transfer Edinburgh or Glasgow airport to port

We are looking at doing Fjords next year with my dad. It will be easier for him to cruise from either Rosyth or Greenock as he lives in north east of Scotland. We are in south of England, if we fly into Glasgow or Edinburgh will Fred have transfers to/from the airport to the port.

Highly unlikely. They used to provide transfers from main train stations in a departure city, but I have read recently that they are not being supplied now. It would not have been free in Glasgow anyway as the port is in Greenock, so out of the city centre. I think Glasgow airport is out on the road to Greenock though so a taxi could be quite easy. I do not know Edinburgh that well.

You could always ring Fred's office and ask if they have any suggestion as they sometimes suggest companies supplying services. You would not be booking through Fred though, so would not be covered if there is a delay and you 'miss the boat', but I suspect you would be much more likely to find a flight delayed than a transfer. Do you know Fred do not embark until mid afternoon, so you will not get lunch on board, just afternoon tea? Last embarkation and sailing come quickly after as well, so there is not a lot of leaway in arrival time for Fred's ships, unless you want to get to the port early and sit in the waiting room.

Thanks Tring, I haven't been on Fred before so had no idea about the embarkation time. It will take about 7 hours to drive up so I suspect we will travel two thirds of the way up the day before and travel the rest of the way the next day.

Sounds a good idea to me. I would not like to rely on a flight arriving the same day, even if a short hop.

I think Fred tend to put on a more substantial tea on embarkation days, but the problem is you will not get it until about 3pm, depending on your embarkation time. It is a good idea to drop stuff in your cabin and make your way there soon after you get onboard, as service stops just before the drill starts - we have missed it in the past, but are wiser now!

The embarkation is prioritised from the upper deck cabins to the lowest passenger deck, (which I think denotes the embarkation time which will be on your tickets), but there is also priority for freedom fares over anchor, (late booking), fares. Gold Oceans members still get priority, but only if the have paid freedom fare. You can arrive earlier and might get onboard a bit earlier, but usually only within your grouping of deck etc. They do not usually start embarking the first group (suite passengers) until about 2pm, but check in and reception of luggage will likely be open before that. The time everyone has to be onboard by is usually only half an hour after the last embarkation time, so if you have a late embarkation time, you cannot leave it too late before getting to the terminal or you risk being too late.

Hope you find the above hints useful. Embarkation/sailing times can vary with tides etc and priorities may change, but the above have been used for about a year now and was still in force this summer.

Cheers,

Barbara

We don't bother with tea on embarkation day but just take some sandwiches which we sit and eat whilst waiting to board. On two occasions, though, we boarded so quickly that we ended up eating them in the cabin.

When we sailed from Rosyth we stayed overnight at Preston Pans, we then drove ourselves on little tour in the morning around that bit of Scotland before we boarded, which was a nice start to the holiday.

Rosyth is very easy to get to from the airport and I would highly recommend that to you and your father. There is a ready supply of taxis at the airport and it is only 15 mins (approx) right into the port. If you decide to travel up the day before I would suggest you stay a lot closer than Prestonpans which would probably take you 20 miles in the opposite direction from Rosyth. There are lots of hotels near the airport or on the same side of Edinburgh s the airport. If your dad is coming down from the NE there are direct, fast trains from Aberdeen to Inverkeithing which is only a few mins from the port.