wismergirl

We have had some tours with Princess that had the following note in the description:

 

SPECIAL NOTES Tour is escorted by student guides.

The guide we had was a senior. I don't think he's a student but maybe someone who is an amateur in guiding an English-speaking group.

Those sneaky little guys. I did not see one puffin on that trip. I guess I need to go back. Those are great pictures!

Glad you liked the puffin pictures! We have more bird pictures from the Puffin Island in Grundarfjordur.

One of the reasons we booked this Princess excursion was the sighting of the puffins. At noon we arrived at this puffin paradise, Hafnarholmi, on the east coast of the fjord. Sightings of puffins and other birds were fantastic along the wooden stairs that led to the top with a viewing platform. The puffins were literally right beside us.

We were lucky to get one with a fish in its mouth.

The white bird was trying to the get the fish from the puffin's beak. Love this bird fighting pictuure.

The puffins were indeed very adorable, colourful and beautiful! Even though the ride was long and bumpy & the guide didn't speak good English, it's still worth going there, just for the puffins! So happy to complete the 2nd sighting of the puffins!

Before lunch, we drove past the famous turf house at Bakkagerdi in Borgarfjordur eystri.

Hi Marina! I've enjoyed reading your review of "our" trip to Shetland Islands and Iceland. Also, Brian's photos were great fun to see!

It refreshes the trip for me completely, plus I see I will need to go again to do some of the things you did and I missed!

Harriet

Hi Harriet,

So great to hear from you again! It's been great cruising and touring with you! It's actually very hard to choose only a few pictures from Brian's huge selection for each post.

Marina

Iceland is so fascinating. The lack of trees is striking, and the story of how they are replanting is also interesting. We did a couple of ports there, but I avoided the big tours. The bathroom thing is always a huge problem. Did you see any puffins in Iceland? They managed to avoid us there, too. :)

Puffins pictures coming up next. The puffins brightened up our day in Seydisfjordur.

We were on the same cruise last year and also had 2 bad guides (older men) in Iceland.

One did not provide any commentary as he spent most of his time talking to the driver and did not know our itinerary so we wasted a lot of time looking for places we were supposed to visit.

The other had a very heavy accent and mumbled under his breath. When someone asked him to speak up, he told us the microphone is not working correctly and he can't do anything about it. Most of us did complain and got a partial refund for both excursions.

 

It sounds like in those isolated places professional tour guides are hard to come by and the tour companies probably hire temps that are not qualified for the job.

It's good that you at least got some money back. It's a huge domino effect: more passengers go on Princess excursions as there is not anything else to choose from, then Princess needs more guides, then even the bad ones get hired again & again. Think how much money Princess would make: $199.95 x 55 passengers = $10,997 per excursion.

Iceland is so fascinating. The lack of trees is striking, and the story of how they are replanting is also interesting. We did a couple of ports there, but I avoided the big tours. The bathroom thing is always a huge problem. Did you see any puffins in Iceland? They managed to avoid us there, too. :)

Even some of the tour guides were saying that Iceland was not quite ready for the fast-growing tourism.

You're pictures are beautiful!!

 

Were there multiple busses for this excursion? If so, do you know if the other groups experienced the same issues with their guide? Or perhaps with other excursions? Considering Princess only calls on this port a few times a year I hope they got the message to their tour company that this is not acceptable.

 

I believe I read earlier in this thread that you booked the excursion through Princess because you were not able to find private options. Is this correct?

 

Anyway, I'm still really enjoying the thread. :D

 

Thanks!!

Hi Michael,

I started emailing various companies for private tours in Seydisfjordur & Grundarfjordur in late March. Either they were very expensive or they're far away from the 2 ports so they charged a lot (US$300-600 per person) for each vehicle. Many of them had to drive from Reykjavik to do the tours so it was really costly. Besides, they were not real locals so I didn't feel comfortable doing it with them. I contacted Iceland Travel, Extreme Iceland & Cruise Iceland.

What I did was I read about the area from Seydisfjordur Port (http://www.sfk.is). The Marketing Manager, Alla, was really helpful to give me all the companies' websites that I could read & enquire about their tours.

Both towns are very small with low population of about 800. Local travel agencies like Atlantik & Tanni Travel in Seydisfjordur had to run many coaches for the cruise passengers, thus no manpower left for private tours. They did have multiple coaches to the same destination for ours & other tour guides spoke better English. We were just the unlucky bunch! :(

In Akureyri & Reykjavik, there was no problem getting private tours. Many companies to choose from.

This panoramic picture showed the real beauty of Seydisfjordur.

The colourful small houses along the coastline added a lot of charm to this place.

We thought that by joining a Princess excursion, though expensive, we would have a good understanding of the place with lots of history & background. To our huge disappointment, we had a tour guide who had such a strong accent that we could not even understand one complete sentence. He did talk a lot but it sounded like he's saying a foreign language. We were stuck at the end of the big coach so we couldn't even ask questions. We had no idea where we went for the whole day. I had to look at Princess' excursion description after the tour to figure out where we went. Many passengers complained to shore excursions to get at least a partial refund. Don't know if they actually got it or not.

Here is a beautiful picture but who knows where that was!

We stopped here for a long time (over half an hour) because there were 2 coaches of passengers lining up for the washrooms. There were only 3 Ladies Rooms for 50+ ladies.

I guessed that stop was called Alfa (hint from the sign & the poster)

Nearby there was a tiny church with a beautiful altar. Significance? Who knows!!!

With the gloomy sky and wet weather, plus a tour guide with no proper English, we had a very frustrating 4 hours on the bus, in the supposedly extremely beautiful Borgarfjordur Eystri area!

July 23, 2015 – Seydisfjordur, Iceland

7:30 – assembled at Cabaret Lounge for Princess’ 7-hour Tour SEJ-100 Borgarfjordur Eystri & Hafnarholmi ($199.95 p.p.); 7:40 – boarded tender; 8:00 – tour started; 9:40 – 30-min washroom break; 10:15 – visited little church & snacks; 11:00 – watched puffins at Hafnarholmi; 12:00 – lunch at Alfheimar Restaurant; 13:15 – photo stop at Njardvik Screes; 13:30 – scenic drive (where???); 14:35 – 15-min washroom break at Egilsstadir; 15:40 – boarded last tender back to ship

Wow! Gorgeous Iceland! This was our first impression of Iceland when we opened our curtains on the morning of July 23rd. We were just entering Seydisfjordur. The snowy mountains, long waterfalls and calm waters were so welcoming and inviting!

Entering the port of Seydisfjordur

Ocean Princess was a bit too long for the pier so we had to tender ashore.

The only itinerary difference is Eidfjord instead of Skjolden.

Eidfjord's famous & most-visited waterfall is also very beautiful. Tidereiser has a bus tour going there for NOK 300. I saw this when I was checking the Grieg Museum Tour from Bergen. Apparently there were only 2 sightseeing bus tours from that company as seen from their tour menu. There are other hiking trips & fjord cruises. I would talk about that company in the Bergen review. That was a last minute booking because Princess cancelled my excursion due to insufficient bookings less than 48 hours before the tour. I had to book something fast to go there. As a music teacher, attending a piano recital in the beautiful concert hall there was my trip highlight in Bergen.

July 21, 2015 – Lerwick, Scotland

The lady at the Scalloway Museum gave us very clear instructions to see Shetland ponies in a farm that was just 5 minutes from the castle. When we arrived at the farm, the Princess coach was just about to leave.

There were beautiful houses on our way back.

For the last hour in Lerwick, we decided to park our car at Victoria Pier Carpark again and walked around in the town centre, then went to Fort Charlotte. We used this map found somewhere in the town centre to help us get around:

Walking along Commercial Street (where Tourist Centre located), we found a poster of Ocean Princess displayed on one of the windows of a travel agency.

A short walk took us to Fort Charlotte.

After filling up the car, we did not have to return it to the Avis office. We just left it with the key inside it, in the same spot as we picked it up in the morning. I strongly recommend renting a car for both ports in Scotland, if you are OK to drive stick-shift on the left of the road (automatic cars are quite limited in the UK). We got back on the ship just in time for an afternoon tea in the MDR, enjoying the yummy scones again!

July 21, 2015 – Lerwick, Scotland

Our next 2 stops would be Hoswick & Scalloway. IMO there was not much that’s worth seeing. Hoswick was on the way back to Lerwick from Jarlshof & Sumburgh Head. This is Hoswick Visitor Centre and the display was just minimal.

There were some shops around that sold Shetland sweaters but they were very expensive, mostly over £100. We should have driven further on to Sandwick so we could see the Broch of Mousa. However, we thought Scalloway would take up more time so we headed over after a brief 30-min walk around in Hoswick.

We arrived Scalloway in less than 30 minutes. The Scalloway Museum had some interesting displays and it’s great as a washroom break. Entrance fee to the museum was only £3.00.

We wanted to pay for the visit to the Scalloway Castle but found that the castle was free of charge.

There was really nothing much to see inside but a great hall.

In a empty chamber there were some posters talking about the history of the castle.

Princess charged $69.95 per person for a 2.5-hour excursion to Scalloway, which is only 6 miles from Lerwick. The Shetland Ponies Farm was just on the other side of the main road. So basically Princess charged each person $66.95 for just transportation and a guide + a driver for a trip less than 20 miles. I would be extremely unhappy if I paid to go on that excursion! What a rip-off!

Thanks for the great review and pics!

Glad you enjoyed them!

My DW, who is of Scottish descent, asked me to ask you what were your ports in Scotland...

...We would like to know more about this itinerary. As I said in my opening paragraph, DW is of Scottish descent. (Her late father was an RAF pilot in WWII.) She has also expressed an interest in going to Iceland.

I'm not the OP, but we're taking this itinerary next year on the Pacific Princess. There are only two ports in Scotland, Shetland Islands (Lerwick) and Scrabister (sp). The rest of the ports are in Iceland (4) and Norway (2).

as in the original post

Thanks to caribill & msmoger for answering ontheweb's question! We went to Lerwick & Scrabster in Scotland, Seydisfjordur, Akureyri, Grundarfjordur & Reykjavik in Iceland, then Skjolden & Bergen in Norway. It's a 14-night Dover round trip cruise. Not sure if next year's Pacific Princess has the same itinerary or not. I just loved the round-the-Iceland ports, that's why we chose this itinerary. After this cruise, I would say that it's better to rent a car to do a 2-week round the island land tour to fully enjoy the natural beauty of Iceland. Nonetheless, this cruise offered a really good sampling of the Iceland ports.

You saw puffins! A couple of years ago we were on a cruise through the North Sea, and everywhere we stopped, they said "Oh the puffins left last week." :rolleyes: Those are fabulous pictures!

Hi Shredie,

I'm glad you enjoyed the puffins. We have got 2 that you can see fish in the puffin's beak in Seydisfjordur. Will post them soon.

Marina

Marina, thanks for the report and the puffins. You just brightened my day. We're hoping for a similar trip next year.

I totally agree that puffins are really cute. I personally like them better on land than in water. Last December we saw lots & lots of penguins on our S. American cruise close to the Antarctica, so this time we tried to see as many puffins close to the Arctic as possible. We are very happy to share our puffin pictures. However, we just discovered that one girl who was on the same cruise with us used our puffin pictures in her own personal video without giving credits. DH was not very happy about it (though we know that when we post on public sites, this happens all the time!) We'll try to add his watermark on the pictures from now on.

Marina

July 21, 2015 – Lerwick, Scotland

From Jarlshof, we could see our next stop – Sumburgh Head Lighthouses where puffins and other birds could be viewed. It’s only a 10-min drive.

After we parked our car, we had to follow the path up to the big lighthouse. Lots of puffins were on our left. You could see how close we were.

Puffins were just right above our heads. Great spot for selfies!

Puffins built their nests along the cliffs so if you go at the right time, there’s guaranteed sighting. The one of the left was half-way in its nest.

As it’s so high up from the sea, we couldn’t take pictures of puffins in the water. Wait till we’re at the Puffins Island in Grundarfjordur, then there were tons!

The adorable puffin!

We left happily after a brief 10-min 1st encounter with the puffins. Two more puffin sightings to come, in Seydisfjordur & Grundarfjordur, Iceland. Two goals out of 3 were achieved for the day, the next one would be Shetland ponies after Jarlshof & puffins.

July 21, 2015 – Lerwick, Scotland

Having collected enough info regarding Jarlshof, puffin sighting, Hoswick & Scalloway from the Tourist Centre, we headed off to our first stop. It did feel awesome to drive in UK again…like the good old days! With our very old-fashioned GPS (Tom Tom GO 910 bought in 2007) preloaded with Europe maps, we had no problems finding all the recommended sites. BTW, for those who don’t have a car and don’t want to join the Princess tour, there was a small group tour advertised at the Tourist Centre: 5 hours for £55 cash per person, but it doesn’t go to Jarlshof, only to Scalloway, Shetland Museum, Saint Ninians Isle (connected to Shetland by the largest active tombolo in the UK) & Sumburgh Head for puffins. We actually had to “cross” the runway of Airport Sumburgh to get to Jarlshof on the A970 road, access controlled by a level crossing with barriers.

Since Jarlshof was on the way to Sumburgh Head & it was only a 40-min drive from Lerwick, we chose to visit he Jarlshof Prehistoric and Norse Settlement first. There was a sign outside the Sumburgh Hotel adjacent to Jarlshof, saying that visitors of Jarlshof could use the hotel washroom, so it was really helpful.

After we purchased our tickets (£5.50 each including an audio guide), we went for a short video in the visitor centre for an introduction to the site.

It's handy that I happened to have a pair of headsets so I didn't have to hold the audio guide to listen to the narration, instead, I could hold my camera.

From the ruins of the oval-shaped Bronze Age houses, the Iron Age broch & wheelhouses, the Viking long houses, a medieval farmstead & a 16th century laird’s house, people believed that the site could date back to the late Bronze Age, Iron Age, Norse era & the Middle Ages.

Enjoying this review immensely.:):)

Looking forward to more! Thanks for the review!

 

Very nice trip report and photos.

 

Keith

Thank you for reading my reviews! I had some problems with Photobucket as my stickers and caption wouldn't save. That's why I couldn't post until the problems were fixed. It seems OK now. Apparently some pictures in my earlier posts had the same problem.

July 21, 2015 – Lerwick, Scotland

10:00 – picked up rental car already parked at the port; 10:15 – visited Tourist Info in town centre & walked around; 11:35 – arrived at Jarlshof; 12:30 – drove to Sumburgh Head; 12:40 – 1st encounter with puffins; 12:50 – drove to Hoswick; 13:20 – arrived at Hoswick Visitor Centre; 13:50 – left Hoswick; 14:15 – visited Scalloway Museum & Castle; 14:50 – Shetland Ponies Farm; 15:25 – walked around in town centre; 15:40 – Fort Charlotte; 16:05 – drove back to Port; 16:15 – afternoon tea at the MDR

The entry to Port Lerwick (Holmsgarth Pier, about 20 min walk to the town centre) was not very interesting because it’s a very industrial port. All we could see was the grey sky with lots of containers.

When we looked out from our balcony, we didn’t even realize that our rental car was already there. It's extremely convenient for pick up & drop off.

We got off the ship at 9:45, called the car company, Bolts Car Hire (Avis’ affiliate) to pick us up. They said the car (Kia Picanto - £48 per day)was already at the port and their staff was on the way. Wow! He did arrive in less than 5 minutes. Honestly, the car rental service in Scotland impressed me tremendously! I would rate both companies 10+ out of 10!

We headed to the Tourist Centre in town and found that parking at Victoria Pier Carpark was very cheap, only £0.50 per hour. We were lucky to have some 50p coins with us. The pay-&-display ticket machine wouldn’t accept any bills or credit card.

Victoria Pier Carpark was right across the Tourist Centre on Esplanade.

You could see the carpark from the Tourist Centre.

We also found out that Princess shuttle stopped closeby, beside the “Welcome to Shetland” sign on Esplanade. I didn’t know if it’s free or not.

We were in Land's End last September so it was neat to see your pictures of the other end. It looked like a pretty town also!

Haha! The pictures look good but I wouldn't even call it a town. We spent only 10 minutes there as there were only a tourist info centre, the waiting room for the ferries, the signpost saying John O'Groats, the nice looking guesthouse and a parking lot. DH said it's already much improved than 40 years ago as there was only the sign post at that time.

The Queen Mother would spend 6 weeks in the Castle of Mey every year from 1952 to 1996. The castle was not big but the garden was beautiful. How could she walk up and down those spiral staircases in uneven stone? She must have been amazingly healthy and fit!

We then drove to John O’Groats, located on Britain’s northeastern tip.

It is a popular tourist photo stop as one end of the longest distance between 2 inhabited British points, with Land’s End in Cornwall on the southwestern tip. DH & I went to Land’s End in the 1980’s so we were very happy to visit the other end of the road, where the First & Last House in Scotland was built.

We then went to the Old Wick Castle.

The cliff was really steep.

DH wanted to look at cairns so we drove north on A99 to the Grey Cairns of Camster near Lybster. This is the Round Cairn.

After we returned the car to William Dunnet Co. in the town of Thurso, we were driven back to the port right away. Excellent service! The tender was really empty.

As we skipped lunch, we went to the dining room for an afternoon tea (3:30 - 4:30). I loved their scones!

July 20, 2015 - Scrabster, Scotland

9:30 – boarded tender 10:00 – picked up rental car 10:15 – visited Tourist Info Centre 10:40 – left Thurso Town Hall 11:10 – Castle of Mey with guided tour (no photography inside the building) 12:15 – left Castle 12:30 – John O’Groats 12:40 – Left John O’Groats 13:15 – Castle of Old Wick 14:25 – Grey Cairns of Camster 14:40 – drove back to Thurso 15:05 – returned car to William Dunnet’s office 15:10 – shuttle back to port 15:25 – tendering back to ship

As soon as we got off the tender at 9:45, we called the car company, William Dunnet & Co. to pick us up and they were at the dock in 15 minutes.

We just had to do the paperwork in the car (Ford KA - £35 per day).

The kind representative, John, let us follow his car to Thurso town centre so we could go to the tourist info centre in the Town Hall.

Good job he was with us as DH couldn’t figure out that he had to “lift” the gear changing stick to go in reverse. Could you imagine what we had to do if we didn’t know how to reverse in the middle of nowhere after we parked against a wall? Just having the sheep and cairns beside the road wouldn’t be helpful enough!

We first drove to the Castle of Mey, the Queen Mother’s summer residence. This was the original entrance to the castle.

It was about 15 miles east of Thurso and 6 miles west of John O’Groats.

Thank you for your balanced review and great pictures.

Thank you for answering my question about going with Princess. We only started ocean cruising about 5 years ago and started out with Princess. Like you, we have tried Celebrity, Carnival and Holland America because of the price and itinerary. We have enjoyed all of them and each has its pros and cons. I am really enjoying your posts and your pictures!

Glad you like them! More to follow.