Marine Cruises
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Brilliant company and fantastic boat & trip
This is our second trip with marine cruises and honestly this company (and their Scottish Canals partners) are fantastic! This time we did a 7 NT trip from Falkirk to Edinburgh on Suzanne Marie. There were 4 adults, a teen and two kids and we utilised the beds as follows: 2 adults each in the 2 doubles, teen and 4 year old in a single each at the back and 8 year old on the sofa at front. The boat itself is spotless, well kitted out (plenty pots, pans, utensils, cups, glasses, cloths, cleaning products, toilet roll, soap, sweeping brushes etc). We had a main bathroom with shower plus another toilet which had cool doors that opened out to make another bathroom. There is a TV with dvd player, WiFi (no connectivity issues at all even with 7 of us on board), 4 usb charging outlets and 1 regular socket. We paid the £110 fuel deposit before we set off and on return we had used £139 so only had a £29 top up to pay which is more than reasonable. Mooring wise we stopped first night at a wee picnic spot, next night linlithgow, then park inn (had a nice dinner there too), ratho, Harrison park, ratho, linlithgow, Falkirk wheel. If you have kids with you, Harrison park is a great stop for Edinburgh as theres a fab park at the mooring and laser tag/adventure golf nearby. At ratho the bridge inn restaurant is spectacular (I almost cried over my haddock mornay it was so delicious!) We had a slight issue where we thought our toilet had blocked (bowl backed up and wouldn't flush). We called the breakdown number and bothe the man who came to empty the tanks and will the engineer were amazing. They met us in ratho and sorted the issues quickly (it was a wiring fault with toilet, not a blockage) and this is included in the cost of your holiday (unless you deliberately or negligently cause damage of course) Edinburgh international climbing centre is also great with major indoor climbing arena, kids climbing course and soft play (with cafe). Its a hilly five minutes walk from the mooring so folks with mobility issues may struggle. The staff at Falkirk (Gail and co in the office as well as all of the guys maintaining the boats /handover / operating the locks and wheel etc ) are incredible. There was always a cheery face and nothing was too much trouble. They were friendly, helpful and really seem invested in ensuring you have a great trip. When organising the holiday the folks at marine cruises (based in England), are wonderful. They are responsive, friendly, helpful and you can feel that they family business who are really committed to providing high quality service and trips. I honestly don't think I've ever dealt with such a lovely bunch of people than those at marine and Scottish canal staff at Falkirk. As for negatives? It would have been handy to have a couple more charging points on the boat and a shed by the bed for the middle double but that's really really picky! We will definitely be back on the canals with this company and have told everyone we know to do the same!