Celebration Colourful Coast Excursions

[davecttr]

Having just returned from the Celebration I think it would be a good idea to pass on my experience of the shore excursions.

 

It turned out that I had opted for the wrong port to join the ship. Over half the passengers join at Tenerife on Friday with the remainder split between Grand Canary on the Saturday or Maderia on the Monday. I arrived after 8pm after a delayed late flight from Gatwick and found that the last booking time for excursions in Las Palmas on Sunday was 12 noon Saturday :mad: I could have tried for a late booking but as the weather was cloudy on Sunday and I was not feeling well it did not matter.

 

Fast forward to my last day on Grand Canary where all the excursions were in the afternoon and there was just not enough time left to catch the airport transfer. Only 20 minutes between the excursion return and the transfer leaving :mad:

 

On the previous day at Tenerife the excursions were all in the morning arriving back at about 1pm so plenty of time to catch the airport transfer :mad:

 

Obviously the cruise is planned around Tenerife as the main port so be warned! This should really be made clear to prospective cruisers although it is probably too late for this year. The situation might be different on the Escape next winter although the itinery looks the same.

 

Now to the excursions themselves.

 

On Maderia I opted for the 'Best of the West' because I wanted to see a lot of the island especially those enormous cliffs. We had a sunny start with a pleasant young lady explaining at length the virtues of the hotels of Maderia! but we got to see Churchills favourite village and those cliffs. There were some pleasant stops for shopping and strolling along the prom etc then into the centre of the island for spectacular views, NOT!. The clouds arrived or rather we climbed into them at one point dodging a avalanche which must have happened only minutes earlier. Our time in the north was spent in cloud, wind and rain but we had a pleasant lunch of black snapper fish. The return journey was a white knuckle ride as the driver did not slow down and visibility was about 20 yards, with precipices :eek: and cattle in the road :eek: Of course back on the south coast the sun was shining.

 

On Lanzerote I did the 'Mountains of Fire' trip to Timonfaya national park. I am interested in geology etc so thought it was excellent, only marred by the difficult to understand guide. Amazing scenes of eruptions that happened over 300 years ago but looks like it happened yesterday. Utter desolation with surprising pockets of life surviving in the cinders. In the middle of all this is the restaurant at the beginning of the universe where you get to get your hands burnt, see a man made geyser etc. On the way back we visited a vinyard for the usual buy your souveniers session.

 

The highlight of the week was the Mount Teide trip to Europes second highest mountain. Another volcano with stops for truly spectacular views on the way up especially as we had beautiful weather. The guide was good and very informative. Be warned that the brochure is misleading and you DO NOT get to ride in the cable car, apparently there is not enough time. It might be possible to hire a taxi to speed you there and back if there are 3 or 4 of you.

 

So overall a mixed bag of excursions on this trip contrasting with Norway last year where all the tours delivered as promised.

[facebook addict]

We too were on this cruise & took different excursions to Dave The Road.

 

We took a trip into Madeira starting with a church walking down to the cable cars for a very scenic trip to the botanical gardens, then on to a farmers market then wine tasing in Funchal. The trip overall was good helped when the sun came out. The botanical gardens were amazing & this is what we were looking forward to doing most. We opted out of the wine tasting & just wandered around taking in the scenery & sunshine. The tour guide was very good and her english was perfect:p. My only criticism was that this was very hurried & we could have done with much longer to wander around the gardens. Again dont know if this was because some people were leaving the ship in Madeira.

 

In Arrecife we got the shuttle bus into the town this cost us £4 adults & £2 for kids, would have been too far to walk but the bus was very old & dirty. Arrecife itself was very disappointing.

 

In Tenerife we took the trip to Loro Parque this was not cheap but well worth it. We done this mainly for the kids but there was plenty for everyone:o very varied from sea lion shows to white tigers, walk through aquariums & orchids. The tour guide again was good & was great to take in some scenery on the trip inc Mount Teide. Same as the Madeira trip too hurried we could have spent much longer there this was echoed by the tour guide & many on the trip. Some people on the trip were leaving ship that day so were in a hurry to get back. This did mean we were back for lunch some relax time then walkedinto Santa Cruz which we totally loved a stark contrast to Arrecife. Thats the beauty of a cruise!!!!:)