Cruising the British isles

I canceled a two week cruise around the British Isles. I had planned independent excursions with members on Cruise Critic. It is really hard to find tour operators and collect payment from other tour members. The main reason I canceled was that I did not want to spend 5-10 days quarantined in my cabin if I tested positive for Covid.

I LOVE seeing different regions this way......it enables me to get a little snippet of places I would otherwise most likely never visit. So far I have done a Scandinavian/Baltic and a Med/Balkan cruise. I want to do a British Isles, another Med (France, Spain, Portugal), then move on to Asia, the South Pacific, etc. It's the perfect way (for me) to get to visit so many countries. Any that I love, I can choose to go back for a longer visit.

The chance of being quarantined in your cabin is very small. Unless you're Chinese you don't have to test to enter the UK, and only one cruise company (who you won't be sailing with) now requires testing for UK sailings. So unless you have clear symptoms or are testing yourself daily on self test kits then you won't be in a positive situation. The simple solution is not to do asymptomatic self testing.
It all depends which ports you are sailing to. You don't have to do a ship's excursion, in many or most ports you can do your own thing. Without that detail it's hard to be definitive.
The American lines tend to do a Ryanair on port names, and mis-name them. The best known ones are London (Southampton- it's 70 miles away) and Inverness. In the case of Inverness, although there are plenty of options for independent trips to interesting local places if you want to do Loch Ness you need to do a tour as Inverness has no cruise port. They use Invergordon which is an hour's drive away, and hard to do in the time on your own.
Personally I virtually never do ship excursions anywhere in the world.
As other people have said it's a very economical and easy way to sample places, then decide where you want to go back to on land tours. You cover more places with far greater ease than by any other method of transport.

I fantasize about a week aboard the Hebridean Princess. But it’s a very niche experience.

We have taken many cruises over the years. We find it great to take a cruise in and around Europe and then visit one or two major cities--before or after the cruise. The cruise line makes traveling easy.

We've taken a couple of repositioning cruises from the U.S. to Europe and cruised the Eastern Mediterranean twice and Scandinavia (Baltics) once. Last June, we started a cruise out of Athens to the Greek Islands, Montenegro and Croatia ending in Italy.

There are many cruises around the U.K. on the route you want to see. We use Vacations to Go.com to investigate available cruises as their computer system is the best there is.

Scudder,

So do I, but way out of my budget. A delectable ship by all accounts and superlative Hebridean itineraries.

We did a British Isles cruise in 2015. It was on celebrity and left from Amsterdam. Our itinerary was
Dover, Edinburgh (overnight), Belfast, Dublin, Cobh, Guernsey, back to Amsterdam. We were 2 couples and hired our own tour guides through ToursByLocals.com in Edinburgh and Dublin. In Dover, Belfast, Cobh, and Guernsey we just went in our own. Our favorite port was Guernsey. It was so beautiful and interesting. We did make reservations to tour Hauteville House (Victor Hugo’s home while he was in exile) beforehand. We also prebooked in Belfast the Titanic Experience and in Dublin Kilmainham Goal and Guinness Storehouse.
Any specific questions let me know.

I have taken several cruises but none around the British isles.

However, I always talk to other guests about what cruises they have taken, always looking for ideas and for that "next cruise".

I met a woman who had taken so many cruises that she could not count them. I asked her what was her favorite cruise and she answered The British isles"

Cruises are a bit of a tease. You see so much but time is limited. It is a neat way to go.

"I fantasize about a week aboard the Hebridean Princess. But it’s a very niche experience."
Scudder,
Me too, but it's very expensive. Not really a problem, except it would eat up our travel budget for the next 3 years.

Barbara, your cruise sounds fabulous! Guernsey is at the top of my bucket list.

We have a 12 day British Isles cruise booked for Aug/ Sept. of 2024. We pick cruises solely for the itinerary. I feel this is a great way to experience these 3 destinations. Esp since they are islands. Perfect for sailing around them and small enough to experience some countryside! We have only been to London but excited to see more!