Hello:
We are taking a 12 night British Idle Cruise in September and I am looking for pot information. I’ve been watching some YouTube and it seems like the ship parks far away from the central downtown. I am an independent traveler so I like to avoid excursions. Any insight or advice on how you navigated the ports would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance
the ship parks far away from the central downtown
Could you explain a bit more - where do you mean, for example?
Without an itinerary, or at least a ships name it is impossible to comment. There are many possible ports that could be used. 'Edinburgh ' for instance has 4 possible locations - 2 berthed and 2 tendered. This week there have been two failed tender calls where the Firth of Forth was too rough to tender, so time ashore was cancelled on arrival.
Even little used Dundee has two possible totally different berthing locations.
EDIT- If on the Regal Princess are you on the September 4 or 16 sailing?- different itineraries.
If you want to give a link to your cruise and list your ports perhaps people can help you with specific locations. I see in your other thread about transportation you are on the Regal Princess and leaving from Southampton.
I'm most familiar with watching cruise ships come in to Orkney and Shetland. Some cruise ships use the docks, some anchor offshore and tender their passengers in.
That sounds very exciting. I have heard from friends that this is a great cruise. It would be helpful if you include the itinerary and also if you have any special interests or mobility needs. Then you can get answers that are more useful to you.
Will be staying a few days before or after your cruise as well?
Edit: Assuming you are on the Royal Princess out of Southampton, these are the ports
Southampton
Falmouth
Cork
Liverpool
Belfast
Glasgow (Greenock)
Kirwall
Invergordon
Edinburgh (South Queensbury)
Le Havre
I think you would get better answers if you went to cruisecrtiic.com. You will find forums for different cruise lines as well as port information. They can tell you all the ins and outs of your ship and itinerary.
Thank you for all the quick responses. Below is where we are going and we are coming in a day ahead of time and staying in Southampton. Our ship is the Regal Princess.
Cork, Belfast, Dublin ( we will tender in), Glasgow, Ivergordon (Scotland),Orkney Islands, Edinburgh (we tender in) and LeHvre France.
Thank you
.
Cork is the best of these ports - you dock right in Cobh Town centre, literally opposite the Railway station for half hourly trains to Cork. But Cobh deserves several hours of your day.
Dublin- you are tendering to Dun Laoghaire, not Dublin. It is a frequent bus or suburban DART train ride into Dublin. Allow an hour each way, the trains especially will be very busy.
Glasgow- you dock at Greenock, three trains an hour for the 45 minute ride to Glasgow, the station is a 10 to 15 minute walk from the Quay.
Kirkwall (Orkney)- berthing at Hatston deep water berth about two miles out of town- a constant service of free bendy buses runs to Kirkwall bus station, there is a half hourly bus service to all the major archaeological sites, hourly to Skara Brae, also the Italian Chapel and the Barriers in the other direction- X1.
Invergordon- about an hour out of Inverness on a very limited train service or a bus service which is heavily augmented for the day. Change at Inverness for the bus to Culloden or the hourly bus down Loch Ness. But this is a port better done by excursion.
Edinburgh - tender to South Queensferry. A shuttle bus takes you the 45 minutes ride to central Edinburgh. Tickets include all Edinburgh buses that day; or walk up the steps to Dalmeny station, but the bus is by far the smarter option .
Here is the port information for Kirkwall, Orkney. The Regal Princess docks at Hatston Pier. 1A/1B
"Orkney Islands Council provides a complimentary shuttle bus service from Hatston Pier to the Kirkwall Travel Centre. The distance is about 4km (2.5 miles) and the journey takes around seven minutes."
IF you want to visit any of the neolithic sites such as Ring of Brodgar, Stones of Stenness or Skara Brae I'd recommend you arrange a tour either thru the ship or on your own.
Here is a general link for Orkney which includes information about the Neolithic sites there.
Falmouth is a pretty seaside town but there is not a great deal to see there (by comparison with, say, Liverpool or Edinburgh). Pendennis Castle is worth a visit but it will not take up a lot of time. You can get the train to Truro, but again not a lot to see here in my view (I imagine the Cornish Nationalists are sharpening their swords for me right now!).
I don't know much about Invergordon, I had thought it was a naval port in the north of Scotland, so again possibly not much to see here and might be worth considering an excursion.
Depending on the port and the cruise line there may be a shuttle to downtown areas. The itinerary description on your cruises website should give you this information, especially if the cruise offers its own excursions for purchase (it would be exclusionary if they forced you to take these, so they give the options for independent travelers). We took a similar cruise in August 2022 and enjoyed it. Some ports were convenient to sites while others offered shuttles. Several ports also had paved walks from the port into town, which are great if you are a walker.
As you aren't going to Falmouth the Cornish nationalists don't need to bother.
Invergordon is a cruise port, a naval port and an oil rigs port.
There is stuff in Invergordon but every one just gravitates south to Loch Ness and Culloden inevitably. There is a museum, the various HMS Natal memorials from WW1 (a disaster never fully explained), the Seaforth Highlanders in WW2 mural at the railway station,and the Polish Forces memorial, also the Dalmore distillery at Alness.
I was lucky enough to cruise in there post Covid when excursions were compulsory and socially distanced so we atypically did the Falls of Shin and the little cathedral city of Dornoch. Shin is best in the spring when the salmon are leaping. In normal times those are a taxi ride. And get the taxi to come back over the Struie scenic road.
You could also visit the Black Isle- Cromarty and Fortrose, and see the little turntable ferry across the narrows at Nigg. So there are options apart from the really obvious ones.
The distillery is possible by bus and I could (and have) do the Black Isle likewise, but hesitate to suggest the latter to a tourist.
Thank you all so much! I can’t tell you how much this was stressing me out. You are all wonderful and I wish you all the best!
Suzanne
