Need help with British Isle Ports

[Michelle66]

I just booked for August 26, 2022 NCL Dawn and I am just starting to research ports. I know so much is uncertain and we may have to stick with cruiseline

excursions but  hoping by next year we can book what we want!! I had must sees at most but what would you say are your favorite things to see at these ports? We are all about the scenery and Castles on this trip!! Hubby doesn't want to go so going with a friend so at least I don't have to worry about him being bored!! Thanks

in advance for any help you can offer!! Michelle 🙂

 

Kirkwall, Great Britain

Liverpool, UK

Dublin, Ireland

Portland, England

[Diver2014]

We did a British Isles cruise in 2019 and loved every minute of it (we were on Princess).  In Liverpool, we just walked around the waterfront where everything is then took a Liverpool City Sights bus (the double decker red bus that you can catch right near the cruise terminal) because we wanted to do a Beatles tour.  It was worth it.  We also visited the Beatles Museum near the waterfront.  Again, worth it but then I'm a 60's music fan.  In Dublin, we took a ship tour thru the city and to a distillery.  Didn't go to the other two places you have listed.  The whole cruise was absolutely awesome!

[Ashland]

Dublin is an easy walk around port area...our ship offered a shuttle or many walked. The Trinity College area is great.

[markeb]

I wish I could give first hand advice, but I'm going to see what you get from others! I suspect I'd be much happier with a land-based trip to Dublin, but my ancestors were thrown out of Scotland, migrated through Ireland, supposedly to Cork, and ended up in Virginia in the early 1700s, then across the country until I sort of came back. So I NEED to go to Ireland...

 

I'm going to have to find them again, but I know there were a couple of really good travel documentaries on either Netflix or Amazon Prime or both that I've watched in the last few months on both Dublin and Liverpool. I was actually pretty amazed at Liverpool, because you tend to think of an industrial shipping city, and there's a lot more there. If I find them again, I'll post the names.

 

I've only seen pictures, but in the kill two birds with one stone category, the Guinness Storehouse at St. James Gate has a rooftop bar that appears to have possibly the best views of Dublin. And Guinness on tap on the grounds of the brewery!

[phabric]

Dublin - we took a taxi to the Book of Kells, at Trinity College Dublin (tcd.ie).  I purchased timed tickets in advance, with a long line even before it opened. Walked out of the College gates and took the HOHO (there are 2 HOHO companies). I purchased tickets in advance.   We took a taxi back to the ship.

 

Princess offered a shuttle into Dublin (I think $).

 

Check past Roll Calls for British Isles cruises to see if others have posted private tours, they might give you ideas.

[John Bull]

Portland, Dorset, is (almost) a rock island, connected to the mainland by a road causeway. Many of England's iconic buildings are built of Portland stone. 

 

For an inexpensive laid-back day, cruise ships provide shuttle-buses about 4 miles to the very pleasant if un-remarkable Victorian seaside resort of Weymouth. Harbour, winding little streets, seafront promenade with long beach of golden sand - favoured for sand-sculptures. Smuggling museum and minor sights, plus of course pubs, fish & chip shops, souvenir shops & such.

If you get back to your ship early, take a look at diminutive Portland Castle and the D-Day museum, both close to your berth. (Out in the harbour are a couple of rather ugly concrete caissons, used for tying-up boats - they're actually re-purposed from part of the Mulberry Harbour, constructed on the Normandy coast at Arromanches, to supply troops in the days after D-Day. 

 

There are plenty of sights & villages to tour from Portland but there are no ad-hoc tours, or even taxis, at the port gate.   And no suitable public transport for a port-of-call visit. If you want to explore the Jurassic coast or Corfe Castle, or Lulworth Cove and Durdle Door, or the internationally-famous Tank Museum at Bovingdon, or the Swannery at Abbotsbury, or the market town of Dorchester, etc  you need to fix that up in advance.

Here are some threads about those places and tour operators.

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/search/?q=Portland&quick=1&type=forums_topic&nodes=148

 

Your ship will probably offer tours to Stonehenge or Bath.

Be aware that these are long journeys  - 2 hours and 2.5 hours each-way, and not particularly interesting routes.

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Liverpool isn't my neck of the woods. It has its waterfront and many Beatles-themed options.

But if cities aren't your scene consider buying seats on a "BusyBus" van to visit north Wales -  Conwy Castle, Snowdonia National Park etc. This tour is specifically for cruisers, and has received excellent reviews on Cruise Critic.

 https://www.busybus.co.uk/north-wales-from-liverpool-cruise-terminal/

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Had a long weekend in Dublin, not from a cruise ship. The Book of Knells and the Guinness brewery are high on visitors' lists, or if time permits a tour of the Wicklow Mountains.

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Kirkwall Can't help, I haven't been to the Orkney Islands, which are a little remote.

My map doesn't give any details - it just says "There be Dragons here" 😜

 

JB 🙂

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by John Bull

[gnome12]

I did a land tour of northern Scotland in 2019. We spent some time in Kirkwall itself, but the most interesting things on Orkney are neolithic, particularly Skara Brae (a very interesting settlement, quite well preserved) and Maeshowe ( a very interesting burial mound with later added Viking inscriptions), which are both a distance out.

 

Maeshowe in particular has a visitor centre, but from there you take a shuttle (maximum 25 people at a time) to the burial site, so that would need to be prebooked or be part of a small group tour. I'm not sure it could be done as part of a larger bus tour.

 

The morning we left Kirkwall, there were 2 fairly large cruise ships in port, and a huge number of buses lined up, presumably to get people out into the countryside. I don't know anything about small group tours, but a quick Google search for Kirkwall shore excursions turned up a number of sites.

[markeb]

2 hours ago, John Bull said:

Kirkwall Can't help, I haven't been to the Orkney Islands, which are a little remote.

My map doesn't give any details - it just says "There be Dragons here" 😜

 

 

Didn't realize Kirkwall was in the Orkney Islands. I believe those dragons breathe peat smoke over malted barley in Kirkwall...😉

[Jadn13]

I haven’t traveled yet but For Portland I looked into a local tour company that would take a group off the ship on any tour you create.

This is what I planned

 

Tour Mapperton Estate

https://mapperton.com

 

Lunch/Pub stop in Beaminster 

(Small town near Mapperton)

 

Jurassic Coast

https://jurassiccoast.org

[ontheweb]

Not a castle, but would highly recommend the Book of Kells at Trinity College in Dublin, truly amazing.

[Harters]

On 3/4/2021 at 11:25 PM, Michelle66 said:

Kirkwall, Great Britain

Liverpool, UK

Dublin, Ireland

Portland, England

I don't wish to be overly pedantic about my country's geography, but you appear to be using the words England, Great Britain and UK interchangeably. They're not. England is one part of the island of Great Britain which, together with Northern Island forms our country's name of the United Kingdom of Great Brtain & Northern Ireland (UK). Kirkwall is on an island in Scotland, so also part of Great Britain and the UK.

 

Liverpool is about an hour's drive from home and probably has enough to keep your occupied for a day even though it's obviously an urban landscape (and riverscape?) without castles. There is much to see along the waterfront including the previously mentioned Beatles Museum. There's also the Museum of Liverpool  and a branch of the Tate Art Gallery (which has changing exhibitions and is usually our focus for a day trip). The adjacent Maritime Museum is also worth a look, as is the Slavery Museum in the same building. In common with most British museums, entrance is free to all of them (except the Beatles).

 

Whilst on the waterfront, you might think of taking the ferry across the Mersey (cue Gerry and the Pacemakers' 1965 song). You land in the town of Birkenhead and you get a great view back to the Liverpool city skyline. By the by, Birkenhead Park was the first municipally owned one in the UK and is understood to have been a driving influence on the designer of New York's Central Park.

 

For lunch,  check out the Baltic Fleet pub, also near the waterfront. It's perhaps the city's most well known old pub and is known for serving scouse - the stew that gives Liverpudlians their nickname.

 

Your nearest castle is, as mentioned upthread, at Conwy in North Wales - about a 75 minute drive.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Harters

[Harters]

I visited Kirkwall on a cruise a couple of years or so back.  We had booked what looked like an interesting ship's excursion round the island, taking in some of the very early archaeology sites. The trip was also going to take in Scapa Flow which was home to our Grand Fleet during the Great  War ) I'd hoped to pay my respects to the 20 or so Royal Navy sailors from our town who died during the war and have no known grave.

 

In the event, my companion was unwell so we didnt go. Later in the day, we took the shuttle bus into town and just had a look round. This might be the capital of the Orkneys but it's really only a village with no much to commend it (other than seeing what a "real place" in the Orkneys looks like). The church is interesting - built at a time when it was under the control of the Norwegian church.

 

Have to say, looking round the town was very much a second best and my advice would be to pick a tour.

[dog]

I have been to 3. Took Beetles Black Cab Tour in Sexy Sadie. Loved it! Picked us up at ship, left off off in town to walk back at our request paid at end. 
 

kirkwall took ships morning tour of island  ok, but crowded bus with couple taking up 5 seats. I had to give up my seat for them. Pub lunch and very long line to get on tender back to ship 

 

Dublin been twice. Took shuttle to town near HOHo stop used that for overview then on own walking around pedestrian area in town shuttle back to ship. Might have been $5 pp not sure. Sometimes these are free 

so d time in Dublin took taxi tour to places big red bus didn’t go. Got nice countryside tour, cemetery, lunch at Johnny Foxes. Great day

 

 

[Harters]

dog - was your Kirkwall visit some years back?  We didn't tender in 2017 and I have it mind that the docking area was a fairly recent construction

 

And a correction on the castle information. Conwy is by no means the nearest to Liverpool. Ones nearer include the castles at Denbigh, Flint and Rhuddlan. Apologies for any confusion. Conway is, however, much larger and more interesting than those three. Apologies for any confusion.

Edited March 29, 2021 by Harters

[John Bull]

8 hours ago, Harters said:

 

And a correction on the castle information. Conwy is by no means the nearest to Liverpool. Ones nearer include the castles at Denbigh, Flint and Rhuddlan. Conway is, however, much larger and more interesting than those three

 

Yes, Conwy castle is indeed very much larger, the original town was built within its walls. But more than that.........................

 

- it is pretty complete. Like many castles in England & Wales, the other three are ruins - little to see other than their footprints and some stone walls - but at Conwy you can see it much as as it was 700 years ago..

 

- it's an  important castle -  one of the chain of landmark major castles built by King Edward 1 ("Longshanks" because of his physique) to subdue the Welsh. Comparable to Harlech, Caernarfon, Beaumaris

 

- its location means it ties well into a rounded tour which can include places like Betws-y-coed, Snowdonia, the slate works/museum at Llanberis, and the Ormes Head 

 

JB 🙂

[oatbagg1]

as we discovered the port where the ship docks is not often near the town--Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh especially.  Figure on extra times for tours (which meet you at the port). That's what we'll do in Edinburgh, as it's a great hike up 120 steps to take a train into town.