MSC Preziosa 8 October | Excursions and other questions

[Ryan82]

Hey there.

 

Excited to be cruising in just 19 days time. Sorry for questions.

 

Is it worth booking some of the excursions? Do they tend to be good / reasonable value?

 

I have platinum select with Best Western which MSC status match with - does this actually give you any benefits other than a discount off future cruises?

 

Cheers Ryan

 

 

[The_Sea_Batt]

Hi Ryan

 

You pose two very different questions. Let's start with the easy one. Yes, the status match gives you some additional perks and discounts. For more info see....

MSC Voyagers Club - Membership Benefits | MSC Cruises

 

The second question is thornier as it depends on the ports in question. For example, Amsterdam cruise port is about 200 yards from the historic city making things a doddle to DIY. Paris from a port like Cherbourg or Le Havre is probably better via an excursion as if there is a delay the ship will wait not so if you are DIY. A good example was a visit to Mt Eta some years ago we decided that it was too complicated to DIY. There was a crash on the main road delaying our return by over an hour past the sailing time. As we were on an MSC excursion, the ship waited.

 

I would therefore suggest some quick research on this site, TripAdvisor and a Google search. Then decide how happy you are with sorting things out yourself. All cruise line excursions are quite expensive for what they are.

 

For what it is worth, in 10 years of cruising we have only booked a handful of MSC excursions.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

The Sea_Batt

[Ryan82]

Thanks for the advice which I've taken. Cherbourg and Hamburg look easy to DIY. Bruges the excursion is reasonably priced anyway and Le Harve Paris excursion would work well because I've been many times but my partner hasn't.

[Cardiff girl]

Hi Ryan, I'm also looking at DIY options for this cruise, so any advice would be useful.

Just to note, Paris is 3 hours drive so I'm looking at a train from Le Havre to Rouen. They're regular, take under an hour & we've got 12 hours in port. Honfleur is closer & lovely, but I'm not sure how to get there. I think the Bruges train is quite easy too.