Ship Excursions

[madera1]

We have booked a May British Isles cruise and I would say the majority of excursions are already waitlisted. Have others found this happening and if so does Holland America add additional busses to accommodate the interest?

[oakridger]

My May TA on Zuiderdam already has many of the excursions waitlisted as well.  I have read here on CC that they do sometimes add additional excursions if the demand is high, but have no direct experience with that one way or another.  If I wanted to go on a particular excursion type, I would look into a private one.  Since HIA, the excursions seem to be filled up much earlier than the past, which I understand.

 

~Nancy

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, madera1 said:

We have booked a May British Isles cruise and I would say the majority of excursions are already waitlisted. Have others found this happening and if so does Holland America add additional busses to accommodate the interest?

 

No need to wait for Shore-ex, most British ports have a great selection of excellent private tours that are generally cheaper and superior to shore-ex. Just takes a little research.

[IAcruising]

2 hours ago, madera1 said:

We have booked a May British Isles cruise and I would say the majority of excursions are already waitlisted. Have others found this happening and if so does Holland America add additional busses to accommodate the interest?

 

We're going there in August. Not a majority, but a lot are already sold out.

 

[VMax1700]

We were on both a British Isles cruise in August and Baltic in September.  In both cases we waitlisted cruises and some time later received confirmations.  Also we noticed when onboard that there were more tours available than had been originally offered.

 

 

[fkfad]

We were on a European cruise last summer and wanted one particular shore excursion through the ship -- however, it was sold out and we were waitlisted.  After about a month of watching and waiting, they added a second departure for that same excursion and suggested that I quickly purchase that excursion before it becomes sold out, which I did.  It all worked out for us!

[Heartgrove]

We just returned from a MSC cruise to Scotland and Ireland. We called on four of the ports that you are scheduled for. 

 

•   Edinburgh and Dun Laoghaire (for Dublin) are both tender ports that can easily be reached using       public transportation (bus and train respectively) and much cheaper than an excursion.

 

•  Stornoway you might want to try for an excursion. It will be a long tender ride as the new pier won't be   completed by then. The town is small, and Callanish Standing Stones are located after about a 45   minute drive on the island. We had booked a Viator excursion originally but then MSC finally offered a 2-1/2 hour excursion so booked it instead. 

 

• Cobh (for Cork) is something for you to decide on. Our ship docked in Ringaskiddy instead of Cobh. It is the container port for the area so nowhere to walk to. We used the ship's excursion to Kinsale and Charles Fort which was well worth it.

[Heartgrove]

On 10/17/2023 at 9:58 PM, madera1 said:

We have booked a May British Isles cruise and I would say the majority of excursions are already waitlisted. Have others found this happening and if so does Holland America add additional busses to accommodate the interest?

 

With the change in itinerary announced, you may have better luck booking excursions if people cancel their cruise.

 

The change for Edinburgh (Newhaven) does bring you closer to the city. The tender landing is by the Fishmarket and the tram line has just recently been extended to nearby. The stop is about a five minute walk. The tram will take you to the Princes Street stop. The "Royal Mile" is then about a ten minute from there.

[Iamthesea]

53 minutes ago, Heartgrove said:

The change for Edinburgh (Newhaven) does bring you closer to the city. The tender landing is by the Fishmarket and the tram line has just recently been extended to nearby. The stop is about a five minute walk. The tram will take you to the Princes Street stop. The "Royal Mile" is then about a ten minute from there.

 

I am on the same cruise as  the OP.  Not aware of any change for our Edinburgh stop.  As far as I know, we are still tendering off of South Queensferry.  Where did you get this information?

[Heartgrove]

17 minutes ago, Iamthesea said:

 

I am on the same cruise as  the OP.  Not aware of any change for our Edinburgh stop.  As far as I know, we are still tendering off of South Queensferry.  Where did you get this information?

 

I am booked on the August cruise and received an updated itinerary today via email. I thought the change was for both.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Heartgrove

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, Iamthesea said:

 

I am on the same cruise as  the OP.  Not aware of any change for our Edinburgh stop.  As far as I know, we are still tendering off of South Queensferry.  Where did you get this information?

 

South Queensferry isn't too challenging, as it is a fairly short walk up hill from the tender dock to the train station. They have numerous direct trains into Edinburgh taking about 20 - 30 mins. Trains arrive at Edinburgh Waverly. Make sure you take the exit for Market Street and across the street is a set of stairs and alleyway up to High Street, which is the Royal Mile. 

[fruitmachine]

6 hours ago, Heidi13 said:

 

South Queensferry isn't too challenging, as it is a fairly short walk up hill from the tender dock to the train station. They have numerous direct trains into Edinburgh taking about 20 - 30 mins. Trains arrive at Edinburgh Waverly. Make sure you take the exit for Market Street and across the street is a set of stairs and alleyway up to High Street, which is the Royal Mile. 

Even easier is the X99 Cruiselink bus, which is only scheduled for days when a ship is tendering to South Queensferry.  https://www.lothianbuses.com/cruiselink-x99/  It runs from the end of Hawes Pier where the tender stops, and leaves every 20 minutes or earlier if full.  The ticket sellers also sell HoHo tickets, to which you can add Edinburgh Castle (and other attractions) entry if you've not got that already or if it's sold out online.

 

For the first time this year, the return ticket on the bus was actually a Network DAYticket, which give free access to every bus across their wider network, and on the tram.

 

If you still want to take the train, be aware that there are some gaps in the timetable, especially mid morning.  Here's the schedule for 7:30-12:30 this Monday as an example (though do your own research nearer travel, as it could easily be different). 

[Heidi13]

6 hours ago, fruitmachine said:

Even easier is the X99 Cruiselink bus, which is only scheduled for days when a ship is tendering to South Queensferry.  https://www.lothianbuses.com/cruiselink-x99/  It runs from the end of Hawes Pier where the tender stops, and leaves every 20 minutes or earlier if full.  The ticket sellers also sell HoHo tickets, to which you can add Edinburgh Castle (and other attractions) entry if you've not got that already or if it's sold out online.

 

For the first time this year, the return ticket on the bus was actually a Network DAYticket, which give free access to every bus across their wider network, and on the tram.

 

If you still want to take the train, be aware that there are some gaps in the timetable, especially mid morning.  Here's the schedule for 7:30-12:30 this Monday as an example (though do your own research nearer travel, as it could easily be different). 

 

How is the traffic these days into Edinburgh, especially early morning. I concur the bus is more convenient to the tender dock, but for all my trips into Edinburgh, unless heading to Tynecastle or Easter Road, I always opted for the train, rather than driving the car.

[fruitmachine]

2 minutes ago, Heidi13 said:

 

How is the traffic these days into Edinburgh, especially early morning. I concur the bus is more convenient to the tender dock, but for all my trips into Edinburgh, unless heading to Tynecastle or Easter Road, I always opted for the train, rather than driving the car.

The traffic in the early morning is much less than pre-pandemic, though the busiest bits are as busy as ever later in the day.  For the bus from South Queensferry, much of the route has a bus-lane that's in-force until 09:30; after that it's not going through areas with major congestion, so I'd expect it to be a similar transit time to the train.

[ChinaShrek]

24 minutes ago, fruitmachine said:

The traffic in the early morning is much less than pre-pandemic, though the busiest bits are as busy as ever later in the day.  For the bus from South Queensferry, much of the route has a bus-lane that's in-force until 09:30; after that it's not going through areas with major congestion, so I'd expect it to be a similar transit time to the train.

Thank you for posting all of the information about the bus and train. This allows me to visit Edinburgh without doing a tour, which I really didn't want to do.