Port Reviews - Le Havre, St. Malo, L'Orient & Le Verdon

[Almagetty]

We were recently on a Western Europe cruise aboard Oceania's Marina. Here is a review of the private excursions that we took in our French ports:

 

Le Havre: I arranged for a private tour for 8 through Overlord Tours. Our guide was Oliver, and he was fantastic!!! We went to Omaha Beach, the American Cemetery, Point du Hoc, Saint Mere Eglise, Utah Beach, Angoville au Plain and to some secluded places that we would have never been able to find, or enter, had we ventured out on our own. Oliver made the landing beaches come alive for us. I can’t recommend Overlord or Oliver enough!!

 

St. Malo: We joined a private tour arranged by another person on our Roll Call. The tour was with Westcapades and our tour guide was Marc. We went to Mont St. Michel, Dinan and had a very brief visit to St. Malo. There were six of us on the tour. Marc was very good. Mont St. Michel is fascinating! It’s a place that everyone should visit at least once. Dinan was beautiful! I enjoyed our time there and the local pastry, Kouign Amann, that we got to sample. I would definitely recommend Marc for a great day out of St. Malo.

 

L’Orient: I had arranged a private tour with Marie-Laure at Brittany Visits. The plan was for us to visit Quimper, Pont Aven and Concarneau. The night before we arrived in L’Orient, I received a message from the Purser that Marie-Laure’s husband had been hospitalized and that she would not be coming the next day. I was sorry to hear that her husband was ill, and I truly hope that he has recovered. The timing of the cancellation really did not work well for us to be able to arrange anything else. We decided to take the free shuttle into town and explore. L’Orient is pretty much a regular mid-sized modern French city with not a whole lot to see and do. There is a U-Boat yard that was used by the Germans during WWII. After a little while in town, my husband and I chose to go back to the ship for lunch and a relaxing afternoon.

 

Le Verdon: I arranged a private tour with Maryse at Bordeaux Excursions. She is fanastic!!! We visited 3 Chateaux (Gruaud-LaRose, Pichon-Longueville, and Lynch-Bages) with a brief stop at Chateau Mouton-Rothschild and a beautiful lunch at Chateau Pomys. The harvest was just getting underway in Le Medoc. It was a spectacular day, planned to perfection. I recommend Maryse wholeheartedly. I hope to visit the Bordeaux region again and will definitely book with Maryse to show me the other areas of the region.

[Almagetty]

Moderators, please delete this thread. I posted it on the wrong board. Oops!!:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[bconley351]

What was your cancel policy with Overlord if you didn't make port? I'm organizing a tour for August 2014. I'm also hoping for Olivier. We had him as our guide in 2011.

[Turtles06]

What was your cancel policy with Overlord if you didn't make port? I'm organizing a tour for August 2014. I'm also hoping for Olivier. We had him as our guide in 2011.

 

We used Overlord from Le Havre in May 2012, booking many months earlier. Their policy then was that if the ship didn't dock for some reason, our credit card would not be charged. But of course you should be sure to get that in writing via email before you do book. The tour was fantastic, btw, as you know.

 

Edited to add: After posting the above, I then saw your post in the Le Havre thread about Overlord's new policy for 2014, requiring notification of cancellation by 6pm. (If it's a weather-related miss of a port, query what time pax would know that . . .)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=41081361&postcount=11

Edited December 29, 2013 by Turtles06