Spirit UK 6/11/24

[tulok]

Finally decided this cruise (Spirit Southampton to Southampton 6/11/23) was going to be our best option and deposit was made last Monday. Now time to plan excursions and start thinking about restaurant reservations.

The question for my experts: Edinburgh is giving me some thought for excursions. The only included is a panoramic drive. Doesn’t sound very interesting. I am thinking of paying for the City of Edinburgh and It’s Castle tour. I would love to hear your thoughts. We have been to Ireland and England but never Scotland so we want to take it all in.

Any other information on this cruise will be helpful.

Edited December 1, 2023 by tulok

[pavementends]

Having been to Edinburgh, the thing to do is to visit the castle and walk down the Royal Mile. If no royalty in the way, you could also visit Holyrood I suppose. (When I was there, the queen was in the way).

 

No need to pay for this. Can you get transport into town and back from Silversea? That's what I did in Dublin, after they cancelled all the tours I was interested in.

 

[tulok]

@pavementends Thank you. We were thinking of going on our own. That sounds like the best thing to do.

[DiscerningD]

We went on a round uk cruise on Spirit in Sept 21, if you are fortunate you will moor in Leith so no tender required. You will be within walking distance of the Royal Yacht Britannia and a tour of that is absolutely fascinating.  Would concur on a walk from the castle down to Holyrood as the best way to get a sense of Edinburgh old town. 

[Tothesunset]

I see the ship docks at Newhaven, 0800 to 2200.  The dock is very close to the retired Royal Yacht, Britannia. For an active person it's a 15 minute walk. I'm sure the SS "VIP" excursion will be silly expensive so if you'd like to visit Britannia (and you really should - it's magnificent) either walk or get a cab. If you are ex-military, entrance to the yacht is at a lower cost. 

 

From Britannia you can get a bus (I forget the route number but Google maps will tell you) from right in front of the building to Princes Street where you'll find the Scott memorial, Scottish National Gallery (free entry!) and can walk across to the Castle, Royal Mile, Holyrood House. And after a good day's foot-slogging get the bus back to Newhaven. 

 

Whatever you do I'm sure you'll enjoy Edinburgh. It's a fine city. 

 

You also get to visit my old hometown of Belfast! 

 

Looks like a great itinerary. 

[tulok]

@Tothesunset Thank you very much for the information. I think that is a great plan and we enjoy walking so it will be much nicer to stretch our legs then sit in a bus for hours. We will definitely go to see the Royal Yacht. We thought it was a great itinerary and can not wait to see the beautiful countryside especially Belfast.

[jollyjones]

I have read that Newhaven is a tender port - you are implying TTS that the ship is docked there?

https://www.whatsinport.com/Newhaven-Edinburgh-Scotland.htm

I had the Spirit June 11th '24 cruise booked and cancelled it because from what my research showed, I thought there would be too many tender ports, I can't remember which off hand, it's been a couple of months since I did it.

I was feeling particularly hard done by at the time having just disembarked from the Moon Reykjavik - Southampton cruise which had eight out of the ten ports at anchor with fairly long tender rides. Even ports, such as Falmouth, that I had always docked at previously, was a very long tender ride.

I hate tender rides - I accept that there will generally be one or two on any itinerary and I often just stay on the ship - but eight out of ten!!!!

 

SS is the only cruise line that I have dealt with that doesn't include the information of dock or anchor on the itinerary when you are making a booking. There appears to be no way of determining this information before boarding.

I have decided that I must be much more rigorous in my pre-booking research, and for now am sticking to itineraries with which I am familiar.

 

SS remains by far my favourite cruise line but this is an annoying omission by them. If you don't mind tendering this is a good itinerary, but it's not for me.

 

 

Edited December 2, 2023 by jollyjones

[Mayflower1]

You are absolutely right Jollyjones - The Round Britain Cruise mentioned will certainly Tender in Edinburgh and there are likely to be at least 2 more Tender Ports ( Dublin & Plymouth & possibly Fishguard ).

It is indeed disappointing that SS never publish the Information and even trying to ask a question relating to a specific Port only produces ' We are not sure at this stage ' response.

We did a similar Itinerary to this in May this Year, with even more Tenders, some of which were quite long, and can of course be cancelled due to Sea conditions.

.

I hope this helps you tulok in your Planning

[tulok]

@Mayflower1 @jollyjones Thank you for the tender information. I thought a couple of them would be tenders but not so many. We took a RSSC cruise that had many tenders and it worked out.  We are tied to the sea conditions. With the ports closer together if the seas are bad at one port odds are high it will be bad at the next. I am going to have to rethink our choice. We almost decided on the New England itinerary as it fit our timeframe for vacation time. Much to think about.

[fruitmachine]

This year, Dawn tendered to Newhaven and Shadow docked in Leith.  Spirit (at 211 metres) is 1m longer than is normally allowed through the lock into Leith docks.  Although anything above this is on a case-by-case basis, I suspect you'll be tendering to Newhaven as the entry and exit to Leith is also impacted by needing to do this around high tide.

 

Tendering to Newhaven is usually a circa15 minute trip, though this can vary +/- depending on exactly where in the anchorage 'box' the master and pilot decide to drop anchor, and the state of the sea on the day.

 

If Silversea don't provide a shuttle bus into the city centre, the #11 bus (https://www.lothianbuses.com/our-services/lothian-city-buses/) is directly across the road from Newhaven Harbour, and the tram (https://edinburghtrams.com/) is a 5 minute walk away.  The Ocean Terminal stop on the tram is where Britannia is docked.

 

[tulok]

I know this is an unknown question but what normally are the weather and ocean conditions in June for this area?  We don’t mind tendering but I am not much of a gambler. Ports and dates are very important when it comes to us making a vacation decision. 

[machotspur]

15 hours ago, tulok said:

@Tothesunset Thank you very much for the information. I think that is a great plan and we enjoy walking so it will be much nicer to stretch our legs then sit in a bus for hours. 

 

An addition to your Edinburgh route if you have time. Once you are done in Holyrood maybe a not too strenuous walk up to Calton Hill (around 0.5 miles). Superb 360 degree views across Edfinburgh, Leith, the Forth etc.  

[fruitmachine]

1 hour ago, tulok said:

I know this is an unknown question but what normally are the weather and ocean conditions in June for this area?  We don’t mind tendering but I am not much of a gambler. Ports and dates are very important when it comes to us making a vacation decision. 

The weather in June has been pretty good - oddly it was mostly a few ships in the middle of summer that cancelled or diverted due to sea conditions.  I'd say that this year was pretty typical, and you can see the weather graphs and further detail here for this year and previous years. https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/gb/edinburgh/EGPH/date/2023-6

 

I'm pretty certain that the ship has a low enough air draft to get under the Forth Bridges and into Rosyth.  Several ships diverted there at the last minute this year.  The disadvantage is that it's a much longer transfer to Edinburgh city centre, but is a good fallback option for ships that are small enough.

 

[Tothesunset]

7 hours ago, jollyjones said:

I have read that Newhaven is a tender port - you are implying TTS that the ship is docked there?

 

 

Ooh. I've no idea if it's a tender or not. Good point. 

[pavementends]

I forgot to mention the Scott memorial and the National Museum. Didn't know about the Royal Yacht. Add in a pub lunch and OP has a full day.

[tulok]

7 minutes ago, pavementends said:

I forgot to mention the Scott memorial and the National Museum. Didn't know about the Royal Yacht. Add in a pub lunch and OP has a full day.

Absolutely a pub lunch. That would be included in most our stops. 🍻

[turtlemichael]

A place for lunch we enjoyed was Cafe Royal, off Princes Street in New Town as you walk down from Holyrood House.  If you go for the atmosphere rather than haute cuisine food, you won't be disappointed.  But that observation applies to a lot of "pub lunches". The windows are amazing. Cafe Royal Oyster Bar & Restaurant | Edinburgh (caferoyaledinburgh.com)

[tulok]

1 hour ago, turtlemichael said:

A place for lunch we enjoyed was Cafe Royal, off Princes Street in New Town as you walk down from Holyrood House.  If you go for the atmosphere rather than haute cuisine food, you won't be disappointed.  But that observation applies to a lot of "pub lunches". The windows are amazing. Cafe Royal Oyster Bar & Restaurant | Edinburgh (caferoyaledinburgh.com)

I wrote the name down and we will try it. I like the name with Oyster Bar in it.

[tulok]

The decision was made to go for it, tenders and all. Hopefully Poseidon will be in a good mood and keep the waters calm. Thank you to everyone for all the information and advice. It was much appreciated. 

Now it’s time to get a hotel for a couple nights near Waterloo station. The planning is half the fun.