Question about ‘Private Vehicle’ shore excursions offered by Princess

Hi all

Our cruise in September has a scheduled call in Istanbul and I'd like to do a private tour - there's one place we'd like to see that's not on any organised tour I can find, and I'm not comfortable at the thought of DIY tours around Istanbul just now.

However, because of the current uncertainty around whether any given cruise will actually go to Turkey, I thought I might book one of the "Istanbul by Private Vehicle" shore excursions offered by Princess.

Has anyone reading this ever taken one of these Princess private vehicle excursions? - because I'm just a bit confused about what's actually on offer.

The summaries of the excursion say things like "Tour sites at guest's discretion" and "A private vehicle is the perfect solution for passengers who wish to tour privately or who want the flexibility of designing their own itinerary." This to me implies a proper private tour where the itinerary is decided between yourself and the guide.

But then in the excursion details it says "Deviations to duration, departure / return time or locations to be visited can be made on-board in advance but will incur an additional charge." and further into the detail there is a list of possible places to visit.

Does this mean we can't go to anywhere that's not on the list without paying even more for the excursion?

I thought about phoning Princess and asking, but unfortunately my experience with asking their call centre operators about this sort of detail is that the accuracy of the answers is a bit uncertain. So, if anyone can answer from experience, that would be great :)

Thanks for your help!

Sandy

This sounds like what HAL offers. What happens is a couple days prior to your arrival, you will receive a set of questions about what you want to see in Istanbul. So do your research on what you want to see and any other priorities. I guess in some cases there may be some restrictions for a variety of reasons, but in the times we have used these excursions, there has been no particular problems.

This will be forwarded to the agency providing the driver and guides. They will build an itinerary based upon time use and route. Typically the idea is to get to certain places before they get crowded, or at better times.

To my knowledge, any admission fees are extra.

We have enjoyed this "compromise" between true private excursions and big bus tours. It is a great way to see the sights you want to see.