Hi Twitchly and Mr Twitchly, (I am on your cruise too). I think you are both correct. They did say to allow 45 minutes, which must have included possible waiting time. We walked straight on to an early tender and to Newhaven Harbour in under 20 minutes. We didn’t catch the inward shuttle, but walked to the city (and at one point took a taxi to a friend’s apartment) and made it to Charlotte Square in time for the last shuttle back. It took less than 15 minutes.
On our only other Viking Ocean cruise, we docked at Rosyth - this was a much longer transit to the city.