Southampton to London Ports of Call

[canyonman]

I'm planning our next trip in June 2011 and have signed up for Southampton to London on the Silver Cloud voyage # 1118. Listed are the ports we will be visiting and wanted to gets any ones input on the good and bad of these ports of call. 1) Falmouth, U.K 2) Cork, Ireland 3) Dublin, Ireland 4) Oban, Scotland U.K 5) Invergordon, Scotland 6) Leith 7) Newcastle, England 8) London (Tower Bridge) U.K

Thanks:)

[dusababy]

Hey canyonman -- we're neighbors -- SoCal.

 

I too am booked on subject voyage, but too soon for me to concentrate on ports of call details, so I thank you for opening the subject and I'll glean the fruits of the responses.

 

Won't it be loverly......?

 

Dusababy

[canyonman]

Thanks for responding, one of my European friends didn't speak highly of some of these Ports. So lets see where this would lead us.

Canyonman

[CanadianKate]

You won't be in Cork. When I went on the Whisper in 2007, we were in Cobh and took the train into Cork. It was a bank holiday so we couldn't rent a car easily (our original plan to go search for the family castle ruins.)

 

Cobh itself is picturesque and historic (it was the last port of call for the Titanic.) My ancestors are from County Cork and I was amused about how all the businesses with our family name on it were to do with finance or real-estate - my Dad's favourite hobbies!

 

I didn't do any of the shore excursions so can't comment on them.

 

Oh, and it takes 90 minutes to get up the river to the port so be prepared. I was just re-reading my travelog and had commented on the long wait.

The coast of Ireland came into to view just as I sat down to breakfast. The sun was shining and it was just as I've imagined it all my life. So green and pastoral. It was hard to concentrate on eating, when all I wanted to do was stare out the window and drink in the view.

 

We dashed back downstairs for no real reason since the ship wasn't to dock until 11. The problem was we were so close to shore it was hard to imagine there was really another 90 minutes to wait.

 

But there was so I grabbed a washer and we did one load in there and the delicates by hand up in the cabin (in between dashing out onto the balcony to see the views.)

[MJN1]

I'm planning our next trip in June 2011 and have signed up for Southampton to London on the Silver Cloud voyage # 1118. Listed are the ports we will be visiting and wanted to gets any ones input on the good and bad of these ports of call. 1) Falmouth, U.K 2) Cork, Ireland 3) Dublin, Ireland 4) Oban, Scotland U.K 5) Invergordon, Scotland 6) Leith 7) Newcastle, England 8) London (Tower Bridge) U.K

 

Thanks:)

 

We did (most of) this cruise the "other way around" about a year ago, except Falmouth and Newcastle.

Cork - as mentioned above - is a longer bus (or train) ride away. Cork is nice, small town, the port itself not much to do...

Dublin - will have a shuttle bus to the city (15min). Dublin is great, there are excursions to horsefarms if interested in addition, the port is busy with ferries.

Oban - tender to the small town, fishing harbour, nice to walk around, visit the "tourist" distillery;

Invergordon - nothing in the port itself, so question is which castle/monster (Loch Ness) or countryside you want to visit.

Leith - industrial port of Edinburgh with the "Britannia" (the Queen's decommissioned) yacht docked nearby and worth a visit. Shutte-bus, bus or taxi to downtown Edinburgh in less than 15min. If you want to see the "Military Tattooo" check the dates and book yourself or join the (expensive) excursion.

London - sail under Tower Bridge and dock next to a (decommissioned) battle ship or (if you are unlucky) dock before Tower Bridge. "Tender to shore" (at Tower) and thus immediate access to the Underground, taxis and buses.

[patnlcc]

Hi Canyonman, I live in Glasgow, so may be able to ofer some advice. Oban - small port, very pretty. A boat trip over to Mull is very pretty. Duart Castle is on Mull - one of the Bond films was made there. Most boats go into Tobermory, picture postcard pretty with its painted houses. Iona is on the other side of Mull and you would have to cross Mull to get to the ferry to Iona. Don't know if you'd have time. Invergordon - as someone else said, which castle? Maybe you'd rather go south and see some of Loch Ness and maybe Urquhart Castle (pronounced urkart). Very scenic drive. Or go north to Dunrobin Castle, the home of the Dukes of Sutherland. More of a stately home than a castle, but very historic, lovely gardens and views out to sea. Dunrobin also has a very good Birds of Prey show. Leith - yes, Britannia is worth a visit. It is much smaller than you'd expect. Or a general tour of Edinburgh, especially the castle, the Royal Mile and Holyrood Palace. They have a hop-on-hop-off bus, so you could do your own thing.

[juli2020]

I'm planning our next trip in June 2011 and have signed up for Southampton to London on the Silver Cloud voyage # 1118. Listed are the ports we will be visiting and wanted to gets any ones input on the good and bad of these ports of call. 1) Falmouth, U.K 2) Cork, Ireland 3) Dublin, Ireland 4) Oban, Scotland U.K 5) Invergordon, Scotland 6) Leith 7) Newcastle, England 8) London (Tower Bridge) U.K

Thanks:)

 

If you need a private guide...Here are two excellent guides that we used on our last cruise(Silver Cloud). We were a party of seven.

 

Edinburgh-Craig McCall Flynn

Mobile +44(0)7745 084416/ email:craig@mini-tours.com /website:http://www.mini-tours.com

 

Invergordon-Nigel

Mobile +44(0)1862842260 email:info@shorexcursions.co.uk/website:http://www.shorexcursions.co.uk

We were able to see both Urquhart Castle/Loch Ness and Dunrobin Castle with our guide. Both castles are worth seeing. The shore excursion from the ship did not do both.

[JPR]

"London - sail under Tower Bridge and dock next to a (decommissioned) battle ship or (if you are unlucky) dock before Tower Bridge"

 

In the interests of accuracy, it's HMS Belfast, a World War II-era cruiser--definitely worth a tour--that participated in the North Cape sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst, sister ship to the Bismarck (a "battleship" is much larger, heavier and more powerful than a cruiser; sadly, there is no British battleship left in the world, though there are several American battleships that are museums, including most prominently the Iowa-class Missouri at Pearl Harbor, berthed next to the sunken Arizona).

[canyonman]

Thank you all for your knowledgeable comments of northern Europe. It appears my European friend has a different set of eyes. Hope to keep this going with additional comments.

Stay well :)

[umtali]

"London - sail under Tower Bridge and dock next to a (decommissioned) battle ship or (if you are unlucky) dock before Tower Bridge"

 

In the interests of accuracy, it's HMS Belfast, a World War II-era cruiser--definitely worth a tour--that participated in the North Cape sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst, sister ship to the Bismarck (a "battleship" is much larger, heavier and more powerful than a cruiser; sadly, there is no British battleship left in the world, though there are several American battleships that are museums, including most prominently the Iowa-class Missouri at Pearl Harbor, berthed next to the sunken Arizona).

 

"In the interests of accuracy", "Scharnhorst" was not a sister ship to "Bismark", which had one sister ship, "Tirpitz".

[sweep]

Just returned from a similar cruise round the UK and have also visited some of your ports of call on previous cruises.

 

Edinburgh - shuttle bus from Leith to the centre. Interesting Art galleries to visit. Walk up to the Castle and 'do' the Royal Mile and Grassmarket.

 

Invergordon - we took the shuttle bus to Inverness, a 40 min ride. Wish we hadn't bothered. Would definitely do an excursion here.

 

Oban - took the local bus tour to Easdale. Cost £6 and it was excellent. Hilarious bus driver, magnificent scenery and really interesting island. Had 30 mins for a cup of tea and then back to Oban on the bus. Can send more details if you are interested.

 

Dublin - must sees are Trinity College and The Book of Kells. Chester Beatty Museum also interesting. Quite liked the Guiness factory Tour and then we went to Oliver St John Gogarty pub in Temple Bar for lunch. Live Irish music - really , really good.

 

Falmouth - interesting little port to potter around. Interesting to visit the Eden project.

[canyonman]

I just got back to this thread and wanted to thank Umtali and Sweep for there input. I'm still booked but leaving tomorrow for Istanbul to catch-up to the Silver Cloud. I will forces more on this trip once I get back. Can't wait to researcher more about it. So lets make this trip in June a trip to remember. " or a good thread" LOL :D

[canyonman]

Just wanted to bring this back up. Any more on board? ;)

[Sailmaker]

Hi Canyonman, We are on an inverse voyage starting on August 26th 2011 from Tower Bridge

so interested in this thread. we are scheduled to visit some different ports such as Kirkwell Orkney Island, Portree Isle of Sky and Ballycastle N. Ireland so hopefully CC'ers have inside info on these too.

[brimary]

We are on the Cloud from 20 july to 26 August this year from Southampton to London.We were told on our cruise last year that Silversea were changing from Tower Bridge to Greenwich which would be a shame because Tower Bridge provides a great sail in or out and is in the heart of London.Greenwich is way down the Thames a nothing special port and nowhere near the heart of London.Hope the references to Tower Bridge are correct and still in force for 2011 sailings.

[canyonman]

I haven’t been on this site for some time. Thanks for the replies and I was informed as well that Siliversea was cancelling Tower Bridge after 2011. It appears this is not the case which is good news for everyone.

Will my final payment is due this Friday and I’m looking forward in returning to the Cloud “same room”. I hope to hear from others who are on our trip. :cool: