AVAD

We recently returned from a Celebrity cruise to Palma de Mallorca using 

qSpaindaytours for a Full day tour to Palma and Valdemossa. This was our 4th time touring with them, previously using them for the Alhambra, Seville, and Ronda (which was not on their website but we signed up a group from cruise critic and it was fabulous). 
Once again, this tour was wonderful. The guide, Sara, was knowledgeable, friendly and a former Brit, who spoke excellent English. She gave us an informative walking tour in Palma and Valdemossa, then about 2 hours free time to sightsee, shop, eat or whatever in each city. We were back on the ship an hour before “all aboard”. There were only 16 of us on a big, clean bus so it felt like a private tour at half the price of a ship’s excursion.
It is a pleasure to work with spaindaytours as they answer emails promptly and are super easy to book. We highly recommend them and will use them each  time we are in Spain. 
Ava 

Anyone been to the surrounding towns of Toulon on DIY? We visited Toulon already and would like to visit Aix or Le Castelette but don’t know if we can do it on our own. 

Thanks

We took an private transfer to Carcassone which was fabulous. It was with Buscapades, which is a Frenchman who provides tours around Provence. It wasn’t a guided tour but we didn’t need it once we were got there. I highly recommend him. 

We used spaindaytours.com on  4 occasion and recommend them highly. We are taking a cruise in October and will use them again in Palma. They are professional, reply quickly to emails, always on time, and their prices are fair. I wish every country had a company like them for cruise excursions. 

Thanks for your postings. We love the Connie. Glad you have found her in good condition since we will be sailing her again in October and we were concerned about the negative reviews too.

Thanks to all. I think we will visit Aix since it seems there is more to see there.

I appreciate all the tips.

Help! Our ship is in Toulon in October. I love pretty French towns and wonder whether to see Cassis or Aix En Provence on a 5 hour ship excursion. I wish we could do a private excursion visiting both but we have tons of ship credit and we need to use some here.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Ava

I am having the same problem with a Celebrity cruise returning October 30, and I made the airline reservation 3 months ago through the cruise line, Choice Air. Delta changed the flight to 1 hour earlier. The airline will refund our money and Choice Air will reschedule us, but we have to pay $460 more than we already paid for a new flight and get home 6 hours later. We can take Delta's new earlier flight time, but it leaves 20 minutes before Celebrity's cut off time, so they will not help or take responsibility if we miss the flight. It is upsetting that the airlines do this to the flying public.

I am bummed, and not sure what to do. We have returned to Civitavecchia twice before and people began leaving around 6:30 AM, but It will be stressful. We will need a good private transfer waiting for us.

I have to get a map and check this all out! Thank you!

We will be on the same cruise and would love to join you and share expenses if you don't mind another couple tagging along to Carcassone! Email me at adunlowatgmail.

Thanks

THANKS SO Much For all the great info. We will be visiting Malaga on a cruise in October and it is a Monday. I know the Roman ruins will be closed. Will the other museums be closed also?

We are in our early 70's and fit, but will definitely take the bus to the Castle. If we take the bus down what stop would we use for the Alcazaba?. We plan to walk to the Cathedral after Alcazaba.

We would like to visit the English Cemetary and Ataranzana Market too. Where are they in relation to the Plaza de la Marina?

Is all this doable? We will take a shuttle from the ship to the terminal.

Thanks for your input. We look forward to visiting your beautiful area.

Yes--the first cruise we took was a 4 day Disney cruise that a local radio station gave as a promotion many years ago. I called in the station, qualified and my name was drawn from qualifiers. It was a family vacation for 4 people--1 cabin but our 2 sons were elementary age, so it was great. It was an outside cabin and was a little tight but it included the airfare and taxes. We didn't even pay for the transfer or tips. They sent us a big 1099 form for our tax return but it was worth it. It hooked us on cruises.

I know lots of people who think they won a cruise from a timeshare presentation or phone call, but they aren't legitimate wins.

We used safe cruise parking on a recent Panama Canal cruise. We were a little hesitant due to other posts but we did not leave our keys and our car was fine when we returned. We did have a slight issue when we arrived due to the large number of cars waiting. It was probably 45 minutes from the time we arrived until we got on the shuttle, but it was about 11:00 am and the shuttles were bringing passengers from arriving cruises too. When we returned, we waited for the shuttle about 5 minutes and then picked up passengers from another cruise line but it was not a problem. We saved money and were ok with them.

However, I agree that off site parking is much better at Ft Lauderdale or Port Everglades. Miami parking isn't the best.

Do the Miami hotels have parking rates if you don't stay there? Do they provide shuttles? We have stayed at hotels in other cities with park and ride before flying for a vacation, but you have to stay there at least one night to qualify. We are coming from central Fl and do not want to stay in Miami the night before the cruise.

This thread is older. Any reports of off site parking out of Miami this year?

I have read all the warnings, etc and know about Miami, so don't need that. We are taking a 12 day cruise and know thousands of people park at the off site lots every week with no issues.

Considering Premier or Safecruise parking and would like recommendations.

Thanks.

In November, we have our 2nd NCL cruise and I didn't know about upselling.

We pay the final Payment in 2 weeks.

When should we call for an upselling and who do we call? We booked through a travel agent, so does that make a difference?

Thanks for any advice.

We docked in Salerno last month on a Royal Caribbean cruise. It is still not ideal, and we were disappointed that we were docking there. There was no usual cruise ship area to disembark. The docking area is not pedestrian friendly. We were the only cruise ship in the terminal but there were lots of cargo ships and the town is about a 10 minute bus ride away.

There was a free shuttle bus to Salerno that ran about every 30 minutes. It was sponsored by the town and was parked right by the ship. It drops passengers off near the waterfront area where there is a little waterfront park. We took a ship's excursion in the morning to Herculaneum, and in the afternoon we visited Salerno via the shuttle bus.

There is a nice Cathedral a few blocks from the waterfront and we visited a small museum. There is a small shopping district with high end shops, and a few restaurants. It is a typical Italian town--not a tourist town.

In my opinion, 2 hours was all we needed to see everything we wanted to see, although the bus ride and waiting for the bus took almost another hour.

We recently visited Villefranche for the first time on a Royal Caribbean cruise and had a perfect day with a perfect guide. We used Ingrid with Kultours and could not have been more pleased. She was prompt with emails and very accomodating with our wants and needs for the day. Her van was beautiful and she was an excellent driver and informative guide.

We visited Nice, Monte Carlo and the hillside town of Pielle, which Ingrid suggested. All were beautiful. She made the day very memorable for our group of 6 and we felt like we had made a friend. She was the guide for Rick Steves when he updated his French travel book earlier this year, so we aren't the only ones who believe she is a wonderful guide.

It was our favorite day of the cruise.

We are looking for Rome alternatives in Civitivechia on a Monday and recently read that someone took the train to Grosseto and enjoyed walking around the town. It looks to be about an hour via train and if anyone has been there, I would love some advice.

Thanks

Once you are allowed to get off the ship the entire process will only take five to ten minutes.

 

Keith

Wow--that is fast. Good to know, as we are planning to pull our luggage off to save time. Our flight is 10:45 so glad we can go that fast.

Thanks

We are on a cruise arriving In Barcelona on a Wednesday and our flight to the US leaves at 10:45 AM. There are 6 of us. We plan to pull our suitcases off and leave early.

My question for those who have departed there before is should I try to reserve a pickup for us at the port,(hate to prepay and they not show up) take the cruise line bus (expensive but reliable) or take our chances on a taxi van or 2 taxi cars? Last year in Copenhagen was a nightmare. There was a long line for taxis at the pier, we almost missed our flight, and I was a nervous wreck.

Thanks.

Thank you Bobal, very helpful but honestly annoying. It seems like more and more different ports are intent on waylaying passengers than actually helping. Why do I have the thougt that if I asked a taxi driver to take me on a short ride to the ferry port, I would be baraged with offers for a day tour instead of a ride. I know, I know, everyone needs to make a buck or euro but after about 10 years of pleasant cruise experiences, I'm thinking of returning to slow travel on land.

I could not agree with you more. Not only that, the cruise lines make it more and more difficult for DIY passengers because of the places the ships dock, needing shuttles everywhere. They do it it push their expensive shore excursions, I believe.

I would be cautious and aim for the 11. We're just back from a cruise including Rome. We have DIY Rome many times prior to the switch last year to the new port shuttle drop off location. This was our first experience with the new location . We didn't attempt to walk but caught the 2 euro local bus to the rail station. This ended up as a 40 minute journey from ship to station due mainly to both shuttle and local bus waiting until they were full before starting.

If your port time is from 7am then catching the 7.44 would be highly unlikely.

😟

That is too bad. I am not surprised that is a time consuming challenge now. We will be there next month and I am concerned about the time it will take to catch the 2 busses and then the train, and then reversing it on the return trip. Doesn't it seem as if the cruise lines are trying to make it more and more difficult to DIY? They only want you to do their expensive excursions!

Thanks for the info on Salerno. We are docking in Salerno next month and it is a completely new port for us. I haven't been able to find much info. We have been to Naples several times and seen the popular attractions in the area, so we are interested in Salerno or Vietri DIY.

Bobal said, "The ship actually docks almost half way between the centre of Salerno and Vietri", so does anyone know if both are walkable from where the ship docks or is there a shuttle bus? Is there a good beach within walking distance?

Thanks for any info.

It is true that the 1 kilometer walk takes about 12 minutes down to the base of La Rambla.

Thanks--I did not know the distance. While we are all fit and able to pull our luggage, it would be less stressful to take a cab since we aren't sure exactly where we are going.

Do you know if there any van type cabs that could take 6? If so, would it cost much more than regular taxi fare? I read that it is less expensive to flag down taxis on Las Ramblas rather than have the hotel call.

We are going to run into the same thing when the cruise returns and we need transportation from the pier to the airport. It would be great to have a van so we wouldn't need 2 taxis, but I wonder if that is possible.

Thanks to all.

Has anyone taken the port bus to embark on a cruise in Barcelona?

We are a group of 6 staying precruise at a hotel off LaRambla near the market next month. We are planning to take public transportation (aerobus) from the airport to the hotel and have that planned.

We are sailing on Royal Caribbean and wonder if we can pull our luggage to the Columbus Monument and take the port bus to the pier? Has anyone done this? Can we buy our tickets on the bus? Does the port bus run all day?

We can take a taxi if we must, but we would need 2 taxis, and if we can save money by public transport, we will.

Thanks.