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Shore Excursions on Celestyal Crystal


Moviegal1960
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We are sailing on the Crystal the first week of October on the Idyllic Aegean itinerary. Just wondering if you took the shore excursions. Which ones and were you happy with the excursions? We are trying to decide which one we are going add to the 3 excursions that are included in our cruise fare.

 

Thanks

 

Barbara

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  • 6 months later...

I'm trying to find out what excursions are offered and the price.  I saw a company called Dolphin Hellas that offered tours but they informed me to book through Celestyal Cruises for all excursions.  Any tips?

 

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Friends and I are booked on the June 3 2019 Aegean Cruise on Celestyal Crystal.  I have been to the website many times to "manage the booking."  The website is posing a challenge to me. I know that there are 3 included excursions on this cruise:  One on Santorini (Oia), one on Crete (Palace of Knossos) and one for Kusadasi (Ephesus).  I have been to Ephesus before, and so for Ephesus I want to sign up instead for the non-included Celestyal excursion that includes the Terrace Houses. I see the excursions for the other port stops--how do I sign up, and also, how can I tell if the excursions are offered in the mornings or the afternoons?  There does not seem to be a forum or roll call for Celestyal. Thank you

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm also trying to understand the Excursions. We like the 3 included ones but are looking at the other ports. None of times are listed. And the ones we like are 4 1/2 hours which would leave us time to do other excursions, even private ones but they will not provide times until we are on board. 

 

Does anyone have any experience they can share regarding Excursions with Celestyal?

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The website is dreadful.  Everytime I go there, I get a bit lost, and the scrolling down is ridiculous.

I have had some success by calling this number in the US: 877 337 4665

I was told that all the excursions are scheduled for the mornings or the first part of the day, if the arrival is in the afternoon--I hope that is reliable information.

I don't see that they offer any excursions, included or not, for less than 4 to 4.5 hours.

 

 Perhaps you've already seen the excursion details (not the times, just the touring information) but this is the way I do it:

https://americas.celestyalcruises.com/en/aegean-destinations-greek-island-cruises 

You’ll see a circle of dots, with each dot representing a port.  

Click on one of the ports—for example, Milos

Then click on See More.

Then scroll all the way to the bottom until you see 

Amazing excursions carefully curated by Celestyal Cruises’s experts

You can then on the right see details for the excursions for that port (but the times are not mentioned)

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On 3/4/2019 at 11:32 AM, cruiseesl said:

Friends and I are booked on the June 3 2019 Aegean Cruise on Celestyal Crystal.  I have been to the website many times to "manage the booking."  The website is posing a challenge to me. I know that there are 3 included excursions on this cruise:  One on Santorini (Oia), one on Crete (Palace of Knossos) and one for Kusadasi (Ephesus).  I have been to Ephesus before, and so for Ephesus I want to sign up instead for the non-included Celestyal excursion that includes the Terrace Houses. I see the excursions for the other port stops--how do I sign up, and also, how can I tell if the excursions are offered in the mornings or the afternoons?  There does not seem to be a forum or roll call for Celestyal. Thank you

 

Cruiseesl,  

 

When you come back from your Celestyal cruise could you come back to this board and give us a brief comment on your cruise and if you enjoyed it?

 

We have family that is interesting in visiting England and Wales in May/June 2020, we may join them for a week. Then since we are in Europe, my wife and I are contemplating adding a cruise on Celestyal. There is not a lot of information out there but from what I have read it sounds like a great option for seeing the Greek islands.

 

Enjoy your cruise

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  • 3 months later...

I was on the June 3-10 cruise on the Celestyal Crystal.  I'll comment here on the ship's excursions.

We added on the ship's excursion to Delos.  It was a bad experience.  It may have been due to being early in the season and not everyone had their act together, but the assignments to buses was chaotic and on Delos, the distribution of tickets was so confusing that our guide, who had guided many times, admitted she was giving tickets to the wrong people and so ran out. There were not enough site maps-we were told the inventory was limited so that there would be enough for the whole summer season. The guide for my bus group, Yolanda, spoke English very poorly.  The "whispers" (audio guides linked to Yolanda's microphone) did not work well, so much of the time we could not hear her, let alone understand her.  Although it was early in the morning in early June, the archaeological site was very crowded, and since some passage are narrow, we had to squeeze through some areas, and then backtrack through the crowd in order to move on to the next location.  Whether because of the logistics or the limitations of the site itself, I found Delos to be the least interesting of the many ancient sites we visited, and I don't feel compelled to ever go there again. However, hiring a private guide might be a better bet.

 

The included excursion on Santorini, a visit to Oia and Megalochori was not nearly long enough to see much of either town, but it was well organized and did provide an overview.  I recommend spending more time in those towns on your own, with or without a guide. We found exploring Fira (the island's capital) pretty easy to do--at peak times, allow for the fact that you may have to wait to board the cable car to return to the port.

 

The included excursion to Iraklion, on Crete was excellent.  Well-organized, good guide, a decent amount of time at the Knossos Palace site, and then some time at the Archaeological Museum.  Following the guided tour, we had lunch and then strolled around Iraklion on our own, including visiting the Historical Museum (El Greco paintings, and an interesting history of Crete's experience under German occupation in WWII, etc.).  Note that many of the shops in Iraklion closed in the afternoon for "siesta."

 

I did not go on the included excursion to Ephesus (port of Kusadasi) because I'd been there before. My friends told me that the guiding for the site was good, but it was followed (as advertised) by a visit to a carpet factory/showroom where the hard sell, even to seasoned travelers, surpassed anyone's previous experience.  Rugs costing thousands of dollars were being shown, and the least bit of interest shown led to being isolated in a sales room and being intensely pressured to sign on the dotted line.  The time at the rug factory turned out to be almost an hour and a half, and left a very sour taste for my friends. They were in fact outraged.

 

 

 

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I forgot to mention our stop at Milos, where several friends and I opted for the Nostalgic Milos and Beaches excursion.  An excursion boat with an excellent guide (Natassia, a native of Milos) gave us a seaview of the volcanic Milos landscape, and a couple of opportunities to jump from or climb from the boat to swim in the Aegean.  Unforgettable!  The water adventure was followed by a visit to famous Sarakiniko Beach (white rock formations), not for swimming at that point, but for admiring the other-worldly landscape.

eIMG_0900.jpg

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