Military Tattoo tickets for 2020

[nini]

I am so excited to have booked our trip for next August. The Military Tattoo is the only reason

why we chose August. For those of you who have attended, please share your experiences and what

tours (non-ship) and side trips you may have taken before the Tattoo.

 

1. When are the 2020 tickets available for purchase?

2. What is the best way (through who) do you purchase?

3. Yes, Princess has an excursion for that but it only is to take you from the port straight

to the games and back to the ship... docking in Glasgow/ Greenock and staying the night. 

4. Princess offers side stand and front- corner seats.

5. What seat location would you chose?

 

Our preference is to see as much as possible that day before the Tattoo.

Thanks!

 

[nini]

I just found out that they go on sale December 2, 2020 at 10:00 am

[gnome12]

54 minutes ago, nini said:

I just found out that they go on sale December 2, 2020 at 10:00 am

I hope not, or you are really going to be out of luck. 2019 perhaps?

😀

[nini]

Oooops! I stand corrected. I did mean December 2, 2019 for 2020.

[Marilyn Johannes]

Join Friends of the Tattoo and you get priority ticket purchasing. It was around 25 euros to join. Our group split the cost and 1 person purchased all the tickets for our group. We sat on the side about 15 rows up. I think most seats would be okay. You 

We did a tour with Exquisite Scotland, left the ship at 8:30am and returned around midnight. Toured Greenock and later made our way to Edinburgh for the Tattoo.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. 

[nini]

On 8/26/2019 at 8:07 AM, Marilyn Johannes said:

Join Friends of the Tattoo and you get priority ticket purchasing. It was around 25 euros to join. Our group split the cost and 1 person purchased all the tickets for our group. We sat on the side about 15 rows up. I think most seats would be okay. You 

We did a tour with Exquisite Scotland, left the ship at 8:30am and returned around midnight. Toured Greenock and later made our way to Edinburgh for the Tattoo.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. 

 

Thank you so much for the info. I have read so many horror stories about people barely

making it back to the ship on time or actualy missing it, because they did not book through

the ship which seems pretty spendy.

[Marilyn Johannes]

I think as long as you go to the first show you’ll be fine. If you want to email me

jacquedobbins651at msndotcom I can answer more questions. I would use George from Exquisite Scotland before I’d use Kay. We used them in 3 ports and George is a little more time conscious. We had a group of 8 and had a tour from 8:30 AM that got us back to the ship around midnight. We each paid £75 for the whole day. This didn’t include any meals or Tattoo tickets. 

If there are any other ports that you want recommendations for tour operators I can let you know which ones we used. 

[pizzalady1]

7 hours ago, nini said:

 

Thank you so much for the info. I have read so many horror stories about people barely

making it back to the ship on time or actualy missing it, because they did not book through

the ship which seems pretty spendy.

I think it is the cruise lines that put out those warnings. Think about it--if a vendor is late getting back to the ship, even once, they would be out of business. I would, of course, never take a new, untried vendor when timing is critical. With regards to the Tattoo, many reports/reviews say that they have gotten back to the ship 30 miles to 1 hour before the buses.

[phabric]

Friends of the Tattoo tickets usually opens up in Nov and general public beginning of Dec.  During the week there is only 1 show, Saturday has 2 shows.

 

The show is 90 minutes long with no interruption, rain or shine.   We were told from past cruisers to leave when the solo piper starts to play to leave before all the crowds.  There is only one entrance in/out for the thousands at each show.  Port a Potty’s near the entrance.  Do not take seats near the top as it can be very windy/rain. Try to pick seats near the aisle (aisle long row of seats aisle) easy to exit.  Pack for any type of weather, rain, wind, cold, bring a small plastic bag to cover the seat encase it rains or seat is wet.

 

From our Roll Call, I took a long day tour from Glasgow with a stop at Sterling Castle, they dropped  us off near the Edinburgh Castle, and met us after for our return to the ship.  I purchased Tattoo tickets for all 16 in our group so we could all sit together and leave together.  We also arranged a pre show dinner.

 

The Castle is at one end, and the entrance is at the opposite end.  I took seats on the side near the entrance mid section.

 

I have been 2x to the Tattoo and different both times, HIGHLY recommended.

Edited August 29, 2019 by phabric

[phabric]

I forgot to mention, both times I wore a spring jacket and one time spring jacket, wool gloves and wool hat to watch the Tattoo.  During the day we had lovely weather, during the Tattoo it was cold.  We brought with us, sweater, spring jacket, gloves, hat, rain poncho ($ Store), plastic bag to cover the seat if wet.

[caripoo]

On 8/25/2019 at 3:04 PM, nini said:

I am so excited to have booked our trip for next August. The Military Tattoo is the only reason

why we chose August. For those of you who have attended, please share your experiences and what

tours (non-ship) and side trips you may have taken before the Tattoo.

 

1. When are the 2020 tickets available for purchase?

2. What is the best way (through who) do you purchase?

3. Yes, Princess has an excursion for that but it only is to take you from the port straight

to the games and back to the ship... docking in Glasgow/ Greenock and staying the night. 

4. Princess offers side stand and front- corner seats.

5. What seat location would you chose?

 

Our preference is to see as much as possible that day before the Tattoo.

Thanks!

 

We planned our 3 week trip around the Tattoo....never again Europe in the summer.....this was well worth it....We also did Princess, again only for that reason....We did tickets through them and had front corner seats...they were great. In the end , it is much easier to book through them....If the ship had been in Edinburgh, we would have bought our own tickets. ENJOY

[nini]

Thank you! We also would prefer to not go in the Summer, but it is because of the Tattoo.

[leennp]

Just so you know as well, don't necessarily plan that you will be leaving early too when the lone piper begins to play, they don't let anyone out of the stands, make you stand and wait on the stairs until all performers have left the parade ground, you could leave before that but when gets close to end, they tell you to remain seated and yes do stop you from leaving at that point.       For those of you who dock in Edinburgh as we did on azamara who may be reading this thread, I stressed over getting back to ship even with us staying overnight, but was not problem at all, left at end and was not walking fast as was with my 80 yr old mother, walked to the George the IV bridge and turned right, plenty of cabs were there, we were in a cab and back to ship in Leith in less that 25 minutes from leaving or seats at the Tattoo.  Also back in December before our August tickets, I emailed the Witchery for dinner reservations before the show and that worked out great, we had 6pm reservations, left the restaurant at 8 pm and walked directed up to our seats.  We only wanted dinner, not one of the whiskey experience packages, so the cost was just what you ordered from the menu.   

Edited September 8, 2019 by leennp

[trosebery]

We were in Section 12, about halfway up, and I thought our seats were fine in that we could see everything -- but we couldn't see both the performers and the projections on the castle at the same time. We kinda had to glance between them. If we were to go back (which I'd like to sometime), we'd probably try to book sections 7 or 10 but would be content with the same seats again.

 

We booked with a private company and visited the Trossachs and Loch Lomond and Sterling on the way to Edinburgh, although I wouldn't necessarily recommend the company we used as they did have some issues. . . . But we still had a great day and even though we didn't get back to Greenock until the all-aboard time, we still beat Princess's tour buses back by at least a half hour -- and thus were in bed earlier! (The ship didn't leave until an hour after scheduled.) I would definitely recommend booking with a private company and making a day of it. We bought our tickets directly from the Tattoo, not the tour company, btw.

 

Note: the reason we didn't get back to Greenock until all-aboard time was that some of our group didn't show at the meeting point for the return trip and our tour guide spent ages trying to find them. (They'd decided to Uber back on their own.) But even with that, we still made it back. (And the driver of the Uber got lost on the way to Greenock, and even they beat the Princess buses.) Don't feel that you need to rush out of the performance before the end.

[josh_hutchings]

We went for the most expensive tickets. To be honest you will be lucky just being there, so best to make it that extra bit special. i called up over the phone and they were most helpful about chosing where t sit etc.

[High C's]

On 8/26/2019 at 11:07 AM, Marilyn Johannes said:

Join Friends of the Tattoo and you get priority ticket purchasing. It was around 25 euros to join. Our group split the cost and 1 person purchased all the tickets for our group. We sat on the side about 15 rows up. I think most seats would be okay. You 

We did a tour with Exquisite Scotland, left the ship at 8:30am and returned around midnight. Toured Greenock and later made our way to Edinburgh for the Tattoo.

If you have any other questions, don’t hesitate to ask. 

Thank you so much for posting this advice.  I do have a question:  when joining the website, it advises it is 25 GBP per person OR 45 GBP for 2 people living at the same address.  My question is - can one person join and buy more than one ticket?  I don't see the advantage of registering both my husband and myself, if one membership can purchase two tickets. Thanks in advance. 🙂 

[Marilyn Johannes]

Yes one person in our group bought 8 tickets and she was the only one who joined Friends of Tattoo. 

[High C's]

11 hours ago, Marilyn Johannes said:

Yes one person in our group bought 8 tickets and she was the only one who joined Friends of Tattoo. 

Thank you!!!