Paris tours???

[Sue L]

I am going on the Jewel transatlantic in Sept and we are considering two tours. They both have a couple hours of free time to roam independently around Paris and they say they drop you off in the "city center", so where is that exactly? I was thinking possibly near the Eiffel tower but I want some details if anyone knows.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Sue

[jmkoilers]

We did the T/A on Celebrity's Constellation last September and were dropped off/picked up behind the Eiffell Tower. (There was a race that was finishing up when we arrived so we lost at least 30-45 minutes while the bus driver tried to manuever around the closed streets. - We sort of got a view of the city that way so not complaining.) We had enough time to catch a cab to and tour Norte Dame, walk past the Louvre and gardens, both sides of the Sienne, souvenir shop, have lunch at a outdoor cafe (great chocolate mousse), and then walk back to the bus. We put on a few miles, and if you use cabs you can probably see more than we did. Either way, the few hours just wet our whistle and we are planning a return land trip to Paris and Dublin. Enjoy yourself on your cruise.

[Sue L]

We did the T/A on Celebrity's Constellation last September and were dropped off/picked up behind the Eiffell Tower. (There was a race that was finishing up when we arrived so we lost at least 30-45 minutes while the bus driver tried to manuever around the closed streets. - We sort of got a view of the city that way so not complaining.) We had enough time to catch a cab to and tour Norte Dame, walk past the Louvre and gardens, both sides of the Sienne, souvenir shop, have lunch at a outdoor cafe (great chocolate mousse), and then walk back to the bus. We put on a few miles, and if you use cabs you can probably see more than we did. Either way, the few hours just wet our whistle and we are planning a return land trip to Paris and Dublin. Enjoy yourself on your cruise.

 

 

Thanks for the info. How much time did you have on your own? What you did sounds just like we want to do. Do you remember how much the taxi was to Notre Dame? I also found the bus route right from the Eiffel tower to Notre Dame so that is an option. I haven't bee to Paris in years and my hubby never has so we want to get in as much as possible.

[jmkoilers]

We had never been to Paris before either, but I did alot of research on-line before we went on our cruise and was able to pre-buy alot of attraction tickets (we spent 3 days in London pre-cruise) and come up with an itinerary of what we felt was important to see/do. As for the excusion, it was listed as 10.5 hours total (but that includes a 3 hour bus drive to and then from Paris - leaving 4.5 hours to tour on your own). The cruise lines play it safe because they don't know how traffic may be on any given day, which is sad because we were back on the ship around 8 but didn't sail until 11 p.m.

We didn't want to take a bus not knowing how many stops and time we would loose, so we opted for a cab-but I don't remember how much it was. It didn't seem outrageous, and besides, we got to ride around in a Mercedes E-class. The ride was about 15-20 minutes because even with our delay we were already at Notre Dame before noon. The weather was sunny, in the 60's and perfect for our jaunt. We knew we wouldn't do justice trying to see the Louvre, and wanted to get as much sightseeing in as possbile. Just experiencing the ambiance of Paris was overwhelming, but then so was London, Dublin, Cork, Cornwall, Halifax and St. John's. We are 51,47 so we enjoy walking to see as much history as possible and don't like the idea of the Hop-on, Hop-off buses because you waste too much time dealing with traffic.

Hope you have a fantastic cruise, and I'm sure if you keep up with your particular cruise's thread you will get some great ideas. Do some research and see what's important to you and plan ahead, it makes the trip so much easier. Everywhere we went, we saw other Cruise Critic members we had met on-line, pre-cruise dinners and then at our Sailaway party. We had over 200 members on our sailing! There are so many repeaters that they can be a wealth of information and fun. Enjoy

[Sue L]

Thanks for all the info. Our roll call is amazing with almost 5000 posts and over 150 people signed up already. We have dinner plans with a bunch in London and all kinds of other events on the ship. Plus I am arranging the bus from London to Harwich. So I am very involved which is so much fun.

[pcur]

We were in Paris last April, cruising on the Millie. We took the "Paris on Your Own" excursion, which is basically transpo to/from. If you look at a map of Paris, the bus let us off on Avenue Gustave Eiffel, which is behind the Eiffel Tower, and the Seine is right across the street in front of it. We walked under the Tower to the Quai Branly, and caught the HOHO bus at the corner of Avenue du Suffren.

 

I think getting the HOHO and taking a tour is better than taking the time on the ship's bus, because you can get off the HOHO, while the tour bus you cannot. You have to get back to the spot again later. So, go to it and get off the first time.

 

I recommend the pop-up laminated map from Barnes & Noble to take with you. That's where I got all the street names above. Great little map!!

 

P.S. DH said they wrote the song "April in Paris" about the exact day we were there. The weather was magnificent!!!!