How are NCL Shore Excursions, Particularly in France, Portugal & Spain?

[RWK1952]

My retired wife and I will be taking the March 2025, 10 day, NCL cruise on the ship Breakaway.  It will depart in Southampton and make stops in France, Portugal and Spain, ending in Barcelona.  This will be our first cruise with NCL.

 

I am very interested in hearing from people who have taken shore excursions, booked through NCL, and particularly if you have taken any of the excursions in Le Havre FR, Virgo SP, Lisbon PO, Gibraltar, Seville SP, Motril SP, Ibiza or Majorca. 

 

One thing I think we will do differently on this cruise will be to book most our shore excursions through NCL ahead of time.  I made all of the shore excursion arrangements myself through local vendors while on an Alaska cruise we took on the Celebrity Millennium in Sept 2023.  That did work out, for the most part, and we saved a lot of money and had more flexibility compared to booking the Celebrity excursions.  However, there were a few people we saw and came to know, almost every night in that “BLU” restaurant that we really liked as a Celebrity AquaClass perk.  We were able to compare our various, daily shore experiences with them and quite often, we found ourselves perhaps wishing we had opted for the Celebrity excursion instead.

 

I am interested to read both generally how past cruisers feel about NCL shore excursions, and specifically if you happen to have taken a shore excursion in any of the locations I highlighted earlier in this post. 

 

With the exception of Le Havre, if we opt to take a day trip into Paris from there, we have never previously visited any of those other locations so we would really appreciate reading about experiences you may have had there.

 

Thanks in advance.  This forum has been really helpful with other topics.

 

[Chocolate Teapot]

By Virgo, do you mean Vigo, which is the port for Santiago de Compostela? If so, I did an NCL excursion once which went into the city. It was some time ago, however I recall there was some walking from the coach park into the centre, a guided tour and then some free time to coincide with the service in the cathedral. 

 

My excursion in Lisbon was a guided walking tour with a ride on the famous yellow tram, again with some free time.

 

For Majorca, again it was a guided walking tour, stopping off at a pearl shop, however there are regular shuttles from the ship into the city, so it is easy just to go for a walk around. I also once did an excursion into one of the villages outside Palma. In all cases, the guides were excellent.

 

I would suggest looking at the difficulty rating of the tours, depending on the mobility of your party. For example an excursion with NCL could involve a walk to/from the coach park, whereas an independent tour might use minibuses/people carriers which are allowed into town centres. Whilst it wasn't on your list, I had this experience in Florence.    

[Ken the cruiser]

Here’s a NCL link they may help you figure out the excursions that will be available at the ports you listed above. We were on a 38-day NCL cruise on the Jade from Athens to Cape Town by way of Dubai back in the Fall of 2022 (see below Live From thread), and went on NCL excursions at every port, and there were a bunch, and had a great time on each one.

 
https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions

 

We are also booked on a 23-day cruise on the Pearl this coming Fall and have NCL excursions booked at every port, which should confirm we enjoy going on their excursions. We also booked FAS Plus, as the unlimited internet, $50 for the 2nd guest’s excursions, 2 more specialty dinners, and unlimited Starbucks coffees and hot chocolate as well as bottled (boxed water) is included and made financial sense for us to do so.

 

Note: If you decide to check out my below Live From thread, go to page 4 and just look at the photos to start. It will go much faster. 😂
 

Edited March 10 by Ken the cruiser

[The Traveling Man]

We have taken NCL excursions at several of these ports and always have been very satisfied with the tours.  At Le Havre we enjoyed the walking tour of Honfleur on one cruise and a tour of Monet's garden on another.  In Majorca we took a tour of the cathedral.  We also have taken NCL tours at many other ports.  The shore excursions booked through the ship may be a bit more expensive than ones you might arrange independently, but you have the peace of mind of knowing that they will get you back to the ship on time.

[RWK1952]

Chocolate Teapot.  Thanks for the reply and the suggestions.  My bad on Virgo vs. Vigo.  I have never been to Spain, the maps I had seen were small, and my mind just inserted the "R".  

[sharonann24]

I am also leaning to taking NCL excursions on our October 6 cruise from Southampton to Rome on the Prima.  I am particularly interested in the northern Spain, Portugal and France ports and they look pretty reasonable by NCL standards.  The winery tour in Bordeaux is a definite particularly since will be our 41st wedding anniversary.  We probably will only do Hop On Hop off tours in the south of Spain, Barcelona and the Med ports since we have been there a few times and will be content to be on our own and just soak in the local atmosphere. 7 months and counting!

[Turtles06]

@RWK1952 

 

Depending on the specific port, we do a mix of DIY days, private shorex, and cruise line shorex.  Typically, if the destination is quite far from the port, and/or the next port is pretty hard to reach (e.g., the other side of the pond on a transatlantic), we would be more inclined to do a cruise line tour. 

 

The typical problem with cruise line tours is that you are generally on a big bus with about 50 of your new friends.  And the quality of the guides varies.  I think that private tour operators are less likely to keep a guide who is just not very good.

 

It terms of picking private tour operators, of course it's critical to do advance research -- e.g., reading up on Trip Advisor and elsewhere, and reading up and asking questions here on CC in the specific port of call forums for your cruise.  

 

Some comments about several of the ports you will be visiting:

 

Vigo, Spain -- we found the city itself not very interesting; I think the best thing to do here is to leave town and visit Santiago de Compostela, the old town of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cathedral is a centuries-old famous destination of Catholic pilgrims, who come on foot and by many other modes of transportation.  (See the happy bicyclists in my photo below.)  Probably a good opportunity for an NCL tour.  

 

Palma de Mallorca is do-able on your own -- take a shuttle (if one is running) or a cab into the heart of the city, and you can tour the magnificent Cathedral and surrounding area on your own schedule.

 

In Le Havre, I would strongly recommend taking a private tour of the D-Day sites with the highly regarded Overlord Tours.  They were fabulous (and if you head over to the France port of call forum you can get more feedback).  They book up quickly.   (Paris is a very long way from Le Havre.)

 

I hope this was helpful.  Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

 

[Chocolate Teapot]

I agree with Turtles06. If the port is some distance from the place you want to visit, an NCL excursion will give you peace of mind that you will get back in time. 

 

The Destination on your own excursions might be interesting if you want to make sure you get transportation to/from the ship, but don't want to be part of a tour group. 

[RWK1952]

Some very excellent new suggestions.  In particular, the suggestions about shore stops where the port is a bit of a distance from the the main places to visit.  There are a number of those on our itinerary.  Le Havre, certainly, but also Cadiz (Seville) and Majorca, depending upon where the ship anchors.  Just watched a You Tube video about Majorca and it looks stunning.

 

Ordinarily, Le Havre would be ideal for a sponsored tour to see Paris, some of the wineries or to go down to the D-Day sites.  However, we have spent quite a bit of time in France already so we were not overly disappointed to see that Le Havre is the only stop in France.  Lots of stops in Spain, however, and we have never been to any of those locations.

[Distinctive-Destinations]

I’ve had great excursions with NCL, and not-so-great ones also. But the guide was the reason, most of the time. Sometimes the port was just boring, so I don’t think private vs. NCL would really fix that.

 

I have been on NCL excursions with absolutely fantastic guides. The one I took in Cyprus was the best guide I have probably ever had (and yes, we did tip her).  Others (such as Patmos, Greece and Sorrento, Italy) I’ve found to be quite annoying. 

 

 

[Miss Ellsworth]

I almost always do DIY, including taking a train from Alexandria to Cairo for $12 each way in first class rather than book the $600 NCL excursion.  I have two exceptions:

 

As noted above, if there is a long over-water haul to the next port, take the NCL excursions. I'm on a westbound TA this fall, and in the Azores I will get off the ship and walk Ponta Delgada, staying in walking distance. If I want to see more of the island, I will take an NCL tour.  Last time in Azores I walked PD.  But no way no how can I miss the ship leaving Ponta Delgada, because if I do, my cruise is literally over - next stop is Florida

 

Second exception is when embarkation port doesn't have hotels and is far away.  I'm out of Rome for the third time this fall, and I will absolutely take the NCL transfer on the hour+ drive from Rome to the port.  Same reason. 

 

Uber or private bus gets a flat, the ship goes without you.  NCL vehicle gets a flat, they wait.  That is much more important on embarkation and on stops with several sea days following

[RWK1952]

Distinctive Destinations.  Thank you for your reply to my post.  You are so right about the guide often making, or breaking, the excursion.  Some of our best tours have been ones we have found in cities from those small group guides that charge nothing for city tours but rely only upon tips they get at the end.  I would think that the only way you can survive to keep doing tours that way is to be sure to be pretty damn good so you generate some nice tips.

 

I was interested to see that you included Patmos as one of your stops in Greece.  We stopped there as well on our way to Mykonos.  We found that to be a very quaint, quiet island and were able to get a few nice pics (attached).

[sharonann24]

On 3/11/2024 at 10:39 AM, Turtles06 said:

@RWK1952 

 

Depending on the specific port, we do a mix of DIY days, private shorex, and cruise line shorex.  Typically, if the destination is quite far from the port, and/or the next port is pretty hard to reach (e.g., the other side of the pond on a transatlantic), we would be more inclined to do a cruise line tour. 

 

The typical problem with cruise line tours is that you are generally on a big bus with about 50 of your new friends.  And the quality of the guides varies.  I think that private tour operators are less likely to keep a guide who is just not very good.

 

It terms of picking private tour operators, of course it's critical to do advance research -- e.g., reading up on Trip Advisor and elsewhere, and reading up and asking questions here on CC in the specific port of call forums for your cruise.  

 

Some comments about several of the ports you will be visiting:

 

Vigo, Spain -- we found the city itself not very interesting; I think the best thing to do here is to leave town and visit Santiago de Compostela, the old town of which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cathedral is a centuries-old famous destination of Catholic pilgrims, who come on foot and by many other modes of transportation.  (See the happy bicyclists in my photo below.)  Probably a good opportunity for an NCL tour.  

 

Palma de Mallorca is do-able on your own -- take a shuttle (if one is running) or a cab into the heart of the city, and you can tour the magnificent Cathedral and surrounding area on your own schedule.

 

In Le Havre, I would strongly recommend taking a private tour of the D-Day sites with the highly regarded Overlord Tours.  They were fabulous (and if you head over to the France port of call forum you can get more feedback).  They book up quickly.   (Paris is a very long way from Le Havre.)

 

I hope this was helpful.  Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

 

I have heard good things about Overlord; however, when we went on our cruise to Le Havre and the D Day sites we took an NCL tour. Now more than ever I think for distance tours I will stick to NCL.  The Santiago day trip looks fairly reasonable,

[sharonann24]

For the Spain and Portugal ports check Spain Day Tours.  We took a tour in Lisbon and one in Spain and they were good and reasonable.  We will not be doing anything formally in Sevilla or Barcelona as we have been there before and will do it on our own.  Cannes is the same.  I think we are going to do the NCL in Bordeaux, La Corona, Oporto and Florence. Still deciding about the others.   

[Travelling2Some]

Second the recommendation for Spain Day Tours.  Have gone with them many times and always very good and reliable.

[RWK1952]

It appears that NCL is removing the Vigo Spain port stop from their itineraries.  Any ideas which port they might be replacing it with?

[Chocolate Teapot]

6 hours ago, Travelling2Some said:

Second the recommendation for Spain Day Tours.  Have gone with them many times and always very good and reliable.

Never used Spain Day Tours, but their sister company Barcelona Day Tours has always been terrific whenever I did the Epic 1 week Mediterranean cruise out of Barcelona. Their other sister company, Italy Day Tours was very good too. (They did the excursion to Florence from Livorno I mention above) 

[lisabdh1]

Highly recommend Spain Day Tours, took a similar cruise last year and we used them for 3 tours, fabulous communication, great drivers and guides, excellent prices/policies. For Gibraltar, definitely use Inside Out Rock Tours and tell Carl Lisa H from NJ says hello, my BEST tour ever, in the pouring rain!!

[JandC_Cruising]

7 hours ago, RWK1952 said:

It appears that NCL is removing the Vigo Spain port stop from their itineraries.  Any ideas which port they might be replacing it with?

We were on the Getaway last summer from Lisbon to Southampton.  We stopped at Vigo, La Coruna, and Bilbao in Spain.  We enjoyed all three ports.  Perhaps one of those other two will replace Vigo.

[RWK1952]

5 minutes ago, JandC_Cruising said:

We were on the Getaway last summer from Lisbon to Southampton.  We stopped at Vigo, La Coruna, and Bilbao in Spain.  We enjoyed all three ports.  Perhaps one of those other two will replace Vigo.

Since our cruise next March currently only includes one French stop at Le Havre, I thought maybe another French port might also be a possibility.  Bordeaux is one that other ships stop at I know.

[JandC_Cruising]

3 minutes ago, RWK1952 said:

Since our cruise next March currently only includes one French stop at Le Havre, I thought maybe another French port might also be a possibility.  Bordeaux is one that other ships stop at I know.

We were supposed to go to Bordeaux (Le Verdon) on that cruise but it was cancelled due to rough seas in the Bay of Biscay.  

La Coruna may be a pretty even swap for Vigo as you can do many of the same excursions from those two ports.