Port of Aberdeen, Scotland

[goldiemom]

Does anyone know which port Azamara uses for Aberdeen?  If it is the new port, do they provide a shuttle to the city center?  Will be on Journey in August.  Azamara cancelled our tour in Aberdeen, so will have to explore on our own.

[fruitmachine]

It's the new (south) harbour. 

https://www.portofaberdeen.co.uk/sectors-served/cruise/cruise-calls/

 

I don't know whether they are providing a shuttle.

 

Make sure you look out for the dolphins at the mouth of the old harbour!

https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/dolphinwatch/

[tango9]

I was just there  on  Pursuit. Yes  south harbor and Azamara provided a shuttle

[goldiemom]

Thank you tango9!

[babykay]

Just be warned - Aberdeen was kind of a dud of a port.  

[uktog]

4 hours ago, babykay said:

Just be warned - Aberdeen was kind of a dud of a port.  

So sad - my university town - so much to see and do there but you need the right research pre cruise and tour etc. Give me the history and buildings of Old Aberdeen any day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Sounds like the cruise line and port tourism folks need to do a bit more work on this one 

[Mackdogmolly]

5 hours ago, uktog said:

So sad - my university town - so much to see and do there but you need the right research pre cruise and tour etc. Give me the history and buildings of Old Aberdeen any day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Sounds like the cruise line and port tourism folks need to do a bit more work on this one 

I would love to go to Aberdeen! Family roots there too.

[tango9]

I took the train in Aberdeen to Stonehaven to then tour Dunnatar Castle.  It was wonderful.  We stopped to have lunch at the Ship Inn on the harbor.  Great day!

[babykay]

I will have to tell you that we did not prepare for Aberdeen at all so were just winging it.  I really would have loved to go to Dunnatar Castle but the ship price had nearly tripled since we originally considered it.  

[goldiemom]

Thank you everyone for the info.  I have researched and found some walks that the tourist agency suggests.  Mainly Old Aberdeen, so I think we will take the bus to the University and walk there.  I do have two questions:

 

Where does the Azamara shuttle drop you off in Aberdeen?

Is Footdee worth a visit?

 

 

[babykay]

9 minutes ago, goldiemom said:

Thank you everyone for the info.  I have researched and found some walks that the tourist agency suggests.  Mainly Old Aberdeen, so I think we will take the bus to the University and walk there.  I do have two questions:

 

Where does the Azamara shuttle drop you off in Aberdeen?

Is Footdee worth a visit?

 

 

The shuttle drops you off across from the mall where the bus station and the train station are. Cabs are there too.  The lower part of Aberdeen is where you are dropped off so you need to get transportation to the upper old town.  Make sure you arrange for a cab to pick you up.  Getting a cab there was unbelievably hard. I don't know anything about Footdee. 

[uktog]

If you can work it in, try and do both Old Aberdeen and Footdee (remembering you pronounce it Fitty). Uber works well in Aberdeen but it’s not a city where you hail cabs. Footdee is pretty unique Scottish fishing village as it used to be now morphed into Aberdeen. Now a much more fashionable address than in my student days. 
Others looking for ideas for Aberdeen Duthie Park is lovely gardens - if the weather is off the Winter Gardens there are perfect again I’d use Uber to get there from the shuttle drop off (bit expensive to do it from the cruise terminal)

[goldiemom]

Thank you so much for the info.  We will use the local buses as transportation.  We use them all over Europe and are used to the Tap and go concept.  I have already downloaded the bus routes or Aberdeen.

[uktog]

9 minutes ago, goldiemom said:

Thank you so much for the info.  We will use the local buses as transportation.  We use them all over Europe and are used to the Tap and go concept.  I have already downloaded the bus routes or Aberdeen.

When you are on the No 20 up to Old Aberdeen you will be on the student nostalgia route. The Union Bar and some of our classes used to be downtown but the others and our Residences were in Old Aberdeen. Union closed at 11 last no 20 1130 the party bus ….

[Lookyboy]

3 hours ago, uktog said:

When you are on the No 20 up to Old Aberdeen you will be on the student nostalgia route. The Union Bar and some of our classes used to be downtown but the others and our Residences were in Old Aberdeen. Union closed at 11 last no 20 1130 the party bus ….

Mmmm.....I remember thon party bus. Great memories of student days in Aberdeen.

[lisiamc]

Next to the South Harbour is a lovely little ruined church, St Fittick’s . It has some interesting tombstones from the mid 1800s, along with some much older ones that are very difficult to read. There is also the possible remnant of a “leper’s squint”, (a window where those standing outside the church could see the altar), although that may just be folklore.

 

There was construction work ongoing at the port facility when we were there, and getting out of the port and back in on foot took some doing. If the work is finished by the time you go, it is a very short walk, and an interesting site.

[Elvis@21]

On 7/27/2023 at 1:24 PM, tango9 said:

I was just there  on  Pursuit. Yes  south harbor and Azamara provided a shuttle

Do the shuttles run at regular intervals?

[tango9]

Yes they did. I think once per hour. 

[Elvis@21]

On 7/31/2023 at 3:07 PM, tango9 said:

I took the train in Aberdeen to Stonehaven to then tour Dunnatar Castle.  It was wonderful.  We stopped to have lunch at the Ship Inn on the harbor.  Great day!

I was thinking of doing the same thing, but thought I would take the bus. Do you think I could get there, tour the castle and get back to the ship in 4 hrs? 

[Elvis@21]

18 minutes ago, tango9 said:

Yes they did. I think once per hour. 

Thank you

[tango9]

On 8/8/2023 at 8:25 PM, Elvis@21 said:

I was thinking of doing the same thing, but thought I would take the bus. Do you think I could get there, tour the castle and get back to the ship in 4 hrs? 

I think you probably need more time. I took the train with no problem. Train station is very near where shuttle drops 

[tango9]

Sorry, I did not finish my last message. After getting to Stonehaven we took a taxi to the Castle. There is aa challenging walk on a slope with many stairs. We spent an hour there. If you walk the coastal walk to the castle from Stonehaven, it takes about 45 minutes each way. We again called a taxi to pick us up at the castle to take us back to Stonehaven for a lunch and run called him again to take us back to train station. I think we spent about five hours doing all this

[Silver Claire]

On 8/1/2023 at 5:41 PM, uktog said:

If you can work it in, try and do both Old Aberdeen and Footdee (remembering you pronounce it Fitty). Uber works well in Aberdeen but it’s not a city where you hail cabs. Footdee is pretty unique Scottish fishing village as it used to be now morphed into Aberdeen. Now a much more fashionable address than in my student days. 
Others looking for ideas for Aberdeen Duthie Park is lovely gardens - if the weather is off the Winter Gardens there are perfect again I’d use Uber to get there from the shuttle drop off (bit expensive to do it from the cruise terminal)

Uber does not operate in Aberdeen

[manc]

We used public transport from where the shuttle dropped us to get to the old town. Had a lovely walk back to city. Then caught the 13 bus which showed us the beach area and into Footdee. Bought a day pass so could easily get about. We were disappointed in Union St as few shops or places to eat. On Journey now

[CHTobi]

On 7/30/2023 at 10:13 PM, uktog said:

So sad - my university town - so much to see and do there but you need the right research pre cruise and tour etc. Give me the history and buildings of Old Aberdeen any day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿. Sounds like the cruise line and port tourism folks need to do a bit more work on this one 

We loved Aberdeen... Made the effort to walk to Aberdeen Old Town and visit the phenomenally beautiful campus of Aberdeen University. For us it was an alternate port as we had to get out of Oslo in a hurry to cross the North Sea due to severe storm - and we actually considered ourselves lucky to be able to visit Aberdeen.