Our next port was Kirkwell. What an amazing place. We woke up to sunny skies and the landscape was just breathtaking. It's all green fields, there are not a lot of trees. You'll see when you get there. It is too windy for trees to grow
We did the Orkney's Neolithic Heartland - Adults only. This ended up being my favorite excursion. I have a print out of this excursion, so I have a bit more detail. 45 minute bus ride to Skara Brae where we saw the remains of a 5,000 year old village. This village was along a beautiful bay to the Atlantic. Blue water and white sand beaches. I thought I was in the Caribbean.
I also have to let you know, it was a beautiful sunny and warm day. We brought our Disney British Isles sweatshirts but took them off because it was so nice. We spent about 45 minutes with our guide, who had two degrees in archeologically. He was a great tour guide. This stone age settlement was just amazing. We then went into Skail House, one of Orkney's finest manors. Kirkwell is on the Island of Orkney. We then went to the Ring of Brodgar to see the Ancient Standing Stones. We got off the bus here and were able to walk around and touch the stones. I hugged a stone, but did not go anywhere. (reference to Outlander) We then headed back to the ship. Along Scapa Flow, our guide was narrating most of the way. This area was prominent during World War II. The roads in this area are very narrow and winding. This excursion was in the afternoon, so you could have gone into the town of Kirkwall via the shuttle bus provided by Disney but we did not do that. When we got back to the ship, there was a wedding going on at the pier. Someone on our cruise had gotten married earlier that day at Skail House and a captain from the coast guard ship docked next to us, was officiating a ceremony. It was cool to see, but the couple must have been mystified with all of the returning busses coming into their ceremony. I fell in love with Scotland at this port. Our table mates had done, Kirkwall on their own; Cliffs and Standing Stones and the other couple were on our tour. A note about tours, we asked and mostly got the Adults only tours. I'm not quite sure if I would do that again. There were very few children on our cruise. 400 I think. Normal is 600 to 800. ages 4 - 16 This trip was in the beginning of June, most kids are still in school and this type of cruise is not 'geared' towards children. There were a couple of 'small group' tours we were not able to get ahead of time. One set of our tablemates asked and was successful in getting these small group tours upon boarding. I did not even think to ask about that. Next day was a day at Sea, we did the Trivia Hunt on the ship. There's lots of activities to do on the sea days. One note, if it is a rainy sea day, avoid Lumier's for lunch. It was mobbed and the service was not good. First time ever, that we've had poor service at lunch. But no one was eating at the hot dog, hamburger places on deck due to the poor weather. I would have done room service if I had known. Also they have a few beverage seminars set up on sea days, We did a private one set up by the Facebook group we were with. Next port is Greenoch.