Exscursions/ Millenium May 2007

[Pathgirl]

Does anyone know when Celebrity releases the options for excursions on the Mediterranean cruises... my husband and I are booked on one for May and I just want to look at the options and make sure and book popular ones in advance - any advice is appreciated- thanks!

[megabill]

Ports are Barcelona, Villefranche, Livorno, Civitavecchia, Naples, Santorini, Athens, Dubrovnik, and Venice, correct?

 

Its been a while - so i can only give specifics about tours that i went on and generalizations for the rest.

 

Barcelona - i went on and enjoyed the "Tapas Tasting" tour. If you're looking for an indepth visit to Segrada Famiilia - skip this tour, you'll get a 5 minute explanation of it and get to see it passing by.

 

Villfranche - didn't do any tours there - but its short bus or train ride to Nice. It seems that the tours to Monaco and Monte Carlo were popular.

 

Livorno - didn't do tours there either, but there are tours that take you to "just" Pisa, or "just" Florence - or both (if memory serves correctly). I did a self-guided tour of Pisa - and was out of there in under an hour.

 

Rome is Rome. I went on "Rome: The Eternal City" tour. If you go on a monday thru saturday - you'll go to the Colosseum, Sistene Chapel, St. Peters Basillica, and hit lunch (included in the tour). I went on a Sunday so we went to a Catacombs instead of the Sistene Chapel. There are a few other sites to see - most from the bus with a possible short stop for pictures. Supposedly the ship is nearly empty in Rome as most people are off on tours - i would advise booking early for this port especially.

 

Naples - didn't do a tour there. personal opinion - there's just something creepy about going to a city demolished by a volcano and looking at petrified remains of people. But hey - dont let that discourage you - the Pompeii tours seemed to be cool from the others i've spoken to about it. There's also tours to Sorrento, Capri and Amalfi Coast.

 

Santorini is a beautiful Island. Most tours end early enough, if i recall correctly, so that you can spend your evening in the town. Didn't do a tour here either - just milled around the town thats there. But i remember a tour to Oia (prounounced ee-ya) - i think it was a wine tasting tour. Satorini is also a long day. Livorno, Civitavecchia, and Naples are all 7am-7pm - Santorini was like 7am to 10 or 11pm. Nice long day there.

 

Athens. I went on a tour there "Ancient Plaka". first - all tours lead to the acropolis (maybe not all - i think there are only a couple that don't go there at all)... but most tours will either visit the Parthenon, or just do an "exterior-only" visit to the Acropolis with an explaination. "Ancient Plaka" gives you time to shop on the Plaka - which is basically souviner central.

 

Dubrovnik - didn't go on tour, but hear that the "Cavtat" tour was really good. I did a self-guided "Walk the walls" tour in Old Town (was 50 Kuna - Croatian money... they didn't accept Euro at all for that tour - but within old town there's a bunch of places to exchange money)...

 

Venice was nice - again - didn't do a tour, but there were a lot of nice sounding tours. If you want to visit St. Mark's Basillica, i'd advise goin on a tour instead of trying to get in there yourself. There was one tour that i wanted to go on that i had heard about, but was cancelled - can't remember why though - and can't remember the title - but it was St. Marks and venice by night - something along those lines. Sounded pretty interesting.

 

Hope that helps :)