Princess Shore Excursions in the Med

[otttu]

We will be doing the 9/14 Emerald Med cruise and have reserved a number of shore excursions through Princess. Can anyone tell me the average amount of people that we will be grouped with? That is, how many people shall we expect in our tour groups?

[MercedMike]

We will be doing the 9/14 Emerald Med cruise and have reserved a number of shore excursions through Princess. Can anyone tell me the average amount of people that we will be grouped with? That is, how many people shall we expect in our tour groups?

 

This depends on many things. Most of the shore excursions arranged by the ship will be by bus, so your group will be a bus-full -- 40 to 50 people. In some ports and on some excursions it may be by van instead.

 

Princess does a lot of great shore excursions in the Med, and they are very convenient and secure. OTOH there are lots of independent operators there too. In many cases, for not much more, you can arrange a smaller group to do the same tours, or find some things that are very interesting and not offered by the ship.

 

Check out our trip report and pics at

http://www.elite.net/~thehalls/med.html

 

for some ship's excursion reports, and also some independent operators.

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[YoPhilly]

We will be doing the 9/14 Emerald Med cruise and have reserved a number of shore excursions through Princess. Can anyone tell me the average amount of people that we will be grouped with? That is, how many people shall we expect in our tour groups?

 

Did you join/open a Roll Call board for your sailing? You will usually find lots of helpful info.

[otttu]

Did you join/open a Roll Call board for your sailing? You will usually find lots of helpful info.

 

I did, but the thread was hijacked to a Yahoo forum and I did not feel like providing the personal info they required to join.

[LTCOP]

The number in your group does depend on the shore excursion. Unless, it is an Elite excursion which is always in smaller groups, you will usually have a bus full though. However, we just are back from a cruise there and had a great time on the Princess exursions. They were all well organized and there were no worries about getting back in time:-) We had excellent guides and were able to see so many things.

[TXTraveler76]

Hi,

 

I was recently in the Med with Princess and we booked the St. Tropez tour and they had two small buses. We were in the second bus and it was half full. We did most things with the other bus with the exception of lunch. It was nice to be able to move around our bus at will to take in the great scenic drive. If it is the most popular tour offered, you will probably have several full bus loads.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

[Juliadlf]

I did, but the thread was hijacked to a Yahoo forum and I did not feel like providing the personal info they required to join.

 

 

ottu:

We are on the sailing before yours, 9/2 Emerald.

I would just keeping posting on the roll call forum anyway. Why was your thread hijacked to a Yahoo forum? Just post on the roll call that your not comfortable with providing personal information to join the Yahoo forum.

Good luck with your tours.

 

Julia

[ukdeblarz]

On our tours last week, there were about 3 - 10 full bus loads (38 people) per tour.

[cruisemom42]

On our Eastern Med/Egypt cruise last year we did a lot of the Princess tours (due to my mom's fear of missing the ship!). Since each of us was only paying for one person, we opted for mostly the Elite tours -- and I highly recommend them. You have a much smaller group, so it's easier to get around and hear your guide.

 

Also, most of the tours included a very nice lunch, for example, in Athens we ate in a Greek restaurant literally overlooking the Acropolis. In Istanbul we had lunch at a former palace overlooking the Bosphorus, etc.

 

Whether the tour is Elite or not, one thing we consistently heard from others (and felt ourselves) was that the guides were VERY good for almost all the ship-sponsored tours.

[Mrs2cats]

Hi Otttu, we are on this cruise too and I have joined a group that met on here called the Emerald Group. Some of them are doing their own trips but as this is our first Princess cruise we decided to do all our trips with Princess. I know they are a bit expensive but we have heard they are very good and the places you eat will be good. Maybe someone from the Emerald Group will read your post and contact you. By the way we are from the UK and the Emerald Group consist of about 40 folks mainly USA and Canada I think and we will be meeting up the day after we sail which should be fun, if you are interested in joining us let me know.

[bubbadog]

princess has good med tours, but if you team up(3-4 families) and hire a private excursion, you can usually get it cheaper than princess, and the vans go where the buses cant,and make better time going and coming back, plus you can pick where you want to go and see:))),both ways are good,just be ready these are port intensive tours:)))):p ;)

[CruisinfromNapoli]

ukdeblarz, are you saying that there were 38x3=114 up to 38x10=380 people booked into a single tour????????

 

Do the tour guides speak in English only, or do they say the whole talk in English and then repeat in other languages? Or are people assigned to tour guides according to desired language?

 

How do people feel about safety in ports if booking your own outings?

 

Which shore excursions are most enjoyable for these ports:

Athens, Ephesus, Istanbul, Mykonos, Alexandria, Port Said?

 

Are some ports walking distance to the main sights? Did anyone take public transportation (buses, taxis)?

 

We are booked into the E. Med and Egypt Nov 21 sailing of the Star Princess. Any info would be appreciated!

[kleffy8]

We usually take Princess excursions.

If you have never been to Ephesus before make sure you go. The tour will be in well spoken English only and the guides are excellent.

Last year we went to Mykonos, but just toured the village on our own. I heard the tour to Delphi was good.

Several years ago we were on a ship's tour in Monte Carlo and got caught in a traffic jam. Needless to say the ship called our guide and she told them where we were and they waited for us.....

[YoPhilly]

We are booked into the E. Med and Egypt Nov 21 sailing of the Star Princess. Any info would be appreciated!

 

Hi Cruisin. We're on the same sailing. We have a very active roll call going, so come over and join us.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=360036&page=62

 

We have lots of info on excursions, including an overnight in Cairo.