British Isles (with Kirkwall) Caribbean Princess

Has anyone been on Princess Cruise lines and cruised the British Isles with Kirkwall? We have this cruise planned for May 2018 but the shore excursions frankly don't appeal to me. Have I made a mistake?? Thanks for any help!

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

You could always do excursions on your own.

To find others who have sailed this route, check the portion of Cruise Critic devoted to Princess, located here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=197

To find out what others are doing on your specific cruise, there are the Roll Calls. Caribbean Princess' are located here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=297

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2015 we stoped on Kirkwall with Queen Victoria. Also a very dull offering of excursions. Searching for local tours on the internet didn't gel either. Same stuff more or less. We ended up renting a car for the day and drive around ourselves and that was very nice (if very narrow country lanes won't freak you out).

Car itself was not expensive, but filling up at the end of the day was $$$$.

They dropped the car off at the port and us back to the ship at the end of the day.

Several good whisky distilleries, including the well known Highland Park. Moderately interesting cathedral in town, if that floats your boat

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

You could always do excursions on your own.

 

To find others who have sailed this route, check the portion of Cruise Critic devoted to Princess, located here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=197

To find out what others are doing on your specific cruise, there are the Roll Calls. Caribbean Princess' are located here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=297

 

Find your sailing date, and read or join in.

One of the best threads I've ever read on Cruise Critic was recently resurrected on the Princess Board: British Isles Trip Review w/Pics: A Thesis :) by Delorean Girl (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1652129). She cruised in 2012 but it is still incredibly useful and cruisers rediscover it every year.

The British Isles cruise on Princess was one of our favorite itineraries. We did all of our excursions privately or Do-It-Yourself except Guernsey where we just did a Princess bus tour around the island. Private and DIY are extremely easy to do on this itinerary. As CruiserBruce recommended, check out your roll call - all our private excursions were arranged with fellow passengers on our roll call.

A friend and I did it last year, and had a wonderful time. We had no difficulty finding excursions thru Princess that appealed to us, but, like food, that's a very subjective thing.

We r just finishing the British Isles cruise with Princess. We were so disappointed that due to some windy conditions we had to totally skip Kirkwall. None of the passengers understood why we couldn't have gotten tugboats in advance or used tenders. As far as excursions we had a taxi meeting us at the dock. I got the taxi email from the local tourist department. They only charge $40 per hour and will take u wherever u want to go. With places so old like Scara Brae and Ring of Brodgar we were so looking forward to the port.

We r just finishing the British Isles cruise with Princess. We were so disappointed that due to some windy conditions we had to totally skip Kirkwall. None of the passengers understood why we couldn't have gotten tugboats in advance or used tenders.

That's too bad that you had to miss a port you were so looking forward to visiting. I don't think any captain makes these decisions lightly and I trust his expertise more than mine or any other passenger I've ever met. Afterall he knows he is disappointing a ship load of passengers and, for those that have cruise line excursions set up, costing the company income. I do have to say that if the wind conditions precluded docking you definitely didn't want to be on a tender!

We have also missed a port due to wind conditions (Charleston, SC). It was bright and sunny when we were within a short distance of the dock and the captain came on the PA and said that he and the local pilot agreed they would abort the docking because conditions were due to deteriorate quickly and the wind pick up dramatically due to incoming weather that turned out to reach tropical storm force. Ships - and their captains - don't like to be docked in such conditions. On another cruise we docked (Ushuaia, Argentina) successfully and the wind picked up so intensely during our visit that we could not push away from the dock (due to the wind) until more than 6 hours after our scheduled departure time. That - and the continued wind - impacted our next 'port' (actually a sail around Cape Horn) that was canceled. We did see Cape Horn in the distance.

I hope the rest of the cruise was wonderful!

Kirkwall is a lovely small city. The cathedral, St. Magnus Cathedral, was started in 1137 and built over the following 300 years. Many of the stonemasons had worked on Durham Cathedral and their expertise and architectural arts are reflected in St. Magnus Cathedral. Anyone who loves history or architecture could (and would, and I did) spend hours there.

You could just walk around, visit a pub (or two), take in the atmosphere....

But if you do want to see the rest of the island then do so; there are plenty of guides on the internet to the Orkneys.

If you are really lucky you might get to enjoy the local music. Orcadians take their music very seriously; the last time I was there a three-piece band came on the ship to play Orcadian music for the passengers before we left. Some passengers were initially sceptical that the band would be any good as all three musicians were so young, only 17 or 18 years old. But because music is taken so seriously they had probably all been playing for 10 years or more and it showed... !

I totally agree that you should read Delorean girls review. It's probably what tipped the scales in my decision to go. There are a couple of other really great reviews, though I unfortunately cannot remember the names of the people who wrote them.

My sister and I did the British Isles without Kirkwall. As usual we did a combination of self-tours and ship's tours. We walked around Guernsey and just took it all in. Cork, we caught a cab. Very entertaining fellow who took us to the Blarney Castle, waited and brought us back with a little side tour. Dublin, missed due to high winds. Belfast, ship's tour to the Giant's Causeway. In Greenock/Glasgow we actually got on a train and went to Edinburgh. Inverness was a private tour. Edinburgh we took a ship's tour to the Sterling Castle.

Not sure what would interest you, but we love history. And gift shops, LOL. And I love talking to all kinds of people. And to us, there is a point when the journey is way more than the destination. And we had a couple of really interesting journeys. The ride to the Blarney Castle with Eddie the taxi driver was a hoot. The private tour in Inverness was awesome. We had a great time though I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what we saw other then when the driver came to a screeching halt somewhere on some back road so we could see Highland Cattle. And, oh yeah, Loch Ness. Then there was the 2 hour or so train ride where we sat and talked with a young man from Yorkshire who had been travelling around on his own by train.

Try Googling "Things to do in" and then the name of your destination. There is so much info out there. The best, of course, is right here. Try going over to the British Isles Board. There are people over there that can tell you everything about the places you'll be going.

I agree with a previous poster that's all very subjective. Good luck finding something that suits you. And if you end up going have a great time and come back and tell us how it went.

Me, I'd love to go back and do the one with Kirkwall. Didn't do my due diligence or I would have chosen that one before.

We weren't on Princess but visited Kirkwall on a cruise in May 2016. I found a local bus, the T11 that had a tour of some of the main historic sites for under 9 pounds per person. No commentary (although some reviews said other drivers were more chatty) but it was a lovely and inexpensive way to see the various rocks of interest as well as lots of farms and countryside. We still had time for a visit to local pub and walk through the town. Missed St. Magnus because it was being used for a wedding. I believe this route is seasonal so hard to find, but you can email most of the companies and they will let you know what is running on the day your cruise is expected.

We r just finishing the British Isles cruise with Princess. We were so disappointed that due to some windy conditions we had to totally skip Kirkwall. None of the passengers understood why we couldn't have gotten tugboats in advance or used tenders. As far as excursions we had a taxi meeting us at the dock. I got the taxi email from the local tourist department. They only charge $40 per hour and will take u wherever u want to go. With places so old like Scara Brae and Ring of Brodgar we were so looking forward to the port.

Oh, man, I so hope that doesn't happen next week! We got a local tour and would be out a couple hundred dollars. Like you said, we are especially looking forward to that port.