Where do you read/find excursion reviews?

[LoriLoriLori]

On our upcoming we are doing two cruise sponsored excursions and with the other two ports we are going out on our own.  

 

We have only been on one cruise prior and it was to the Bahamas and we did our own thing.  This time we are cruising to Italy and France. 

 

One of our port days is in Carrara, Italy.  There are not many opportunities to go out on you own so to speak in this port.  There are no fast or easy trains or public transit to Florence, nor are there independent tour operators. Carrara appears to be an industrial port.  On this day we booked the excursion to Accademia Gallery.  Another port is Toulon, France and we booked and excursion to Aix.  I would like to travel to Aix on our own, however public transit from Toulon to Aix is non-existent, and that's okay. It's all well and good and that's how it goes.  I would still like to read reviews. (I imagine they might be buried in specific cruise reviews.)   

 

If I can't read reviews, I have some questions:

 

1.  I've read that a lot of time can be wasted waiting for passengers to board coach busses and such.  I don't know if this is true.  What is your experience with time management?  Did you get to see a lot and was it enjoyable?  I know these things will vary.

 

2.  What is your general opinion of cruise sponsored excursions?   If you avoid them altogether,  or love them, I'd like to know your thoughts. 

 

3. If a restaurant meal is planned as part of the excursion what types of places to you go? I imagine large places that cater to cruise passengers?  

 

4.  How is it run?  Do all passengers stay together?  How many people are generally on a tour?  

 

Thanks for any comments or where you have found reviews.

[BND]

Royal used to have some reviews on the website, but those have been removed.  Unless someone reviewed one on the ports of call thread or in a cruise review, you won't really find them.  You can google and sometimes some will pop up but not always.

[Cigar King]

Google.  I have always found excursion reviews when I look there.  Often they lead to places like Trip Advisor and they sometimes have top 10 lists for sights which I find helpful.

[Biker19]

1 hour ago, LoriLoriLori said:

I would like to travel to Aix on our own, however public transit from Toulon to Aix is non-existent, and that's okay.

Public transit in France is usually pretty good and while not obvious or easy, it should be available. Whether the effort is worth it, is questionable - the train between the two is about 1.5 hours.

[BND]

1 hour ago, LoriLoriLori said:

On our upcoming we are doing two cruise sponsored excursions and with the other two ports we are going out on our own.  

 

We have only been on one cruise prior and it was to the Bahamas and we did our own thing.  This time we are cruising to Italy and France. 

 

One of our port days is in Carrara, Italy.  There are not many opportunities to go out on you own so to speak in this port.  There are no fast or easy trains or public transit to Florence, nor are there independent tour operators. Carrara appears to be an industrial port.  On this day we booked the excursion to Accademia Gallery.  Another port is Toulon, France and we booked and excursion to Aix.  I would like to travel to Aix on our own, however public transit from Toulon to Aix is non-existent, and that's okay. It's all well and good and that's how it goes.  I would still like to read reviews. (I imagine they might be buried in specific cruise reviews.)   

 

If I can't read reviews, I have some questions:

 

1.  I've read that a lot of time can be wasted waiting for passengers to board coach busses and such.  I don't know if this is true.  What is your experience with time management?  Did you get to see a lot and was it enjoyable?  I know these things will vary.

 

2.  What is your general opinion of cruise sponsored excursions?   If you avoid them altogether,  or love them, I'd like to know your thoughts. 

 

3. If a restaurant meal is planned as part of the excursion what types of places to you go? I imagine large places that cater to cruise passengers?  

 

4.  How is it run?  Do all passengers stay together?  How many people are generally on a tour?  

 

Thanks for any comments or where you have found reviews.

1.  It varies.  Sometimes if there are older people who move slower or need help, then it can slow down boarding, but not by much.  We've always had good experiences with buses except for one time where it was a small bus.  We had good seats at first, but then others (young with good knees) grabbed them on reboarding and left me with a seat on the bump which meant my knees were in my face.   And, my knees weren't happy, but no one cared.

 

2.  We do them just because we feel like it's easier and you know for sure timing.  Although we've done a few non-ship sponsored, especially in the US.

 

3.  Restaurants vary.  Size of the excursion and the location.  

 

4.  It varies.  Most excursions give you plenty of free time to shop, eat, enjoy a beach.

Edited June 11, 2022 by BND

[Cigar King]

24 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Public transit in France is usually pretty good and while not obvious or easy, it should be available.

FWIW, they were on strike when we were in Toulon.  We found other things to do.  (some of them were on strike too)  We still had a wonderful time.

[firefly333]

3 hours ago, LoriLoriLori said:

On our upcoming we are doing two cruise sponsored excursions and with the other two ports we are going out on our own.  

 

We have only been on one cruise prior and it was to the Bahamas and we did our own thing.  This time we are cruising to Italy and France. 

 

One of our port days is in Carrara, Italy.  There are not many opportunities to go out on you own so to speak in this port.  There are no fast or easy trains or public transit to Florence, nor are there independent tour operators. Carrara appears to be an industrial port.  On this day we booked the excursion to Accademia Gallery.  Another port is Toulon, France and we booked and excursion to Aix.  I would like to travel to Aix on our own, however public transit from Toulon to Aix is non-existent, and that's okay. It's all well and good and that's how it goes.  I would still like to read reviews. (I imagine they might be buried in specific cruise reviews.)   

 

If I can't read reviews, I have some questions:

 

1.  I've read that a lot of time can be wasted waiting for passengers to board coach busses and such.  I don't know if this is true.  What is your experience with time management?  Did you get to see a lot and was it enjoyable?  I know these things will vary.

 

2.  What is your general opinion of cruise sponsored excursions?   If you avoid them altogether,  or love them, I'd like to know your thoughts. 

 

3. If a restaurant meal is planned as part of the excursion what types of places to you go? I imagine large places that cater to cruise passengers?  

 

4.  How is it run?  Do all passengers stay together?  How many people are generally on a tour?  

 

Thanks for any comments or where you have found reviews.

I have a restaurant included meal on a excursion and I googled the restaurant and tripadvisor did have full review of the restaurant.  I havent found reviews of excursions in rcl and many are new or revised since covid. Different choices these days same ports.

[LoriLoriLori]

Thank you for all of the replies.  

 

1 hour ago, firefly333 said:

I have a restaurant included meal on a excursion and I googled the restaurant and tripadvisor did have full review of the restaurant.  I havent found reviews of excursions in rcl and many are new or revised since covid. Different choices these days same ports.

 

This is neat that they told you the specific restaurant in the excursion details, or did you find out the day of the excursion?  The restaurant name is not listed in the details but perhaps it will later, and it does not matter really.  I am sure these excursions will be fine,  and we will go with it and enjoy.  I think my motivation is to stay at the place as long as possible before heading back and I'm not sure these ship excursions do that. 

[firefly333]

1 hour ago, LoriLoriLori said:

Thank you for all of the replies.  

 

 

This is neat that they told you the specific restaurant in the excursion details, or did you find out the day of the excursion?  The restaurant name is not listed in the details but perhaps it will later, and it does not matter really.  I am sure these excursions will be fine,  and we will go with it and enjoy.  I think my motivation is to stay at the place as long as possible before heading back and I'm not sure these ship excursions do that. 

 Yes my excursion says the name of the restaurant. Nothing like europe like yours. 3rd time is the charm as this is the 3rd time I've booked Jamaica and the last 2 we got rerouted. Normally I wouldnt book b2b excursions but what used to be a common port now isnt out of texas.

 

Last paragraph ...head on over to Scotchies and enjoy.. .. I looked it up on google and scotchies is a fairly well known  local restaurant. I used to like jerk but lately my stomach doesnt like really spicy, so idk, but lunch sounded like a nice outing, and some green gullys and such. I bet lunch takes a while for a crowd. I was torn but went for the excursion with lunch. 

 

Carnival has reviews for their excursions. Idk why rcl doesnt. Agree it's odd. 

 

 

[arlodog]

On our Med cruise we had a very active roll call and we booked most of our excursions with people we connected with before the cruise to help with costs.  We had a blast and met some really great people on that cruise.  We shared transport costs with private guides/drivers.  People would just post a tour that they found and ask if anyone else was interested in joining them.  One of our favorites was a walking food tour which we had never done before.  We have since looked for them in all of the ports we go to as a great way to try local restaurants and learn a bit about the local customs/culture.  

 

Otherwise we rely on Trip Advisor or a google search to find private tour guides.  We don't do the ships excursions.  We find them too expensive for what you get.  We enjoy a smaller group tour if at all possible.