Shore Excursions

[beachseeker]

We booked our first Azamara cruise early fall which will be a Mediterranean cruise on the Quest in June. We have cruised the Caribbean many times and usually book private tours, but this will be our first cruise in Europe so feeling very much the novice. In doing our homework and reading about our ports, the advice is to book private tours early. We are traveling with 2 other couples and they prefer ships excursions if Azamara is offering where we are interested in going. When I check our reservations, the website keeps saying that shore excursions are not available at this time. How soon can I expect the excursions to be posted for a late June sailing? Is there somewhere that I can get a copy of excursions that have been offered in the past for our ports? Any and all advice will be appreciated.

[Bill Leiber]

Hello Beachseeker –

 

I hope that your New Year is off to a great start and we look forward to welcoming you onboard your first Azamara Club Cruise voyage this coming June!

 

Usually our shore excursion information (or 'Land Discoveries') is not available in the reservation system until about 4 months prior in order to ensure the accuracy of the detailed information which we've found is more reliable closer to the actual date of operation. I anticipate that you'll find this specific information available sometime in February.

 

Here is a link to our website so that you can take advantage of our 2012 Land Discoveries 50% savings program, which is available only when pre-booked online:

http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/Plan-Your-Voyage/Land-Explorations/Land-Discoveries

 

Thank you for your patience and we hope that this voyage will be the first of many more to follow.

 

Regards,

 

_________________________

Bill Leiber

 

Chief Blogging Officer*

Azamara Club Cruises

(*CBO is an authorized and compensated representative of ACC)

[GACRUISER456]

Thanks for posting this question! We are leaving the beginning of May for the Journey's first European sailing of the season and are anxiously awaiting the excursions to be posted as well. Today is the 4 month mark, so hoping to see them posted soon! Done a lot of the leg work looking at what we want to do, but I would love to start firming up the plans!

[beachseeker]

Thanks for posting this question! We are leaving the beginning of May for the Journey's first European sailing of the season and are anxiously awaiting the excursions to be posted as well. Today is the 4 month mark, so hoping to see them posted soon! Done a lot of the leg work looking at what we want to do, but I would love to start firming up the plans!

 

We too have a good idea of what we want to do and see. Our concern is that when the shore excursions are posted and Azamara doesn't offer what we are interested in doing, the private tours will be booked. I would love to see what has been offered in the past. I know they will be different but it would give us some idea of what Azamara has offered in the past and the general cost of Azamara excursions, so we have something to compare to. Anyone have any information from last seasons' shore excursion offerings for Rome to Athens? Would appreciate any help from previous cruisers!

[suec12]

It might help to list the ports here so we don't have to look up the cruise specifics. Also have you looked at the old roll calls - might get some info there. Are you using Rick Steves Med. port guide for your homework?, it's very helpful.

[beachseeker]

It might help to list the ports here so we don't have to look up the cruise specifics. Also have you looked at the old roll calls - might get some info there. Are you using Rick Steves Med. port guide for your homework?, it's very helpful.

 

 

Rick Steves is on my kindle and we have a hard copy of his book on Rome. His information and the CC port boards have provided great information and we have a good idea of what we want to do in each port and have private tour companies in mind. But if Azamara has a shore excursion doing the same thing, with the 50% off for booking online, we would go with Azamara. I have looked at some of the old roll calls. Guess I'm looking for more specifics on the excursions offered by Azamara. Ports are Rome, Sorrento, Capri, Amalfi, Taormina, Siracusa, Santorini, Kusadasi, Mykonos and Athens.

[Susan-M]

beachseeker ... Azamara offers a good selection of tours, so chances are you'll find tours that take in what you want to see, unless you want to go "off the beaten track". But with this being your first time to these places, you'll probably be more interested in the highlights.

 

We've been to Rome, Sorrento, Athens, Mykonos and Santorini on Celebrity and Azamara cruises ... but did all of those ports on our own, so I'm not much help with advising what ACC's shore excursions were.

 

If you haven't seen the video for your cruise on this link, where they discuss the highlights in each port, it's worth looking at (again, not a help with your situation...but interesting): http://www.azamaraclubcruises.com/destinations/2012-voyages/azamara-quest

[suec12]

this is just the cruise we were hoping to do in Oct. but I don't think it is going to work out for us - it's a good one tho! I can't give you the specifics of Azamara excursions but I do have a few thoughts.

 

First of all, for Kusadasi I assume you want to go to Ephesus and more than any of the other ports I would suggest you line up a private guide for your group of 6 - hopefully that will get you there ahead of the swarm which will make it much more enjoyable and also I am pretty sure that if you want to do the "terrace houses" (which IMO is the best of Ephesus) you will need to be in a small group. We used Ekol Tours and were pleased with our experience. Also either Sorrento or Amalfi might be a port where a small group with a private driver would be preferable to a ship's excursion - there is nothing like riding along the Amalfi coast with a private driver, stopping at a small local restuarant with just your group of friends!

 

For the others I think Azamara will offer a variety of tours that will "hit the highlights" of the various ports and with the 50% off you should be able to make some good choices. One other thought you might want to check on the Celebrity website (another line run by the same company as Azamara) and see if they have some excursions listed for your ports - I would think they would be very similar. Enjoy!!!

[beachseeker]

One other thought you might want to check on the Celebrity website (another line run by the same company as Azamara) and see if they have some excursions listed for your ports - I would think they would be very similar. Enjoy!!!

 

Great Suggestion. DH contacted private tour companies this week and received prompt replies from all. Pleased that they all are available for the dates requested. In comparing prices to similar shore excursions on Celebrity, even with 50% off, the private tours are more economical. Not sure it is in Azamara's best interest to wait so long to post shore excursions. If Azamara had posted excursions for what we were wanting to do, probably would not have done the extensive research that we have done and would have booked with them. However, it benefits us. We found private tours for the six of us that appear to be less money. Will know for sure when excursions for our sailing are posted.

[suec12]

Beachseeker - glad you have found some private excursions for your group - I'm a planner too, don't like to wait too long to have my excursions planned out. From other posts I've read on many of the Azamara sails there have not been enough passengers sign up for the A. shore options to run the excursion - by delaying the posting they loose out on potential customers and have to cancel. All the more reason to pre-book with private tour guides! and you usually end up with a better and more personal experience as well.

[GACRUISER456]

I totally agree with the late posting of shore excursions causing passengers to find alternative plans. We will be sailing in 3 1/2 months and am being told the excursions won't be posted until the first of February (3 months out!). Now, maybe if I were just going to the Caribbean to relax, I could see waiting until closer to book, but when we go to Europe, it is our big vacation time away from work each year and we are there to see as much as we can and utilize our time and money effectively. There are a ton of logistics to consider if you are thinking of doing any travel on your own. Since we are sailling the first of May and before their peak season, I am hopefull we can still lock in private tours if necessary. I don't think I have ever had a shore excursion list be released so close to the sailling date.