Getting to land

[loreleileegpb]

First, I have never been on a cruise. I am doing a British Isles cruise on Holland America. First port is Queensferry Edinburgh, Scotland. I understand I can take a shuttle to Edinburgh city center, but how much is the boat from the ship to the dock to take the shuttle?

It is almost impossible to get the pricing and information for all the nickel and diming of cruising. I've been searching for a couple days when I decided to reach out to those who have real life experiences. 🙂 

 

Thank you for your help.

[CruiserBruce]

There is no charge to tender from the ship to the shore.

[hallasm]

welcome to Cruise Critic - the right Forum for qualified answers to your questions.  Interesting cruise with many interesting ports of call.  There is also a good forum with answers to questions about Copenhagen - fly to Copenhagen a few days before your cruise.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/116-northern-europe-amp-baltic-sea/

 

 

Edited October 30, 2022 by hallasm

[John Bull]

Yes, there's nickel & diming in the cruise industry - but as Bruce's reply there's no charge for using the tender boats between ship at-anchor and pier.

Different cruise lines use different systems to allocate folk to tender boats (obviously not everyone can get off the ship at the same time). Ask about that on the HAL forum 

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/103-holland-america-line/

 

St Peter Port on Guernsey is a tender port too, I don't know about Kirkwall or Stornoway or the Isle of Man.

 

JB 🙂

[Mary229]

Hello @loreleileegpb welcome aboard.   Ask as many questions as you can think of.  I learned so much on this board, I now teach my travel agent a few things. You will have a great time.  

[loreleileegpb]

4 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

There is no charge to tender from the ship to the shore.

That is good to know. Thank you. 🙂 

[loreleileegpb]

3 hours ago, John Bull said:

Yes, there's nickel & diming in the cruise industry - but as Bruce's reply there's no charge for using the tender boats between ship at-anchor and pier.

Different cruise lines use different systems to allocate folk to tender boats (obviously not everyone can get off the ship at the same time). Ask about that on the HAL forum 

 https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/103-holland-america-line/

 

St Peter Port on Guernsey is a tender port too, I don't know about Kirkwall or Stornoway or the Isle of Man.

 

JB 🙂

Thank you so much for this information. 🙂 

[wowzz]

You would do better to ask on the cruise line forum.  Princess ?

[Shmoo here]

17 minutes ago, wowzz said:

You would do better to ask on the cruise line forum.  Princess ?

  op said:

6 hours ago, loreleileegpb said:

I am doing a British Isles cruise on Holland America

 

[wowzz]

10 minutes ago, Shmoo here said:

  op said:

 

Sorry - missed that.

So, the OP should post on the HA forum.

[ldubs]

23 hours ago, loreleileegpb said:

First, I have never been on a cruise. I am doing a British Isles cruise on Holland America. First port is Queensferry Edinburgh, Scotland. I understand I can take a shuttle to Edinburgh city center, but how much is the boat from the ship to the dock to take the shuttle?

It is almost impossible to get the pricing and information for all the nickel and diming of cruising. I've been searching for a couple days when I decided to reach out to those who have real life experiences. 🙂 

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Your question is already answered.   I am just going to add that your upcoming cruise is among my favorite itineraries.  Enjoy! 

[Mum2Mercury]

Admittedly, I haven't done this cruise, but -- in general -- two ways exist to get from the ship to land: 

 

- Dock -- I think all cruisers will agree that it's easier for everyone when the ship is able to pull up to a dock /put out a big ramp, and cruisers walk on /off.  Things move faster with little waiting. 

- Tenders -- When no dock is available, the cruise line hires local small boats -- called Tenders.  The tender pulls up to the ship, guests load on, and the Tender takes them to shore.  This means more waiting, but it'll get you to shore.  

 

Though the ship does like to nickle-and-dime, they don't charge for entering and leaving the ship.  

 

Related note:  You will go through security every time you board /exit the ship.  At the least, you'll need your Ship ID card.  

Edited October 31, 2022 by Mum2Mercury

[CruiserBruce]

9 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Admittedly, I haven't done this cruise, but -- in general -- two ways exist to get from the ship to land: 

 

- Dock -- I think all cruisers will agree that it's easier for everyone when the ship is able to pull up to a dock /put out a big ramp, and cruisers walk on /off.  Things move faster with little waiting. 

- Tenders -- When no dock is available, the cruise line hires local small boats -- called Tenders.  The tender pulls up to the ship, guests load on, and the Tender takes them to shore.  This means more waiting, but it'll get you to shore.  

 

Though the ship does like to nickle-and-dime, they don't charge for entering and leaving the ship.  

 

Related note:  You will go through security every time you board /exit the ship.  At the least, you'll need your Ship ID card.  

To be clear, ships use their own ship based tenders quite frequently when they can't dock. They don't always hire locals...in fact in my experience, the ship provides their own tenders far more often than getting local operators. The local tender contracting, in my experience, seems to be most common in Europe.

[crystalspin]

On 10/30/2022 at 10:50 AM, loreleileegpb said:

First, I have never been on a cruise. I am doing a British Isles cruise on Holland America. First port is Queensferry Edinburgh, Scotland. I understand I can take a shuttle to Edinburgh city center, but how much is the boat from the ship to the dock to take the shuttle?

It is almost impossible to get the pricing and information for all the nickel and diming of cruising. I've been searching for a couple days when I decided to reach out to those who have real life experiences. 🙂 

Welcome to Cruise Critic and your first cruise planning! 

 

This was an appropriate general question for this "board", but here is the HAL forum for more line- or ship-specific questions:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/103-holland-america-line/

 

Again, WELCOME!

[ontheweb]

On 10/30/2022 at 1:17 PM, CruiserBruce said:

There is no charge to tender from the ship to the shore.

But there can be a charge after that to get to the city center. The OP might find this helpful.

 

Queensferry Edinburgh Scotland United Kingdom Cruise Port (whatsinport.com)

 

Actually when we had Edinburgh on our British Isles itinerary, we had Rosyth as a port and had to take a train into Edinburgh. And even though we had round trip tickets, it turned out the train was no longer running when we got to the station after attending the Scottish Military Tattoo. We had to take a taxi back to the ship.

[ldubs]

18 hours ago, ontheweb said:

But there can be a charge after that to get to the city center. The OP might find this helpful.

 

Queensferry Edinburgh Scotland United Kingdom Cruise Port (whatsinport.com)

 

Actually when we had Edinburgh on our British Isles itinerary, we had Rosyth as a port and had to take a train into Edinburgh. And even though we had round trip tickets, it turned out the train was no longer running when we got to the station after attending the Scottish Military Tattoo. We had to take a taxi back to the ship.

 

If I ever get to go again, at Queensferry I would happily opt for the shuttle.  Those steps up the hill to the train station were a PITA (and I was a heck of a lot younger then).