Celebrity shore excursion in Dublin - Heads Up!

[mek]

We were on Celebrity Eclipse last Sunday and took the Dublin Castle and Book of Kells 4 hour tour. While the tour guide and driver were great we were terribly disappointed with Book of Kells portion of the tour. The information provided by Celebrity stated there may be a line at the entrance to the hall to see the Book of Kells, but when we arrived the line was very long and it took almost 1 hour before we entered and then we were told we had to rush through the exhibit and only had 15 minutes inside and not to even stop in the gift shop. I cheated and took a few minutes to buy a book so I could read up on what I really didn't get to see.

 

This was ridiculous waste of time that could have been better spent on something else. I'm sure it's no surprise to the tour operators that trying to squeeze this into 4 hours is a problem and they should have a separate tour just to see Trinity College and the Book of Kells.

 

When I returned to the ship I went to the shore excursion desk and told them what had happened. I received a partial credit for the tour, but I really felt cheated - I wish I had spent my afternoon in Dublin some other way.

 

Just a heads up to anyone considering this tour - it's not a well thought out excursion.