We recently returned from our 15 day British Isles Explorer Cruise with an Edinburgh Extension on the front end and the Oslo Scenic Rail on the end. We had a wonderful time despite a few small hiccoughs which were as much our fault as Vikings.

We booked our favorite PV on the 5th floor (5012) and loved the location and the cabin. It is quite roomy and had more than enough room for all of our stuff. Two females travelling together … lots of stuff! Our cabin stewards were wonderful! We have always had great service at this level but these two were particularly amazing. Just an example … the second night we called for some ice for a sore knee. It arrived promptly and we filled the ice bag we brought (I told you we had a lot of stuff!) and I enjoyed some welcome “end of a long day” relief. The next day when they serviced the cabin they refilled the ice bucket and the ice bag and left it neatly on a small towel on the credenza. They did this twice a day every day for the rest of the cruise … it was wonderful to have ice for my aching knee and enough for some refreshing drinks as well!

The itinerary was great and we enjoyed getting to know the Britain outside of London! We were very glad we listened to our CC “friends” and booked the extension on the front end of the trip. August is “Festival Month” in Edinburgh and the THREE big events (Military Tattoo, Fringe/Arts, and an International Book Festival) virtually double the city’s population for most of the month. We arrived on the 1st and the official start of the festivities was the 4th so we only dealt with the beginning of the epic crowds. We had a chance to see a lot of Edinburgh, enjoy some time in the Scottish countryside, and got out of town as things got really busy! Some of the people who visited the city on the cruise said it was pretty miserable with the crowds … and of course rain! We enjoyed wonderful weather during our three night stay. Later ports included (not in order) Dover, Holyhead (Wales), Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, The Orkney Islands and the Shetlands. We missed the stop at Ullapool as it was too rough to tender. We booked a mix of included and optional tours and the optional were by far better than the included. We try to go with the included when it is a walking tour or there is an option to stay in port and shuttle back at some later time in the day. The Dublin included tour was one of these and we enjoyed it very much … it was one of the few that felt organized and ran on time. The Glasgow included excursion was awful … a lot of time and really saw little of anything! This was partly due to the fact that one of the two stops didn’t open until 11:00 (the tour started at 9:00). By the time we got there (an art museum) there was only about 20 minutes to “visit”! Read more