Private Journeys Custom Excursions

[cunn9004]

What is your experience been if you have used Celebrity's Private Journeys custom excursion service?  Worth the cost yes or no?

We are doing a British Isles cruise and I would at one port love to splurge on a day just the two of us.  If you have done this cruise what port would you suggest we would most enjoy a private tour where I would be looking for stunning scenery, quaint towns/pubs/shopping, sites?  

Cork, or Waterford, Ireland

or

Glasgow,  Lerwick/Shetland,  Inverness/Loch, Scotland.

I have never been to any of these and would want to choose wisely.  Thank you!   

 

[the penguins]

6 hours ago, cunn9004 said:

What is your experience been if you have used Celebrity's Private Journeys custom excursion service?  Worth the cost yes or no?

We are doing a British Isles cruise and I would at one port love to splurge on a day just the two of us.  If you have done this cruise what port would you suggest we would most enjoy a private tour where I would be looking for stunning scenery, quaint towns/pubs/shopping, sites?  

Cork, or Waterford, Ireland

or

Glasgow,  Lerwick/Shetland,  Inverness/Loch, Scotland.

I have never been to any of these and would want to choose wisely.  Thank you!   

 

We use toursbylocals to give us the same experience at a fraction of the cost. We prefer to share with one other couple but that's our choice. We did a fantastic private tour with Mary in Lerwick but you would need to book her early. If you would like her direct contact details please email me: geoffanita at hotmail dot com -  Sorry for the odd way of writing it stops the robots. Geoff.

[TeeRick]

Private Journeys is expensive and very nice - and you get the guarantee that the ship will not leave without you as with other Celebrity excursions.  And you can customize what you want to do.  In comparison, a customized privately booked tour for two people might be just as expensive (or not).  Need to get some quotes.  But you will not get that guarantee if that is a criteria for you.

[mahdnc]

12 hours ago, cunn9004 said:

What is your experience been if you have used Celebrity's Private Journeys custom excursion service?  Worth the cost yes or no?

We are doing a British Isles cruise and I would at one port love to splurge on a day just the two of us.  If you have done this cruise what port would you suggest we would most enjoy a private tour where I would be looking for stunning scenery, quaint towns/pubs/shopping, sites?  

Cork, or Waterford, Ireland

or

Glasgow,  Lerwick/Shetland,  Inverness/Loch, Scotland.

I have never been to any of these and would want to choose wisely.  Thank you!   

 

 

I completely agree with @the penguins.  For what you want to do, you will be far better off shopping for a private tour yourself.  Toursbylocals is a good place to start.  You will find it to be much cheaper as Celebrity will hire a local company to do your private tour and then add their considerable markup.  Shopping for a private guide on your own gives you more control over the choice of guide. 

 

 

[the penguins]

38 minutes ago, TeeRick said:

Private Journeys is expensive and very nice - and you get the guarantee that the ship will not leave without you as with other Celebrity excursions.  And you can customize what you want to do.  In comparison, a customized privately booked tour for two people might be just as expensive (or not).  Need to get some quotes.  But you will not get that guarantee if that is a criteria for you.

A few comments.

We use TBL partly because:

1) we deal direct with the guide - using X you are always dealing through a third person.

2) if we were to miss the ship TBL would pay to get us to the next port. However as we set the times that is a very remote possibility.

3) the guide only gets paid after the tour.

4) if the ship doesn't dock or we are refused disembarkation we get an automatic refund. Or we can pay extra and be able to cancel for any reason. The extra insurance costs 10% of the tour but if we don't cancel the cost is transferred as a credit to another tour. We have never paid the extra.

5) we are free to share with whoever we like.

[canderson]

We used Private Journeys twice on our last cruise, but in addition to COVID testing concerns on a B2B, that was largely a function of having a truly obscene amount of OBC due to FCC and repricing of both cruises.  And yes, OBC can be used for these excursions.

 

If you go this route, contact the PJ folks early by phone, and follow up with email outlining your preferred itinerary.  They'll come back via email with your custom itinerary as a pdf and a quote for the excursion which you can accept, decline, or suggest modification.

[cunn9004]

Thank you for your replying.  I think I will start by looking at TBL.  Digging a little deeper into which port might be the best fit (anyone have any advice on that)?  I'll also check with private journeys - life has been a challenge since 2018 and their promise to not leave you behind, might alleviate any anxiety I may have getting back in the cruise saddle.