Excursions - Princess vs Private

[Tatka]

Nervous Nellie, that's me! We generally book all of our excursions through the ship. One time in St. Thomas, our excursion was cancelled due to rough water and we took a taxi to Coki Beach. It was beautiful and we thoroughly enjoyed it, but I was nervous about getting back to the ship on time! We have met some wonderful crew members (working for the excursion) along the way, who went out of their way to make sure we had a good time :)

 

 

 

Should this happen again in St Thomas, go to Emerald (Lindbergh) beach... it is literally near the port. Some people even walk there. Maybe 10 minutes from Crown Beach.

[dcrow72]

We are just off the Crown Mediterranean cruise and the Princess excursions were deplorable to say the least. I wanted to cry after our $150 Cinque Terre tour that was nothing more than being herded into a bus, then an overcrowded ferry and then shown one church and left to roam Monterusso for 2 hours only to get the train back to the bus. All we had to do was get outside the harbor gates in Genoa and take the train for under $20 to Monterusso directly. The tour didn't match the description which promised visits to 2 of the 5 villages! They didn't care at all. The line after was huge with everyone complaining. They refunded us $30+ but still wasn't worth the $20 train fare we could have paid.

 

Florence wasn't much better. Rushed and dragged all over town with non stop history lesson with no time to visit anything! It was "blow by" tour. Look quick or you miss it. Took us down the street from the Ponte Vecchia and said "look over there. we no go there. too busy". WTH??

 

The best excursion we had was in Gibraltar and we booked it ourselves through shoreexcursions dot com. half the price for less people and better tour. Did the disembark tour of Rome 8 hours for $99 when the ship wanted $199 for same exact tour!

 

I wished I had done a bit more research but it was my first time in Europe and I was hesitant to go out on my own. In hind sight, it would have been much easier, cheaper and satisfying if we had done our own!

[pablo222]

Should this happen again in St Thomas, go to Emerald (Lindbergh) beach... it is literally near the port. Some people even walk there. Maybe 10 minutes from Crown Beach.

 

This was true in the past, when Princess docked at Crown Bay.

 

Mercifully, that contract expired, and Princess generally docks at Havensite, which

is not near Emerald beach, at all...

 

Emerald Beach was the only positive about Crown Bay.

[Tatka]

This was true in the past, when Princess docked at Crown Bay.

 

Mercifully, that contract expired, and Princess generally docks at Havensite, which

is not near Emerald beach, at all...

 

Emerald Beach was the only positive about Crown Bay.

Well.. it's still closer from both ports than other beaches except French Morning Star which is weaker than others. In fact last two time we docked in HS, we still went to EB.

Unless you are into shopping in port (which CB also has to some extent) it doesn't really matter where you are docked.

[go-go12]

So... how do you know if any ports in Alaska are "tender" ports? Our only Alaska ports are Juneau, Skagway & Ketchikan.

[caribill]

So... how do you know if any ports in Alaska are "tender" ports? Our only Alaska ports are Juneau, Skagway & Ketchikan.

 

Normally none of these are tender ports, but every now and then a ship on a busy day in Juneau has to anchor and use tenders.

 

Look at your itinerary in your Personalizer and it will indicate if any of the ports uses tenders.

[TonyM99]

I know I have commented before but having just returned form 14 nights to Norways with Princess we took 4 local organised tours - All excellent more information more stops - But the financial difference was staggering - Just one example - Stavanger - Cruise along Lysefjord Ships price $190 we paid locally $60 - All boats left from virtually alongside ship - yes i understand thee was a difference ships tour included a drink and a waffle and locally brought was slightly longer. Also did our own tours in Geiranger , Honningsvag, Gravdal ( organised by another CC member for 14 people) All significantly cheaper