free excursion offer - Distinctive Voyages?

We've had several provided by/through our travel agent. They were all excellent! They start with a cocktail party on-board where you sign up with the designated host who is on board. We usually get word many months before the cruise.

We recently sailed on the Reflection and were given a free Distinctive tour in Malaga which was a 4.5 hour tour around Malaga and a private Flamenco show at the Flamenco museum.

The tour was excellent and the original number of participants was to be 70 but only 45 accepted the tour.Despite the lower number the local tour company still provided us with 2 buses and 2 dedicated guides which was unexpected but made the tour better and more comfortable.

The downside is we only found out about the tour 1 week before we sailed.We booked our cruise a year out and organized shared tours through cruise critic at most ports of call...Luckily it worked out as we only planned to do Malaga on our own so we opted for the FREE tour and had no regrets.

The onboard couple that were our hosts were wonderful to deal with and very helpful.

So here's an update...

Finally, 4 weeks before the trip that we booked a year in advance, I received an email from DV advising of the excursion details. By then, I already had other plans for that port day. I would imagine that most travelers make plans prior to a month before the trip and would not be available...waiting to notify eligible cruisers must save the company a lot of money....not only will we not be available for the excursion, I don't see the point of attending a cocktail party, as we have no need to meet the people that we won't be joining on the excursion.

Same thing happened to us, got the invite three weeks before sailing and we already had booked an excursion that was non refundable if you cancelled less than 30 before the cruise date. Very disappointed!

Didn't much care for my DV voyage in St Lucia. Large, crowded catamaran. Uncomfortable since it was next to impossible to avoid smokers.

Last month in Belfast we had an excellent city tour and free tickets to the Titanic Museum (any free excursion is good!). Plus our host arranged a backstage theater & galley tour. We went on the theater tour and what was good about it was, compared to the large Captains Club group we encountered, our group was tiny and we really got to know two of the actors who showed us around.

Is this part of Essemble consortium? We have done a couple of these free excursions years ago and they were high end, very well done. One my DH did without me in Barcelona and I did one without him in turkey. There was also another one.

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To those who only got short notice on the DV excursion, I say blame your travel agent. Our DV host on my cruise last month handed out a book with all the DV excursions planned for 2018 with all of the major cruise lines. I just counted about 113 Celebrity cruises listed for next year. I know rhe actual day/details come later but we knew a good 5 months ahead of or last one.

The dv is listed at least a year in advance but the travel agents only receives the confirmation 2-3 weeks in advance. These tours are based on the type of cabin/promo you have booked. There is also a minimum number of passengers for the dv to take place.

To those who only got short notice on the DV excursion, I say blame your travel agent. Our DV host on my cruise last month handed out a book with all the DV excursions planned for 2018 with all of the major cruise lines. I just counted about 113 Celebrity cruises listed for next year. I know rhe actual day/details come later but we knew a good 5 months ahead of or last one.

Does it list April 15, 2018 Transatlantic on Celebrity ending in Dublin? It would be great to know in advance if the DV excursion will be offered and in which Port. Would appreciate any information you can give me, thank-you.

No, happy....I don't see that one listed.

We were offered this on two different cruised, both in the Baltic. The first one we had to cancel the cruise last minute so I can only tell you what our friends said "nice because it was free, really free but not nice because the group was large and they just rode around on a bus pointing out sights for the most part.". I forget exactly what city it was in but it was one of the Baltic stops. A year later when we did make our Baltic cruise it was offered again but we were traveling with a UK cousin who booked with her UK travel agent who did not offer it...and DV wanted $75 for her to join the tour. We passed and did something on our own that day. So yes, it is free, but I would question the value of it if you are not into big group tours.

No, happy....I don't see that one listed.

Thank - you for your reply. We had a great experience with DV in Athens in October 2016. We went sightseeing, visited the Acropolis Museum and had a wonderful lunch. We had two group leaders and we were split into two groups. Very enjoyable day for us.

We're on the Reflection leaving next week and have received this for our port in Ibiza. We had booked something but weren't that thrilled so last week I cancelled the Celebrity shore excursion and we've received our OBC back, sounds like a win win to me. With only 2 negatives, we'll take our chances.

Last fall we also received one of these offers on a Baltic cruise for Helsinki. We went to the cocktail meet & greet which was short & sweet however we had to spend an extra overnight in St Petersburg due to high winds and the ship skipped our Helsinki stop.

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We had the pleasure of meeting our hosts Karen and Francis ( Joe ) Shamus at our initial cocktail reception. They introduced themselves, explained that they would be available for any on board issues, provide information about the ship, ports of call and sightseeing, and or assist with dining and spa reservation. This, all complimentary as a perk provided by our travel agents. In addition, they provided an outstanding 4 hour tour of Quebec city on Sunday, Oct 1, 2017. It was one of the best tour excursions that we have ever experienced. This was our 2nd great experience with Distinctive Voyages. If in the future, you have the opportunity to take advantage of a Distinctive Voyages tour excursion, we would highly recommend it. Smooth sailing !!!!

Our DV host on my cruise last month handed out a book with all the DV excursions planned for 2018 with all of the major cruise lines. I just counted about 113 Celebrity cruises listed for next year. I know rhe actual day/details come later but we knew a good 5 months ahead of or last one.

Does anybody have a link to a soft copy of the various 2018 distinctive voyages offerings? I've tried Google and I can't find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated

Oh boy, I hope I'm allowed to ask for this? I don't believe that DV is a TA, so I'm hoping this is ok? If not, I'm sorry - moderator please delete this post.

Does anybody have a link to a soft copy of the various 2018 distinctive voyages offerings? I've tried Google and I can't find one. Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Oh boy, I hope I'm allowed to ask for this? I don't believe that DV is a TA, so I'm hoping this is ok? If not, I'm sorry - moderator please delete this post.

Here is a link to the offerings for Celebrity. Just click on the ship you're on and the sailings come up. http://www.vipatsea.com/CruiseShips/tabid/97/CatID/306/Celebrity_Cruises.aspx

I just received an e-mail from our TA for our November 26th cruise on the Eclipse. The excursion is for St. Lucia. We're not big excursion people but we figured it was free and the attractions included seemed interested so we plan on going. I'm glad to hear all the positive feedback on this thread about DV.

Here is a link to the offerings for Celebrity. Just click on the ship you're on and the sailings come up. http://www.vipatsea.com/CruiseShips/tabid/97/CatID/306/Celebrity_Cruises.aspx

 

I just received an e-mail from our TA for our November 26th cruise on the Eclipse. The excursion is for St. Lucia. We're not big excursion people but we figured it was free and the attractions included seemed interested so we plan on going. I'm glad to hear all the positive feedback on this thread about DV.

Thank you for the link. Very helpful!

Yes, my experience with DV has always been positive.

It doesn’t help to get offered this 3 weeks before a European cruise whenever most people have already made plans. I would have loved to take the free excursion offered but we already made excursion plans. Besides the free tour and cocktail party, has anyone found services the on board host provides worth using? Are there other things they have done for guests besides the excursion?

I agree..The first time we were introduced to the program we couldn't take advantage of the free tour. They advised us so late and we had already booked a private excursion.

It was a fluke that we used the tour last May in Malaga since we were just planning on walking around on our own.

The tours are decent and they don't skimp on the guides and buses.

I've never used the hosts for anything else onboard...however if you dodn't travel in Suites or concierge class i assume they could do some things for you.

Why not check to see if they can get you priority tender tickets?

Trying to think outside the box:).

It doesn’t help to get offered this 3 weeks before a European cruise whenever most people have already made plans. I would have loved to take the free excursion offered but we already made excursion plans. Besides the free tour and cocktail party, has anyone found services the on board host provides worth using? Are there other things they have done for guests besides the excursion?

already made excursion plans. ...services the on board host provides worth using? Are there other things they have done for guests besides the excursion?

Celebrity excursions can be cancelled w/o penalty, and our hosts arranged a free bridge tour.

On our recent Canada and New England cruise, the host arranged a galley tour. There were two buses for the Lexington/Concord tour. Last year, it was a tour of the Harvard College Museum.

Ask your independent travel agent if they participate. We heard about a month ahead.

It doesn’t help to get offered this 3 weeks before a European cruise whenever most people have already made plans. I would have loved to take the free excursion offered but we already made excursion plans. Besides the free tour and cocktail party, has anyone found services the on board host provides worth using? Are there other things they have done for guests besides the excursion?

I agree that the short notice on European cruises is crazy. Most of us plan private excursions way ahead. On my recent B2B on the Connie in the Med, we were able to take advantage of one in Dubrovnik since that was a day we had planned to hire a cab on shore. It was an excellent tour which included a delightful lunch. We were unable to take advantage of the one on the next cruise in Sicily as we had already committed to an excellent private excursion.

So I now have one bad experience with them and one very good one. I would recommend trying them if the excursion is going somewhere you'd like to go and you don't already have other plans.

Now that I know about this, I can check again for our next cruise. This cruise we have already set up a private tour in Belfast.

Thank - you for your reply. We had a great experience with DV in Athens in October 2016. We went sightseeing, visited the Acropolis Museum and had a wonderful lunch. We had two group leaders and we were split into two groups. Very enjoyable day for us.

My travel agent just told me about the DV tour in Athens for our October cruise. I've already spent a month arranging a private tour to 10 people. Not sure if I should take the free one since the TA won't know the details until a few weeks before sail date. Could you send details of your excursion to me at sheila.mandl@gmail.com?

We had a DV tour in Ibiza last year which wasn't that great but I think it was due to time of year (October).

Thanks

We have used the same TA for years and last year we got a free excursion from the company in question for a catamaran cruise in St Lucia. I contacted our TA to find out if it was legit. He said it was and said there was no rhyme or reason for and when they are offered. We didn’t have any knowledge of it until we got the invitation in our cabin on embarkation day.

We had a get together meeting/reception the night before the excursion with a open bar and appetizers. Met the hosts and all questions were answered. Well worth attending

It was the only time we were ever offered it.

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅