NCL Excursions

[FitchburgWIFamily]

We used NCL tours and had good luck on all.

 

Athens: port and city are not close and traffic can be an issue. Ours was a pretty cut rate: narrated "tour" on way to acropolis museum, excellent tour of the museum, and back. Cost was pretty moderate. More expensive than taking metro...but metro wouldn't provide as much information. For what the NCL tour cost us vs. arranging our own tour, we were happy to do the NCL.

 

Kusadasi (well, on our cruise it was Izmir): arranged a private tour through NCL. Got a small van, a private tour guide adn driver and a wonderful day. Beat the crowds (and I do mean crowds) to Ephesus, and did the terrace houses as well. By the time we left, all of Ephesus was a sea of heads. Stopped at Virgin Mary's house and St. John's basilica. But the highlight of it all was a wonderful lunch in Sirince overlooking the town. Had time to shop in their very lazy extremely low pressure market and avoid the high pressure of the markets closer to the port. Loved it!

 

Dollar for dollar, the NCL excursions were a higher price than arranging our own, but unless we were willing to go Metro and really try to do it on our own, not much higher.

 

Now, in the Caribbean, we don't hardly ever use a NCL excursion. So, it depends on the port and what there is to see....and learn.

[mickeysgal]

That's a thought, even though it would be more. I do hate waiting around for others -- and what if someone in our car was annoying :eek: and you're stuck with them all day! haha Thanks for the suggestion. It would be more expensive, but I'm sure worth it.

 

This has happened to us...it was a really bad "fit" of roll call personalities. And we had committed to two ports of excursions with the other family.

 

Then again, we had other roll calls that were simply wonderful and we continued to be friends after the cruise.

 

That said, there is something to be said for just taking the time to enjoy each other's company as a family. I think this is what we are going to do for our upcoming trip. Will be precious memories.

Edited February 27, 2015 by mickeysgal

[NEW 2 CRUISIN]

I think you get far more for your money when you are able to book local private tours instead of the ship tours.

 

For Naples, Rome, and Florence we used YOUR TOUR IN ITALY (http://www.yourtourinitaly.com/joomla/).

 

They were excellent! So much so that I arranged tours with them again the second time we went to those ports.

Great small group of 8 for each tour that we put together from our Roll Call board.

We got lucky both times and had awesome groups -- many of whom we still keep in touch with years later!

 

Give Aldo a quick email and tell him what you want to do. The best part about private tours is that you can have them do whatever you want to do! They are there to serve you! (You want to stop for gelato? No problem! HAHA!)

 

I highly recommend them!

 

ENJOY YOUR CRUISE! WE LOVED IT!!!

 

:)

Edited February 27, 2015 by NEW 2 CRUISIN

[rocklinmom]

My family and I just did the Grand Med this past summer on the Spirit. We used NCL shore excursions in each port. It was so easy to just meet in the theater, wait for our group number to be called, then walk off the ship in a separate line from the passengers waiting to walk off on their own. We had great guides on every one - my kids still talk about the lady who got us to the top of the Acropolis in record time and the leathery tanned Italian guy who walked us through Pompeii. The busses were clean, air conditioned (very important), and they gave us free bottles of water, and some gave us snacks, necklaces, and even a coloring book for my youngest. We got back to the ship in plenty of time and never had to worry about the traffic (especially in Rome) because the ship will wait for NCL excursions. Don't think it can't happen to you - we watched several people nearly miss the ship in Rome (their taxi's screeched into the port and they ran to the gangway - as we cheered from the promenade deck). And on our last stop (Provence France) one couple totally missed the ship - we saw the officers hand their passports to their tour company rep, who appeared to be pleading for them to wait a few more minutes - then literally as we sailed away the couple's tour van pulled up and they were running, but it was too late. If you ask me, the few more dollars that an NCL excursion costs are definitely worth it for the peace of mind and, as we can attest, high quality and memorable tours.

[hawkeyetlse]

We got back to the ship in plenty of time and never had to worry about the traffic (especially in Rome) because the ship will wait for NCL excursions.

When I take a ship's tour, I don't want them to get us back to the ship in plenty of time. If I shell out for a full day excursion from NCL, I want them to fill up the entire day and bring me back to the ship as late as possible. And that is exactly what happened on our last cruise with the two ship's tours that we did: they both went a little longer than scheduled, and the guides both said "don't worry, we can be a little bit late getting back to the ship, I want to give you the full time at this last stop". You'll never hear that from a private tour guide!

[KeithJenner]

We went through NCL, and we were glad we did. There was a traffic jam on the way back, and our buses got back after departure time. There they were waiting for us, though.

 

 

Just a point on this. In instances like this, the ship waits for the NCL tours, but if your private tour is in the same traffic jam then the ship is still there for you as well.

 

They may not wait for you, but they also won't deny you boarding just because you weren't on the NCL tour.

 

Obviously, this doesn't apply if you go somewhere that the NCL tours don't, or use the train, for example, but if a traffic jam on the way back to the port holds you up then it is likely to also hold up NCL tours as well.

[luvtheships]

Well we got about an extra hour in Istanbul basically just hanging out on the sidewalk and people watching. The excursion bus was parked somewhere and with all the traffic it couldn't get back to us

 

 

I dont think the ship needed to wait for us as I don't believe we were that late but none of us were concerned about it anyway and just enjoyed the street time

 

Btw this was on princess and the ship tour included more and actually cost less than a private tour for 6

 

Private tours can't get the topkapi to open on a Tuesday for you!!!

 

 

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Edited February 27, 2015 by luvtheships