparke5]

We had a 16 passenger van with Timberbush on the August 16 cruise. With Britain's law of how many hours a tour driver can drive, we had a driver/guide going to Edinburgh and a driver on the return. Timberbush has their office in Edinburgh so they were able to switch drivers for the return trip. We were able to start off earlier than some of the other tours because of this.

 

If you have 32 signed up for the Tattoo, why not make 2 vans of 16 passengers. It is much easier to get 16 passenger on & off the van than 32 especially after the Tattoo when there are 9,000 persons all exiting the one entrance at the Castle. Smaller vans or mini coaches can use the smaller roads so you are able to see more of the countryside. Our driver/guide was able to get close to the Castle for drop off and pick up. The larger coaches and Princess coaches were much further away, another reason to use a smaller vehicle.

 

Our group ate at The Hub Café before the Tattoo. They have a set Tattoo dinner. 2013's cost was 25GBP/pp for a 2 course meal - with a choice of 3-4 starters, 3-4 main meals, a bottle of beer, wine, soda, tea, coffee. I emailed them about the dinner and they send me the menu choices once the chef decided for 2013. You did not have to decide your choice until the day of the dinner. A deposit per person was needed to hold the reservation. As mentioned in another post, The Hub Café, was an excellent spot as we were able to join the Castle's entrance line midway. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed their meal there. I don't know if they do individual reservations or just groups during the Tattoo. They did have a few groups on our night and reservations fill up.

 

We used Great Scot for our Edinburgh port.

 

Check out our Roll Call on the Caribbean Princess August 16, 2013, post #2965 for the list of private tours which Roll Call members used for this cruise. All the tours were highly recommended from other Cruise Critic users.

 

Can you tell me how you worked out the money part of the tattoo and the tour. Did everyone pay individually to the tour company and did you go through group sales for the tattoo. Planning a trip Aug of 2017

[phabric]

Can you tell me how you worked out the money part of the tattoo and the tour. Did everyone pay individually to the tour company and did you go through group sales for the tattoo. Planning a trip Aug of 2017

 

This is what I wrote in post #32.

 

 

I joined the Friends of the Tattoo, joint membership to order the tickets in November before the public can order them in Dec. With the joint membership, you are able to order up to 8 tickets each. I ordered all of our 16 tickets and we split the cost of the membership between us. Everyone send me a cheque to cover the tickets and The Hub Cafe. I asked everyone, if they wanted a programme and I order them at the same time. The tickets were send out in the spring and it included one voucher with the number of programmes ordered ( voucher can be handed in to anybody selling programmes at the Tattoo). I would suggest looking at seats at the end of a row for easy exit. try to get seats close to each other so you can try to stay together.

[g/QUOTE]

 

I joined the Friends of the Tattoo (joint membership - 8 tickets each membership) and was able to purchase all 16 tickets together online. We had decided to sit together so we would all leave together after the Tattoo and make our way together to the bus. I felt if we each purchased the tickets individually and sitting in different areas, we would end up waiting for people to exit and then trying to finding the van. We could not be late getting back to the ship

 

Another Roll Call member reserved the coach. We send a cheque to her to cover the van.

 

I added my email address in the Roll Call and asked everyone in our group to send me an email including their cabin number, email address and their full name (encase your have to contact them while on the ship). I asked everyone to send me a cheque or Pay Pal to cover the cost of the Tattoo tickets, programs I had purchased and included the price of the meal with a tip.

 

 

I organized a few other tours from the Roll Call and these tours did not need a deposit. These tours were a total cost and I would divide by the number of the group and they would pay their own tip. I met my tour group near the International Cafe about 1/2 hour before the tour time again making sure we were all together and at that time collected the tour money so there was only one payment to the tour company.

 

A SUGGESTION, meet your tour group on the ship before exiting the ship for your tour, make sure you have their name and cabin number with you encase you have to contact them to see where they are and leave the ship together that way you are not waiting dockside wondering where everyone is. We met a couple dockside wandering around trying to find the tour group since they did not have a clear meeting spot before hand.

 

If you have a Meet & Greet with your Roll Call, a great way to meet your tour group.

 

The Tattoo is an excellent show, I have seen it twice, both times different.

Edited September 17, 2016 by phabric

[InPR]

Thanks for the information. I'll be doing a similar run on the princess this June. I've been on the ship once before in the Caribbean and wasn't much impressed (I hope it's been spruced up somewhat since) but the itinerary was just too good to pass up. I may well be doing far more DIY excursions than on any cruise previously since Princess' excursion prices are rather high given what they are offering (being more used to Celebrity where I might only pay 35 to 50 dollars for an on-you-own tour which amounts to the cost of transportation, I was surprised that Princess would charge 100 pp to just be shuttled 20 minutes into a city and picked up several hours later). I do have one question you might be able to answer: I have realized that given the man constraints on visiting Newgrange/Tara that it's simply not practical on a short one day stay in port, so I'm now wondering if there aren't wonderful little gems hidden away in and around Dublin that also give you that Neolithic/megalithic experience. Did you hear about any lesser sites that might be easier to get to given the time constraints? Again, thanks for your wonderful breakdown on those alternative tours.

[hotrod610]

Suggestions tour

[Alaskanb]

Just realized this review is from 2013. Oops

Edited September 19, 2016 by Alaskanb