Port times and excursions for British Isles

I'm booked on a BI cruise next Aug. Any tips or suggestions on how to plan the timing of private excursions? So say the itinerary states we get into a port at 7:00am what time should I think about booking? I'm not sure how long it takes to realistically get off the ship. I know some ports are tendered I would imagine that's longer but never did a tender port. We don't have too long in most ports so I want to utilize as much time as I can.

Whatever you do beware St Peter Port!! Tender port with a probably early afternoon departure. We waited in very hot sun for nearly 2.5 hours to get the "last" tender along with 2000 others!!!

Beware private excursions in Kirkwall that all seem to demand "up front" payment. If you don't dock you have "done your dough" as they will say "not our fault claim from the cruise line or your insurance"!!!

Not certain which ports are included on your voyage. In general our experience with Cobh, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock and LeHarve is that you can walk right off the ship pretty soon after authorities provide clearance. At tender ports anyone on a Princess tour beginning right after docking have to report to the location indicated on the tour ticket. These passengers have priority for tenders. All others report to one of the DR's to get their tender tickets. First to arrive get the lower tender ticket numbers. It is one ticket per person. All members must arrive at the DR to pick up their own ticket. For example, a wife can not get two tickets one for her and one for her husband who will arrive later. The husband must be there. Captain's Circle Elite and Full Suite passengers have priority tender boarding. They normally report to the same DR and are placed in a separate line.

I did the BI last May. I would look at a half hour. Using your example, you also have to consider what is open when and what would you do if you couldn't get into the places you want to see in the early morning hours.

We did the British Isles cruise in June and used shared private tours everywhere. First of all don’t worry about port times, the tour operators keep very careful tabs on your ship arrival and departure times and they will advise you what time you should be there and exactly where to meet the vehicle and guide spelled out very specifically in the confirmation email. In most cases the meeting time was about an hour after docking. And when you disembark they were waiting to meet passengers with sign in hand. We were the only ship in port for all ports except one, so these operators know exactly what is going on, and on arrival day they track the ship and know what is going on so don’t worry!

As far as the previous comment about paying, most require payment in advance (used PayPal) but all companies we used had a clause saying if the ship wasn’t able to make the port we got a full refund less a small handling charge. I liked being able to prepay and not having to carry large sums of currency around. We prepaid everything we could and also had private transfers to from airport and central London to the ship and I opted to prepay these too. It was just easier. We had one operator for a truly private tour that did not require prepayment but required payment in cash (in this case in £) at the end of the tour. Unfortunately the ship did not make the port due to weather.

Private and shared private tours worked out great for this cruise, cost a fraction of ships tours and mostly smaller vehicles and we saw more by avoiding the big cruise line buses. We were taken to small towns for our lunch break and ate in charming small restaurants with locals and excellent food. And in all cases we were back to the ship at least 1 1/2 to two hours before all aboard. Our tendering experience was not bad, about a half hour wait to get back.

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Styme123

I suggest you look through the posts on this board and also royal princess roll calls for British isle cruises. There is so much information on them. I will say if you wish to do titanic museums in Cobh and Belfast you book before you go as they are timed slots. Any more info contact me

Styme123

I suggest you look through the posts on this board and also royal princess roll calls for British isle cruises. There is so much information on them. I will say if you wish to do titanic museums in Cobh and Belfast you book before you go as they are timed slots. Any more info contact me

Yeah I've been reading A LOT ;pof the posts on the BI and Princess threads. That's why I figured I'd ask about the ports since I was going to start looking into excursions. I just didn't want to tell an excursion company that I will meet them at a specific time and it not be realistic. I wouldn't want them to just leave thinking I didn't show up when it was just getting off the ship.

We did the British Isles cruise in June and used shared private tours everywhere. First of all don’t worry about port times, the tour operators keep very careful tabs on your ship arrival and departure times and they will advise you what time you should be there and exactly where to meet the vehicle and guide spelled out very specifically in the confirmation email. In most cases the meeting time was about an hour after docking. And when you disembark they were waiting to meet passengers with sign in hand. We were the only ship in port for all ports except one, so these operators know exactly what is going on, and on arrival day they track the ship and know what is going on so don’t worry!

 

As far as the previous comment about paying, most require payment in advance (used PayPal) but all companies we used had a clause saying if the ship wasn’t able to make the port we got a full refund less a small handling charge. I liked being able to prepay and not having to carry large sums of currency around. We prepaid everything we could and also had private transfers to from airport and central London to the ship and I opted to prepay these too. It was just easier. We had one operator for a truly private tour that did not require prepayment but required payment in cash (in this case in £) at the end of the tour. Unfortunately the ship did not make the port due to weather.

 

Private and shared private tours worked out great for this cruise, cost a fraction of ships tours and mostly smaller vehicles and we saw more by avoiding the big cruise line buses. We were taken to small towns for our lunch break and ate in charming small restaurants with locals and excellent food. And in all cases we were back to the ship at least 1 1/2 to two hours before all aboard. Our tendering experience was not bad, about a half hour wait to get back.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the info. I guess the guides do it all the time so they know when we should get in. Did you ever worry that much about missing the ship with the private tours? I plan on using private guides versus Princess ones as much as I can. Any recommendations on who to use or avoid since you went already? I'm going to do the transfer from London also as we are going to stay a few days before the cruise. I'm already signed up to my roll call also.

Not certain which ports are included on your voyage. In general our experience with Cobh, Dublin, Belfast, Greenock and LeHarve is that you can walk right off the ship pretty soon after authorities provide clearance. At tender ports anyone on a Princess tour beginning right after docking have to report to the location indicated on the tour ticket. These passengers have priority for tenders. All others report to one of the DR's to get their tender tickets. First to arrive get the lower tender ticket numbers. It is one ticket per person. All members must arrive at the DR to pick up their own ticket. For example, a wife can not get two tickets one for her and one for her husband who will arrive later. The husband must be there. Captain's Circle Elite and Full Suite passengers have priority tender boarding. They normally report to the same DR and are placed in a separate line.

We leave from Southampton, Guernsey (St Peter port), Cork (Cobh), Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow, Kirkwall, Edinburgh, LeHarve

We're going on this cruise next May but with Liverpool instead of Kirkwall. I book all of our excursions through Princess. Why bother with contacting tour companies, making arrangements and paying when Princess will do all that for you? Cost too much? Hey, we're on vacation, I'll pay Princess to make all my arrangements. I don't mind the 'big bus' tour groups as long as all I have to do is get on and off. To each his own but I've always seen what I want to see on ship sponsored excursions. No, I don't work for Princess, I just think they do a fantastic job as a cruise line. We prepay everything before the cruise so we really do come home 'renewed'.

Just for interest, the Inverclyde Tourist Group in Greenock offer FREE 2 hour tours of the local area. It’s best to pre reserve your place on line before you go to guarantee the tour and time you’d like, but there will be staff in the port when you arrive who will book you on a tour. We had a brilliant time with a knowledgeable guide. They appreciate a donation but it’s not compulsory, but well worth it to continue their good work.

If you want to do the Titanic Experience in Belfast, it’s easy to get a taxi to and from the ship to the museum and back. That way you can spend as much time as you like in the experience rather than be restricted by the limited time on a ship tour (and much cheaper). We went early morning just after they’d opened, which was great as there weren’t many people there and we could see everything in more comfort with few people about. We didn’t pre book our tickets but we could have done. It got much busier as the tour buses arrived, but we spent over 5 hours there. An excellent visit.

You can do a round the island trip in Guernsey on the local bus. Recommend you get off early if you want to do this, as we waited around 90 mins for a tender mid morning on the ship, which then gave us very limited time on the island, and over an hour waiting in the queue to come back. Fortunately I’d been there on holiday some years before but would have been very disappointed with the limited time if it had been my first time. I I’d also recommend going to Sark if you get the chance. It’s a small island off Guernsey, where there are no cars and the roads are dirt tracks. Getting around is by horse and cart, hire a bicycle or walk. It’s like going back in time. We went to a cafe on Little Sark (over the interesting bridge), parked our bikes in a hedge, and went in for tea & scones. We were served outside in the sun by waiters in suits, bow ties and white gloves. A great experience.

Enjoy the British Isles. We have some lovely places to visit.

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Thanks for the info. I guess the guides do it all the time so they know when we should get in. Did you ever worry that much about missing the ship with the private tours? I plan on using private guides versus Princess ones as much as I can. Any recommendations on who to use or avoid since you went already? I'm going to do the transfer from London also as we are going to stay a few days before the cruise. I'm already signed up to my roll call also.

Yes the guides are super familiar with the ships coming and going and absolutely no we never had any worries about missing the ship, that is what the cruise lines use as selling points for their tours. Unless a passenger was completely irresponsible and missed a meeting time or location I just can't see anyone missing the ship! With a small group tour we found everyone got back to meeting locations on time, with ships tours using big buses we have had unpleasant experiences where the whole bus had to wait for rude passengers who decided to shop or sightsee longer and did not get back on time.

We used Discover Scotland for Greenock (Stirling Castle and Lochs), e coach for Cobh (Blarney), Odyssey Coach Tours for Belfast (Giants Causeway) and Viator for South Queensferry (we opted to go to St. Andrews as we had been to Edinburgh before). Our ship missed Invergordon. The other ports are quite easy to do on your own or take Princess shuttle to town. In La Havre we did ships tour, very few private tour options other than to DDay Beaches which we had done before.

Happy Planning! We absolutely loved this cruise!

Thank you for the replies, they are very helpful. Did you all feel like you saw enough or had enough time in most of the ports to make it worth your while to cruise there versus a land tour.

You can never have enough time in a British port, or probably any port in the world, to see all that is available withing a decent travelling distance od the port. Take it as a taster and return at your leisure.

Thank you for the replies, they are very helpful. Did you all feel like you saw enough or had enough time in most of the ports to make it worth your while to cruise there versus a land tour.

Last year our two organized excursions were with eCoach in Cobh (to Blarney Castle and Kinsale) and Invergordon Tours (to Urquhart Castle, a cruise on Loch Ness, Clava Cairns, and Cawdor Castle). We did the hop-on/hop-off buses in Dublin and Glasgow. They worked out very well. We took the train on our own to get to Glasgow and also the train on our own into Edinburgh. I purchased our Edinburgh Castle tickets in advance. I also purchased Buckingham Palace tickets in advanced. I highly recommend the garden tour that's extra.

For next month, we have tickets to Hamilton and another West End show (Everybody's Talking about Jamie) and the Churchill War Rooms. I haven't planned the rest of our days fully yet. Part of the fun of being in London is doing things spontaneously.

Geoherb

If you are boarding in Southampton see if you can arrange a get together of others on your Roll Call for a Fish & Chip dinner at the Duke of Wellington; wonderful.

I used toursbylocals. In Belfast, I booked with Wee Jim on the toursbylocals site. He has great. I made sure I was back at port 2 hours before departure to avoid issues.

One thing you'll grasp once you're there, the private guides know when to be ready and waiting for you. The good ones will be waiting for you before you even get off the ship. If there's a delay, they'll know about it.

Also, when planning your itinerary, don't plan to go to venues too early. Most don't open until 10:00am. Start with other things that don't have a specified opening time like viewing the Troussachs or Loch Ness, for example. Getting to your farther out venues early in the morning is usually the best bet to avoid the crowds.