Best and worst Princess tours you have done?

[JudithLynne]

Absolutely outstanding! Well worth the money, this shore excursion is highly praised. My husband has a degree in history with an emphasis on military history. He still talks about this excursion that we took over 10 years ago and after 35 cruises, that is saying something.

[PescadoAmarillo]

My favorite Princess excursion was a motorized canoe trip up a river in Fiji to a mountain village. Participated in a Kava ceremony, saw a folkloric show, met the local school kids,. jumped off a cliff into a waterfall on the way up. We enjoyed it so much we repeated it two years later.

 

Our worst was from a Celebrity ship, but it was just a standard bus tour to Pisa and Florence (early in our cruising career when we didn't venture out on our own). That was 16 years ago, and DH swore it would be his last ever bus tour and so far he's been right. We discovered that we are NOT "city highlights by bus"-type people.

[skf]

LOVED THESE...

L1/ Yukon & White Pass RR in Skagway.

L2/ Na'Pali Coast of Kaua'i. Turtles & Seals & Dolphins, oh my!

L3/ Boat ride to Monkey Island in the Panama Canal. (My regular followers already know this, but bring & drink more water than you think is enough. I got dehydrated the next day and spent much of the canal passage in the Medical Center.)

L4/ Tour of Normandie and the landing beaches. Absolutely impressive; especially as Pete's father landed with the 150th Engineer Combat Regiment at Omaha Beach a couple days after D-Day. We had a beautiful lunch at a country club & spoke French (I get along limpingly, but Pete is a natural, his family being from Québec.)

 

DISLIKED...

D1/ Bus tour to Waimea Canyon on Kaua'i. Endless souvenir shops going and returning, with about a half-hour to see the canyon. The driver kept passing around drawings of ancient Polynesians strangling each other. We wanted to strangle HIM !

D2/ Tour of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We went to see the caves, but got more da**ed shops that I had no interest in, especially the "Amber Museum". Can you say "Expensive shop disguised as a museum"? Finally enough was too much and we bailed out and took a cab back to the ship.

Steve

Edited April 26, 2015 by skf

[jagsfan]

Best was our first float plane trip to Taku Lodge outside of Ketchikan. Only time I ever wanted seconds on salmon. Tied with that was a Misty Fjords float plane where we landed on a silent lake and stood on the pontoons and watched Eagles above us. My tinnitus would keep me from enjoying that one again.

Worst was St Lucia where I had to sit over the wheel housing with my very bad knees jammed under my chin. I was in tears by the time we started back to the ship, the pain was so bad. There wasn't another bus, and no one was willing to trade with me. Thankfully, that's the only shore ex, Princess or private, that I didn't enjoy.

[rpcv77]

I haven't cruised very much (1 Disney, 2 Carnival, 2 Princess with a 3rd coming up in about 6 weeks). My touring style tends to be more independent and I really just like to wander and learn about the local life, though I certainly don't miss prominent attractions. I like tours that are half day, when possible, so I can wander on my own (younger dd is my travel companion as she enjoys this too). So, I really liked our half day winery tour in Ensenada. It gets you out of town, you go to two wineries with tastings and nibbles and you get a free bottle of wine at one of the wineries. The Guadalupe Valley was lovely. And the whole thing was only $40.00.Got back to town in time to head to the fish market and enjoy fish tacos and margaritas.

I also loved a half day tour in Hobart (Tasmania). This included visiting a wildlife sanctuary with free roaming kangaroos, Tasmanian Devils (caged!), koalas, wallabies, emus etc. We also visited Richmond, where I found a vintage metal mesh purse by Glomesh, to add to my collection. Got back to Hobart in time to enjoy the Taste of Tasmania food festival (outstanding), check out the boats that had just completed the Sydney to Hobart Race, and wander around the Salamanca area (including going to a local supermarket, a favorite activity of mine).

Will be going to Alaska on the Crown in June and booked tours in Juneau and Skagway independently. The same vendors offer the same tours through Princess, but at a higher price. We booked about 10 months ago, and though still pricey, saved about $90. per person for both tours.

Bad tours? None really. Heck, I'm on vacation! (Disclosure: I'm a former Peace Corps volunteer and former Pan Am flight attendant, so I'm not a timid traveler)

[rpcv77]

Deleted, double post

Edited April 26, 2015 by rpcv77
Deleted due to double post

[Colo Cruiser]

Best was our first float plane trip to Taku Lodge outside of Ketchikan. Only time I ever wanted seconds on salmon. Tied with that was a Misty Fjords float plane where we landed on a silent lake and stood on the pontoons and watched Eagles above us. My tinnitus would keep me from enjoying that one again.

Worst was St Lucia where I had to sit over the wheel housing with my very bad knees jammed under my chin. I was in tears by the time we started back to the ship, the pain was so bad. There wasn't another bus, and no one was willing to trade with me. Thankfully, that's the only shore ex, Princess or private, that I didn't enjoy.

 

I agree, Taku Lodge was the best, followed a close second by the rain forest /canal tour in Limon. CR. :)

[johnmik1]

The absolute worst was in Cartegena,Columbia which was a bus tour of the city with a boat ride through a mangrove forest.The boats were pre WWII and held 6 inches of water in the bottom.We were pushed through the mud by children begging for money.It was nasty!

[mcgratru]

We stick to ship tours and have found them to be very good and not too much more than private tours. I am a worrier so the total guarantee of being on a ship sponsored tour is worth a lot to me. We have done many different tours both on and off cruise ship vacations.

 

We loved the princess tours we did in Rome and Ephesus. The guides were amazing and we really felt we got good value. We usually try to book tours that have at least a small bit of "time on your own" because we are a both introverts and need that.

 

The only tours I have ever had issues on were one in Barcelona because of a bad tour guide and one in Jamaica because of horrible fellow cruisers.

 

In my experience, all of my Princess tours have been exactly as described. Some people jist don't read the descriptions or expect private 5 star amenities on a $50 excursion.

Edited April 26, 2015 by mcgratru

[RRFPresident]

My worst has to be the one in Paris. We bussed to the Louvre with a tour guide who was delightful on the 3 hour drive into the city and pointed out various landmarks. Once there we were split up into groups with another tour guide and given those little headsets that never all work. We were put into the group with our original tour guide from the bus ride and everything started out fine until we headed up the first set of stairs and another tour operator blocked the latter half of our group from following our guide. We soon lost headphone contact and had to guess which direction our guide had gone. By chance through wandering we found the second tour guide from our group and joined up with her.

 

We crossed paths eventually with our first tour guide just outside the room with the Mona Lisa and tried to rejoin her group. Only to find from other group members that they'd already been to see the Mona Lisa and our original guide took off ignoring our attempts to ask her to wait while we went in to see the Mona Lisa. We tried to rejoin the 2nd group but the Mona Lisa room was packed with school groups and the guide was long gone. We fought the crowds to get our customary glimpse and pic of the Mona Lisa and wound through the museum on our own until finally getting a guard's help to find the exit. We were the first few people back at the meeting place and shared our unhappiness with the first tour guide. Her attitude was basically "oh well" and took our headsets to turn back in.

 

After the Louvre, we were driven to a back alley road that was around the corner from the Eiffel Tower which we were to tour and have lunch in the tower restaurant. The alley was so congested with traffic that the bus driver was desperate to get everyone off so he could move the bus even though he'd pulled over to the side of the road. The driver came to the side door to get the last of us off the bus just as another bus came barreling up on him ignoring the driver's yells to wait. In our rush to get off, Dad grabbed the bathroom door handle to help get down the steps and it instead flung the bathroom door open. I jerked to the right to avoid getting hit by the door and instead hit my head on the exit door frame. We bolted around the front of the bus to the sidewalk just as the 2nd bus was coming upon us. We then had to play catch up to find where the rest of our group had gone around the corner and gotten in line for the tower.

 

The tower was being worked on so we weren't able to go past the 1st level. Thankfully, our guide looked out for us as we snaked through the line to get inside, even standing up to a family who tried to circumvent the line to cut through our tour group. The lunch started out very nice. Our group was larger than the 2-3 long tables the restaurant set aside so they had a handful of us take the neighboring tables. We sat with this very nice couple by the window and had a great chat while enjoying the view. As the lunch wore on, we noticed that the waiters would be standing around with nothing to do. Finally, they retrieved trays full of cannoli style desserts and dished them out to our tour group starting with the 2-3 long tables. They ran out by the end of those tables and we sat for so long waiting for the waiters to retrieve the next round for our tables that several people up and left in order to still have time to walk around the tower before our meet up time.

 

We approached our tour guide about the delay and she talked to the waiters. Because we had gotten up to inquire, the "bored" waiters swooped in and cleared away our table. The guide tried to assure us that more desserts would be coming but now all of our flatware etc was gone with no offer to get a fresh set. We chose to leave in order to still have time to walk around as by then it was only about 15 min before our meet up time. Without our guide, we nearly got lost once back on the ground to find our exit back to the bus. On the bus, our guide gave a speech about how in Paris, restaurants are at the mercy of the kitchen so the fact that 1/3 of us didn't get a full meal experience was just the way it was. It's a good thing it was a Princess sponsored excursion though b/c the bus returned to the ship w/I minutes of sailaway.

[alfieisgod]

Best was our first float plane trip to Taku Lodge outside of Ketchikan. Only time I ever wanted seconds on salmon. Tied with that was a Misty Fjords float plane where we landed on a silent lake and stood on the pontoons and watched Eagles above us. My tinnitus would keep me from enjoying that one again.

Worst was St Lucia where I had to sit over the wheel housing with my very bad knees jammed under my chin. I was in tears by the time we started back to the ship, the pain was so bad. There wasn't another bus, and no one was willing to trade with me. Thankfully, that's the only shore ex, Princess or private, that I didn't enjoy.

 

 

I would echo the comments about the Taku lodge. Enjoyed it so much last year that I will doing it again in June.

 

Also enjoyed the Misty Fjords float plane a few years ago - but I think Taku has it beat by a nose. The scene flying over the glaciers is spectacular.

 

Don

[G&T Cruisers]

Our best excursion was in Turkey where we traveled by bus to Ephesus. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch at a hotel with an amazing view of the Mediterranean. The excursion was well paced and organized.

We have not had excursion that we can say was our worst. On every one we've seen and experienced new things we otherwise would not be able to do. When we feel an excursion doesn't meet Princess' high standards, we fill out the reviews of the excursions on the ship afterwards for their information. Actually, we do that whether we've had a great experience or not.

[karatemom2]

Although we usually book independently, we do sometimes book through Princess. The two excursions we have enjoyed most are the excursion to Las Caletas in Puerto Vallarta and a wildlife viewing trip in Haines where we got great Brown Bear viewing. The worst was a city tour in Puerto Vallarta that we only took because we had my in-laws with us who needed something more accommodating. It ended up basically being a tour from store to store where they tried to sell us stuff. :cool:

[donaldsc]

. Got back to Hobart in time to enjoy the Taste of Tasmania food festival (outstanding), check out the boats that had just completed the Sydney to Hobart Race, and wander around the Salamanca area (including going to a local supermarket, a favorite activity of mine).

 

Going to supermarkets can be interesting. We did a tour in I believe but I am not sure was Iceland and the guide took one of the supermarkets as part of the tour. Wandering about the meat and fish section was fascinating. They sure eat different there.

 

DON

[rdsqrl]

Both my favourites were on excursions off the original Island Princess, and I don't think that's a coincidence. Small ships = smaller excursion groups, not big hordes.

 

1. Tour of the D-Day beaches, Pegasus Bridge, and Arromanches, France. We had a very enthusiastic, knowledgeable guide (who loved Americans! Now, I'm not a jingoist by any means, but it was certainly enough to turn my head!). We were not rushed at any stop, nor was there a single "shopping" stop. The bus was equipped with televisions, and a documentary about the D-Day landings was played there and back -- very informative. Plus, we had a bang-up lunch at the Omaha Beach Golf Club. It had the ambiance of a private excursion and was more like being on an excellent school field trip than a mass-market cruiseline excursion.

 

2. Tour to Cap Spartel, Hercules Caves, Malcolm Forbes house, and the Casbah, Tangier. Loved this tour, not only for the exotic sights (camels!) but also because of the excellent guide, who took the time to explain much about Moroccan culture and about the Five Pillars of Islam, which really helped to contextualize what we saw and heard -- in particular, the call to prayer, which was incredible. The Casbah was one of the most exotic and interesting destinations I've ever been in; I got some amazing photos. I'm eager to return to Morocco one day.

[geoherb]

Our worst Princess excursion was to Tulum. I was prepared for the rough ferry ride--taking bonine that morning. A lot of other people were not prepared. Fortunately we had a front row seat and did not see them get sick--just saw the attendants rushing to and froe with barf bags.

 

Our guide wasn't great. I learned more about his ex girlfriend than I did about the Maya. The description says, "you are escorted by your English speaking guide through a 50-minute narrated tour." Instead of a guided tour of the ruins, he stopped us in the middle of a sunny field to talk for 45 minutes about Mayan history and the ruins. We also missed out on the beach portion because the beach was closed that day. It would not have been so bad if our guide had told us so we could have left our beach things back on the bus.

[shredie]

This thread makes me reconsider my favorites. Ephesus, for sure. And Pearl Harbor.

[R**T]

THE BEST

A daylong bus trip from St. Petersburg to Novgorod, Russia, and back. We had a small group, a interesting tour guide, great food, and a fearless driver. Novgorod is such an amazing place. I don't think Princess offers this excursion any more. It was a long day but well worth every penny and minute!

THE WORST

A 4-wheel drive trip to a forest outside of Rio. It was hot and noisy and we had to breathe vehicle exhaust. I doubt the vehicle was even safe to ride in. The tour guide spoke little English. It was a horrible experience.

[cruisequeen4ever]

My fav shore excursions were:

1) Pompeii, Sorrento, and Capri- it was a whirlwind day but so worth it!

2) St. Lucia zip lining

3) Deadliest Catch Crab Fisherman's Tour- Ketchikan, AK

 

Worst Excursion-

St. Maarten Island Tour- It was still interesting, but the only stop was at a flea market type place that felt unsafe, and there was no air conditioning on the bus!

[Thorpe]

Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri was good for us too. Not a huge group and our guide Claudia was amazing.

 

Unlike our Florence/Pisa trip. Felt like sheep the whole time and caused me to cancel next 2 tours (Barcelona and Paris). Only good thing was seeing Statue of David. Did Barcelona on hoho bus ourselves. And just wandered around Le Havre after cancelling our tours.

[Kewz1]

I think our best was last summer on our British Isles cruise on the Ocean Princess. We had to get to Heathrow airport and were docked in Dover. DW did not want to just take the transfer and spend a lot of time at the airport. We took their transfer with a tour of Canterbury. The guide was excellent. The tour was very small (IIRC only 14 of us including a couple and their daughters who we had met at our meet and greet.) And the Cathedral at Canterbury was one of the many highlights of our wonderful cruise.

 

 

Just went and reserved this! Thanks for posting about it. And thanks to the OP for starting this thread.

 

Kristen

[ontheweb]

Just went and reserved this! Thanks for posting about it. And thanks to the OP for starting this thread.

 

Kristen

 

You're very welcome. I hope you enjoy the tour as much as we did. One thing I should have added that made this tour special was that even though we were off the ship and not coming back, it still seemed like we were still on our cruise.

 

BTW, if you are doing the same cruise as we did, the 8 day on the Ocean Princess, you might want to consider clicking on Ocean Princess and reading the Disney Sheep Go Rogue thread. It's a wonderful description of the cruise with lots and lots of pictures. I have lots and lots of posts in this thread though I still wonder how it took me hundreds of posts in the thread to realize we were on the ship the same dates.

 

And my thanks also to the OP; this a truly interesting thread.

[thistledoo]

Such a lot of very interesting posts! Great reading.

[RAPM5856]

Most of the time we just tour on our own (after I do the research). But before our last cruise' date=' I had our teen look over the Princess excursions and she selected one (the Nautilus sub off of Waikiki, which was okay), and I selected the Movies and Waterfalls one in Kauai. All three of us loved it! My hubby is a big waterfalls fan (he wants to one day see Iguazu Falls in South America) so he got to see some beautiful ones. My daughter and I are major movie fans so we loved the format of the tour (the guide would show a clip or more of our next destination).

 

We also had lunch at the diner featured in the movie "The Descendants." And one of the sites was the dilapidated Coco Palms hotel, which was never rebuilt after Hurricane Inikiki. A local icon, Larry Rivera serenaded us while the guide (who had taken lessons from Larry's daughter) danced the hula to his songs. Sadly, a fire gutted the ruins further just months ago.[/quote']

 

We have also done this 'Movies' tour and loved it. First thing we did when we got back home was watch a bunch of old movies.

[flamomo]

Out of the dozens and dozens of Princess cruises I have taken, there are only 2 that were most disappointing.

 

#1 was a "highlights" of Bora Bora several years ago. I think it must have been the very first time the driver and the guide had ever done an excursion, because the guide provided virtually no history or interesting information. She would state what a building was, such as a school or a chuch, as we passed it, but nothing else!!. The driver apparently had no control over where the bus made stops, because it seemed to stop at every roadside shack that sold sarongs!!! It was the first time we were ever glad when the excursion was over because we were so bored.

 

#2 was the all day disembarkation excursion we took from Valpariso, Chile to the airport in Santiago a couple of months ago. The guide was very pleasant and spoke good English, but was sadly lacking in narration skills. Part of the time was spent in Vina del Mar, where the guide said she grew up!, but she gave us little information about the place. Nor was there much info given as we progressed thru the day toward Santiago. The best part of the day was after we left Vina del Mar and stopped for lunch at Raul Correa & Familia restaurant, where we were served native foods, local wines, and pisco sours!!

Even when we got to Santiago and were being driven around to see some highlights of the city, the narration part was sadly lacking.