Do Private Tours Really Save Money (Mediterranean Cruise)

I'm going on my first cruise for my honeymoon and was wondering how much "extra" the ship tours are compared booking activities on your own. Is it a few dollars or half the price? We're not made of money but with planning the wedding, I was thinking the convience may be worth it.

Itinerary:

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy;-not doing any ports this day

Messina (Sicily), Italy;

Alexandria, Egypt;-there for 2 days

Rhodes, Greece;

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey;

Piraeus (Athens), Greece;

Chania (Souda), Crete, Greece;

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy;-staying for 2 extra nights

Any advice would be appreciated!

I'm going on my first cruise for my honeymoon and was wondering how much "extra" the ship tours are compared booking activities on your own. Is it a few dollars or half the price? We're not made of money but with planning the wedding, I was thinking the convience may be worth it.

 

Itinerary:

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy;-not doing any ports this day

Messina (Sicily), Italy;

Alexandria, Egypt;-there for 2 days

Rhodes, Greece;

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey;

Piraeus (Athens), Greece;

Chania (Souda), Crete, Greece;

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy;-staying for 2 extra nights

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

If it is your first cruise, and you will be going all over the Mediterranean basin, you may be much more comfortable with the security of a ship's excursion.

But the answer to your question is "yes" - it can be MUCH cheaper AND higher quality to book tours on your own.

A piece of advice:

Join the Roll Call for your cruise.

Meet like-minded people, and plan tours together.

This is the best way to book reasonably-priced tours.

In Egypt, I would stick to the ship's excursions. You do NOT want to be left behind in Egypt, and there can be major traffic and other problems, including security.

Well wooooorth it. Less people in a tour - instead of a bus with 50 people, you are in a small minivan with 6 or 8 people. Also they can get in places that the big bus are not able to. Also more flexibility as you can tell them where you want to go, customize it to your group. If you want more time in a site or shopping, you can do that. It is just more personable and yes about half the price in some cases, in others, the price might be about the same, still worth it.

Definitely do the ship tours in Egypt. Security means guns there.

When we went on our Med cruise, we did some private excursions with some people we met in our CC roll call. We also did some ship sponsored excursions.

We saved a little money on the private excursions, but more importantly, we had a smaller group. Our CC group used Rome in Limo to do several Italy tours. It was the highlight of the trip. The smaller vehicles can get around better than the charter buses, and smaller groups can tour quicker. We even asked the driver to stop for unexpected photo ops.

Now, we were not brave enough to do Rome on our own because the one day we were there fell on Easter weekend and we were afraid of the traffic and not getting back on time.

I spent months planning our trip, I'm sure it seems stressful preparing for a wedding at the same time. Good luck.:)

This is why Cruise Critic is so great!

I have read a couple of answers to your questions, and I know one of the posters......MM....and she is very knowledgable.

Also, Cruise Critic has other threads that will give you names and numbers to email or call for any of your ports of call.

And when MM says......Egypt....stay with the ships tours.......it's for your safety.

We average about 1/3rd the price for all tours paid in Europe, as we would onboard the ship.

Rick

I'll be the one to say it's safe to take a private tour in Egypt. We did with Ramses in September and had a WONDERFUL time. There were 12 of us, and the price ended up being just under $75 a person for a trip to the Pyramids and a boat ride on the Nile. Since it's an overnight, you have PLENTY of time to get back to the ship. It is a full 12 hour day. We never felt unsafe.

I'll be the one to say it's safe to take a private tour in Egypt. We did with Ramses in September and had a WONDERFUL time. There were 12 of us, and the price ended up being just under $75 a person for a trip to the Pyramids and a boat ride on the Nile. Since it's an overnight, you have PLENTY of time to get back to the ship. It is a full 12 hour day. We never felt unsafe.

There are always lots of positive experiences.

But if you are one of the few disasters, you don't care.

:)

I'll be the one to say it's safe to take a private tour in Egypt. We did with Ramses in September and had a WONDERFUL time. There were 12 of us, and the price ended up being just under $75 a person for a trip to the Pyramids and a boat ride on the Nile. Since it's an overnight, you have PLENTY of time to get back to the ship. It is a full 12 hour day. We never felt unsafe.

And, since that I have not been to Egypt.....and know that you are both Cruise Critic members...I'm glad to know that there are some private tours available.

Thanks for the information. We hope to make it to Egypt in 2012, and will keep this name for future use.

Rick

There are always lots of positive experiences.

 

But if you are one of the few disasters, you don't care.

 

:)

Very true!

And, since that I have not been to Egypt.....and know that you are both Cruise Critic members...I'm glad to know that there are some private tours available.

 

Thanks for the information. We hope to make it to Egypt in 2012, and will keep this name for future use.

 

Rick

It's quite dirty there. Seriously probably the dirtiest place I have ever been. It was amazing to stand at the base of the Pyramids and to touch them.

Alexandria was the next to last stop of our trip. I hate to admit, but I was exhausted!!! I slept though the guide's talk about Egypt on the way to Cairo. It's about a 3 hour drive. The way back we had a lively Q&A session. Our guide said he would answer anything that was asked. :D

A current example:

I looked at private tours for Ephesus.

RCCL's tour was $79 each, and you are on a bus with about 40 people.

The exact same tour for just the two of us, including roundtrip transportation is $65. Not a big savings, but so much more personalized.

If I get 2 - 6 more people the price goes down to about $48 per person.

I am going to say - sometimes but not always private tours are better. Ships tours are not always 40 people on a bus. I have taken ship tours that used small vans. I agree that most of the operators that have good reviews on CC are good to work with. However I don't like to pay in full in advance like some (not all) private tours want you to. Also if things go wrong you have much more recourse if you book with the ship. As your experience level grows you will get a fell of what works for you. As a new cruiser IMO I think you will be better off booking with the ship. Whatever you decide to do research is the key.

Welcome to CC,

Honeymoon cruise, what could be better, and you got a great line up of ports.

The first time I went private was in the Med. Made the big leap and did private in every port that I choose to do a tour. Will never go back if I can find reputable options.

IMHO its about more than money but value and experience. A private tour where you fill the car or van will almost be cheaper than the most expensive bus tour the ship offers and far cheaper than their private car.

People will tell you don't go private as you might miss the boat. There is very little truth in this if you pick a reputable private operator. Their income and livelyhood depends on getting you back and for you to have a good experience to recommend to others, you think they take that lightly? All the stories you hear about missing the boat are always very bad luck combined with bad judgement of the cruiser.

The biggest difference between ship and private is that on most private you get a small van/car of 4-10 people versus the almost big bus affair of the ship excursion. So think about herding 40 people versus 10 people. The private tour will always see more, be faster and under your direct control of schedule ( if you book it ). Well worth it to do it or go to your ships rollcall here ( http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=34) to find your ship and cruise and hook up with others.

Even in Cairo / Egypt there are good and reputable private I'd do over ship. Egypt was so on my agenda and I had two operators picked up but got veto'd on that port :mad:

Depending on what you desire to see and / or what your sense of adventure are Kusadasi, Alexendria are the ones I'd do private. The others probably you can DIY, and even Rome / Athens are worth thinking hard about given how much each port has.

Good luck!

I'm going on my first cruise for my honeymoon and was wondering how much "extra" the ship tours are compared booking activities on your own. Is it a few dollars or half the price? We're not made of money but with planning the wedding, I was thinking the convience may be worth it.

 

Itinerary:

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy;-not doing any ports this day

Messina (Sicily), Italy;

Alexandria, Egypt;-there for 2 days

Rhodes, Greece;

Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey;

Piraeus (Athens), Greece;

Chania (Souda), Crete, Greece;

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy;-staying for 2 extra nights

 

Any advice would be appreciated!

Eygpt is a dangerous place. There is a reason that the tour busses travel in convoys and each bus has a security guard with an Uzi. It really isn't just for show. Any place that we stopped there was always someone trying to take adavntage of us or just to steal from us. The Pyramids and sites are amazing, but there is safety in the large group.

Stick to the bottled water and don't eat anything that isn't commercially packaged or cooked to be well done. Several people on our trip got sick and according to our waiter, this was common.

I was to use Ramses Tours in Egypt last month, but the ship did not make it there.:rolleyes: Months of planning down the drain, but that's ok. ;)

Rhodes Taxi in Rhodes - now THAT was a wonderful private tour. Get another couple to go with you, and take a car out to the Acropolis of Lindos. Our most awesome tour!!

http://www.rhodesprivatetours.com/best_of_rhodes_tours_greece.htm

For Athens, it's easy to take a cab to the Acropolis and hire a guide. Better to do with more people to save money.:)

Probably the one advantage to a Ships tour, is if your late, the ship in most cases will wait, not always depending on how long your going to be late, but on a private tour, if your late the ship will sail. Let me add, using a highly recommended Co, is better then a Taxi since they will make sure your back in time. I like to compare the time we will be in Port with the length of the tours and allow us 2 hrs to be on board. They will announce, that all passengers need to be on board, 30 min before sailing.

I opted for private tours in both Egypt and Israel. I would recommend them highly. Certainly far better than ships tours and the price is better.

Both tours we had 6 people and that is the perfect number for quality time and information.

As for the "security" in Egypt - for those who think they were better off security-wise with the ships tour - you arn't. All vehicles leave the port together in a convoy - ships and private. Our convoy was probably 15 vehicles long. There were 3 jeeps with army personnel with guns leading the way. Every time we went through a checkpoint -but didn't have to stop - the jeep would pull over and another one took it's place that had been waiting there. After about 1.5 hours (half way to Cairo) the jeeps pulled over for the last time and waved at everyone as we drove past. That is the extent of your security. You're security is yourself - watch where you're going, don't seperate from your group, listen to what you're told by your group leader, look after yourself.

But, nevertheless, I would only go private tour. How can those who haven't been there tell you what to do?

We just did 24 days of cruising in the Med. We only did private tours that were arranged on our roll call boards. The private tours were not only cheaper, but so much more rewarding. A minivan with 8 is so much nicer than a bus of 40 or more. We were able to drive right up to attractions instead of walking blocks like the bus tours had to. Driving the back streets of Florence and Rome was great. And we got to the big attractions well before the bus tours arrived. Plus we were able to do so much more and see so much more than the big groups. It was easy to stop at places we wanted to do such as the Hard Rock Cafe. A private tour is very flexible.

We did a private tour in Egypt and felt very safe. It is not a dangerous place and tourism is very important. Besides, in my opinion a terrorist is more likely to target a larger group instead of a van of few people. We were never bothered in any way because our guide, who was by our side all the way, prevented it-can't do that with a guide for 40 people.

Convience is great but with a once in a lifetime trip you should go with quality-you will not regret it.

:) The only thing that Unberwoob (Dennis) left out is that the private tours are also flexible. If you want to skip an attraction, or alter the amount of time there, you can. We were with him for the first 12 days in the Med...he did a B to B.

Dennis: hello, and regards to Teri.

Ken

Some times private tours can be more expensive, but being at Pompeii after hiring a private driver with two other couples and a guide as the only people there for about 90 minutes before the ship's tours arrived was Priceless.

Also we changed our tour mid-stream which is the beauty of going private.

It was our best day in the Med.

When we did the Med, we did a mix of private and ship tours.

I have to agree, transportation is a more personal experience with private tours, but considering some of these locations are crawling with tourists, once you get there, you are in the same crowd as you would have been on the bus tour.

We did Ephesus on the ship excursion, and were standing side by side most of the day with our table mates who had booked a private excursion. Our guide was actually easier to hear, because the ship excursions usually use remote headphones so you can even wander a bit and still hear the tour.

We did Cairo with Memphis Tours, and had read a lot of opinions about safety concerns in Egypt. We were a group of Two moms and two teenage girls :eek:, and I have to say, I never felt unsafe and Ashraf, our guide was incredibly protective of us. I also think the private van drew much less attention than the tour buses.

Pluses of Private Excursions:

Not having to wait for others to get back to the bus. It is so annoying to me that there is one in every crowd that pushes departure time past the agreed meet time, leaving everyone else waiting. You can get off at 5 different locations, and know you'll wait for the same people every time. I expect you actually get to see less on a ship tour because time is spent loading/unloading...and waiting.

You can personalize, though you'll really have to do your research to find something something of interest that's not on most standard tours for the area.

I saved some money on private tours, but frankly, I never found anything that was an incredible bargain. It depends on the size of your group. If you're paying for the excursion by the size of the van, it clearly is cheaper to have 8 people in your group than 2.

Pluses of Ship Excursions:

No worries! You know they'll get you back, on time. You'll know your as safe as possible. If you are at all nervous, use ship excursions! You will have a memorable experience!

It is your honeymoon...simple is best, stick with the ship tours.

A minimal cost saving in the Med. won't be worth it.

BTW..we did an independent overnight in Egypt and were very pleased, we were with 10 from our roll call group. We did not have an armed guard in our van, we had a beeper that kept tack wherever we went.

Private tours are great as long as you factor in plenty of time to return to the ship before it leaves (in case of traffic and weather). You typically save money, get more personalized service, and may have less people in your group.

I love how I planned a 16 person 10 hr tour of St. Petersburg for only $100 per person, and I'm going for free. And the itinerary is jam packed with great places to see.

Using the roll calls and the boards to find recommended tour operators is wonderful. I love Cruise Critic! :D