Celebrity Mediterranean cruise question

[Lalof]

If this is the wrong area to post this question, I apologize.

We are doing a 7 day Mediterranean cruise in 2024. We are trying to do a general guesstimate of what our budget should look like.

For those that have been on a Celebrity Mediterranean cruise, can you give us any ideas about the general range of excursion costs?

Would you say the excursion costs might be in the same range as say an Alaska cruise— if you have been on a Celebrity Alaska cruise.

Would they run in the $200-$300 range per excursion, or more?

[soniam]

It may depend upon the ports. For our Italy/Turkey/Greece, many were between $150-250/person, particularly the longer ones. Shorter ones that didn't include a meal were between $60 and $150. If you pre-purchase, you get a discount. They also had a sale the week or 2 after Thanksgiving. The sale applied to specialty dining too. It might be a little cheaper than Alaska, since those are very involved. The small group tours are also on the more expensive side.

[PH2]

We took advantage of that sale around Thanksgiving for our September Alaska cruise to book a few excursions and two specialty dining nights. Are those sales usually a once-a-year type of thing (and if so, if it usually around Thanksgiving), or do they do them periodically during the year?

[jelayne]

The cost for tours vary depending upon if you are doing ship sponsored excursions or booking directly with guides or tour operators.  Ships tours are generally more expensive.  Some stops on Mediterranean cruises can easily be done on your own, others require a tour.

 

If you have not already joined the Roll Call for your sailing you should.  Often there are fellow cruisers who have arranged a small group tours that you could join.  This gives you the benefits of less expensive tours with fewer people and all are from your cruise.

[mahdnc]

14 hours ago, Lalof said:

If this is the wrong area to post this question, I apologize.

We are doing a 7 day Mediterranean cruise in 2024. We are trying to do a general guesstimate of what our budget should look like.

For those that have been on a Celebrity Mediterranean cruise, can you give us any ideas about the general range of excursion costs?

Would you say the excursion costs might be in the same range as say an Alaska cruise— if you have been on a Celebrity Alaska cruise.

Would they run in the $200-$300 range per excursion, or more?

 

Here are the shore excursions for the Jul 5 2024 sailing of Constellation (10 nights, Italy/Croatia):

https://www.celebritycruises.com/account/cruise-planner/category/shorex?bookingId=0000000&shipCode=CS&sailDate=20240705

 

If you are interested in viewing the shore excursions for a different sailing, you only need to alter the two texts that are in red in the URL.  The first one is the 2 letter initial for the ship.  The second one is the sailing date.  Also, you must make sure you are not signed into your Celebrity account when you paste the URL in your web browser.  I have to run to a meeting and will post the 2 letter initials for the ships in Celebrity's fleet later unless someone does it for me.

[mahdnc]

@Lalof, here are the two letter ship codes--if you are interested in looking up the shore excursions (and their prices) for other ships:

 

Apex = AX

Ascent = AT

Beyond = BY

Constellation = CS

Eclipse = EC

Edge = EG

Equinox = EQ

Infinity = IN

Millennium = ML

Reflection = RF

Silhouette = SI

Solstice = SL

Summit = SM

 

I need to credit @NorthStarStateCruiser for posting this hack: link.

 

Because it wasn't clear: when you insert the sail date of interest into the URL, it has to be in the YYYYMMDD format.  And again, make sure you are signed out of your Celebrity account when you paste the URL into your web browser otherwise this will not work.

 

BTW, @jelayne's advice to join the Cruise Critic roll call for your sailing is a very good one.  You can often join a private shore excursion which often is cheaper, with a smaller group, and the private tour is more time efficient which allows you to cover more ground than a standard Celebrity (motorcoach) tour.  Win-win-win.

 

David

Edited February 24, 2023 by mahdnc

[Lalof]

57 minutes ago, mahdnc said:

@Lalof, here are the two letter ship codes--if you are interested in looking up the shore excursions (and their prices) for other ships:

 

Apex = AX

Ascent = AT

Beyond = BY

Constellation = CS

Eclipse = EC

Edge = EG

Equinox = EQ

Infinity = IN

Millennium = ML

Reflection = RF

Silhouette = SI

Solstice = SL

Summit = SM

 

I need to credit @NorthStarStateCruiser for posting this hack: link.

 

Because it wasn't clear: when you insert the sail date of interest into the URL, it has to be in the YYYYMMDD format.  And again, make sure you are signed out of your Celebrity account when you paste the URL into your web browser otherwise this will not work.

 

BTW, @jelayne's advice to join the Cruise Critic roll call for your sailing is a very good one.  You can often join a private shore excursion which often is cheaper, with a smaller group, and the private tour is more time efficient which allows you to cover more ground than a standard Celebrity (motorcoach) tour.  Win-win-win.

 

David

Thank you!

[Loracpin2]

16 hours ago, Lalof said:

If this is the wrong area to post this question, I apologize.

We are doing a 7 day Mediterranean cruise in 2024. We are trying to do a general guesstimate of what our budget should look like.

For those that have been on a Celebrity Mediterranean cruise, can you give us any ideas about the general range of excursion costs?

Would you say the excursion costs might be in the same range as say an Alaska cruise— if you have been on a Celebrity Alaska cruise.

Would they run in the $200-$300 range per excursion, or more?

Since you're new to these Boards, post the date and ship of your cruise and someone will reply with the link for your Roll Call.

P.S. Pre-retirement, I made countless trips to Minneapolis and two members of my Staff lived in Edina. 

[Harleygma]

I just made a list of excursions we would likely take on a 2024 10-night Greece cruise with 7 ports.  It totaled approx. $2000 for both of us.  Prices raged from $53 - $200 (us).

Edited February 24, 2023 by Harleygma

[Lalof]

4 hours ago, Loracpin2 said:

Since you're new to these Boards, post the date and ship of your cruise and someone will reply with the link for your Roll Call.

P.S. Pre-retirement, I made countless trips to Minneapolis and two members of my Staff lived in Edina. 

Celebrity Ascent, July 27-Aug 2, 2024. Greece, Turkey & Italy 7 night.

I looked in the Celebrity roll call but I didn't see this cruise listed by anyone yet.

[Loracpin2]

48 minutes ago, Lalof said:

Celebrity Ascent, July 27-Aug 2, 2024. Greece, Turkey & Italy 7 night.

I looked in the Celebrity roll call but I didn't see this cruise listed by anyone yet.

You can start the Roll Call.  

[jelayne]

54 minutes ago, Lalof said:

Celebrity Ascent, July 27-Aug 2, 2024. Greece, Turkey & Italy 7 night.

I looked in the Celebrity roll call but I didn't see this cruise listed by anyone yet.

Since the cruise isn’t for about 17 months you have plenty of time.  You could start a Roll Call or just keep checking to see when one gets started. 

[Cato610]

Look at Trip Advisor/Viator tours. Probably 1/2 the price, generally, of the Celebrity sponsored tours. Can do even better if you book direct with the actual tour company. If you pick ones with average 4.5 to 5 star reviews, you should do pretty well. IMO. 

[soniam]

11 hours ago, PH2 said:

We took advantage of that sale around Thanksgiving for our September Alaska cruise to book a few excursions and two specialty dining nights. Are those sales usually a once-a-year type of thing (and if so, if it usually around Thanksgiving), or do they do them periodically during the year?

 

This is only our 2nd Celebrity cruise, so I don't know if they normally do this. I can't remember if I got an email, or if I just happened to look. I imagine this is probably pretty normal. I haven't seen any others, but I may not have paid much attention.

[soniam]

7 hours ago, Harleygma said:

I just made a list of excursions we would likely take on a 2024 10-night Greece cruise with 7 ports.  It totaled approx. $2000 for both of us.  Prices raged from $53 - $200 (us).

 

I noticed for our Italy/Turkey/Greece this summer, that the Greek excursions were some of the cheaper ones. However, most of them were only about 4 hours. Athens was longer but still not outrageous.

[mahdnc]

11 hours ago, PH2 said:

We took advantage of that sale around Thanksgiving for our September Alaska cruise to book a few excursions and two specialty dining nights. Are those sales usually a once-a-year type of thing (and if so, if it usually around Thanksgiving), or do they do them periodically during the year?

 

1 minute ago, soniam said:

 

This is only our 2nd Celebrity cruise, so I don't know if they normally do this. I can't remember if I got an email, or if I just happened to look. I imagine this is probably pretty normal. I haven't seen any others, but I may not have paid much attention.

 

The 35% off sale that occurred around Thanksgiving is not something I had seen before, so I do not consider it a regular event although it could be the start of such.  Usually Celebrity will have these sales but they are limited to a certain number of sailings or it is applicable for a wide number of sailings but the number of shore excursions within each sailing that receive the favorable extra discount is limited.

[Guest 4-2-N-8]

All depends upon your desired excursions in various ports.

 

Alaska on a small luxury ship that includes excursions might be close to cost of private tours at each stop in Mediterranean. 

 

Then again, you could join large(r) group tours and probably save much.

 

All personal preference. 

 

I lean toward (and always do) as private or small group as possible, sponsored by ship. Zero planning or orchestration on my part, save for what each port offers and what I want to experience.

 

I go for absolute most memorable,  but who doesn't (granted, this is all subjective)?

 

Just catching a sunset could cost nothing but be most memorable. Then again, you could do a $2k excursion for one day and it be likewise unforgettable.

 

All up to you and your definition of "ideal."

Edited February 25, 2023 by 4-2-N-8

[RichYak]

On 2/23/2023 at 7:41 PM, Lalof said:

Would they run in the $200-$300 range per excursion, or more?

I think you're in the right ballpark. My wife and I sailed in the Med this past summer. In 2 ports we chose a private driver for the day that ran about 600 Euro total. In two other ports we chose small group tours (6 people max) that cost about 150 Euro pp. In one other port we chose a cruise ship excursion that was only $60pp. In another (Naples) we just walked on our own. Take your time, do your research and choose wisely. The Cruise Critic roll call thread for your sailing can be a great asset here.