British Isles cruise questions

[TCD518]

Hi! We are scheduled to take a Viking British Isles cruise from London to Bergen in May 2024 and would appreciate any helpful hints the community could share, particularly concerning what weather to expect and what the excursions were like. Thank you!

[John Bull]

2 hours ago, TCD518 said:

Hi! We are scheduled to take a Viking British Isles cruise from London to Bergen in May 2024 and would appreciate any helpful hints the community could share, particularly concerning what weather to expect and what the excursions were like. Thank you!

 

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

I'll hazard a guess this is on Viking Sky out of Greenwich.

Greenwich, England,Dover (London), England,Holyhead, Wales,Liverpool, England,Belfast, Northern Ireland,Ullapool, Scotland,Kirkwall, Scotland,Leith/Edinburgh, Scotland,Bergen, Norway

 

May is just a little early in the season for Norway & Scotland - evenings will be chilly but light til around 8 to 9 pm, sea conditions and weather are in the lap of the gods & you'll probably have a mixture.

 

Give yourselves a few days pre-cruise for London.

Greenwich itself, which is down-river from central London, is worth a day including  the Royal Observatory, the Cutty Sark tea clipper, and the National Maritime Museum.

In fact you might want to base yourselves in Greenwich - by train or Docks Light Railway (effectively part of the London underground system) to central London in 15 to 20 minutes, or by ferry in about 40 to 45 minutes. No need for "excursions" in central London or Greenwich.

 

Dover - Dover Castle by taxi hop, or to Canterbury by direct hourly or half-hourly train from Dover Priory takes 30 minutes & costs about £11 return 

Again, no need for a booked excursion.

 

Holyhead - train to Conwy Castle about an hour, £17 return.

Or (if your ship is supported) Busybus tour which includes Conwy Castle and much more https://www.busybus.co.uk/sightseeing-day-tour-to-north-wales-from-holyhead-cruise-terminal/

 

Liverpool. The cruise pier in close to the city centre. Albert Dock has been creatively restored and re-purposed to leisure. Or Beatles tours by bus or taxi are popular.

 

Belfast - the Titanic experience/museum is the stand-out best of several Titanic museums in the UK

Or tours to the Giants Causeway are simple and inexpensive. Many other tours, including those which are geared  to "the Troubles"

 

Ullapool. We've been there as part of a road tour of wild & woolly north-west Scotland. The town has little to offer - I advise a circular scenic tour thro the Highlands (sorry, no suggestions).

 

Kirkwall. Off the coast of Scotland in the Orkney Isles. Never been there, and my map only says "there be dragons here"😀

It's known to be quite desolate & windswept, but the natives are friendly. There are pre-historic sights in the area, and Scapa Flow is where the German fleet was scuttled at the end of WW1.

 

Leith is for Edinburgh. A favourite city of mine, including the bustling mainly-pedestrianised Royal Mile leading up to Edinburgh Castle. No need for an excursion but you'll need to research travel options for the 3 miles from Leith.  Or the Royal Yacht is berthed in Leith. 

 

Bergen. We had a lazy day in the city. Bryggen waterfront and up on the Flobanen rack-railway for an over-view. But if this is your only port in Norway you'll want to do more/

 

You'll find few or usually zero tours available on-spec in the ports, you need to research, research, research. Mostly you can use local trains, buses, hop-on buses ,mebbe the occasional short taxi hop (hailed taxis for any distance are expensive). Where you want to take a tour, book in advance, though you have plenty  of time in hand. Before committing, check cancellation times, especially if the ship fails to port

 

Start your research by googling the places that I've underlined.

 

And use the Search facility on the British Isles forum. -

In the little "search" box in the upper right of that page type in a destination or port. Make sure the drop-down says "this forum", then click on the little spyglass to the right of the search-box. Give the magic a few seconds to work and it'll bring up al the posts which have mentioned the place.

I've got you started with Dover https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Dover&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=148

 

And your cruise RollCall. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/786-viking-sky-roll-calls/

It may be too early yet for your date.

 

Some useful websites

https://www.londontoolkit.com/

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/standard-tube-map.pdf (don't bother to print-off, you'll find it on al London maps etc)

https://ojp.nationalrail.co.uk/

 

JB 🙂

 

Edited September 13, 2023 by John Bull

[fruitmachine]

20 minutes ago, John Bull said:

Leith is for Edinburgh. A favourite city of mine, including the bustling mainly-pedestrianised Royal Mile leading up to Edinburgh Castle. No need for an excursion but you'll need to research travel options for the 3 miles from Leith.  Or the Royal Yacht is berthed in Leith. 

Viking usually tender to Newhaven Harbour for Edinburgh, though it's not unheard of to dock at Rosyth, either planned or if the weather is poor.  From Newhaven, Viking always run a complimentary shuttle-bus, this year and last to Charlotte Square at the West end of the New Town, about a 15-20 minute ride away.  Charlotte Square to The Royal Mile is about a 15 minute walk from the drop-off point, though I always suggest a route via The Grassmarket that's a little longer but takes in some interesting areas.

 

If you're taking a Viking included excursion, try and get it in the morning block and consider remaining in the city at the end of the tour, making your way back to the ship later using the shuttle-bus.

 

The Royal Yacht Britannia is an easy 15 minute walk from Newhaven Harbour.

[Harters]

Liverpool - the Museum of Liverpool is next to the Albert Dock, mentioned upthread) and is well worth a visit. As is the Maritime Museum at the Albert Dock (which also houses the Slavery Museum and the Customs & Excise Museum). As is common here,  entry to the museums is free.

 

And, whilst youre on the waterfront, why not take a ferry across the Mersey (cue Gerry & the Pacemakers song) and look back to the skyline from Birkenhead (home to the park that provided inspiration for New York's Central Park). 

 

Shopping and a range of eats, across the road from the Albert Dock  at Liverpool One. Mainly chain eats but Lunya is independent and a favourite for tapas.

 

You could happily spend a day in the city without moving from the waterfront area (and, if so chosen, without involving any Beatles stuff either).

[Thejuggler]

Ullapool is a small town at the end of a 70 mile road from Inverness.  Virtually a one street town and a ferry port.  Great seafood bar.

 

Any excursions will need a drive somewhere, but there aren't many major attractions.  Inverewe Gardens is probably the most noteable in that area, the Russian Arctic Convoy Museum isn't far and really interesting, far more to see than the size of the building suggests.  Good for a wet day which in Ullapool is quite often!

 

The scenery is however amazing, true Highlands country - mountains and lochs, Loch Maree on the road to Gairloch being especially noteable and Suilven mountain near Lochinver.

[Harters]

Kirkwall - a small town or large village, as you prefer. And one  with not much interest as such. The cathedral has some history in that, until the 1400s, it came under the jurisdiction of Norwegian church authorities. It's interesting in that, today, it is inter-denominational. 

 

I'd suggest an excursion here (ship or privately arranged). There's pre-history sites. And Scapa Flow - not much to look at now, but during the Great War the home base for the British Navy's Grand Fleet. Sixteen men from my town left there in May 1916, losing their lives during the two days of the Battle of Jutland. As mentioned, it was also the site of the scuttling of the impounded German fleet in June 1919. That event included one of the scandals of the war, when British forces opened fire on unarmed Germans, leaving the sinking ships and rowing towards shore on their lifeboats. Nine were killed and more wounded. 

[PAMJP]

We did a Cunard British Isles cruise last month and called in at Kirkwall, we had been here before on. Princess cruise a few years ago. This time we were able to go on a tour from where our shuttle bus dropped us at the local bus station. This was run by the local bus company stage coach and cost us £21 each and left about 10.00am. No commentary but the driver did tell us about where we were going and the history. We visited Stromness for coffee, and walked to the stones, a bit like Stonehenge, Scapa Flow and beautiful scenery. We were lucky with the weather though.

[Meander Ingwa]

Kirkwall I would make every effort to get a private guide to visit the prehistoric Skara Brae and the stone circles. Also, dont miss the Italian church, built by WWII POWs.  As far as  weather, you could have anything from dreary gray and rainy to  stunningly warm.  Expect wind Expect damp

[edinburgher]

On 9/13/2023 at 8:19 PM, TCD518 said:

particularly concerning what weather to expect

It is the UK where you can sometimes experience four seasons in a day, and there is no guarantee of weather which reflects the season, eg summer weather in summer, so best advice is to pack layers which can be added  or removed depending on weather and temperatures on the day, and a waterproof jacket and umbrella, and footwear which is comfortable and suitable for walking on different surfaces as some of your locations will have cobbled surfaces, not the best for walking and they can get slippery when wet.

 

For Edinburgh, as there are a few options, best to first check your actual docking or tendering location to help you plan your day. You can do this here;

https://www.cruiseforth.com/  going first to "find my ship" then to "getting around" which explains your travel options into the city.  I just now looked and only the 2023 cruise schedule is showing so you will need to check once the 2024 schedule is uploaded.

 

For some of your port calls, especially smaller ones, an excursion by shorex or taxi, or shared van would probably be best.  For larger towns and cities no excursion really needed as they can be experienced using public transport and on foot.

 

Edited September 27, 2023 by edinburgher

[TCD518]

Folks, thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my inquiry.  And thank you for the honest, straightforward appraisals of some of our ports of call 🙂  We are very much looking forward to this trip and appreciate your help!