scotland trip report- 8-3 to 8-10 with two pre nights and a post night.

[Rapunzellover]

Day 3- traveled to the Isle of Skye. This was a lot of bus riding. But beautiful sights. We stopped at a rest stop with highland cows. They were very interesting. And I am a born and raised in California dairyland girl who thinks cows are no biggie.

We also stopped at the spectacular Eilean Donan castle. So wonderful. Then it was on to our Portree hotel on the Isle of Skye, called Cullen Hills.

Couple notes here: we also stopped at Fort William for lunch on our own, which was way way way too rushed. The restaurants were super busy and slow and eating lunch was a hectic affair. Do yourself a favor and stop at the first place you see if you do this tour. I regretted trying to look around first. Had to snatch a sandwich and eat on the bus.

Another note: don't expect good reception on phones or wi-fi in Skye. Even the hotel's wi-fi was spotty. Which is sorta shameful for a supposedly high rated hotel. But hey, first world problems, right?

 

[Rapunzellover]

Day 4- Isle of Skye.

We were warned if it was too wet, our hike of Quirang would be substituted with something else (Robyn later told me it was Dunvegan Castle) but it was dry enough to go, and very beautiful. Prior to the Quirang we stopped at a couple of nice beauty spots. Isle of Skye is gorgeous. It got wetter as the hike of the Quirang finished, and it remained pretty rainy the rest of the day, but after the hike, we weren't really outdoors much, so it was okay.

 

[Rapunzellover]

After the hike was Uig hotel for lunch. Fish and chips and other buffet stuff. Good enough. Then, it was time for scone making. This was fun, and much more enjoyable than scone making in Ireland, which imo, was run by a very drill Sgt. type.

 

[Rapunzellover]

Before heading to the scone making, we had a bit of time to browse Portree. I have been seeing way way way too much I want to buy. But I've no room for it all.

Note: dinner ressies are probably a bad idea for your own your own evening. Not only is a lot of food involved in the day (making dinner
unnecessary), but the town is uphill, and weather may be bad. I think everyone in my group stayed at the hotel. It does have a restaurant but no no room service. Plus, you'll have scones from scone making. So you won't go hungery (as if with Disney, right?)

 

[Rapunzellover]

Day 5- Nessie hunting! Left the Isle of Skye for Loch Ness. The weather was bad (we'd have had to cancel our hike if it'd been yesterday). Robyn told me they shut the Skye bridge after we left. We are lucky we didn't get stuck on the Isle.

Loch Ness is lovely. The exhibition center was cool, and we had an awesome local guide at the center. Lunch was at the cafe in the center. Steak and ale pie for me, which was good, but rich. After lunch, Robyn and Mike had bad news: it wasn't raining, but the wind, which was 50mph., meant no canoe ride or cruise on the lake. It wasn't safe.

 

[sayhello]

Day 5- Nessie hunting! Left the Isle of Skye for Loch Ness. The weather was bad (we'd have had to cancel our hike if it'd been yesterday). Robyn told me they shut the Skye bridge after we left. We are lucky we didn't get stuck on the Isle.

Loch Ness is lovely. The exhibition center was cool, and we had an awesome local guide at the center. Lunch was at the cafe in the center. Steak and ale pie for me, which was good, but rich. After lunch, Robyn and Mike had bad news: it wasn't raining, but the wind, which was 50mph., meant no canoe ride or cruise on the lake. It wasn't safe.

What a bummer that you didn't get to do the canoe ride!! What did you do instead?

Sayhello

 

[Rapunzellover]

What a bummer that you didn't get to do the canoe ride!! What did you do instead?

Sayhello

Well, we just had more time for shopping at Loch Ness. Plus, we spent more time at the castle on the lake (Urqhart). Mike, our Scottish
adventure guide is a blue badge guide, and he gave us a guided tour.
I wasn't going to canoe. I was going to just cruise. But it was a bummer! You can't fault anyone but mother nature though.

 

[sayhello]

Well, we just had more time for shopping at Loch Ness. Plus, we spent more time at the castle on the lake (Urqhart). Mike, our Scottish adventure guide is a blue badge guide, and he gave us a guided tour.
I wasn't going to canoe. I was going to just cruise. But it was a bummer! You can't fault anyone but mother nature though.

Ooooo! A built-in Blue Badge Guide? Can't beat that! I felt we didn't have nearly enough time at Urqhart, so that wasn't a bad alternative.

Sayhello

 

[Rapunzellover]

Ooooo! A built-in Blue Badge Guide? Can't beat that! I felt we didn't have nearly enough time at Urqhart, so that wasn't a
bad alternative.

Sayhello

We still didn't have nearly enough time at Urqhart. It's pretty fantastic. But yes, Mike being a blue badge guide was an amazing plus to the tour. He was so knowledgeable. Gave great commentary while we're roaming the country on our coach.

Plus, he's a piper!! He played for us and everything! Will talk more about that later.

 

[Rapunzellover]

So we had a visit to Urqhart after the Loch Ness exhibition, and it was lovely, but very windy. We had on our own time, but I really felt it wasn't enough, cause the place was crowded. Climbing the tower, for example, was a traffic jam. I gave up after the first floor, cause I was afraid of not having time to get back to the bus on time.

Later, after leaving, we drove to Inverness, and the Kingsmills hotel. Beautiful place, but not in the center of Inverness, so going downtown before dinner was not really feasible.

 

[bsusanmb]

Hey, Melissa, I have been busy since our trip but have photos and videos to email you. Scotland is so beautiful, and Mike and Robyn were perfect in every way as was our bus driver. My only complaint, as you know, and as ABD knows is that when we purchased this trip, according to the website ABD, it was to be an adult only trip. Imagine our surprise when we got there and had little children in the group. Not that I don't love children, I do. I have 3 and 4 grandchildren who are my loves. The tweens and teens were great, and some of the children were well behaved and supervised. Enough said. Had a great time getting to know Melissa, Rapunzellover!

 

[tgeorge]

Wow, it happened with another trip? It is very strange to move an adult only trip to an all age adventure. If you advertise something as adult only, it really should stay that way. There are people who choose a particular adventure based upon the fact that it is adult exclusive and for ABD to not honor that seems a bit unfair (to be nice about it). It sounds like you still had a fantastic time, but it still could leave a bad impression.

Scotland looks amazing and I'd love to get there someday.

 

[RSM]

A couple of years ago we were trying to book a specific date, but they didn't have any triples left (we are a family of 3--2 adults and a child). We were offered the next date which was adults only. I asked about it, and they said that there were not enough adults and they were opening it up. If they didn't open it up, it was insinuated that they would cancel the trip. We ended up not doing this trip as there was a cancellation for the date we wanted. I would have assumed, however, that they would have informed the people who booked it as adults only and given them the option to switch, continue on the trip, or cancel altogether. I guess not. Glad it worked out for you, but it would have been nice for you to have been informed of the change, and given some options if you wanted to switch or cancel.

 

[sayhello]

A couple of years ago we were trying to book a specific date, but they didn't have any triples left (we are a family of 3--2 adults and a child). We were offered the next date which was adults only. I asked about it, and they said that there were not enough adults and they were opening it up. If they didn't open it up, it was insinuated that they would cancel the trip. We ended up not doing this trip as there was a cancellation for the date we wanted. I would have assumed, however, that they would have informed the people who booked it as adults only and given them the option to switch, continue on the trip, or cancel altogether. I guess not. Glad it worked out for you, but it would have been nice for you to have been informed of the change, and given some options if you wanted to switch or cancel.

I totally agree with this. If I chose an adults only trip, then ABD should give me options if they no longer offer it as one. Because I generally *do* pick specific departures *because* they're adults only. I would NOT have been happy!

Sayhello

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Hey, Melissa, I have been busy since our trip but have photos and videos to email you. Scotland is so beautiful, and Mike and Robyn were perfect in every way as was our bus driver. My only complaint, as you know, and as ABD knows is that when we purchased this trip, according to the website ABD, it was to be an adult only trip. Imagine our surprise when we got there and had little children in the group. Not that I don't love children, I do. I have 3 and 4 grandchildren who are my loves. The tweens and teens were great, and some of the children were well behaved and supervised. Enough said. Had a great time getting to know Melissa, Rapunzellover!

Wow, it happened with another trip? It is very strange to move an adult only trip to an all age adventure. If you advertise something as adult only, it really should stay that way. There are people who choose a particular adventure based upon the fact that it is adult exclusive and for ABD to not honor that seems a bit unfair (to be nice about it). It sounds like you still had a fantastic time, but it still could leave a bad impression.

Scotland looks amazing and I'd love to get there someday.

I totally agree with this. If I chose an adults only trip, then ABD should give me options if they no longer offer it as one. Because I generally *do* pick specific departures *because* they're adults only. I would NOT have been happy!

Sayhello

Wow, that is pretty shocking! I'd be very upset if I picked an adult only trip and showed up and there were kids on it--especially since if I'm on an adult only that means I'm leaving my own kids behind for some adult time! If they'd let you know the trip would be canceled and gave you an option that's one thing, but to just show up and find out the trip was changed? NOT acceptable. I hope you called them on it?

 

[Cousin Orville]

I totally agree with this. If I chose an adults only trip, then ABD should give me options if they no longer offer it as one. Because I generally *do* pick specific departures *because* they're adults only. I would NOT have been happy!

Sayhello

Wow, that is pretty shocking! I'd be very upset if I picked an adult only trip and showed up and there were kids on it--especially since if I'm on an adult only that means I'm leaving my own kids behind for some adult time! If they'd let you know the trip would be canceled and gave you an option that's one thing, but to just show up and find out the trip was changed? NOT acceptable. I hope you called them on it?

Really?! They changed an adults only to a regular ABD? What were they thinking? Sometimes it's like the Twilight Zone with ABD.

 

[tgeorge]

I agree! If they were to call and say they were changing it to include families and I was given the option to continue with the trip or get a refund, then that would be my choice. But, if they were 'opening' it up due to poor reservations I doubt they would offer people the opportunity to cancel because they could potentially still be in a shortage situation. It is just a poor practice and one I hope they realize is not very conducive to giving people a good experience.

 

[Rapunzellover]

Hey, Melissa, I have been busy since our trip but have photos and videos to email you. Scotland is so beautiful, and Mike and Robyn
were perfect in every way as was our bus driver. My only complaint, as you know, and as ABD knows is that when we purchased this trip,
according to the website ABD, it was to be an adult only trip. Imagine our surprise when we got there and had little children in the
group. Not that I don't love children, I do. I have 3 and 4 grandchildren who are my loves. The tweens and teens were great,
and some of the children were well behaved and supervised. Enough said. Had a great time getting to know Melissa, Rapunzellover!

So good to hear from you Susan! Did ABD do anything for you re: changing the adult only trip? They should, imo.

I think this trip was changed to all ages to sell. We were a small group. Without the juniors, this date would likely have been canceled. That's what I started thinking. But still unfair, very unfair.

What did you and Bob think of the tattoo? Wasn't it great? How wet did you get?

 

[bsusanmb]

Oh LOVED the Tattoo. Pretty wer but I wanted it to keep going! ABD executives did nothing except send a rude response back thru this poor girl who is the correspondent for ABD &DCL! I am writing them again. I want them to tell me how they plan to fix THEIR poor correspondent and make sure. ABD website matches the schedulers website. Basically they called me a liar but have not sent me proof. Their IT people do not have capability to go back to see the ABD website supposedly anyway once the trip is changed or falls off the web. DCL did give us 25% off a future cruise. I know that their staff totally understood. I am just so angry w ABD admin. They are not working the Disney business model. They were blatantly rude and abrupt w canned answers. But we lived Scotland and meeting you and our Canadian friends and their lovely daughter.

 

[bsusanmb]

Just sent you video of you feeding deer and the Dancer and pics of castle from the hill and bridge