British Isles Cruises Missed Ports

Hello - my husband and I are looking at British Isle cruises with Princess for next year - in particular the one with an overnight in Dublin. Our travel agent has told us that missed ports are frequent. Does anyone have any experience with these itineraries? Thanks!

Guernsey is often missed

we missed Holyhead twice

I went on this cruise July 2016. We were lucky and didn't miss any ports. Ships seem to miss ports due to weather, dock strikes and engine issues. Two cruises ahead of me missed Le Havre due to port strike. The cruise after mine missed one due to engine troubles and one due to weather. I loved this cruise and plan on going on it again- someday! I was on the Caribbean Princess- read reviews to get a feel for what ports get missed- for example Guernsey gets missed for weather quite often.

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On our Princess cruise we missed Invergorden due to the winds from Hurricane Bertha, we had lovely weather everywhere else (well we had rain in Edinburgh but that's normal) our cruise was in August.

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We are doing the British Isles on Caribbean Princess this Sept. From a previous post, I read that they missed Le Havre when there was a workers strike. It says that the strike is common but rarely affects the port, making their experience one of those rare. Passengers who arranged with Princess to make it their cruise disembarkation, instead of Southampton, so they can stay long in Paris had to change their plans.

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Guernsey is often missed

we missed Holyhead twice

Yep, those are the two that immediately come to mind. :(

Guernsey is tendered, there're no protective land-mass to the west and frequently the Atlantic swell is too much to risk tendering.

Holyhead now has a pier, so less unreliable than when it was a tender port. But the pier is quite exposed, so heavy seas can result in abandonment of a planned stop.

I'd be very careful to check cancellation terms for any pre-booked independent tour, car rental or whatever at those two.

JB :)

Holyhead now has a pier, so less unreliable than when it was a tender port. But the pier is quite exposed, so heavy seas can result in abandonment of a planned stop.

 

I'd be very careful to check cancellation terms for any pre-booked independent tour, car rental or whatever at those two.

 

JB :)

Yep the Irish sea was churning up & not safe to enter the port

1st time we were there is was a tender port when the seas were rough again

I agree on the tour guides ..we had to forfeit 50% of the prepaid tour fee

Maybe next time we will do a land trip to see Wales ;)

Lyn

Yep, those are the two that immediately come to mind. :(

 

Guernsey is tendered, there're no protective land-mass to the west and frequently the Atlantic swell is too much to risk tendering.

Holyhead now has a pier, so less unreliable than when it was a tender port. But the pier is quite exposed, so heavy seas can result in abandonment of a planned stop.

 

I'd be very careful to check cancellation terms for any pre-booked independent tour, car rental or whatever at those two.

 

JB :)

JB, I do appreciate your extensive UK advice which has been helpful to us in the past. However, just to clarify, there is protective land-mass to the west, as the harbour is on the east coast, and therefore the Atlantic swell is only felt on the west coast of the island. I do admit that there are times that the sea is too rough for the tenders to handle, although fingers crossed this does not happen too many times this season.

On our Princess cruise we missed Invergorden due to the winds from Hurricane Bertha, we had lovely weather everywhere else (well we had rain in Edinburgh but that's normal) our cruise was in August.

 

 

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Who said it's normal to have rain in Edinburgh? It's far drier there than Glasgow, Liverpool or Manchester for example. It didn't rain here for 6 weeks despite rain elsewhere in the UK. This part of Britain has a sub-climate, Maybe not up to Californian standards but no extremes

To thd OP, I can only remember one ship ever missing Queensferry because of exceptionally high seas. It's really not common to miss ports in the Uk at all

JB, I do appreciate your extensive UK advice which has been helpful to us in the past. However, just to clarify, there is protective land-mass to the west, as the harbour is on the east coast, and therefore the Atlantic swell is only felt on the west coast of the island. I do admit that there are times that the sea is too rough for the tenders to handle, although fingers crossed this does not happen too many times this season.

Hi GC,

I'm always happy to concede to a local ;p

A shame that the seas affect the reliability - yes, fingers crossed for this season

JB :)

Weather patters continue t change.

You just never know what to expect.

We were on a British Isles cruise in 2015 and we missed four ports over 12 days. Captain said most ever he had.

They were all tender ports.

Took one a few years earlier and didn't miss any.

Keith

We were on a cruise that was to stop at the Faroe Islands, north of Scotland and missed it as well as Alesund, Norway due to a CAT 2 hurricane. The North Sea can be a rough place. However, I don't think Dublin port is that much a problem.

Lucky Last Year?

We made all of our ports on last August's Celebrity cruise that started/ended in Amsterdam- St. Peter's Port, Cobh, Dublin, Liverpool, Belfast, Shetland Is., Edinburgh & Bruges!

It was a wonderful itinerary that included an overnight in Edinburgh for the Tattoo.

Hello - my husband and I are looking at British Isle cruises with Princess for next year - in particular the one with an overnight in Dublin. Our travel agent has told us that missed ports are frequent. Does anyone have any experience with these itineraries? Thanks!

We just did the Caribbean Princess British Isles with Kirkwall (May 1st). Lovely itinerary and had unexpectedly fabulous weather. We were not able to dock in Kirkwall. The Captain reported high winds combined with the inability to have tug boat assistance from the port. Our private tour operator, Explore Orkney, refutes this and says our docking problems had to do with the ship's bow thrusters not working properly. I tend to believe the Captain. The lesson learned though is...for ports that have the reputation of being missed because of weather, it is better safe to opt for a ship sponsored excursion. Explore Orkney has refused to refund us any portion of our money for our missed tour.

We missed Guernsey and I heard at that time that it's not uncommon to miss it. Also Kirkwall is missed once in awhile due to wind.

Just off the May 13th sailing. We missed Cobh/Cork. High winds and waves.

Wow what helpful information. We are doing British Isles on Princess next year and I will be very careful with private tours. I have never heard of operators not refunding money when the ship doesn't make it in, until now! I'm also not used to having to prepay for private tours either, is this the norm for these ports?

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Wow what helpful information. We are doing British Isles on Princess next year and I will be very careful with private tours. I have never heard of operators not refunding money when the ship doesn't make it in, until now! I'm also not used to having to prepay for private tours either, is this the norm for these ports?

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Yes - for some of them. Some will require a deposit but it's rare that they require payment in full. IME (and I did a lot of private tours in the BI), about half required a small deposit and half didn't require a deposit at all. The good ones book up WAY early. I think we booked about 9 months in advance for the really good ones.

Just a word of caution - when you book one yourself, make sure you have a clear cut idea of what you want to see. The one private tour that didn't turn out so well was when the tour leader just said, "Take us to whatever most people like to see."

Back from a cruise in early June.

We missed Waterford/East Dunmore, sailing from Holyhead (yes, we made it to that port!).

We had trouble leaving Liverpool (of all places lol!) due to high winds, but did eventually make it out a couple of hours later without affecting the timing for our next port.

There were moments of waves while sailing around the Isles, but they weren't that bad.

We missed Rosyth in 2012 onboard the Caribbean Princess. I was surprised as you are up the river a bit. Its a tender port and it was raining cats and dogs as well as windy so not much complaining.

Yep, those are the two that immediately come to mind. :(

 

Guernsey is tendered, there're no protective land-mass to the west and frequently the Atlantic swell is too much to risk tendering.

I'd be very careful to check cancellation terms for any pre-booked independent tour, car rental or whatever

 

JB :)

JB, I do appreciate your extensive UK advice which has been helpful to us in the past. However, just to clarify, there is protective land-mass to the west, as the harbour is on the east coast, and therefore the Atlantic swell is only felt on the west coast of the island. I do admit that there are times that the sea is too rough for the tenders to handle, although fingers crossed this does not happen too many times this season.

Wise words from JB and GC. We are currently on board Celebrity Silhouette sailing very slowly to Liverpool having just had our scheduled stop at St Peter Port cancelled due to heavy swell and strong winds . Interestingly, we saw the Azamara Journey appeared to be able to tender. Curious if GC knows more?

Wise words from JB and GC. We are currently on board Celebrity Silhouette sailing very slowly to Liverpool having just had our scheduled stop at St Peter Port cancelled due to heavy swell and strong winds . Interestingly, we saw the Azamara Journey appeared to be able to tender. Curious if GC knows more?[/quo

 

I am looking outside my window from my office now, and can see the Azamara Journey, will go down to the tender station during my lunchtime to see if the tenders are running. Did you come close to Guernsey, before the Captain changed his mind? I was looking forward to seeing the Silhouette today, as she is one of my favourite ships, and we have happy memories of previous cruises onboard.

Yes, the tenders are running for Azamara Journey, she is due to leave at 1pm, however the tenders were still running at 12:45 at least. Perhaps the Captain took the decision as the Silhouette would have been moored further out, and it is getting a little breezy. It is such a shame that you did not have the opportunity to visit our island. You will just have to book another cruise now and try again!!!(yn) Enjoy the rest of your cruise.

Thank you!

We were on schedule, with first tenders due to run from 7.00 am ish onwards. About 7.30 or so we were told there were problems, then just after 9.00 am we were told of decision not to tender, I did wonder about the weather forecast, as much as I would like to visit Guernsey I won't like to run the risk of tenders being suspended whilst ashore :o

Thank you!

We were on schedule, with first tenders due to run from 7.00 am ish onwards. About 7.30 or so we were told there were problems, then just after 9.00 am we were told of decision not to tender, I did wonder about the weather forecast, as much as I would like to visit Guernsey I won't like to run the risk of tenders being suspended whilst ashore :o

It is such a shame as the weather improved in the afternoon and it was a beautiful sunny evening.