Shore Excursions - Greece

[NoCaNiNaCast]

We will be on the Celebrity Equinox on the July 8th sailing. I have been reading the email thread on the Greece forum. We have been on many cruises, but this will be our first European cruise. Any suggestions on who we should book our shore excursions for the following ports:

. Sicily (Messina), Italy

. Athens (Piraeus)

. Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey

. Rhodes, Greece

. Mykonos, Greece

. Santorini, Greece

. Naples/Capri, Italy

Would you suggest booking shore excursions for “all” of the ports with another operator or will it be better to book on Celebrity for some? It would be helpful to know as well which ports we may be able to do on our own (details will be very helpful as well).

From what I’ve read, it sounds like we may be able to do Santorini on our own. What do you think on the time of the year that we are going to be there? I know that there will be lots of people. Will public transportation be a concern of getting to Oia and also the cue?

Thanks a lot.

[CruiserBruce]

OK, first. No one vender has tours in all ports, except for the cruise ship.

 

Second, several of your ports are not in Greece. There is an Italy board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=595

 

and an "Other Med Ports board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=234

 

On these boards there are many discussions about venders, and the possibility of doing it yourself (DIY). That means perhaps just walking around, or talking public transit. Santorini is the DIY capable of your ports, but if you are interested, all of them could be DIY.

 

Lastly, your tiny font make it very hard for us old eyes(:D) to read!

[mapleleaves]

Have you signed up for the ROLL CALL for your ship's sail date ? The topic of most discussions on that forum is recommendations for excursions. So you might pick up some good ideas there.

Another good place for recommendations is in the REVIEWS forum. Select MEMBER REVIEWS, then select each PORT and you can read mini trip reports about what people did and saw at each location.

Another good resource is a book by Ann Vipond called Mediterranean by cruiseship. Maybe you could borrow it from your library? She discusses each port and talks about options at each one.

[CruiserBruce]

I just re-read your initial post. You are two months from sailing. If you are going to do ship's excursions or private ones, you need to get them booked. The popular excursions are probably filling up, and vendors are getting booked.

[siouxcitysue]

I did this exact cruise last year on the same ship. If you look up my review (Celebrity Equinox - in the group numbered 126 - 150 - titled, "15th Cruise, the Best yet"), I review all of my shore excursion vendors. I didn't use the ship's excursions, but went private the whole way. I found the transportation on a smaller scale enabled us to zip around quicker and therefore, see more in the same amount of time. All tour operators are keenly aware of getting their guests back to the ship before sailing time, there is no problem with that. In particular, please check out http://www.toursofathens.com for your Pireaus stop. Dennis is fabulous! It is not too early to book your excursions. Have a great trip!!

[NoCaNiNaCast]

OK, first. No one vender has tours in all ports, except for the cruise ship.

 

Second, several of your ports are not in Greece. There is an Italy board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=595

 

and an "Other Med Ports board, here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=234

 

On these boards there are many discussions about venders, and the possibility of doing it yourself (DIY). That means perhaps just walking around, or talking public transit. Santorini is the DIY capable of your ports, but if you are interested, all of them could be DIY.

 

Lastly, your tiny font make it very hard for us old eyes(:D) to read!

 

Cruiser Bruce - sorry about the font size :o of my original thread. I understand that no one vendor has tours in all ports. I just wanted to include the Ports of Calls in case there are people in the forum that may have been there already. I will go ahead and ask the question in the other board as well. Thanks.

 

Siouxcitysue's - How did you get to Fira? Did you DIY Santorini?

 

 

Carol

[NoCaNiNaCast]

Maple Leaves - yes, I just recently signed up for the ROLL CALL. Thanks.

I have been reading through the MEMBER REVIEW forum as well.

I will check out the book that you suggested.

Thanks again.

Carol

[siouxcitysue]

Hi Carol - the Equinox (along with all the other ships) tenders you in to Fira on Santorini. We took the cable car up and actually walked down at the end of the day, dodging donkey poop the whole way. I wouldn't recommend this, but the line for the cable car to depart the island was so long, we decided to hoof it (pun intended). The only other option is to ride the donkey down. There are so many people talking about the Santorini donkeys all over CC, you will have to decide how you feel about them. We spent the day strolling through Fira, so yes, we did it ourselves. It was the only day we had rain. There are so many picturesque spots up there, we shopped and nibbled and drank our way through the town. A lot of people go to Oia and it sounded like it was beautiful. We didn't want to bother with a taxi that day, so we just stayed put.

I will be glad to answer any other questions you have. I am jealous of you, I would go again in a minute. But, there are so many other new places in the world for us to see, we need to do that before we begin repeating.

Again, have a great trip!

[4774Papa]

We will be on the Celebrity Equinox on the July 8th sailing. I have been reading the email thread on the Greece forum. We have been on many cruises, but this will be our first European cruise. Any suggestions on who we should book our shore excursions for the following ports:

. Sicily (Messina), Italy

. Athens (Piraeus)

. Ephesus (Kusadasi), Turkey

. Rhodes, Greece

. Mykonos, Greece

. Santorini, Greece

. Naples/Capri, Italy

Would you suggest booking shore excursions for “all” of the ports with another operator or will it be better to book on Celebrity for some? It would be helpful to know as well which ports we may be able to do on our own (details will be very helpful as well).

From what I’ve read, it sounds like we may be able to do Santorini on our own. What do you think on the time of the year that we are going to be there? I know that there will be lots of people. Will public transportation be a concern of getting to Oia and also the cue?

Thanks a lot.

Your roll call would allow you to arrange for private tours. We were not happy with what was available and did the ship's tours for Ephesus and Santorini. We did Athens and Mykonos on our own. For Athens the Metro is cheap and easy to use. It is a 20 minute walk from the port to the Metro. Mykonos is an easy do it yourself, unless you want to go to Delos (in that case take the private tour from the ferry that docks at the main dock at Mykonos).

[mary k]

Hi Carol - the Equinox (along with all the other ships) tenders you in to Fira on Santorini. We took the cable car up and actually walked down at the end of the day, dodging donkey poop the whole way. I wouldn't recommend this, but the line for the cable car to depart the island was so long, we decided to hoof it (pun intended). The only other option is to ride the donkey down. There are so many people talking about the Santorini donkeys all over CC, you will have to decide how you feel about them. We spent the day strolling through Fira, so yes, we did it ourselves. It was the only day we had rain. There are so many picturesque spots up there, we shopped and nibbled and drank our way through the town. A lot of people go to Oia and it sounded like it was beautiful. We didn't want to bother with a taxi that day, so we just stayed put.

I will be glad to answer any other questions you have. I am jealous of you, I would go again in a minute. But, there are so many other new places in the world for us to see, we need to do that before we begin repeating.

Again, have a great trip!

I am on the Equinox for this Itinerary in June (except we are going to Crete instead of Sicily)...cannot wait!

[texancruzer]

Here is what we have done:

 

Messina: we used Sicily Limosines - great day. Castelmola and Taormina.

 

Athens: first trip we did Metro. Easy and cheap. Second visit we used the ships shuttle into town (only because we were worried about strikes - last fall)

 

Ephesus: have used Ekol twice - great tours ! reasonable prices.

 

Mykonos: used the ship shuttle to town ($8.00 per person) and then just walked around on our own. Thought about taking the ferry to Delos but then just decided to chill out this day.

 

Santorini: also DIY. Be sure and get in line for your tender tickets early.... we didn't and got late timeframe. We took the donkeys up (yes we did !!!!) and the cable car down. Line was about 45 minutes or more. We hired a taxi to take us to Oia ( a nice new Mercedes) and then WAIT for us to be sure we had a ride back. We took our time shopping and exploring and then he was right where he said he would be waiting for us. 50 euros total. Had dinner in Fira with sunset view.

 

Naples: APTours - we have used them twice for Pompeii and the Amalfi coast. Yes - we did the same tour twice - it was that good ! Great tour company whose prices are quite a bit less than the others but still providing a quality tour. Not sure why the others are so much more...... Our 3rd visit to Naples we just visited the Archeological museum and had some pizza returning to the ship (I had a terrible head cold - as did 1/2 the ship that trip :(

 

Can't help with Rhodes. Haven't been there YET ;) Hope this info helps - questions are welcomed.

[agabbymama]

I like this website for information too, as well as Internet google and travel books

 

http://europeforvisitors.com/europe/articles/city_guides.htm You can look up almost any information you want here.

 

Just a word of caution. Have a Plan "A" and a Plan "B" for when Plan A falls apart. I've been to Italy and Greece before, so I had a Plan "A" and thought I knew exactly what I wanted to do. But Princess was quite lax in information, so the DIY ports went awry. I didn't have a Plan "B", so flew by the seat of our pants a lot, but booked some ship excursions out of fear after totally missing Monaco. We did have a couple of tours booked with others from our roll calls, so we kind of mixed it up.

 

We did transfer from Rome hotel with two other couples to Civitavecchia, then Monaco on our own, Livorno with the cruise ship, Naples on our own, Santorini with the cruise ship (so we didn't have to use the gondola ride or donkeys), cruise ship in Kusadasi (just felt safer), Athens with another couple from our roll call, Corfu on our own and Venice on our own.

 

Have a great trip, I've enjoyed my 7 trips to Europe immensely!

[lisherm]

Sue

 

I am trying to locate your review about the Equinox and your tours. Having trouble finding it, anyway you can post it or provide a link? thanks. Lisa

[Langley Cruisers]

Just so you know, this thread is almost a year old. OP has already cruised, but perhaps this info might help someone else. I always look at the date first before I reply to a thread. Last week, someone bumped a thread that was five years old! :p

[texancruzer]

HAHAHAHA...... It never fails that someone new bumps up a thread like this. I usually check too but didn't this time...... perhaps someone can use the info tho