Excursion VAE Deliziosa

[Dennis75]

Can anyone tell us your experiences with shore excursions in Fujairah, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Muscat?

Are their many taxitour available in port? Does anyone have experience with Costa excursions? Or any other ideas?

[TRIXON]

:mad:

Can anyone tell us your experiences with shore excursions in Fujairah, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Muscat?

Are their many taxitour available in port? Does anyone have experience with Costa excursions? Or any other ideas?

 

We are just back from 18day Deliziosa Savona to Dubai.

 

We only did the one excursion Port Said to Cairo to see the pyramids.

 

We were late setting off because Costa as usual are so incompetent we were put on the wrong busses and had to change over.

We had a 3 hour journey to get to Cairo they took us to a Citadel which was great from outside but nothing to write home about inside.

 

Next stop was the Nile and lunch on a boat supposedly sailing down the nile WRONG. We pulled about 30 yards into the nile while we ate and then 30 yards back.

 

Next stop was the Pyramids because it was getting late the sun was setting and so it was very difficult to take photos they said back at the bus in 1/2 Hour.

 

Same with the Sphinx we only had half an hour. They should have taken us there first. The other point about this trip.....Costa were selling SMALL bottles of water inside the ship before we vacated for the journey costing 1.65 euro. Once on the coach they were giving bottles of water away.

Costa a terrible organizers and also the biggest money grabbers we have known.

Fujairah had a shuttle bus which was 6 euros last year it is now 8 euros. It only takes you to a so called Hypermarket we were glad we didnt go many of our friends said it was a waste of time.

 

We found a Duty Free in the dock very near to the ship with very very cheap Spirits which we took back on board with no trouble at all. There were also watches and iPods Etc

Muscat was one of the places we enjoyed.

Just get off the ship there is a free shuttle to the port gates and it is very easy to walk around and a very nice place to visit. The Souk there is very good.

 

If you are wanting a tour of Abu Dabi I can recommend the English speaking lady who took us around Dubai. Martina hugotmi@gmx.de

she is very knowledgable and quite reasonable.

 

If you have any mor questions dont hesitate. I could write a book about Costa.

In spite of some of the problems we encountered we did enjoy the holiday.

[Capricruiser]

To be fair to Costa it should be pointed out that shore excursions are not managed by the cruise lines but by local tour operators who organize and run the entire show. The cruise lines sell the excursions at a price agreed to with the tour operators and earn a commission. They issue tickets and each passenger gets his or her little sticker which corresponds to a specific bus. The tour operator provides the bus, driver, guide, and shore personnel to get the passengers onto their designated bus. At that point it's the tour operator that is responsible to see that the excursion is accomplished in accordance with the published itinerary and gets the passengers back to the ship by a designated time.

The Cairo shore excursions have been using the same itineraries for years and every week thousands of cruise ship passengers take them for better or worse. It's common knowledge that the trip from either Port Said or Alexandria takes at least three hours and water is available on board. Excursions frequently run late due to climatic conditions (fog and sand storms mainly) and traffic, particularly in Alexandria and Cairo.

In the case of Costa, members of the excursion office wearing their orange polo shirts accompany most of the buses and carry in their backpacks first aid kits, multi-lingual instructions, and a cell phone to keep them in contact with the ship and tour operator.

The shore excursions are pretty standard and cost about the same regardless of what ship or cruise line the passengers come from. The same goes for the port shuttles which are operated locally and not by the cruise lines. The price is established by the port or port-authorized operator and agreed to by the cruise line which sells the tickets.

Thus dear Trixon, it's unfair to put the blame on Costa for organization, prices, or quality of a particular excursion, itinerary, driver or guide. What should be done is to register a complaint with the excursion office which will be sent to the local tour operator and may result in a change of tour operator the next time the contract comes up for renewal.

[TRIXON]

To be fair to Costa it should be pointed out that shore excursions are not managed by the cruise lines but by local tour operators who organize and run the entire show. The cruise lines sell the excursions at a price agreed to with the tour operators and earn a commission. They issue tickets and each passenger gets his or her little sticker which corresponds to a specific bus. The tour operator provides the bus, driver, guide, and shore personnel to get the passengers onto their designated bus. At that point it's the tour operator that is responsible to see that the excursion is accomplished in accordance with the published itinerary and gets the passengers back to the ship by a designated time.

The Cairo shore excursions have been using the same itineraries for years and every week thousands of cruise ship passengers take them for better or worse. It's common knowledge that the trip from either Port Said or Alexandria takes at least three hours and water is available on board. Excursions frequently run late due to climatic conditions (fog and sand storms mainly) and traffic, particularly in Alexandria and Cairo.

In the case of Costa, members of the excursion office wearing their orange polo shirts accompany most of the buses and carry in their backpacks first aid kits, multi-lingual instructions, and a cell phone to keep them in contact with the ship and tour operator.

The shore excursions are pretty standard and cost about the same regardless of what ship or cruise line the passengers come from. The same goes for the port shuttles which are operated locally and not by the cruise lines. The price is established by the port or port-authorized operator and agreed to by the cruise line which sells the tickets.

Thus dear Trixon, it's unfair to put the blame on Costa for organization, prices, or quality of a particular excursion, itinerary, driver or guide. What should be done is to register a complaint with the excursion office which will be sent to the local tour operator and may result in a change of tour operator the next time the contract comes up for renewal.

 

As with anything purchased my contract was set up with Costa, the onus therefore is on Costa to come up with the goods.

It is their responsibility to fulfil an agreement. I should not have to chase the tour operators. I did know that the coach trip would be 3 hours there and 3 hours back.

I did complain to Costa about the mess up with not having enough time at the venues. Costa I am sure have had many such complaints but as you so rightly state they get their cut and I suppose that is all they are bothered about.

 

If you read some of my other comments about food etc. we were highly delighted.

I am just trying to make people aware of some of the pitfalls.

[Goldryder]

On the Costa website for the excursion I believe you booked, Trixon, clearly states there is a long time on the coach...

 

http://www.costacruises.co.uk/B2C/GB/Shopping/Destinations/ExcursionDetail.htm?&Macro=EAST+MEDITERRANEAN&VCountry=ETE&CalPort=ALY&Nav=3&Exc=EXC_1480

 

Pay attention

Please note: The duration of the excursion is 12 hours, 7 of which are spent on a coach. Comfortable walking shoes and sun hat are recommended. Shoulders and knees must be covered while visiting the mosque. Shoes must be removed while in the mosque.

 

Maybe when you booked it, you missed that part?

[Capricruiser]

Trixon, what I was trying to point out was that it's not just with Costa that you're apt to have problems with shore excursions because all of the cruise lines use local operators to arrange their tours. If something goes wrong on yours, maybe tomorrow it will go wrong for another ship's tours. The best thing to do is complain directly to the ship's excursion office so they can take it up with the local tour operator, and as I alluded to, maybe change operators. However my experience with Egypt is that these problems are always going to be there and you just have to take it in stride and hope for the best.

What your experienced on the Deliziosa could have occurred on RCL, Celebrity, Thompson, or even Seabourn. Welcome to Egypt. It's a fascinating country but it runs at a different pace and you have to be very patient and tolerant.

[TRIXON]

On the Costa website for the excursion I believe you booked, Trixon, clearly states there is a long time on the coach...

 

http://www.costacruises.co.uk/B2C/GB/Shopping/Destinations/ExcursionDetail.htm?&Macro=EAST+MEDITERRANEAN&VCountry=ETE&CalPort=ALY&Nav=3&Exc=EXC_1480

 

 

 

Maybe when you booked it, you missed that part?

 

No I didnt miss the point. We knew it was 3hrs there & 3 hrs back. My point was that the most important part of the excursion to us was to see the Pyramids & Sphinx and were only given 1/2 to do this when the light was bad.

 

It should have been done prior to all the other parts of the trip. The meal on the nile was ridiculous. We had previously had a nile cruise a few years ago and the Costa excursion wordered the trip as if we would be sailing down the Nile eating lunch. Not just 300 yards away from the mooring in the middle of Cairo.

 

My other grouse was about our disembarkation.....

We could not get our passports until 5.30am on the morning we were leaving. Our pick-up was coming at 6.00am

We wanted our passports to be ready for off but we were refused them even though our bill had been paid.

We had to queue at that time to get the passports.

Many people were angry.

 

Another item was the charge to use the Internet. It stated 8euros for 1 hour and then when one had registered they added another 3 euros for registering.

 

This all sounds petty but believe me when you add all the bits on Costa is not cheap. Far from it.

 

We cant fault the staff in the dining rooms and young Rodney in the cabin but as said before some of the staaf behind the customer service desk were very arrogant and not helpful at all.

 

The photographs were ridiculous. Every time you sat at a meal or came through a door they were poised to take photos.

At 3 photos for 39.99 euros or the vidio of the cruise at 79.99 euros. I dont think so.

Well thats my last say on it all. Merry Christmas everybody and Happy Holidays.