Excursions

[Lindacol]

Cruising on Celebrity reflection October 2 Europe / Mediterranean . Have been getting different advise on booking excursions prior to boarding the ship . Also I am hoping to get tips on possibly booking tours with private local companies and if this is a good idea . One last issue I have been dealing with is if we do excursions not arranged by celebrity what is the best company or transportation to use . Have waited 40 years to make this trip . Want to make the most out of it. Friend recommended cruise critics :)

[MeHeartCruising]

Cruising on Celebrity reflection October 2 Europe / Mediterranean . Have been getting different advise on booking excursions prior to boarding the ship . Also I am hoping to get tips on possibly booking tours with private local companies and if this is a good idea . One last issue I have been dealing with is if we do excursions not arranged by celebrity what is the best company or transportation to use . Have waited 40 years to make this trip . Want to make the most out of it. Friend recommended cruise critics :)

 

Welcome aboard. In addition to the replies you may get here, exhaustively read the multitude of postings for each of the port of calls for your cruise. That is where you will likely find the information to best help you decide on what is right for YOU.

 

My personal thoughts (yours may differ):

 

1. I would not take a European cruise without having each of my port stops planned prior to the cruise. I would not wait to get on the ship to pick excursions if you do end up using the cruise line for that purpose. There's just too much planning and decisions about what you want to do that will most likely take you time. Read. Search the internet. Read the cruise line website. Decide what you want to do at each stop. THEN decide how to do it in the next step.

 

2. I think the heavy majority of Cruise Critic members will advocate finding your own 3rd party tour company or do the ports on your own after doing your own research. In many places, if you are comfortable with taxis, buses, trains or in some cases walking, you can do a lot on your own for far less than using a tour company or the cruise line. I'm in the camp of "DIY -- Do It Yourself". However, when I don't want to do it myself. I will sometimes sign up with a 3rd party tour company. As a 3rd option, I will sometime use the cruise line excursions in situation where there might be a very tight timing or I just didn't have enough time to do research myself.

 

3. If you want to do 3rd party tours, you can find lots of recommendations on this forum already. Read down the list. They will differ from port-to-port. Since I generally DIY, I don't have many recommendations in this area.

 

Congratulations... You are in for the time of your life. You have a few months before your cruise, but not many. I would start nailing down your plans soon.

[Lindacol]

There are so many places in each port to see and not enough time to see them all . How do you know what is really the best excursion to pick. My head is spinning and I don't want to make a mistake .

[Langoustine]

You need to look at a guidebook long before you get on the ship and decide what's important to you in each port. It's simply not possible to see as much as you could on a land trip, and even doing that you need to prioritize; my wife and I just spent two weeks in Milan, Florence and Venice, and barely scratched the surface of what there is to see and do (especially in Florence).

Edited June 19, 2015 by Langoustine

[canuck.qc]

There are so many places in each port to see and not enough time to see them all . How do you know what is really the best excursion to pick. My head is spinning and I don't want to make a mistake .

MeHeartCruising had very good advice. Planning, research & reading is key.

You have waited long for this trip and the success of the trip equals the effort you put into planning.

Research each port & make a list of what you 'must see'.

Go online and search top recommended tour sites and see what they offer for their 'excursions'. They know exactly how to deal with shore excursions.

Time and distance often dictates what is possible to see. Private tours can be tailored to your group. Usually a minivan 6-8 pax. Very cost effective.

I also encourage you to join your RollCall and join or start a private tour group.

Tour companies also have 'sharing private tours'- they will pair you with others from your ship.

Highly recommended tours are booked 1yr in advance so try to nail down the important tours.

I print out a daily planner for each port with all the necessary info ex: tour operator's info, money needed, maps, sites, transportation etc....

Also read posts from past cruises with similar itineraries, from the different cruise boards.

If you are tech savey there are many tools you can download to your smartphone ex: maps, walking tours etc.

The really good thing is you joined CC....it is a wealth of info!

If you get stuck, post your ports of call and you'll get good several recommendations.

Good luck and have a wonderful trip.

[fabrome]

I believe that you should check the ports that your ship stops and decide what you would like to see in each one.For example in Mykonos we wanted to visit Super Paradise beach and that's why we decided to take a cab.

While in Santorini we wanted to get a private tour to see the mainland.We took offers from agencies referred in here,made a comparison in what they offer and their prices with the ships' shore excursions and then decided

Good luck!

[Got2Cruise]

There are so many places in each port to see and not enough time to see them all . How do you know what is really the best excursion to pick. My head is spinning and I don't want to make a mistake .

 

 

You can't make a mistake. It's all good. Choose one "must do" thing in each port. For example, when we went to Rome my one must to see was the Sistine Chapel. I knew we couldn't handle a nine hour see all tour. The port guides here on CC are helpful for the first time visitor in each port. Sometimes if a port requires a tender, for us, choosing a ship's tour makes life easier.

 

The bottom line is to know your travel style and go with your gut.

[MeHeartCruising]

I would also take the following approach... Work on one port at a time. As a first time European cruiser, I would read all the excursions that the cruise line offers for that port. They have done a very good job of figuring out what the majority of cruisers want to do in these ports. So they offer a good selection of choices. Read about the options on their website. Eliminate those that don't interest you. Narrow down to 2 or 3 that hit the mark. Then further research more online about the destinations/activities that are in the excursions. Hopefully, this starts you toward picking 1 that you think you really want to do. Then further research here or elsewhere online to see if there are better/less expensive ways to accomplish the same excursion using 3rd party or on your own. If it doesn't make sense to do it via 3rd party or DIY. Then book it thru the cruise line. That's my approach.

 

As I said, I mostly DIY. So, prior to the cruise I assemble all my notes in a notebook that I bring with me on the cruise. I have assembled all the details I need for each port and what I want to do there. What my transportation options are, how much money to bring, advance ticket purchases so I don't have to wait in line, what my backup plan is should something go wrong, etc.

 

One port at a time. Read. Decide.

Edited June 19, 2015 by MeHeartCruising

[waterbug123]

There are so many places in each port to see and not enough time to see them all . How do you know what is really the best excursion to pick. My head is spinning and I don't want to make a mistake .

 

I would start by sitting down together with your spouse (or whoever you're going with) and do some serious talking about what kinds of things you enjoy. it's very easy to get caught up in "what you are supposed to do in Venice/Rome/Athens/wherever" and forget about things you might really enjoy. Just because something is a famous site and everyone says you have to see it, doesn't mean you have to, so decide if it's really something you'd enjoy. For instance, before our itinerary changed our cruise next month was supposed to stop in Athens. Well in Athens you go see the Parthenon, right? And sure, I'd like to see it someday.....but not in July when it's a thousand degrees and I'm in the middle of a crowd of thousands of people all trekking up the hill en masse. So we had decided to take the hydrofoil to the island of Aegina that day instead.

So decide what kinds of things you really enjoy and focus on those. If you don't really enjoy museums or whatever, don't go, even if it means missing a famous one.

 

As for excursions in general, the safety feature of cruise line excursions is that if you are delayed returning to the ship, the ship will generally wait for you. Now, having said that, that does not mean you need to be afraid to do a 3rd party excursion. 3rd party companies make their living by offering good tours and having people recommend them to others. If they don't manage their time well and get you back too late to catch the ship, they wouldn't stay in business very long. The other plus to cruise line tours is that if something happens and you have to skip that port, you'll be refunded, but many 3rd party companies will do likewise. You do need to ask though and get any guarantees in writing.

 

Personally, we don't like to do cruise line tours. They often involve a large number of people and a lot of time on a bus, neither of which we enjoy, but it varies from tour to tour. If you book a 3rd party tour, make sure you understand whether it's a private tour or not. You can book a 3rd party tour that puts you in a group with other people, or you can book a private tour so make sure you know what you're booking. We've done both, you just need to know what to expect. Bottom line: 3rd party tour and private tour mean different things.

 

As mentioned already, research each port here on cruise critic, and if you see a tour company mentioned I'd also check them out on Trip Advisor.