Scotland Meets Thread (formerly Scotland: A Brave Adventure)

[edinburghlass]

For those going to the Edinburgh Tattoo, it's amazing!! Best one I have ever seen and very warm, well for us anyway, I was in shirt sleeves all night so I hope the weather is kind to you all.

 

[rebeccam31]

Hi! Could you add us to the roll call? We are booked for the trip departing July 21, 2014. In my party there is myself, my husband, and our then-12 year old daughter. I am ridiculously excited about this (I'm of Scot heritage, though a lowlander )!

 

[sayhello]

Hi! Could you add us to the roll call? We are booked for the trip departing July 21, 2014. In my party there is myself, my husband, and our then-12 year old daughter. I am ridiculously excited about this (I'm of Scot heritage, though a lowlander )!

Done! This looks like a great itinerary. Congrats!

Sayhello

 

[rebeccam31]

Thanks so much! I don't want to wish a year away, but....

 

[sayhello]

Thanks so much! I don't want to wish a year away, but....

If you'd like to get really excited, you might want to check out the Live Trip Report that calypso726 is posting right now from this very ABD! Beautiful photos! She's trying not to spoil any surprises.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3150065

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

If you'd like to get really excited, you might want to check out the Live Trip Report that calypso726 is posting right now from this very ABD! Beautiful photos! She's trying not to spoil any surprises.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3150065

Sayhello

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the trip report! There have been surprises each day and I have not reported any of them If it is not specifically mentioned in the itinerary then I won't post about it.

 

[Tozzie]

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying the trip report! There have been surprises each day and I have not reported any of them If it is not specifically mentioned in the itinerary then I won't post about it.

Thank you , I stopped reading your live report after the ABD started cause I didn't want to ruin the surprises, now I can go back to reading I am really looking at your restaurants.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

We are on the tour with Calypso and having an absolute blast--I'll post a short TR when we get back but so far it's exceeded my expectations. The adventures guides on our trip are fantastic.

 

[rebeccam31]

I found that right after I posted! SO gorgeous. It just looks like it can't even be real. I can't wait to prove to myself that it is.

 

[Calfan]

We are on the tour with Calypso and having an absolute blast--I'll post a short TR when we get back but so far it's exceeded my expectations. The adventures guides on our trip are fantastic.

Also having a fantastic time. The full day on Skye is absolutely phenomenal. Of course, it helped that we had postcard-perfect weather for the hike (which is not to be missed). I also want to second how great our guides have been. Hanneke has been so good with DS 9. We just had to take video of them at dinner to tonight playing tug of war by blowing water drops across a line on a plate and balancing spoons on their noses. She also took him in her canoe on Loch Ness yesterday.

 

[disneydeb8]

Welcome Rebeccam.

We are booked for next summer as well. Being Scottish myself this is the first time my entire 'clan' will tour Scotland extensively. My DH and I planned to hold off on this trip until our children were all of a good age to really appreciate the history and our heritage and here we are! They have quite a list of places to see we will need a private tour in addition to ABD!

I agree that I don't want to wish the year away but my heart strings are being pulled with calypso trip report photos.

 

[sayhello]

Welcome Rebeccam.

We are booked for next summer as well. Being Scottish myself this is the first time my entire 'clan' will tour Scotland extensively. My DH and I planned to hold off on this trip until our children were all of a good age to really appreciate the history and our heritage and here we are! They have quite a list of places to see we will need a private tour in addition to ABD!

I agree that I don't want to wish the year away but my heart strings are being pulled with calypso trip report photos.

disneydeb8, would you like to be added to the Roll Call in the first post? If so, let me know which departure you're going on, and who's in your party!

Sayhello

 

[rebeccam31]

That's fantastic! I don't know much about my heritage as my family has all passed, but my maiden name was "Renfrew" and I do know that that was where we were from. We may add on some time at the end to go down to Paisley and Renfrew.

 

[disneydeb8]

That's fantastic! I don't know much about my heritage as my family has all passed, but my maiden name was "Renfrew" and I do know that that was where we were from. We may add on some time at the end to go down to Paisley and Renfrew.

My Dad is from Paisley and I know we have distant family in Renfrew as well! We will be touring his birthplace and monuments before the ABD tour. Paisley had a huge air strike that my grandfather was killed in that has been memorialized in recent years so it will be a first for even me.

I'm first generation American and on both my mom and dads side all my family is in Sccotland. No roots here in the states.... But dual citizenship is pretty cool.

If you want to really explore your heritage you can go on some ancestry sites to get started. I am sorry to hear of your loss. This may be a way to connect with your lineage. Scottish heritage is HUGE. It's hard to describe but my parents had such an influence, all their son in-laws consider themselves Scottish!

I had a book on all things Scottish I received as a gift and it referenced Scotland as being a country no bigger than the state of California but with a presence known the world over. That's pretty cool

 

[disneydeb8]

disneydeb8, would you like to be added to the Roll Call in the first post? If so, let me know which departure you're going on, and who's in your party!

Sayhello

Thanks....

I'm not sure if I sent it correctly but I pm'd you the info. Let me know if you didn't receive it.

 

[sayhello]

Thanks....

I'm not sure if I sent it correctly but I pm'd you the info. Let me know if you didn't receive it.

Received & done!

Sayhello

 

[calypso726]

For those who have followed this thread from the beginning you will know that there were some concerns over itinerary changes for those traveling in late July/August. There were also concerns regarding feedback on earlier trips. Since I was one of the people who was quite vocal regarding these topics I thought I should share my impressions regarding my experience since we have completed our trip.

Let me start with the itinerary. There is simply no way we would have been able to do this type of a trip on our own. The logistics alone of getting from point a to point b would have been beyond daunting. I don't think this is something we appreciated until we were actually on the trip! Some of the most amazing things we experienced would have never been on our radar. What I thought would have been the biggest highlight of our trip surprisingly was not. Our biggest highlight was something we nearly skipped because it held no interest for us.

Our guides, Hanneke and Zoe were absolutely amazing! We don't have kids but from my vantage point they were wonderful with the kids. They seemed to spend time with everyone on the trip equally, including the adults. They did their level best to make sure every person was having a great experience. They took pictures with each family's camera so that the entire family would be in the pictures they took home. If you needed reservations for a restaurant on your own, a cab to go wherever or to find out where to buy a "insert random souvenir request" they took care of it for you. They were fun to be around and made the trip incredibly enjoyable. Their chemistry together is amazing and they really helped all of us come together as a group.

Itinerary changes for the people going during the Tattoo: Many people, myself especially, were extremely disappointed over not having a private dinner at Edinburgh Castle. I thought that would be the highlight of my trip and one of the things I was most looking forward to experiencing. When this was switched to Stirling Castle it was still ok because it was a castle. Then when it got switched to the Signet Library I was really disappointed. A library doesn't sound as cool as a castle no matter how you describe it. The extra hour it would have taken to get there and back seemed like a small sacrifice and worth the experience.

Here are my thoughts now. The private dinner at Edinburgh Castle is in the same room where we had our VIP Military Tattoo dinner on our pre-trip. So, suffice it to say, we did have a private dinner at Edinburgh Castle, just not with ABD. We also toured Stirling Castle on our pre-trip, so we've seen it and are well aware of the distance from the Balmoral. We just had our farewell dinner at the Signet Library this evening. Driving to Stirling is a lot, especially considering all the time on the coach today. If I were given the choice of the three venues today, I would choose the Signet Library hands down. I never thought I'd say that, but there you have it.

This is by far the best trip we have ever taken. I never thought that anything could top 3 weeks in Australia but this did! I am almost afraid to go on our next ABD in 2014. The bar has been set so high I can't imagine anything else will come close.

 

[sayhello]

So good to hear your perspective on all of this, Terrie. I'm beyond glad that it all worked out in the end. The pictures you posted from the Signet Library look amazing! ALL your pictures look amazing. I thought I'd decided which trip I was doing next year, but now I'm starting to question my decision. You just paint such an amazing picture of this trip and of Scotland!

Thanks!
Sayhello

 

[rebeccam31]

Off topic but we saw Matilda just a few weeks ago. It was delightful in every way. Those kids are off-the-charts talented!

 

[calypso726]

So good to hear your perspective on all of this, Terrie. I'm beyond glad that it all worked out in the end. The pictures you posted from the Signet Library look amazing! ALL your pictures look amazing. I thought I'd decided which trip I was doing next year, but now I'm starting to question my decision. You just paint such an amazing picture of this trip and of Scotland!

Thanks!
Sayhello

Thank you. I know some people were a bit nervous about the previous comments, including me, which is why I chose to add a trip report and share my views. I was beyond impressed with the trip. Like I said in another thread, our guides could have been animatrons and I still would have thought the trip was amazing. Fortunately they were fantastic guides! ABD has a lot of nice trips available but you sure couldn't go wrong doing this one. From what I have read here on the boards, I know over time some trips get tweaked. This is another reason we chose to do this trip as soon as it was announced. I didn't want to miss out on any of the original itinerary.