Is there a port where you would want to take the ship excursion?

I am traveling in august.

I thought I read there were certain ports it may be better advised to take a ship shore excursion rather than hiring a private driving because of very busy traffic.

I thought it was Naples (Salerno)?

A ship excursion has to travel in the same traffic, so that's not really a benefit.

The only true benefit for a ship excursion is that the responsibility for getting back to the ship on time is off your shoulders. If that responsibility weighs heavy on you, perhaps private tours or DIY is not for you.

For me, the only time I consider a ship excursion is if I simply cannot replicate the experience on my own, or if I can't do it for less money. I did, for example, pay for a ship's excursion when the kids all wanted to scuba dive in Malta. I could not find a place to set it up on my own in the time frame available, so they went with the ship. One other time we went zip-lining in Costa Rica with the ship because on my own the cost was significantly higher (due mostly to transportation costs).

In response to the question, "Is there a port where you would want to take the ship excursion?" our short answer is simply NOPE :)

Hank

We are on the june 1 st celebrity equinox cruise and would like to meet or talk on line to persons that can advise on transportation and excursions:eek:

We are on the june 1 st celebrity equinox cruise and would like to meet or talk on line to persons that can advise on transportation and excursions:eek:

Hi, & welcome to Cruise Critic.

Here's a link to the RollCall for your cruise - currently 31 pages of chat amongst those on your cruise. Some of it will be just chatter but there'll be info on there too. Post on there anyway, to say Hi to those on your cruise.

I've linked you to the last page.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1821304&page=31

And if you scroll to the bottom of this page you'll see "forum jump". Click on the arrow beside it to bring up all the forums & scroll through them to the Ports of Call section.

Big & complicated website, but well worth the effort.

If you ever get lost on CC, jut click on your name, top right any page, to navigate back to your posts

JB :)

I think the only times you want a ship excursion are:

- if you aren't comfortable using public transportation

- you visit a place like a Greek island and it's not realistic to get around the island via public transportation and you're not comfortable renting a car.

There are a few books specific to Med cruises.... Ann Vipond and Rick Steves are 2 that come to mind. Borrow from your library or buy them ... great planning tool.

Another definite NO to your question.

No. Your best option is not sitting on a huge bus, and waiting again and again for the lame, the weak, the halt and the selfish to lumber off the bus and then show up late to get back on it. That's what the ship's excursions give you.

There is a wealth of info here on CC and also on the sister Trip Advisor site that will help you figure out the best options for you in every port. You can hook up with others on your Roll Call for smaller, more tailored group tours. Or you can do the research and figure out your own strategies.

No! Not even going from Alexandria to Cairo and back was it better to take the ship's excursion.

Well no, you don't want to take the ship's excursion, but is there an excursion that the cattle call is the best decision - unfortunately yes. After several trips to Florence on our own we finally decided to see the Cinque Terre villages and took the ships excursion just to get to this beautiful area. Since you are dropped off at one place and picked up at another after traveling by foot and boat and train, it was the best of a bad situation. Once you arrive at each village you can go and do as you please, so it was not too bad. We loved this area and hope to return under out own steam when we can spend some quality time in the area.

But if this is your first trip, stick with the easy to do it yourself: train and boat transpo in Naples, train to Rome, train to Florence...

We are two older ladies travelling alone, and YES we did have trepidation about wandering in Turkey on our own, so we booked a ship excursion. The bus does hold 40 people, but the tour was great to a mountain village with a stop at Ephesus and a museum and a stop at a rug factory on the way back to the ship.

We actually booked a couple of ship's excursions, joined our roll call folks for a couple of excursions and did our own thing in a couple of ports.

There is no right or wrong answer. Everyone has to decide for themselves what they are comfortable doing,

Rick Steves has an excellent book called "Mediterranean Cruise Ports". It is worth its weight in gold. It has a Excursion Cheat Sheet which recommends what ports you can do on your own and which would be easier to take as ship's excursion. I could not find a link to this on the Internet.

We have done ports on our own, used private tour guides, and used the ship's excursions. I like the half day ship's excursions. I get transportation, a guide, and an admission ticket for a fairly reasonable price. Then I have half a day to explore on my own.

There are a lot of people on these boards who pride themselves on doing all the excursions themselves. Good for them, but if you are older, have kids, or have physical difficulties, it may be hard to do an excursion on your own. It's your vacation, do what works best for you.

Having taken a few ship's tour (involving tricky transportation connections and a short amount of time), privately-organized excursions through roll calls, and striking out on our own using local transportation, I found the following interesting.

Rick Steeves has an "Excursion Cheat Sheet" that is described as "(admittedly oversimplified)". It appears he's referring to ships' excursions, not private ones. Different strokes for different folks, but this is a summary of what his Med Cruise Ports book says. BTW, I don't agree with all of these:

No - Barcelona

Yes - Provence

No - French Rivera

Maybe - Florence, Pisa, Lucca

Maybe - Rome

No - Naples, Pompeii

Yes - Amalfi Coast, Capri

No - Venice

No - Split

No - Dubrovnik

Maybe - Athens

No - Most Greek Islands

No - Istanbul

Yes - Ephesus.

Regarding Naples, it depends on what you want to do and your comfort level. The first time in Naples we did a private tour for an Amalfi Coast and Pompeii combination through the roll call in a mini-van = fantastic! The next time we planned to do Capri on our own and did a ship's tour at the last minute so we could relax and not worry about catching the last ferry or making bus connections to Anacapri once on the island. Next time we're taking a hydrofoil to Sorrento (thanks for that advice, cc'ers:)) and train on our own to Herculaneum.

In Cinque Terre, will we want to do the ship's tour? No. Will we make an exception for this stop? Probably, because we want to make the most of our time without wasting time second guessing ourselves and miss out on a highlight. (Just) occasionally, we're willing to join the herd rather than 'miss the boat', pun intended.

Having taken a few ship's tour (involving tricky transportation connections and a short amount of time), privately-organized excursions through roll calls, and striking out on our own using local transportation, I found the following interesting.

 

Rick Steeves has an "Excursion Cheat Sheet" that is described as "(admittedly oversimplified)". It appears he's referring to ships' excursions, not private ones. Different strokes for different folks, but this is a summary of what his Med Cruise Ports book says. BTW, I don't agree with all of these:

 

No - Barcelona

Yes - Provence

No - French Rivera

Maybe - Florence, Pisa, Lucca

Maybe - Rome

No - Naples, Pompeii

Yes - Amalfi Coast, Capri

No - Venice

No - Split

No - Dubrovnik

Maybe - Athens

No - Most Greek Islands

No - Istanbul

Yes - Ephesus.

 

Regarding Naples, it depends on what you want to do and your comfort level. The first time in Naples we did a private tour for an Amalfi Coast and Pompeii combination through the roll call in a mini-van = fantastic! The next time we planned to do Capri on our own and did a ship's tour at the last minute so we could relax and not worry about catching the last ferry or making bus connections to Anacapri once on the island. Next time we're taking a hydrofoil to Sorrento (thanks for that advice, cc'ers:)) and train on our own to Herculaneum.

 

In Cinque Terre, will we want to do the ship's tour? No. Will we make an exception for this stop? Probably, because we want to make the most of our time without wasting time second guessing ourselves and miss out on a highlight. (Just) occasionally, we're willing to join the herd rather than 'miss the boat', pun intended.

I'm really surprised he would recommend a ship's tour for Capri, given how very easy it is to take the ferry over on your own (from right next to the cruise port). The rest are not too surprising and make sense for the most part.

I do understand that touring on your own isn't for everyone. But I also enjoy helping those who are interested but perhaps just need a little more information (or a little nudge) to venture out.

I've had some unhappy experiences on large, ship-sponsored tours in the Med. I'd just like to help others avoid that whenever possible.

We did a ship excursion from Naples a few years back, we took hydrofoil to Capri and did tour there, from there we took the hydrofoil to Sorrento. In Sorrento we had a 4 course meal and some time to wander. From there we were picked up in a tour bus and went to Pompeii where we had a guided tour of the ruins. After that we had a scenic ride back to Naples.

This was one excursion I would not want to replicate on my own..I would have been checking my watch and feeling anxious all day over time and trying to schedule all the transportation. It was a great excursion and worth every penny.

Sometimes with the exchange rate it's actually cheaper for some excursions thru the cruise line.

I generally take ship tours because they are convenient, I don't need to worry about making it back to the ship, and I usually find something I'm keen to do. If something doesn't strike me though, I don't book.

For my upcoming Greek Islands and Turkey cruise I haven't booked anything for Rhodes or Mykonos. I've been assured by friends that both places are easy to get around and I'll enjoy exploring these places on my own.

Everything else is a shore excursion and I'm quite happy to pay a little extra for peace of mind. Some of the excursions are only several hours and leave us in the city centres for a couple of hours more before taking us back to the pier.

Besides, I've done plenty of organising of hotels, some flights, and entertainment on the land parts of my upcoming holiday. Having someone else do all the organising for me is a relief. Also, if the tour is cancelled, I get my money back on the shipboard account. If a tour operator doesn't show up, there is no guarantee of getting your money back. I'm sure it happens in some places.

Naturally, everyone is different. However, I will never forget the people who missed the ship in a port on a recent cruise I took because they had difficulty making it back from a far out location (which had also been visited by ship tours) - their taxi got a flat tyre.

So, each to their own :)

Having taken a few ship's tour (involving tricky transportation connections and a short amount of time), privately-organized excursions through roll calls, and striking out on our own using local transportation, I found the following interesting.

 

Rick Steeves has an "Excursion Cheat Sheet" that is described as "(admittedly oversimplified)". It appears he's referring to ships' excursions, not private ones. Different strokes for different folks, but this is a summary of what his Med Cruise Ports book says. BTW, I don't agree with all of these:

 

No - Barcelona

Yes - Provence

No - French Rivera

Maybe - Florence, Pisa, Lucca

Maybe - Rome

No - Naples, Pompeii

Yes - Amalfi Coast, Capri

No - Venice

No - Split

No - Dubrovnik

Maybe - Athens

No - Most Greek Islands

No - Istanbul

Yes - Ephesus.

 

Regarding Naples, it depends on what you want to do and your comfort level. The first time in Naples we did a private tour for an Amalfi Coast and Pompeii combination through the roll call in a mini-van = fantastic! The next time we planned to do Capri on our own and did a ship's tour at the last minute so we could relax and not worry about catching the last ferry or making bus connections to Anacapri once on the island. Next time we're taking a hydrofoil to Sorrento (thanks for that advice, cc'ers:)) and train on our own to Herculaneum.

 

In Cinque Terre, will we want to do the ship's tour? No. Will we make an exception for this stop? Probably, because we want to make the most of our time without wasting time second guessing ourselves and miss out on a highlight. (Just) occasionally, we're willing to join the herd rather than 'miss the boat', pun intended.

Last summer we took the ship tour in Ephesus and had a good experience. We did notice that the place where folks signed up for the ship's tour had a much longer line in Ephesus than in other places. I guess other folks had the Steeves book. However, as another poster said, there is no right answer. Although, not in Europe, the two places I would always take the ship's tour are Jamaica and St. Lucia.

Here are the 47 - 56 seat buses used for ship's tours in St. Petersburg

Here is the 16 passenger mini bus used for our private tour in St. Petersburg which cost less than the ship's tour

My answer is No.

I did use a ship's transfer to the airport after a cruise as our luggage was picked up outside our room and we picked it up at the airport.

P.S. - I realize that I used an example from St. Petersburg but the same comparison works for pretty much any European city.

St Lucia? you are telling people to take the ship excursion in St. Lucia? I don`t get this. The island is not dangerous. There are plenty of recommended, less-expensive, more flexible providers suggested here and on Trip Advisor. Please explain.

In Israel we did one ship's tour and one private. I was not althgether happy with the private one as I did not think the guide was particularly good. For me, the quality of the guide is the most important factor.

In Israel we did one ship's tour and one private. I was not althgether happy with the private one as I did not think the guide was particularly good. For me, the quality of the guide is the most important factor.

I agree that a good guide is so important. It constantly amazes me what people will pay for private transportation (when cheap public transportation is readily available), yet they will decide not to pay for a private guide. Or they do a ton of research on the driver service, but not on the specific guide. :confused:

Unfortunately, I have had good guides and bad guides on ship tours and on private tours. However, I've had more bad guides on the ship tours. The worst instance was on a HAL tour in Turkey where the guide alternately spent her time (and ours) making tasteless jokes at the expense of an ethnic minority in Turkey, shilling for purchases at a "factory" stop, and talking on her cell phone while we were on the bus rather than giving us any background/history of where we were visiting.

I should've known it was going to be bad when she started out by saying, "I could tell you the history of the places we are going to visit, but you'll just forget it all anyway." :eek:

(Incidentally, the guide I had for two days in Israel was one of the best I've ever had, and it came about because I worked with another guide who recommended this one as someone whose background and interest closely meshed with mine. The first day it was just the guide and myself; the second day we were joined by another couple. I enjoyed it so much that when I returned to Israel on a land trip, I hired him again for another full day private tour for one.)

On Swan Hellenic, the expert lecturers actually accompany some of the ship tours and give additional feedback and commentary. Those have been some of the better ship tours that I've taken.

We usually but not always book excursions through the ship. We have been pleased with almost all of them. If they cost any more than doing it on our own we just think of that as added insurance. Insurance that the ship will wait for us if there is any problem.

On our last cruise 2 weeks ago we did a ship excursion on St Lucia and really enjoyed it. Back on board the ship we sat on deck waiting for sail away. And waited. About 1/2 hour past the time we should have left, the Captain announced that we were waiting for about 80 passengers on ship excursions that had not arrived back yet. Turned out there had been a bad accident on the main road and there was a huge traffic jam because of it. The ship finally sailed 2 hours late when the last passengers arrived back. We talked to people who had been on that tour. They said the police were letting the ship tour buses get around the accident site before any other vehicles. As they drove through, the buses picked up frantic passengers from taxis, who were not on ships tours and drove them back too.

I know this sort of thing is probably rare, but it does happen. So if someone wants the security of doing ships tours instead of doing it on their own, I fully understand.

By the way, the excellent Rick Steeves book on cruising in the Mediterranean is available as an e-book. My clever daughter put it on my i-phone for me before I left on a Med cruise with a friend. Loved having the book right at hand for reference anytime I wanted to know something.

Although I never had to use the info, for every port, Steeves gives "if you miss the ship" info telling you the best way to get to the next port. LOL