I wondered if any of you would like to see some photos of Orkney and/or recommendations for places to visit?
I live between Glasgow and Edinburgh and I'm no expert but if you had any questions, I would be happy to try and help.
Trader Sam - thank you for posting! I'm definitely interested in seeing some photos and learning more about the area!
Thanks for the input. I would like to start planning too. My kids have also never seen London so would like to stay for a day or two myself. The flights back to Canada leave early so thinking I might make it on the way back to be closer to the airport. Which hotel did you book? Was online this weekend and looking. I am so use to doing Orlando this is so different.
Planning these kinds of trips is definitely different than a trip to Disney World! We have found from our experience that it's good to plan to arrive at least two days in advance to give time to rest from the travel and also to see the city that you arrive in before being whisked off to the ship. Or plan to stay an extra night or two on the back end if you don't have time at the beginning.
So for us, since the ship sails on Sunday, we want to have Saturday to explore which means we need to arrive on Friday morning which has us flying out on Thursday night which has us leaving home on Wednesday to get to the city where our flight will leave.
If you are taking an overnight flight and are staying in London, if the place you're staying is affordable enough, I would recommend seeing about making your reservation for the night you fly over - and just let them know you will be a super-late arrival. I say this because we have had mixed experiences about whether a room was available for us for an early check-in. We usually need two rooms and sometimes one will be ready when we are arriving at the hotel around 10 AM, but other times the room(s) aren't ready until closer to 4:00 PM which is the published check-in time. Being exhausted, having a lot of luggage (or even a little) , and wanting a place to wash up - well, if you can't get into your room until 4:00 PM, that leaves you a little at a loss or, if you aren't careful, a wasted day. You can usually store your luggage with the hotel and take your valuables and documents with you that you might otherwise have stored in your hotel room safe (always use the safe!!!!!) - it's just harder logistically when you don't have a room to secure your things. By booking at least one room for the night before you arrive, the hotel should have that room still available for you when you get there in the morning and you can check in and go crash there instead of in the lobby with all the others arriving at the same time. Sure, it costs more for the night that you aren't there sleeping, but we have decided that's an acceptable expense for us when we need it.
However, we aren't going to do that for our stay in Dover as we expect by the time we get from the airport to Dover, we should be in decent shape for having space available to stash and crash. And while we don't have a full-on sleep when we arrive, we do like to each take a shower and clean up - and nap when it's not your turn in the bathroom
I usually let the family have about three hours before shoving us out the door to explore and find food in an effort to get on European time.
Anyway, that's just something I have been thinking about
