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“Edinburgh on your Own”


jshli
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Did Edinburgh last year on the vision. Don’t waste your money on a tour. The hop on/off bus has a stop right out front of the marina where the tenders drop you off. Also you are a 15/20 min walk to the Britannia, the last royal yacht which is a must see. Also cabs are cheap as I recall it was @10 pounds each way to the royal mile from the ship. Edinburgh was great you will really enjoy the city.

 

That being said RCCL, really screwed up last year with the tender operation, it is 30-45 min ride in each direction and the ship was only using her tenders no shore tender augmentation. It took all day for some people to get off the ship, on our second day 2 of the tenders were broken so they were down to 2 tenders an hour. Do you self a favor and ether get in line for tender tickets early or take one that leaves before they start taking tickets.

 

 

 

 

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Thank you. I did send an email to the shore excursion desk. The reason I am thinking of taking the “Edinburgh on your own tour” is because our ship only stops in Edinburgh from 7:00AM to 6PM and is not an overnight and we want to make sure we can get off the ship and onto the tenders and still have time to see Edinburgh. If the excursion we are looking at is at 9:30, I assume that means our tender is at that time and we won’t get into Edinburgh city much before 11:00AM. How early do they start giving out tender tickets. I see the first shore excursion is at 8:30. Do you think we will be able to get off the ship and onto a tender before this time? Sorry for so many questions but although we are seasoned cruisers, this port doesn’t seem like a typical tender port.

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I don't know where they would pick up and drop off, but Edinburgh is my home town and I just want to say......You will LOVE it, but do make sure you are there before last pick up as we have terrible rush hours and it's quite a way to the port.

The Royal Mile is great, you have Holyrood Palace, Dynamic Earth, Arthurs seat and the Parliament buildings at the bottom, and walk the mile to the top and you have Edinburgh Castle.

Enjoy whatever you do

 

wendy

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Brilliance of the Seas will dock in Newhaven. Buses pick you up at the Brewers Fayre pub where the tender comes into. Last year they dropped passengers off at the Waverley Hotel at the end of Princess Street.

However, Leith Street is closed due to the construction of a new W Hotel. I still think they will drop passengers off at the same location, just diverting along London Road.

From the drop off, the Royal Mile is easy accessible by walking up South Bridge then up the Mile to the Castle.

 

Please ask if you need any other info.

Norwegian Jade is the first ship docking at Newhaven on May 13th. I will look and see where they are dropped off

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We are on the July 27th cruise. Cruiseforth says we are docking at South Queensbury.
Cruise Forth are wrong. Royal Princess goes to South Queensferry

Brilliance goes to Leith, which is Newhaven.

Have a look at your invoice and it will confirm

 

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My reservation says Edinburgh and does not give any further info. I just got off the phone with Royal Caribbean and the rep. after much research said our ship is tendering at Leith Pier at 100 Ocean Drive. Is this New Haven which is close to downtown Edinburgh?

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My reservation says Edinburgh and does not give any further info. I just got off the phone with Royal Caribbean and the rep. after much research said our ship is tendering at Leith Pier at 100 Ocean Drive. Is this New Haven which is close to downtown Edinburgh?

100 Ocean Dr is Ocean Terminal. Brilliance is too big to fit in there. Azamara does fit so the rep might be getting mixed up.

If you look on Google maps and type in Pier Place Edinburgh, you will see Newhaven Quay. There is a small lighthouse at the entrance.

Local buses, taxis and the hop on hop off bus will be at the Quay in the morning.

Its not far to Princess Street or the Royal Mile from Newhaven. Depending what you are going to do, I would take a taxi up the town and save a bit time and possibly beat the crowds of the shuttle. Could work out cheaper as well

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We were on NCL into Newhaven last year. It stinks. It is a long long way and the tender area is a sheltered harbor that only permits one tender at a time. People were waiting hours. Maybe RCI’s operations are better.

 

NCL had a $19 on your own excursion that we wish we had done just for the priority tender. I think it included a bus into town. We took taxis to the top of the royal mile in the morning and from the bottom in the afternoon. It was about 15 pounds each way.

 

Edit: if you do a search on google maps for prezzo pizza, 25 pier place, Edinburgh, you will be taken to a restaurant just to the east of the harbor and the ramp where we were dropped by the tenders.

Edited by Regguy
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We were on NCL into Newhaven last year. It stinks. It is a long long way and the tender area is a sheltered harbor that only permits one tender at a time. People were waiting hours. Maybe RCI’s operations are better.

 

NCL had a $19 on your own excursion that we wish we had done just for the priority tender. I think it included a bus into town. We took taxis to the top of the royal mile in the morning and from the bottom in the afternoon. It was about 15 pounds each way.

 

Edit: if you do a search on google maps for prezzo pizza, 25 pier place, Edinburgh, you will be taken to a restaurant just to the east of the harbor and the ramp where we were dropped by the tenders.

I totally agree with you. You give good advice.

I have no idea why Royal, NCL, Celebrity and P&O use Newhaven.

South Queensferry is better for tendering but is further away from town.

After all that, I hope you had a good time.

I live in Kinghorn, which is right across from Newhaven and I cant believe how far away the ship anchors.

I pass Queensferry and Newhaven almost every day when working in the town

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I totally agree with you. You give good advice.

I have no idea why Royal, NCL, Celebrity and P&O use Newhaven.

South Queensferry is better for tendering but is further away from town.

After all that, I hope you had a good time.

I live in Kinghorn, which is right across from Newhaven and I cant believe how far away the ship anchors.

I pass Queensferry and Newhaven almost every day when working in the town

 

We did have a great time. It is one of my favorite cities in the world, which is why sitting for so long waiting to go ashore was a bummer. We were on a relatively smaller ship, so I don’t know why we had to go into Newhaven but I would guess it had something to do with being less expensive.

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We did have a great time. It is one of my favorite cities in the world, which is why sitting for so long waiting to go ashore was a bummer. We were on a relatively smaller ship, so I don’t know why we had to go into Newhaven but I would guess it had something to do with being less expensive.

Glad you enjoyed. It is one of these stops you can go back to a lot of times and see something different each time.

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We were on Princess last year and did hop off/on tour it was great enjoy

Glad you enjoyed it. South Queensferry does put 45 mins each way on the day.

They are meant to be building a new pier at Granton, but who knows when

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I am also from Edinburgh (Leith) and have also recently been back there on business many times. I always stay in the Ocean apartments which are very close to the Prezzo restaurant as mentioned previously. An alternative and cheap way to get up the town (to the west end/Lothian Road is on the number 10 bus. It stops very near to the Brewers Fayre and takes around 25 minutes to get to the other end of Princes Street. If you get off the stop in Lothian Road you will see the Castle on your left and then its a case of walking up to it. Once there you are at the top of the Royal Mile. If you feel energetic then walk down to Holyrood Palace and you'll see various places you can also visit (e.g. Museum of Childhood which I think is still free). See this link https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=museum+of+edinburgh&rflfq=1&rlha=0&rllag=55949283,-3184281,382&tbm=lcl&rldimm=7963480731368791687&tbs=lrf:!2m1!1e2!2m1!1e3!3sEAE,lf:1,lf_ui:2&cad=h#rlfi=hd:;si:7963480731368791687;mv:!1m3!1d3705.844207761004!2d-3.183547359555064!3d55.94974805923025!3m2!1i635!2i637!4f13.1&spf=1521456244379

Enjoy

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