Scottish Island and Faroes Cruise Excursion Reviews

Hi, Does anyone know where I can find reviews for Scottish Islands and Faroes excursions, please? We are on a Cruise and Maritime cruise this year and are therefore particularly interested in reviews for their trips for this cruise, but any reviews of trips on similar cruises would be much appreciated too. The ports of call are Dundee, Kirkwall, Klaksvik, Lerwick, Tobermory and Torshavn.

Thanks very much

maybe under ports of call forum British Isles

The Faroe Islands are part of Denmark and not anywhere near the British Isles. We were there two years ago with Windstar. They are wild and beautiful. If there are any reviews, they would likely be in the Northern Europe and Baltic ports section here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

You may have better luck looking what the excursions do and the checking Trip Advisor.

The Faroe Islands are part of Denmark and not anywhere near the British Isles. We were there two years ago with Windstar. They are wild and beautiful. If there are any reviews, they would likely be in the Northern Europe and Baltic ports section here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=192

 

You may have better luck looking what the excursions do and the checking Trip Advisor.

Thankyou very much for your reply. Can I ask if you went on any organised tours or did you do your own thing at the ports of call.

Hi Value seeker, good handle for a Yorkshire person. Here is a brief review I did for our cruise last year. We did the Italian Chapel and Mull head walk in Kirkwall which was very enjoyable, the walk was very easy. We had a very good local guide.

In Torshavn we did the hike to Streymoy sill, this was much harder but not a problem for us tough Yorkshire folk, fantastic scenery too.

Tobermory, we just mooched around the very pretty town and went to the distillery.

Lerwick, we also did our own thing. We did check out prices for arranging our own trips but there were no real savings. We would like to do this or very similar again, earlier in the year before all the birds have fledged or flown south.

CMV Columbus cruise

This is our firstcruise with Cruise and Maritime since 2011. The majority of thereviews to date for the new to CMV; Columbus were not complimentarybut seemed to be improving. We were at Tilbury 11:15 and drove tothe long stay car park which at £11:00 a day is overpriced, howeverneeds must. We were transferred to the port along with our luggage at11:30. Our boarding time was 13:15 so we settled down in the almostempty waiting room, within 5 minutes an announcement was made that wecould all go and book in, we were aboard by 11:50 and could go to ourcabin. Good start to the cruise. We decided to go out on deck andmake the best of the glorious bank holiday weather. On returning tothe cabin the luggage had arrived so we unpacked, the inside cabinwas a fair size with plenty of hanging space and drawers. We thenexplored the ship prior to muster at 15:30. The ship is very welldecorated and light and spacious. We were impressed.

We sat at a table for 6on first sitting in the Waterfront restaurant, we had an enjoyabledinner which was well serve. The food during the cruise was verygood, the choice was a bit limited when compared to other lines, butas stated was good. We had breakfast in the Waterfront each morningas we don’t do the bun fight if it can be avoided, albeit breakfastchoice was limited the quality was very good. On 2 morning’s theservice left a lot to be desired, some of the staff didn’t seem tohave much idea and didn’t have the best grasp of the Englishlanguage. We had a light lunch on 2 occasions in the Alfresco grill,again limited choice but good quality.

Prices aboard ship werevery reasonable with several drinks packages available depending ontaste. We had a couple of cocktail packs at £29 for 10 cocktails.Beer ranged from £3.30 for a pint of draught beer to £4.40 forGuinness with several bottled beers and lagers. House wine was £5.00for a 250ml glass. We went to Hemmingway’s for our coffee and cake,the Carrot cake was exceptional, Latte at £1.80 and cake at £1.90was good value.

We only went to 1 showduring our 7 nights as we have seen so many shows that we tend to sitin the lounges and play cards and/or chat. The entertainment wasgenerally good with the classic duo on piano and violin excellent. Iwas not over impressed with the Palladium show lounge which was on 2levels, viewing was restricted by the metal rail upstairs and therewas not much elevation downstairs with several pillars restrictingviewing.

Wepicked this cruise for the itinerary, Shetland, Orkney and Faroeisland’s, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We had 2 walking tours fromthe ship and 1 DIY tour, we felt the ship tours were fairly priced,especially compared with other cruise lines. We had some amazingweather and spent most of the time in shorts and T shirts. The seawas fairly smooth for the duration of the cruise with slight windsand low swell, we had one night where it became a bit choppy.

In summary this was agreat cruise on a budget line which more than met our expectations.The ship in general was kept very clean and tidy inside and out. Thestaff were very efficient apart from a couple of glitches atbreakfast, I am sure this will improve once everyone is settled in asthere were clearly some new staff aboard. We met some great peopleand moaning was virtually non-existent which is unusual. We willlikely cruise with CMV again in the near future pending price anditinerary being suitable.

Hi Value seeker, good handle for a Yorkshire person. Here is a brief review I did for our cruise last year. We did the Italian Chapel and Mull head walk in Kirkwall which was very enjoyable, the walk was very easy. We had a very good local guide.

 

 

In Torshavn we did the hike to Streymoy sill, this was much harder but not a problem for us tough Yorkshire folk, fantastic scenery too.

 

 

Tobermory, we just mooched around the very pretty town and went to the distillery.

 

 

Lerwick, we also did our own thing. We did check out prices for arranging our own trips but there were no real savings. We would like to do this or very similar again, earlier in the year before all the birds have fledged or flown south.

 

 

CMV Columbus cruise

This is our firstcruise with Cruise and Maritime since 2011. The majority of thereviews to date for the new to CMV; Columbus were not complimentarybut seemed to be improving. We were at Tilbury 11:15 and drove tothe long stay car park which at £11:00 a day is overpriced, howeverneeds must. We were transferred to the port along with our luggage at11:30. Our boarding time was 13:15 so we settled down in the almostempty waiting room, within 5 minutes an announcement was made that wecould all go and book in, we were aboard by 11:50 and could go to ourcabin. Good start to the cruise. We decided to go out on deck andmake the best of the glorious bank holiday weather. On returning tothe cabin the luggage had arrived so we unpacked, the inside cabinwas a fair size with plenty of hanging space and drawers. We thenexplored the ship prior to muster at 15:30. The ship is very welldecorated and light and spacious. We were impressed.

We sat at a table for 6on first sitting in the Waterfront restaurant, we had an enjoyabledinner which was well serve. The food during the cruise was very good, the choice was a bit limited when compared to other lines, but as stated was good. We had breakfast in the Waterfront each morning as we don’t do the bun fight if it can be avoided, albeit breakfast choice was limited the quality was very good. On 2 morning’s the service left a lot to be desired, some of the staff didn’t seem to have much idea and didn’t have the best grasp of the English language. We had a light lunch on 2 occasions in the Alfresco grill,again limited choice but good quality.

Prices aboard ship were very reasonable with several drinks packages available depending on taste. We had a couple of cocktail packs at £29 for 10 cocktails.Beer ranged from £3.30 for a pint of draught beer to £4.40 for Guinness with several bottled beers and lagers. House wine was £5.00for a 250ml glass. We went to Hemmingway’s for our coffee and cake,the Carrot cake was exceptional, Latte at £1.80 and cake at £1.90was good value.

We only went to 1 show during our 7 nights as we have seen so many shows that we tend to sit in the lounges and play cards and/or chat. The entertainment was generally good with the classic duo on piano and violin excellent. I was not over impressed with the Palladium show lounge which was on 2levels, viewing was restricted by the metal rail upstairs and there was not much elevation downstairs with several pillars restricting viewing.

We picked this cruise for the itinerary, Shetland, Orkney and Faroeisland’s, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We had 2 walking tours from the ship and 1 DIY tour, we felt the ship tours were fairly priced,especially compared with other cruise lines. We had some amazing weather and spent most of the time in shorts and T shirts. The sea was fairly smooth for the duration of the cruise with slight winds and low swell, we had one night where it became a bit choppy.

In summary this was a great cruise on a budget line which more than met our expectations.The ship in general was kept very clean and tidy inside and out. The staff were very efficient apart from a couple of glitches at breakfast, I am sure this will improve once everyone is settled in as there were clearly some new staff aboard. We met some great people and moaning was virtually non-existent which is unusual. We will likely cruise with CMV again in the near future pending price and itinerary being suitable.

Lerwick, we also did our own thing. We did check out prices for arranging our own trips but there were no real savings. We would like to do this or very similar again, earlier in the year before all the birds have fledged or flown south

Hi YorkshirePhil, thank you very much for the info, really useful. Did you dock at Klaksvik at all as this seems to be the port where there's very little to do.

We're on Magellan which we've been on before and would review it in a very similar way to your review of Columbus. We choose our cruises based on the itinerary too.

Hi Value seeker, we didn't stop at Klaksvik so sorry can't help. Looks good, below is a site I used for research, however if you are not into walking or the great outdoors in general it may not help. We were very lucky as we got lovely weather.

http://nordoy.visitfaroeislands.com/en/see-do/sightseeing-in-klaksvik/

Hi Value seeker, we didn't stop at Klaksvik so sorry can't help. Looks good, below is a site I used for research, however if you are not into walking or the great outdoors in general it may not help. We were very lucky as we got lovely weather.

 

http://nordoy.visitfaroeislands.com/en/see-do/sightseeing-in-klaksvik/

That's brilliant! Thanks again for your help. We too are hoping for good weather as I think this cruise in particular could easily be spoilt if the weather is really bad!