British Isles Cruise Review 6/5-6/17

[RRFPresident]

Back in grade school, I did an oral presentation on Loch Ness and the infamous Nessie. So when it came to choosing what to do in Invergordon, I had to include Loch Ness somewhere. Keeping with our pattern of alternating early days and later in the day excursions, today was a later day with the Princess excursion Loch Ness & Urquhart Castle Ruins.

 

A note about Princess excursions: If you find yourself wanting to cancel an excursion for whatever reason, the deadline to do so on this trip was two days before we reached that port. Last I’d heard was that the cut off was 24 hours before.

 

With a later excursion we decided to get off a little early to check out the area. We were running low on some toiletries. Discovered a nickel and dime store where we could restock within walking distance of the dock. Took a moment to check out the murals painted on the side of these two buildings as part of a school art project. Worked our way back to the dock checking out the nearby gift shops.

 

Took a moment to look back and snap a pic of the ship:

 

The two murals:

 

Our excursion picked up right in front of the shops and the “Scenic drive of Loch Ness” became a scenic drive of the back of my eyelids because I napped nearly the entire drive. Where’s a tour bus when you need to sleep after a long day at work? Once we arrived at Urquhart castle, we were directed into a waiting area that housed many display cases of battle gear and instruments of daily life for those living on the castle grounds. Just off the now massively crowded waiting area as it was only about the size of the average living room was a small movie viewing area that only sat about 20-30 people. We were all being held back until space was available as the company running the tours likes to have people watch the video on the history of the castle first.

 

Stone balls fired from the trebuchet at the castle:

 

Weaponry:

[RRFPresident]

Once we’d had our fill of checking out the display cases, Dad and I discovered that you could still get out to the ruins without having to cut through the theater and chose to bypass the movie. The ruins themselves don’t look like much but to walk them it is quite a stretch. Some of the winding staircases leading up to higher platforms are only wide enough for one person so it created quite the traffic jam if you wanted to go up while someone else was heading down. There was a window in the highest tower looking in on the spiral staircase and I could see from the ground that it was packed with people having to wait on each step in their efforts to get to the top. At that point, I decided not to put myself in that crowded mess but did climb along everywhere else getting some great views and of course pictures. At one point, Dad asked what I was taking so many pictures of as the mantra became “What did you do today? Oh just another castle, another pile of rocks.” I told him that I was snapping great shots of nature and scenery and he just shook his head.

 

Trebuchet and walk up to the ruins:

 

Re-enactors:

 

The line to get to the top of the big tower snaked from the top, down the winding staircase seen through the window and down along the lower ledge:

 

The ruins as a whole:

 

Bridge:

 

The walk back up from the bottom:

[RRFPresident]

Couple other scenic shots:

 

Our guide had told us (outside of a time to be back at the bus after wandering on our own) that the only way to see Nessie was if you imbibed in a few glasses of Scotch first. Once I’d exhausted my inner child climbing over hills and rocks to get to awesome views fantasies, we headed up the hill to the cafeteria/gift shop. There’s a choice of stairs or an incline path so by then I was glad for the incline path. In the cafeteria, we indulged in some homemade shortbread and a soda. I loved how Diet Coke over in the UK was known as Coca Cola Light. The ones we got on the ship had the nutrition information on the back written in Dutch as a product of Denmark.

 

 

A woman at work is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and she’s always telling us how they pronounce “out” and “about” as “oot” and “aboot.” Found a cute sweatshirt in the gift shop here that showed a stick figure on a bike with the caption “We are oot and aboot!”

[RRFPresident]

A band of bagpipers had assembled to see us off:

 

A couple times on this cruise we took advantage of ordering from the dining room menu as room service. Technically, we were supposed to get the lunch and dinner menus left in our room but only once did we see the lunch menu. Granted, the bulk of the time we were either on an excursion or grabbing a hot dog or pizza at lunchtime so we didn’t miss not seeing it. Both times, the waiter brought in a tablecloth which they set up on our coffee table. On our Canada trip, we were able to do the tablecloth set up out on our balcony but it was a bit too chilly to do so this time. It was nice to be able to mix and match between the dining room and regular room service menus to enjoy a little bit of everything we were in the mood for. I’m a salty snack-aholic so it was a delight to find that the potato chips arriving with our sandwiches were fresh and crisp. My last cruise with a friend on a certain sister/owner cruise line brought us stale chips soaked from the overly pesto covered sandwiches. Cruise lines really need to offer salty snacks like chips or pretzels outside of the overpriced Pringles cans in the gift shop. This gal can only take so many cookies and sweet treats! There was some sort of trail mix that the bars were giving out but it was rock hard and spicy. What would it hurt to have those vending machine size chip packs by the grill or buffet to go with your burgers and pizza? Okay, stepping off my soapbox now…

 

We stopped in to check out the evening game show “Where in the World” but everyone had already teamed up so we sat back to watch. While stopping in at the library in hopes that Dad could find a new book left on the swap shelf, we ran into Fab and had a nice talk about how his contract was nearly up and how he already planned to come back within a couple weeks because Princess calls up the people who already have their valid Visas first to return when they need to fill jobs. Fab and deputy cruise director Chris were really two standout members of the cruise staff. Mark was hilarious while hosting an event but we ran into him in the hall once and he rushed off.

 

We walked around the outside decks for a little bit enjoying the scenery.

 

After we returned to our cabin for the evening, I sat outside in hopes of catching some sunset pics but by then it was too dark and cloudy. I did notice this interesting cloud formation and snapped a picture. To me, the picture looks exactly like what I saw and I’m curious to know if anyone else sees the same image that I did.

[seamwoman]

Enjoying your posts as we did the reverse cruise in May. It is interesting to see the places we didn't like the Royal Yacht and Lock Ness. I agree about the salty snacks and brought some with me for the TA/BI cruise! Looking forward to reading about more ports. Thanks, Karen

[cruisenovice]

We are doing this trip next summer. Do you mind me asking what you thought of PrincessAir? How were the prices compared to doing it yourself? When did you book the flights? We are coming from CA as well and I'm trying to figure out the best way to go about it.

Thanks!

 

PS My dad lives in Livermore and he keeps complaining about how hot it is lately. Hope it cools down for you guys!

 

I generally book my own air, but monitor the airlines on prices; focusing on the schedule. I lost a terrific UA price in Feb by 4 hours, so I kept trolling. Meanwhile, Princess EZAir ran a Valentines Day discount so I grabbed it. It discounted our Biz Class price on UA by $800. I had to give up my double miles option from booking direct with UA, but it's $800 more to spend on souvenirs. We're going SFO to YVR and YVR over the polar route to LHR. We used EZAir last year on our Princess South American cruise (I wanted to visit & explore Machu Pichu). The flights were long, but OK. They routed us from SFO to Miami, to Lima, to Santiago.

 

This will be our 20th Princess sailing, but the first one to Europe. Anyway, I suspect your Dad is feeling better as the temps have dropped 20 degrees. Have a happy cruise next year.

[silverbird]

I think it looks like a shark after a little fish.

[23madi23]

love this review! i'll be going on the reverse itinerary in less than 2 weeks. Can't wait!

[newport dave]

Couple other scenic shots:

 

Our guide had told us (outside of a time to be back at the bus after wandering on our own) that the only way to see Nessie was if you imbibed in a few glasses of Scotch first. Once I’d exhausted my inner child climbing over hills and rocks to get to awesome views fantasies, we headed up the hill to the cafeteria/gift shop. There’s a choice of stairs or an incline path so by then I was glad for the incline path. In the cafeteria, we indulged in some homemade shortbread and a soda. I loved how Diet Coke over in the UK was known as Coca Cola Light. The ones we got on the ship had the nutrition information on the back written in Dutch as a product of Denmark.

 

 

A woman at work is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and she’s always telling us how they pronounce “out” and “about” as “oot” and “aboot.” Found a cute sweatshirt in the gift shop here that showed a stick figure on a bike with the caption “We are oot and aboot!”

 

Diet Coke in the UK is known as 'Diet Coke'. What you had was probably dodgy cheap imports from Europe.

[kayelbee]

I second the 'diet coke', 'coke light' answer, It's Diet Coke in the UK and Ireland and, as far as I can tell from my travels, Coke light in mainland Europe. The ship must have stocked up at a port outside of the UK and any Diet Coke you bought in the UK labelled as Coke light would have not have been originally destined for the UK/Ireland market, usually this may have been bought in a Pound shop or newspaper shop?

Still loving your review, keep it up.

[RRFPresident]

Wow, didn't expect to get such a reaction to Diet Coke. When I first drank the Coke Light I did notice how it seemed dulled or watered down but got used to it after a while. I do recall in one port stop cafeteria remarking how they had true Diet Coke.

 

I had expected to get the ultimate drink card like last time (as I prefer the fruity smoothie style drinks anyway) but Dad decided it wasn't worth the cost since we would be so busy in ports.

[RRFPresident]

I think it looks like a shark after a little fish.

 

I can see how the smaller cloud looks like a little fish. Not what I initially saw when I look at this picture though.

[cherrybear]

I see a face.

[kayelbee]

I hop I didn't offend you, RRFPresident, re the Diet Coke, I just find it interesting how people see other countries and this was just an example of how a person's experience is skewed by unusual experiences they think are the norm.

[RRFPresident]

Ahh, Kirkwall, the little town of little towns and our northernmost stop. We had originally booked the Princess excursion Ring of Brodgar & Maeshowe but after seeing pictures of the sites on the port talk cabin TV replay, we decided to blow it off. It was too late by then to cancel and get our money back.

 

Our view this morning:

 

Instead, we enjoyed a very leisurely morning in a surprisingly quiet ship. I did not expect such a mass exodus of people going into port for such a tiny spot. After brunchtime trivia and a walk around the deck checking out the view, we hopped onto the free shuttle and made our way into town. There’s an information booth and a handful of local citizens there to help with directions and points of interest.

 

A horse drawn carriage in front of a place called "Curiosity Shop" was too cute of an image to pass up:

 

We took off walking up one direction and passed the St. Magnus Centre Cathedral and the Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces.

The palaces were adjacent to the Sheriff Court which was closed this day for a bank holiday.

Encountered a Princess tour group making their way onto the Palace grounds as we were leaving and I remember thinking how they paid and boarded a tour bus to go just up the road.

[RRFPresident]

We headed back the other direction and found a stretch of brick/cobblestone laid pathways for foot traffic amongst a long line of stores on each side. We stopped in an ice cream parlor/candy shop and picked up fizzy wine gummies and an ice cream cone for each of us. I continued my efforts to partake of new local things and enjoyed the Million Dollar Shortbread ice cream. We checked out a couple other shops stopping in a grocery type store to get some water and the infamous Galaxy chocolate bar my friend had suggested. The bar, and the bulk of our turndown chocolates left by the steward, stayed in our cabin fridge for the rest of the trip. Brought the bar back home and it was a nice slightly bitter chocolate. At one point we saw a shop window advertising 5 litre of Hellman’s mayonnaise on sale. I’d like to meet the people that buy 5 litre tubs of mayonnaise.

 

We popped into a packed café in an effort to use the wi-fi but everybody and their brother had the same idea so even though a table was not too hard to find, it took ages to even connect to the internet. We gave up after a while and kept walking. At one point, we reached the end of the shops and as we peeked down an alleyway to see what else there was to check out, we discovered that we were still in spitting distance from the ship. Really gives you a sense of déjà vu when you board a shuttle to take you into town, walk up and down a couple streets, and find that you never really strayed far from the ship. We walked all the way back to the shuttle’s drop off point and rode it back to port.

 

After a quick lunch, we headed to the Wheelhouse Bar at 2PM for the Taboo Challenge only to be the sole people to show up to play. Fab ran the game and at his suggestion, we made the game into a competition of who could guess the most words. After a few rounds and lots of clue help from Fab, we decided to give up and let Fab enjoy some time off. As Fab was putting the game away, we noticed that the cabinets under the model ship case in the Wheelhouse bar is full of board games. Later in the cruise we saw many people using the bar tables to play these games with each other. Earlier in the day, we had asked the front desk for a deck of cards. We’d been noticing how many people were turning to card playing and/or book and kindle reading to make up for the lack of entertainment on board. The front desk said they no longer hand them out and we must buy them from the casino or the gift shop. So when we saw the game trove in Wheelhouse, we asked Fab if there was a deck of cards in there. He said sure and handed us a brand new pack for free. We made great use out of playing gin rummy while waiting for events to start from then on.

 

It was also during this time that we mentioned to Fab how disappointed we were not to see a country music trivia like there was for everything from rock music to Beatles to 70’s to disco. Fab revealed that they had plans later in the cruise for country music night and part of each theme night is a scheduled themed trivia before the music and dancing start. He also revealed that the cruise director has the option to cut out whatever on the schedule that he doesn’t feel like running so the country music themed night was the only one not to have a trivia beforehand.

 

Fab also ran the afternoon trivia and by now everyone was reciting his trivia rules back to him. 1) I am always right – I don’t care if my mother or the captain of the ship walks in with a different answer. 2) This is for fun, once you see the prizes the winners won’t feel that way anymore. 3) If you don’t follow rules #1 and #2, I will invite you to dinner..with the sharks. Say that in your head with a Mexican accent and that’s Fab in a nutshell. While we were waiting for everyone to be ready to play, Dad and I called Fab over to chat. He was hesitant but burst out laughing and came over when I said “oh come on, we haven’t seen you since oh 11:30!” We had a nice chat about our time in port and the ship’s plans to do a Scandinavian route after our itinerary.

 

Captain had announced that we would be leaving in about 15 minutes. I watched from my cabin balcony as this poor single guy came out to wait for the rest of his crew to help untie us from the dock.

 

During dinner, the maitre’d announced that all the restaurants on the ship would be hosting a cooking show the following morning where each restaurant would compete on stage.

 

After dinner, we stopped off to check on our formal night pictures. While there, one of the photography managers walked over so we asked about the free portrait sitting suite perk. She explained that it was pictures taken of you inside your suite and instead suggested we try the new photo studio sessions that replaced where the golf simulator used to be. The sitting itself was free and you needed to make an appointment. We decided it couldn’t hurt to try it and scheduled a sitting for the following night right before dinner since it was our second formal night.

 

Having enjoyed Comedy Vocalist Diane Cousins earlier in the cruise, we wanted to see her show again. The theater was packed so we were glad to get there early enough for seats. Diane worked more improv into her act this time pulling two guys from the audience to be her backup singers. The result was hilarious as these two guys tried to work out dance moves and a sung response when cued by Diane. When Diane was done the song, she offered to get both guys a drink for their participation but then mocked their choices of orange juice and diet coke. The poor bar waiter wasn’t sure whether or not to really go retrieve their drinks at first but Diane insisted. When the waiter returned for her to sign the receipt, Diane called for deputy cruise director Chris to come out and give his card to the waiter instead.

 

Diane shared the stage this night with singer Roger Wright. Thankfully Diane had the first half of the show because a lot of people including us got up and left after Roger’s first song. He was a talented singer but even the oldest passengers were walking out with the 20 somethings. We rode the elevator up with a group of 20 something men who complained that they were so bored and couldn’t wait to get off the ship. They went on to complain specifically about how Roger was not entertainment for their age group.

 

We decided to check out the Princess Millionaire game show and put both our names in to be drawn as contestants. Dad ended up being the second or third person picked and really played to the crowd. Each question Dad got right, a Princess themed prize was awarded and you had the option of going on to another question. By the time Dad finally got a question wrong, he had won a water bottle, another pack of cards, a pen, an around the neck card holder, and a medal.

 

He was so proud, he made me take a picture of his winnings:

 

As Dad was returning to his seat, a woman came up to him and complimented his voice telling him he should be on radio.

[RRFPresident]

I see a face.

 

Yes! What I saw specifically was the profile of a woman's face and the cloud just below her looks like she's raising a hand to her mouth to blow a kiss. Though now instead of the figurative cartoon kiss, I'm starting to see the little fish from the previous suggestion.

[RRFPresident]

I hop I didn't offend you, RRFPresident, re the Diet Coke, I just find it interesting how people see other countries and this was just an example of how a person's experience is skewed by unusual experiences they think are the norm.

 

No offense taken. This was my first time experiencing anything and everything your home country/nation had to offer so I welcome all feedback and insight.

[RRFPresident]

After a nice breakfast at Sabatinni’s, we headed over to the cooking show. As we picked seats dead center, second row, of the first off the floor level, we realized that we were seated behind the captain’s visiting family. It turns out that their seats were being saved by wait staff in the show. They hightailed it to get ready for the show as soon as they saw the family arrive. Waiters and Maitre’D’s from each restaurant on the ship came parading into the theater with signs enticing the crowd to cheer. Gabriel came in with the tasting chef pretending to smoke cigars and fall on the stairs. Cruise director Kelvin Joy came out and introduced Ando (I’m sure I’m spelling that wrong) as the host of the cooking show. Ando came out laying across a rolling cart and the waiters instructed the crowd to call his name to get him to wake up.

 

Cruise Director Kelvin Joy:

 

Ando being wheeled in:

 

The cooking show was hilarious and just the right amount of campy to be entertaining. Executive Chef Guido Jendrytzko came out on stage under the premise of teaching Mario Propato and Gabriel how to cook. Brochures were passed around to the audience featuring the recipes shown in the demonstration though there wasn’t much edible cooking being done in the show. There was a running gag throughout the show that Gabriel, Mario, and the tasting chef would stop and pose every time someone lifted up their camera or iPad etc.

 

Gabriel, Mario, and Chef Guido:

 

Several times, the tasting chef would help himself to the food or try to walk away with the food before it was ready. Guido tried to show Mario how to flip a shrimp dish in the pan and of course it went all out of the pan and onto the stage. Waiters rushed out to sweep up the mess as Ando told them to put the food back in the pan under the 5 second rule.

 

The wait staff that had been sitting in front of us was in the show as the tasting chef’s wife and twin boys. Everyone got a good laugh because one of the twins was darker skinned. Ando teased the tasting chef about it and revealed that they’d also surprised him with the dark skinned bartender/waiter from their Mexican honeymoon. The wife ran over to enthusiastically greet the bartender and the tasting chef had to be held back after grabbing a knife off the demonstration table.

 

At one point, Gabriel interrupted Ando because he wanted his own share of the spotlight to do a magic trick. Gabriel held a napkin over his hand and kept saying “watch!” Ando finally said “Okay, we’re watching!” and Gabriel pulled back the napkin to reveal that he was holding up his watch.

[RRFPresident]

In between the faux cooking segments, wait staff from each dining area would come out and do variety show style performances from group sing alongs to Gangam Style dancing. A couple of the waiters that came out to do solo performances were really good.

 

The main running gag through the show was to entice passengers to “go all the way to the right and choose 7 for highly satisfied” on the end of cruise surveys. There were songs about choosing 7, signs, and at one point Ando came back out wearing underwear over his pants that said 7 across the butt.

 

This waiter had a really nice operatic voice. Amazed that he could finish his song with Ando joining him with the underwear on over his pants:

 

 

Dad stopped off to see if there was anyone attending the informal bridge play and ended up having a nice time. Usually we find the scheduled card games or card rooms empty so it was a nice change to have something he could go off on his own to enjoy. During play, he learned that an older gentleman who had been playing bridge with this group earlier in the cruise ended up suffering a heart attack the night before. He was resting comfortably in the medical center and would be evacuated out once we arrived in Glasgow. The bridge playing group had made plans to dine together that evening and the wife had to call to cancel and let them know what happened.

 

After afternoon trivia, we rushed upstairs to shower and get ready for our picture session with Maria. While I had worn a dress for the first formal night (a rare sight worthy of pictures just to prove it actually happened), I wanted to be more comfortable this time and chose black dress pants and a purple blouse with jeweled decal and sheer sleeves.

 

This is my "did you take the picture yet?" look:

 

Had Dad dress once again in his suit and purple striped tie thinking being color coordinated would look cute. As it turns out, there had been a significant amount of rain and wind as we sailed along and as luck would have it, the photo studio is only accessible by going up to the spa from inside the ship and then going out on the open deck to climb a flight of stairs and walk around the corner of the sports deck area. By the time we dodged steward carts to walk from aft to bow to get to the spa in dress shoes, my hose leggings were shot. We get to the spa where Maria met us and she hands me a towel to put over my head explaining then that we had to walk outside to get to her studio. The outside deck stairs were just pools of water and my efforts to hold the towel over my head became more like a cape with the wind blowing. By the end I was just holding on simply to keep the towel from going overboard much less protect my hair. I’m glad I hadn’t bothered to get a salon hairdo done or had one of those hairstyles that can be all done up in different poofy styles. The cuffs of our pants were wet and I ditched my hose once inside the studio. Maria suggested I can go without shoes and I thought she was crazy until I realized the pictures would only be close up headshots. Maria did provide a brush and mirror for us to freshen up before starting.

 

My color co-coordinating efforts turned out to be for naught as I realized all of these shots would be in a very dark black and white. The corner the photos are taken in is covered in a black curtain and Maria poses you in various positions on black stools and ottoman style boxes. Some of the shots were us standing together, but mostly one of us stood while the other leaned in close next to them. We did take some time doing solo shots. Maria joked that the other person had to stand behind her and make the person being photographed laugh. Our scheduled time of 6:15PM was plenty of time to get the session done and make our way back to the room for a quick retouch before heading to 7PM dinner. We made an appointment with Maria for the next night to come back and view how the photos turned out.

 

Since this was our second and final formal night, we booked Sabatinni’s with a 7PM reservation via the Dine Line to use up my certificate. We had definitely been spoiled by Gabriel and the morning staff because the evening staff was really lacking. This was our first time having dinner at Sabatinni’s since the menu change and honestly, if it wasn’t free, I wouldn’t have bothered to book it. Our service was really delayed even though the restaurant was only half full. I did enjoy the calamari despite the lemon garlic dip. That lemon was beginning to haunt me I think. We each partook of the pasta of the day. We also both chose the strip steak but the waiter cautioned that cooking it as much as we wanted would make the meat too tough. We agreed with his suggestion promising just a little pink inside. When the meat came, it was just barely on the side of no longer mooing. We only ate a little bit of our steaks and at one point our bread was whisked away 2/3 of the way through our meal. For dessert, Dad had some sort of cake which he thought was alright except for the berries on top. I thought I was ordering something like chocolate mousse but the waiter started cautioning how it would be in a tiny cup. I was confused as to why the fact that it’s a small portion would matter until I realized what he was trying to convey after the dessert was delivered. Turns out the “tiny cup” was an espresso cup and the dessert was so much like rich coffee in pudding form I could only stand a couple bites. If you don’t care for coffee, nuts, or citrus flavored desserts, you are going to be out of luck at Sabatinni’s.

 

After some time in the casino, we checked out the Marriage Match Gameshow. This is a must for someone looking for a good laugh. You could submit yourselves as a couple to participate and they picked 1 newlywed couple, 1 couple who’d been married a while, and an older 3rd couple who’d been married for decades. The husband of the older couple earned cult status for the rest of the cruise given his outspoken nature. The newlywed husband had stepped away to use the bathroom unknowing that his bride of 2 weeks had signed them up. The poor embarrassed girl had to sit there alone being teased by deputy cruise director Chris as they waited for her husband to return. The questions, just like on the TV version, were leading toward semi “risqué” answers. The older husband said that the weirdest place they’d ever made love was the back 40 since he’s a farmer but his wife said the kitchen table when she came back to answer. The couple in the middle got a lot of questions right. The sweet newlywed bride was embarrassed to answer a few of the questions because they’d come on the cruise with the husband’s mom. At one point, the question was asked about the husband’s favorite condiment. When the newlywed husband was asked to answer, he misheard the question and replied Trojan XL.

[tequilasunrise]

Really enjoying this review. Thanks for taking time to post it, and thanks for sharing the pictures! :D

[RRFPresident]

One thing of note that I neglected to mention earlier is that due to U.K. gaming regulations, the ship casino was closed from our arrival in Edinburgh until 10:30PM the night we left Belfast. Please disregard any previous mention about casino play during that time in my prior entries. I had made the assumption we went to the casino when the Patters showed nothing else of interest. By this 7th day onboard and 10th day since we left home, days started to run together in my brain. It’s a good thing we put our shore excursion tickets and tour brochures in order of port stop just to keep reminding us when each stop was.

 

Our Princess excursion of the day was the Loch Lomond Cruise & Scottish Wool Centre. I recalled, if anyone has ever watched The Amazing Race, that one of the tasks the contestants had to do was what the shepherd’s dog does in herding ducks into various positions on an obstacle course. So when I saw this as a choice I thought it would be great to see in person. It turns out in reality to be a cross between a petting zoo/play area, a café and gift shop, and about a five minute show with the dog and ducks. The video on Princess’ web site shows the dog herding cattle, visitors getting to participate as cattle and as if they were the herding dog plus a sheep shearing demonstration. We got about 1/8th of what was described during the visit.

 

When we arrived at the center, there were a few sheep in pens in front. Everyone worked their way around the path past a barn for a little kids petting zoo area and a farm/sheep themed playground.

[RRFPresident]

Inside the shop had everything from apparel to snacks to souvenirs featuring real wool. The shop led into a moderate sized café and our group was the only ones there at first.

 

The shop had several greeting cards with real wool and funny sheep puns:

 

Found this in the gift shop. Something tells me it's not going to help your nails much:

 

The guide and bus driver stopped at the café to get coffee and ended up in a booth chatting with Dad while I looked around the shop. The guide eventually learned that the shepherd (the one seen in the video) would be down to do a show at 10AM and let everyone know as they came into the café. I ended up purchasing the token candy of nearly every gift shop we’d visited, Edinburgh castle rock. It looks like a box of multicolored sidewalk chalk. Haven’t tasted it yet.

 

 

We all headed out to the obstacle course area near the front of the center as the shepherd put all the cattle that had been roaming around the lot into individual pens in front of us who had to line up behind the fence.

 

So what if your master is talking to a bunch of tourists in preparation of showing off your training. When you gotta go, you gotta go!

[RRFPresident]

The shepherd did take time to answer questions and explain what the dog was trained to do before letting the ducks out of a small fenced in corral in the middle of the obstacle course. The dog went right to work working his way around the few ducks crouching low to the ground but staying wide from them. The ducks all stayed together nearly moving in unison, as trained as the dog was. The shepherd instructed the dog to start and stop a couple times just to play around and show off that the dog does rely on his command. The only thing I’m thankful for is that there wasn’t much else to see once the ducks had been herded over a bridge and through a tunnel because the rest of our group had started to crowd in to the point that one tall guy wedged his way in front of me and another to my right was leaning over my shoulder so far I expected his chewing gum to fall down into my hair. Once I got a few pics, I stepped away to let them have their space.

[RRFPresident]

We returned to the bus soon after and made our way to the Loch Achray Hotel. On the way our guide explained the kind of lunch we would be served, advising that we probably wouldn’t care for some of it.

 

Other group's tour guide in front of the hotel:

 

We once again were eating with all the other excursion groups and were grouped together in long tables set up in rows. I nursed the glass of soda we’d been offered upon walking in because the water pitcher left on the table was saturated with lemon. Our main dish was once again chicken but this time we had roasted potatoes, veggies, and a sort of cauliflower mash that looked like lumpy mashed potatoes. It was all pretty good tasting though. Dessert was this pudding cup but it was some mix of oatmeal, raspberries, and very strong liquor. I tried a couple bites but once you got past the over the top liquor taste in the raspberries, the rest of it tasted like pudding that hadn’t been mixed all the way. At one point, we had to signal a couple waiters just to get someone to tend to a group of ladies at the other end of our table who had been missed getting coffee or dessert. A poor young male waiter seemed so overwhelmed at serving a large group that he dropped one of the glass dessert cups as he was handing it one of the women. By the time we were back on the bus I was glad to have picked up some water and vanilla fudge at the wool center.

 

Had some time after lunch to check out the animals grazing in the field just in front of the hotel. At one point, a hotel employee came out with animal feed and a couple of the bigger bulls/cattle were very obliging to the group that had gathered for pictures by the gate.

 

Our bus driver and guide decided to stop on the way to Loch Lomond at some tourist spot featuring a known bull. The bull happened to be lying down in its little corral so the bus pulled in and gave people the option of hopping out to get pictures. Dad and I stayed on the bus.

 

Scenic view on the drive to Loch Lomond: