Silver Wind 4-19-11 Lisbon to Rome

[SEABREEZE TWO]

I am hoping that a small group of us (10 to 18) could decide to take Spain Day Tours' minibus excursion to Seville on April 21 and Granada on April 22. Their tours seem very well reviewed on TripAdvisor and CruiseCritic. I believe their website is www.spaindaytours.com (http://www.spaindaytours.com). My wife and I would prefer a smaller group than the ship's excursion, and the price of 79 euros a person for either day trip looks very good. While I have not used this service before, I have visited Seville and Granada, and they are definitely among Europe's top attractions! So let me and Spain Day Tours know if you are interested.

SEABREEZE TWO
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[pegsammax]

My husband and I are on this cruise, but we haven't decided yet what we're going to do for tours. I do think they look like a good company though!

[SEABREEZE TWO]

Thank you for the post. Please let me know what you eventually plan to do for the shore excursions from Cadiz and Malaga. Do you happen to know if one can take a boat from Port Vendres to Collioure? That would seem to be a pleasant way to get to this town that artists love for its charm.

SEABREEZE TWO

[pegsammax]

I'm not sure if there will be a boat running in April, but there will be a bus, and possibly a tram that runs on a regular schedule. I was also looking at going to Banyuls, to visit some winerys.

[SEABREEZE TWO]

Yes, April may be too early for boat connections to Collioure, I fear as well. I have tasted Banyuls wines on several occasions, but they are special purpose wines. They are among the few dessert wines that can be had with chocolate. The wines from Collioure are dry wines that can be quite good. If you have not had them before, they are similar to Cotes du Rhone, although the winemakers in both areas might quibble about the comparison.

[luvrfl]

My husband & I are on this cruise. We were not booking any excursions until we got on boat. We are interested in going to Granada and Alhambra on Ap. 22. If both places are an option with spaindaytours I am interested. We are still looking over what exactly we want to do at each port but I know this is a definite for us as well as Carcassonne on April 25.

[luvrfl]

We are interested in going to Seville also. Please let me know if anyone else is interested in spaindaytours. Is there enough people ?

[SEABREEZE TWO]

I am a novice at posting on cruise critic, but you seem to be the first to have shown an interest in Seville or Granada. The latter shore excursion offered by silversea appears to feature a big lunch, in which I am not interested. So for SpainDayTours, I think we are at 4 people, needing 10. But as you suggest, some are just thinking about what shore excursions to take. So more takers may appear in the next few weeks.

[luvrfl]

I went on website for spaindaytours and went through their process and got an email back from them. I am under the impression that they will come and get us at the port and we are not obligated to "fill up a minibus" and won't need the extra 10 people. I plan to investigate further as I wouldn't mind using them for the trip to Seville as well as Granada. I can let you know what I find out. My good friend who is a travel agent is calling me tonight and I plan to discuss this further with her. I will respond back and let you know what we plan to do. Are you interested in Seville to?

[SEABREEZE TWO]

:pI tried to contact Spain Day Tours about 2 days ago but have not heard back. Yes, I am interested in both Seville and Granada, and I have informed Spain Day Tours about my interest. I think you are right that there is no obligation to fill the minibus; the glitch is that those who do go with fewer people then need to pay more per person than the 79 euro rate. In other words, if they sell 10 seats they do not care how many actually go. But I might care about paying more than 79 euros. I tried to ask them if anyone from our cruise had contacted them directly hoping the answer would be yes. From this thread it appears that there might be another couple interested, although it is not clear whether for Seville or Granada or both. At best, we would be up to 6 plus any who have contacted the tour group directly. There is still time. More people will focus on the tour possibilities as the date approaches.

[luvrfl]

Also waiting to hear from Spain Day Tours. I asked specific questions about cost. They should be paid what they advertise as the cost- no hitches about # of people. That is troublesome to me. Let's see what info you get back and what info I get back. I have friends who did what we are trying to do with a tour company when they were in Italy. Worked great for them- Some tours only had them as clients for the day and on other tours they had 10 people- cost was what was advertised on internet. Let's see what info we get back.

[SEABREEZE TWO]

I just heard back from Spain Day Tours that they know of 4 people signed up for the 2 tours. I assume that the 4 are you and us. Did you give them your name? We gave them our name in mid-February.

[luvrfl]

I agree with what you have said. I did give them our names and I think we are the "4" they have already. I also agree that I do not want to pay the difference if they don't get enough people. Lets see if they get the minimum amount of participants over the next few weeks. If they don't, I guess we are stuck with the SS excursion and the big lunch in Granada I really wouldn't mind skipping too!!!