MSC shore excursions vs. on your own

Our family has been on many cruises before, but mostly in the Caribbean or Mexico. We usually book our own excursions and do not go through the cruise line.

We are looking at booking a Mediterranean cruise in January and want to know if there is any reason to book the tours through MSC or should we just book the excursions on our own.

Paul

If you want a smaller guided tour, you would be best booking on your own, but still teaming up with a few other folks to keep the cost down. To me, that works pretty good in a lot of places. For example, we took a "Rome in a day" tour with Romeinlimo TA and went in a small van with a guide along with 3 or 4 other couples that were on our ship. We used the Romeinlimo website to connect with the other couples and book that trip.

On the other hand we used the ship's excursion bus to take us to Florence, where we felt comfortable exploring on our own without a guide.

We only used the ships touring on Malta as it was a very short stop (only a few hours). The rest of the time we just wandered around on our own, loved it, relaxing, no pressure.

Our family has been on many cruises before, but mostly in the Caribbean or Mexico. We usually book our own excursions and do not go through the cruise line.

 

We are looking at booking a Mediterranean cruise in January and want to know if there is any reason to book the tours through MSC or should we just book the excursions on our own.

 

Paul

Did 21 day West and East Med last year on NCL and did all on our own. You really dont need to pre book by ship or tour company. Buy Rick steve's guide book to med cruises and rip out that section in each port.

At every port there were tons of drivers offering tours for what ever you wanted. We shared a driver on a few occasions with fellow cruise critic members so be active in your roll call.

I agree with the above comments, but would add that MSC offers some very unique itineraries in Europe. What are your port stops and times? If we knew where you were stopping we could give specific recommendations also. Also, January is totally off season so you may not even need skip the line passes.

Our family has been on many cruises before, but mostly in the Caribbean or Mexico. We usually book our own excursions and do not go through the cruise line.

 

We are looking at booking a Mediterranean cruise in January and want to know if there is any reason to book the tours through MSC or should we just book the excursions on our own.

 

Paul

I would consider time in port and safety in port , before booking your own excursion .

It very much depends. I don't like to just wander around and prefer to learn something about what I see, so I usually do a lot of research on each cruise port and try to find a local guide with good reviews. It has worked very well so far, and allowed me to save some money.

On the other hand, on the Mediterranean cruise last year there were a few nice offerings and we chose to book two tours through MSC. For example, in Barcelona we had a very good, informative winery tour with wine tasting, went to Monserrat and spent a few hours there, then on the way back there was a bus tour of Barcelona itself. As far as I remember, the cost of all that was under 70 euros, and I doubt it I would have been able to get so much ground covered on another tour at that price.

We also bought a tour of Vesuvius and Pompei with a nice lunch in between in Naples, and didn't regret it. It was doable without a tour, but our time in the port was limited, it was extremely hot, and we thought saving a few euros in this particular situation wasn't worth the effort. With the organized tour, we didn't have to look for the bus and train stations, figure out their schedules, wait in the heat, worry about getting back in time, etc. Instead, we had a very enjoyable time. A few other couples at our dinner table each took different ship tours on that day, and they all liked them. You are right, MSC does offer some unique tours.

In short, every situation is different, and it's up to you to find the right balance between what you pay and what you get for it.