A Scottish right Royal time! TRIP REPORT COMPLETED 1/10 - Page 2 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Plans are looking good and hope it all works out with the transportation available without a car. Seems like there are quite a few options. Nice going by planning this trip with the bank holiday, which will make things a lot easier.
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Plans are looking good and hope it all works out with the transportation available without a car. Seems like there are quite a few options. Nice going by planning this trip with the bank holiday, which will make things a lot easier.
Oh definitely. I think we'll need an extra day to recover, especially given we fly back quite late on the Sunday.
Pre-trip report – part three: experiencing the Fringe…
So what are our plans across the two days then? Well, once we’ve arrived on our flight and taken the tram to our hotel, hopefully it will still be relatively early in the day. I don’t expect our room to be ready, but if it is, then bonus. Otherwise, then we’ll leave our hand luggage at the hotel and head out to explore.
The plan is to get one of the hop-on, hop-off bus services, but there’s a bit of a walk to get there. It will allow us to see parts of Edinburgh that surprisingly we haven’t seen before. Actually, that’s not fair. We have driven past them before, but it will be nice to actually see them properly, if that makes sense?
The first is the Royal Scots Grey Memorial, which I’m not sure we have seen, although it may ring a bell when I see it. Then the next is the Floral Clock, which again I don’t remember seeing before. We’ll then walk through the Mound Precinct, which is in the Princes Gardens, where the Tattoo first started. This is home to some of the street acts from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Now I don’t know if you guys have ever heard of this, but I’ve always been aware of it, but have never really been that interested in it. It’s just not my sort of thing…
However, this year it’s celebrating its 70th anniversary, and there’s been a lot of coverage of it, and I’ve been very impressed with some of the people they’ve interviewed who are taking part in it, as they’re household names. Then I’ve heard other acts who have been just amazing. Of course, the problem is that a lot of the acts perform in the evening, which mean we can’t attend, given we’ve got the Tattoo on the Saturday night, then we’re flying home 24 hours later.
Anyway, how did the Fringe start? I had no idea until this year, when I discovered the background to it. Eight theatre companies turned up uninvited to the inaugural Edinburgh International Festival. The performers in the “official” festival were using all the city’s major venues, so the other companies took over smaller, alternative venues for their shows instead, which were on the “fringe” of the official festival.
They interviewed one of the people who took part in those theatre companies on the BBC, and he came over to the UK during the Second World War, escaping the Nazi regime. To hear him talk and say that, having gone through that, he wasn’t going to let anyone stop him performing in Edinburgh, was really inspiring.
Anyone can participate in any type of performance, as there’s no selection committee to get past. Generally, I’ve always thought of it as being a comedy festival, but this year when listening to the promotion of it, it also includes dance, theatre, circus, cabaret, magic, musicals, exhibitions and events.
It’s now the world’s largest arts festival, and in 2016, it was on for 25 days, and featured more than 50,000 performers in over 3,000 shows in nearly 300 venues. That’s quite breath taking when you think about it, isn’t it?
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what performers there are. We may have no interest in any of them whatsoever, and it may be a quick wander through, but there may be ones that appeal to us. Who knows? We’ll find out on the day.
We’ll then walk past the Scott Monument, which we have seen before, and then we’ll head over to catch the hop-on, hop-off bus. We’ll take it over to the third stop, and this is the service that goes into the suburbs of the city, so it will allow us to visit the Royal Botanic Gardens, which I really like the look of. Walking through the gardens is free of charge, but you do pay to go into the greenhouse, but by taking the hop-on, hop-off bus, we get 50% off that fee, which is a great deal.
Then it’s back on the bus and over to the tenth stop, which will allow us to see quite a bit on the way, including out to the Royal Yacht Britannia. We’ll get off there and visit Dynamic Earth. I’m not sure what to expect from this place, as the description given is quite something. Here’s what their website says:
A visit to Dynamic Earth is like nothing else on Earth. It's a chance to experience the primeval forces of nature as they shaped our planet, to journey through space and time and even go on a 4DVENTURE around the world. You'll be embarking on the interactive adventure of a lifetime - the lifetime of our planet.
Travel back to the beginning of time in our Deep Time Machine and witness the big bang first hand. Rocket through the universe in a spaceship travelling billions of times faster than the speed of light and see stars explode on the other side of the galaxy. Feel the ground shudder as a molten lava flow speeds straight towards you and volcanoes throw clouds of ash and gas into the sky. The Polar ice caps are brought to within your reach giving you the chance to touch an iceberg for yourself. You can see your breath, smell the cold and feel your hands turning numb as you stand beneath the Aurora Borealis. Fly high above ice cold glaciers and marvel at their power as they carve out entire continents. From your dizzying height it’ll feel so real you could almost be there before your soar from the sky and dive beneath the ocean.
As you plunge into the ocean depths in our yellow submarine you'll be able to explore the wonders of this aquatic world through the portholes. Man the periscope and search for whales or simply marvel at the incredible creatures that live where life wasn't thought possible. Watch a 30 foot wall of waves tell the moving story of the oceans without them life on this planet wouldn't be here and you certainly wouldn't be reading this!
Experience films as you've never seen - or felt them - before. The ShowDome Cinema with its 360 degree digital dome technology and thunderous surround sound is the only one of its kind in Scotland.
Well, it certainly sounds interesting anyway!
When we come out of there, we’ll see how we’re doing for time, as I just want to make sure that we’ve got some down time back at the hotel. I’m conscious it’s going to be a late night, with the Tattoo performance only starting at 10:30pm, and frankly, it’s only very rarely that we stay up that late. We managed it at the World Athletics Championships, but that’s about all I can remember in recent times.
If we do head back, and have a break, then our next plan is dinner. Now that was a challenge! I kept looking at places that I liked the look of, but every time I found something, either it wasn’t well rated on TripAdvisor, or the place was fully booked. I resigned myself to just going to a chain restaurant, or if the worst came to the worst, then I guess McDonald’s would beckon…
Then a couple of weeks ago, I got an offer from the Tattoo mailing list (they send out through for a restaurant called One Square, which is in Sheraton Edinburgh. Ironically, I’d looked at staying there, but not when they were charging £500 for the night! The deal was really good, but I thought it would probably be badly rated on TripAdvisor. It wasn’t, it was very well rated. Ok, so that probably means it’s already fully booked. I emailed them, quoting the Tattoo offer, and they came back to me and basically asked what time I wanted… I went for 7:30pm, and actually it works perfectly, as it’s on the way to the castle and I think (I’m not sure though…) it might not be quite as much as a climb up there, as the other route we would have normally taken. And the deal we got? £39 for the two of us for a two-course meal with a glass of wine or a soft drink, and tea and coffee. Considering I’d expect to pay £50 for the two of us normally at the local restaurants around here, I think that’s excellent value.
And of course, after we’ve eaten we’ll make our way up to the Tattoo. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait in line too long to get in, with my chronic fatigue. I did actually email them to ask about the situation, and they gave me some information, so that hopefully it will all be Ok. I don’t want to be exhausted before the show starts, given it’s going to be a late night. Then, once it’s all done, we’ll walk back to our hotel, which will be downhill, so that will be a relief.
I sure hope the hop on hop off bus works for you guys. The last time I did one (a while ago in Paris!), we had ambitious plans to use it as transport too. But the wait times for the buses got to be crazy long due to traffic and we didn't get to do everything we wanted. Then we just resorted to using the Metro. Just couldn't see the city from underground!
Anyway, I hope it works for you guys because it all sounds great! Especially Dynamic Earth. That looks perfect for kids too.
That will be a very long day, indeed!
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Wow, sounds great! DH has promised me well get up to Scotland next year when my mom visits again. You're going on my birthday, which of course, I'd the best day ever!
I love the hop on hop off buses in Portugal such a great way to see things. In Winnipeg we also have a fringe festival every year, it continues to grow and it really well attended.
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This sounds like a wonderful trip! I saw some pictures of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo last week when Prince William was there, and it looks great!
I sure hope the hop on hop off bus works for you guys. The last time I did one (a while ago in Paris!), we had ambitious plans to use it as transport too. But the wait times for the buses got to be crazy long due to traffic and we didn't get to do everything we wanted. Then we just resorted to using the Metro. Just couldn't see the city from underground!
Yes, we've had those issues before in various cities too. We also know what traffic in Edinburgh is like, having been stuck in it more than once before.
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Anyway, I hope it works for you guys because it all sounds great! Especially Dynamic Earth. That looks perfect for kids too.
That will be a very long day, indeed!
I love the hop on hop off buses in Portugal such a great way to see things. In Winnipeg we also have a fringe festival every year, it continues to grow and it really well attended.
Oh that sounds wonderful. I hope it does continue to grow over the next few years.
This sounds like a wonderful trip! I saw some pictures of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo last week when Prince William was there, and it looks great!
I missed that. I sometimes think we get less coverage of what the Royals do over here than you guys do. At the moment, all the focus is on a BBC documentary on Sunday night, commemorating 20 years since Diana's death, which includes interviews with both William and Harry.
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Seems like there are quite a few options. Nice going by planning this trip with the bank holiday, which will make things a lot easier. 
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Otherwise, then we’ll leave our hand luggage at the hotel and head out to explore. 
That’s quite breath taking when you think about it, isn’t it? 
I kept looking at places that I liked the look of, but every time I found something, either it wasn’t well rated on TripAdvisor, or the place was fully booked. 
I resigned myself to just going to a chain restaurant, or if the worst came to the worst, then I guess McDonald’s would beckon… 
I went for 7:30pm, and actually it works perfectly, as it’s on the way to the castle and I think (I’m not sure though…) it might not be quite as much as a climb up there, as the other route we would have normally taken. And the deal we got? £39 for the two of us for a two-course meal with a glass of wine or a soft drink, and tea and coffee. Considering I’d expect to pay £50 for the two of us normally at the local restaurants around here, I think that’s excellent value. 
Then, once it’s all done, we’ll walk back to our hotel, which will be downhill, so that will be a relief. 
TinkBrat
Hope you have a wonderful day! 
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