Shore excursions Eastern Med Celebrity Reflection or book independent companies?

Hi, we have never cruised before so are looking for feedback on whether to go with ship excursions or do it on your own and also with independent operators. We will be on an 11 night Eastern Med cruise - ports - Santorini, Istanbul, Kusadasi, Mykonos, Athens and Naples. We would like to take a ferry from Naples to Positano - does anyone know if this is possible? Thanks in advance. PS: happy to hear from other August 31 Celebrity Reflection from Rome travellers.

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

Lots of people do independent tours. All it takes is research. So, to start your research, look on the Med Ports boards here on Cruise Critic. Can't give you the link right now, but someone else will shortly, I'm sure. In that research, you may find no tour is required, simply walking around or taking public transit, works very well. Santorini fits that description.

Find your roll call, which is where people on your cruise talk about the cruise. You will get the benefit of their research, and perhaps share tours or rides.

Get a guide book. Rick Steve is excellent and mentioned here frequently, but there are others.

Get a copy of Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports. He will tell you what there is to do in your ports, and how much you can do in the time you have in port. And how to do it on your own. Since this is your first cruise, and if you have never been to Europe before, you may be more comfortable doing ship excursions. We either do ship excursions or just go out on our own. EM

Thank you for the good advice. I have the Rick Steves book and have been reading but still quite a few ports left to read about. It seems a tour may be good in both Kusadasi and Athens but do our own thing elsewhere. We have been to Europe a few times but all destinations other than Rome and the Amalfi coast are new to us so all advice is very welcome.

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

Have you joined the Roll Call for your cruise. That is the part of Cruise Critic where you can meet others sailing with you. Often people plan private tours and post it on the Roll Call hoping to find others to join.

Definitely get a tour in Kusadasi to Ephesus. try to get one that includes the Terrace Homes.

Thanks Paul. I think I am on the roll call and will take your advice re Ephesus. Looking forward to seeing the Terrace houses.

We booked private tours with Levent Solmaz for both Istanbul and Ephesus - and were very pleased with him. I encourage you to go to your roll call and see if anyone is interested in joining you, as it will lower the cost per person.

http://leventsolmaz.com/meet-levent-solmaz/

Smooth Sailing! :) :) :)

My family and friends and I also did the Mediterranean (another cruise line) and purchased the Rick Steves' Mediterranean Cruise Ports guide. Very helpful indeed! However, we chose to do the ship excursions. While we have utilized port tours in the past, we felt that due to time restraints, we did not want to go through the effort this time, of doing as mentioned above the research involved. I will tell you that independent sightseeing is much more less expensive than ship excursions. Happy travels!

Thank you, I have visited the link for Levant and I will now need to see if anyone else is interested.

Thank you. Good advice.