Best excursion for Europe Jewel of Seas?

[TandV]

If you have been on the European cruise on Jewel, what in your opinion were the best excursions? My DH can walk but does not like to walk much so which excursions are great "tour bus" types?

 

Thanks,

TandV

[holomuku]

Of course everyone will have their own opinion- but we did the "D-Day beaches" excursion last Sep on the Jewel-- the actual port is Le Havre but they do offer ship excursions to the Normandy beaches as well as Paris. We have had the opportunity to spend time in Paris so passed on that. We usually don't do the ship excursions because we feel that normally we can do better on our own- but in this case it was an all day event and we didn't want to risk possibly missing the ship so chose the ship excursion just to be on the safe side.

 

for us it was the first day of the cruise so an early get up and a long day- but very well worth it. I think they've changed the itinerary a bit so it may not be the first day- but no matter what- not to be missed IMHO. This was last Sep- and as I write this my DH is in the other room recovering from total hip replacement surgery so clearly his mobility was somewhat limited a year ago. (just WAIT until next year!! we'll be dancing up a storm! :).

 

to see the American Cemetery is really an experience. Also they had us go through a museum with many WWII artificats, letters, etc. The way the tour is designed we were able to have him sit out certain parts of the tour but he still enjoyed it throughly. Parts of it do require a fair amount of walking (to see the actual beaches where the invasions happened) but he passed on some of those but still got the feel of the experience.

 

and probably one of the best parts of the tour is that we met two young ladies from the ship (late teens, early twenties) that were very into military history and appreciative of the young men who had given their lives so many years ago. Reinforced our feeling that many young folks today are aware and respectful of history-- sometimes you forget that when you watch the young people on television , etc. These were two great ladies on the ship with their mother and grandmother (who had chosen to do the Paris day tour instead so it was just the younger ones on this excursion) and I must admit they were far more up on the history of the D-day invasion than we were (shame on us!). I did see them later on the cruise with their mother/grandmother and made a point of sharing with them what nice young ladies we felt they are-- a credit to their parents in my opinon.

 

We also did the tour in Cork which we enjoyed-- but if I was to make a choice- definately the D-day beaches.