Princess Tour to Edinburgh from Greenock

[lhsail]

Anyone with experience doing the Princess shore excursion from Greenock to Edinburgh? It includes the Edinburgh Castle, a tour of the city, a lunch and some time on your own. Runs around $200/person. The other option is simply transportation to and from arranged by Princess for $90. We were originally going to do it all on our own, but our departure from Greenock was changed from 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm. We really want to see Edinburgh and, in particular, the Castle. But, with the length of trip from Greenock and relatively short port time for what we want to accomplish we're thinking about taking the safe way and doing the full Princess excursion. However, I'm sure it's way overpriced.

[majortom10]

Why not just do a tour from South Queensferry its a lot closer than Greenock. You can catch a local coach or train where you tender to and a lot cheaper than Princess shuttle.

[lhsail]

Why not just do a tour from South Queensferry its a lot closer than Greenock. You can catch a local coach or train where you tender to and a lot cheaper than Princess shuttle

 

This is part of a Transatlantic, our only stop in Scotland is Greenock.

[lynaberdeen]

Anyone with experience doing the Princess shore excursion from Greenock to Edinburgh? It includes the Edinburgh Castle, a tour of the city, a lunch and some time on your own. Runs around $200/person. The other option is simply transportation to and from arranged by Princess for $90. We were originally going to do it all on our own, but our departure from Greenock was changed from 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm. We really want to see Edinburgh and, in particular, the Castle. But, with the length of trip from Greenock and relatively short port time for what we want to accomplish we're thinking about taking the safe way and doing the full Princess excursion. However, I'm sure it's way overpriced.

 

 

 

Coming from Edinburgh the castle is amazing, a not to be missed. Individual tickets to the castle are expensive and long lines toget in, which I’d imagine you don’t have on the tour. Also if Greenock rather than south queensferry I’d take the safer princess option rather than miss the boat!

 

 

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[msmoger]

Anyone with experience doing the Princess shore excursion from Greenock to Edinburgh? It includes the Edinburgh Castle, a tour of the city, a lunch and some time on your own. Runs around $200/person. The other option is simply transportation to and from arranged by Princess for $90. We were originally going to do it all on our own, but our departure from Greenock was changed from 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm. We really want to see Edinburgh and, in particular, the Castle. But, with the length of trip from Greenock and relatively short port time for what we want to accomplish we're thinking about taking the safe way and doing the full Princess excursion. However, I'm sure it's way overpriced.

 

We did this as part of a private tour on our 2017 TA on the Regal. For us, we had previously been to Edinburgh on a British Isles cruise a few years back when we docked in South Queensferry. It's a long ride there and back from Greenock. The lines for tickets was very long, which I assume would not be an issue on a Princess excursion. We decided against returning to the Castle because of the line and just walked around while the others toured the Castle.

I agree the Castle is great and if you feel this will be your only opportunity to visit Edinburgh then you should definitely go for it. Just be forewarned that there will be plenty of bus time and probably not as much Castle time as you might like, especially since the excursion includes lunch and a city tour with 45 or 50 of your closest friends. ;)

[Kartgv]

We did the Princess tour from the Caribbean Princess in Sept. 2016 and were happy with it. We had plenty of time to see everything we wanted to see in the castle. The bus was in good condition and comfortable and our guide was very well informed, pointing out many city sights along the way.

[caribill]

Anyone with experience doing the Princess shore excursion from Greenock to Edinburgh? It includes the Edinburgh Castle, a tour of the city, a lunch and some time on your own. Runs around $200/person. The other option is simply transportation to and from arranged by Princess for $90. We were originally going to do it all on our own, but our departure from Greenock was changed from 10:00 pm to 6:00 pm. We really want to see Edinburgh and, in particular, the Castle. But, with the length of trip from Greenock and relatively short port time for what we want to accomplish we're thinking about taking the safe way and doing the full Princess excursion. However, I'm sure it's way overpriced.

 

With the shortened port time, I would agree the security of a Princess tour, either the full tour or the transportation-only one would be better than getting to/from Edinburgh on your own.

 

The cost difference ($200-90=$110) for the inclusive tour would include castle tickets (presumably without a wait) and, I would expect, a guided tour of the castle. Personally I would prefer a castle guided tour which is usually so much more informative than walking around on your own. However if you go to the castle on your own there are free tours inside in English. Possible the web site can tell you what times they are offered.

[geoherb]

We enjoyed our day in Glasgow last summer when the Caribbean Princess docked in Greenock. We took the train on our own and then the hop-on/hop-off bus. Of course we got to go to Edinburgh a few days later on our cruise and tour the castle then. I'm not sure spending half your time on a coach from Greenock to Edinburgh and back is the best thing to do when there are a lot of closer attractions that will give you a taste of Scotland.

[firecrewcapt]

We found a company if you want to Discover the countryside/castles in Scotland with a Tours maybe able to find it at Dot Com. 5 stars from TripAdvisor and works well with ship's schedule, no tours larger than 16-30 pp, sounded like a great alternative to the ship's tour. With a senior discount and a chat window for live chatting via internet when they're open.We're looking at Loch Lomond, Stirling Castle and Trossachs, just saying.

[2theship]

If you really want to see Edinburgh, definitely take the ship tour so you don't have to worry about your return time. (And we rarely take ship tours.) However, Glasgow is certainly worth the investment of a day and much easier to get to.

 

The only time we went to Edinburgh from Greenock was during the Edinburgh Tattoo so the ship wasn't sailing until after midnight.

[lhsail]

Thanks to all for your input. Talked to a friend yesterday who just got back from Scotland and saw her pictures of the castle. Pretty impressive so I think we're going for it. Agree that this may be one of those times when the ships tour is worth it for convenience and peace of mind.

[jagsfan]

We found a company if you want to Discover the countryside/castles in Scotland with a Tours maybe able to find it at Dot Com. 5 stars from TripAdvisor and works well with ship's schedule, no tours larger than 16-30 pp, sounded like a great alternative to the ship's tour. With a senior discount and a chat window for live chatting via internet when they're open.We're looking at Loch Lomond, Stirling Castle and Trossachs, just saying.

 

 

 

 

Since it’s ok to say the name of a tour company on Cruise Critic, I’m assuming the name of the company is Dot Com. Is that correct?

 

 

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[easyliving]

took the transportation only tour to Edinburgh. We still talk about what a great time we had. We Spent the time we wanted at the Castle, walked the Royal Mile (lined with small shops) to the castle at the other end, and even had time to pop into the quaint Writer's Museum along the way. We don't care about the lunch so doing it on our own was perfect. Loved it.

[firecrewcapt]

Since it’s ok to say the name of a tour company on Cruise Critic, I’m assuming the name of the company is Dot Com. Is that correct?

 

 

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I was trying to see if anyone could pickup the words starting with capital letters and put them together to reveal the company, Discover Scotland Tours dot com., maybe I should have highlighted them to make it easier, just a little brain tease.

[sunsetbeachgal]

I did a tour yesterday with Discover Scotland, it was great. Stirling Castle is amazing, we also saw a couple of postcard pretty towns and lots of scenery. Would recommend

 

 

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[lhsail]

took the transportation only tour to Edinburgh. We still talk about what a great time we had. We Spent the time we wanted at the Castle, walked the Royal Mile (lined with small shops) to the castle at the other end, and even had time to pop into the quaint Writer's Museum along the way. We don't care about the lunch so doing it on our own was perfect. Loved it.

 

Thanks so much for this information. How did you get from the drop off point to the Castle? Did you buy your Castle tickets in advance? We are going to be that mid-September so I'm hoping it won't be so crowded.