Celebrity Constellation - Taj Mahal shore excursion

Hi all,

Has anyone taken the Taj Mahal shore excursion that is offered? If so, is it worth the money? Can you describe the shore excursion (e.g. what hotels did you stay in? How was the food/service? Was it too rushed? Do you get free time? Do you get a tour of Delhi? etc.)

Thanks!

Hi all,

 

Has anyone taken the Taj Mahal shore excursion that is offered? If so, is it worth the money? Can you describe the shore excursion (e.g. what hotels did you stay in? How was the food/service? Was it too rushed? Do you get free time? Do you get a tour of Delhi? etc.)

 

Thanks!

Is it a day trip? And from which port?

Taj Mahal is in Agra which is several hours drive from Delhi

Is it a day trip? And from which port?

 

Taj Mahal is in Agra which is several hours drive from Delhi

It's a 3 day (2 night off ship) tour Cochin re-board in Goa. Quite pricey at $2,195 pp via Celebrity.

My understanding is Celebrity uses Oberoi Hotel which is a nice 5 star.

On our April Constellation cruise I have arranged almost an identical tour except decided to spend the first night in Agra and the next in Delhi. We will have a private driver and can adjust as we wish. The cost was about 1/3 of celebrity. Details are in the blog in my signature.

It's a 3 day (2 night off ship) tour Cochin re-board in Goa. Quite pricey at $2,195 pp via Celebrity.

 

I am sure that those who have taken it enjoyed it. If you do it, I am sure you will also enjoy it.

In our case, we will be taking a tour starting in the USA with 10 days in India visiting five cities including, of course, Agra. Cost including airfare is $1499. Some meals will be an additional cost. A couple of optional sight seeing tours will also be an additional $40.

Personally I prefer doing it this way and not missing three days of a cruise and the chance to tour Goa and Cochin.

I am sure that those who have taken it enjoyed it. If you do it, I am sure you will also enjoy it.

 

 

In our case, we will be taking a tour starting in the USA with 10 days in India visiting five cities including, of course, Agra. Cost including airfare is $1499. Some meals will be an additional cost. A couple of optional sight seeing tours will also be an additional $40.

 

Personally I prefer doing it this way and not missing three days of a cruise and the chance to tour Goa and Cochin.

This is what I was going to say. Don't pay a lot to miss part of your cruise. Can you add it on at the beginning or end? Been on a land visit and it was great to see, once.

Has anyone done the Celebrity 2 night excursion to the Taj Mahal? I am curious as to the type of transport, and overall impression. I know many have done private tours which were less expensive, but I would like to hear about the Celebrity experience.

Has anyone done the Celebrity 2 night excursion to the Taj Mahal? I am curious as to the type of transport, and overall impression. I know many have done private tours which were less expensive, but I would like to hear about the Celebrity experience.

I'm currently on a B2B from Singapore to Rome and we did the Taj tour on our own. The ship had about 120 people that did the tour via Celebrity. I had a chance to talk to a number of the guests that took the Ship's Tour.

It is interesting that the Ship's tour very much similar to our tour, in fact a number of Celebrity Tour were on our planes in both direction.

The ships tour to Delhi were divided onto two planes - Spice Air and Indigo Air. Both flights are on a discount airline and have intermediate stops on the way to Delhi. The ships tour were met by tour busses and were put up for two nights at the Trident Hotel Gurgaon. They arrived at about 6:30 and were hosted to a buffet dinner.

We chose to customize our tour and chose to spend the first night in Agra instead of Delhi. We were met by a private driver in Delhi and zipped off on a 4 lane highway to Agra. We spent the night at the Jaycee Palace (all I can say it was beyond belief and our only regret was we couldn't spend more time there). We were offered an upgrade on Spice Air to first class for $15 and grabbed it.

Celebrity Tours were picked up at the hotel in Delhi after a quick breakfast and taken to the Train Station where they took a train to Agra. We were told they arrived around noon at the Taj. Most said the tour was slow and they could not get close enough to the Guide to hear what he was saying. All said they had a great time and rally enjoyed. After the Taj they were bussed to the Red Palace for a couple hours then loaded back on busses for a 3 1/2 hour trip back to Delhi where they arrived around 8:00 PM. Next morning they were picked up at 6:00 and bussed to the airport where they were flown back to Goa where they met the ship.

We had a wonderful evening at the Jaycee Palace and were hosted to a nice dinner before retiring. Our guide met us at 6:00 AM for a sunrise trip to the Taj. We were told not to check out as we would be returning at 9:00 and given 1 1/2 hours to clean up and have a leisurely breakfast before setting off to tour Agra, the Red Palace and the Mini-Taj. What a wonderful unrushed day we had. The Taj at sunrise was amazing and almost empty of tourists. We had a Photographer join us to photograph our visit and were presented with about 80 photos (and a disk with another 100) - total cost was about $100. The beauty of our tour was we could adjust the day as we felt. We chose to set off at 3:00 for our trip back to Delhi. We spent our second night in Delhi at the Trident Hotel and were picked up at 7:30 for our trip back to Goa. Again we saw the Celebrity Tour at Delhi Airport and part of the tour were on our aircraft.

We were met in Goa by a driver and zipped off to the port. Rejoining the ship was a complete mess for both Celebrity and independent travelers. Indian immigration at the port was a complete mess and made it so much more difficult that should have been. It was such a mess when Celebrity tour arrived that we snuck through and boarded the ship while some were stuck for at least an hour haggling with the officers.

I understand those who prefer booking with Celebrity but in the end we had in my opinion a much more relaxed tour and about 1/3 of the cost and have no regrets. We had a fantastic guide who has friended us on Facebook and we hope to stay in touch with him.

I agree with you Jim, doing it yourself is the way to go! It's a little work, but it's worth it!

I was on the same sailing as you and did something similar. We went to all four ports of call in India, but debarked the ship in Mumbai. We were picked up from the pier in Mumbai for a short, private tour of the city prior to being dropped off at the airport. From there, we flew to Delhi, where we were picked up for a private drive to Agra. We stayed in Agra for the night and went to the Taj Mahal at sunrise (which was definitely ideal - it was still cool and there weren't many tourists at all which made be excellent pictures). However, we didn't opt for the professional photographer - our private guide actually took a lot of pictures of us and since I'm sure he does it every day, the pictures were excellent! (Food for thought if anyone else is considering going because the photographer is reasonably expensive... but then again, the Taj Mahal is a 7 Wonder of the World!). Like Jim, we were able to go back to our hotel for breakfast and to refresh prior to going to the Agra Fort. At the end of the day, we went back to Delhi for the night.

The next day, we toured around the city of Delhi, which is quite an interesting city! We were brought back to the hotel late afternoon to refresh and then to check-out, and were then brought to the airport, where we flew to Muscat at night.

We spent that night in Muscat, and in the morning were picked up for a private tour of Muscat, prior to being dropped off at the port to reboard the ship.

I'm really glad that we visited the Taj Mahal in this fashion. Everything was private (private transportation, private tours, etc.), and we never felt rushed. As well, we were able to experience all ports in India, and only missed two sea days (oh well! I've had dozens and dozens of sea days before). The cost, similar to Jim, was about 1/3 of the Celebrity price.

Another alternative for anyone looking to add the Taj Mahal to their cruise experience.

Gg88 I think you chose a great route as on the B2B we hit Muscat twice. It was also probably easier than dealing with Indian immigration.

Agree with your suggestions of the guide shooting pictures. Ours used my IPhone and shot about 100+ pix.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Hi all,

Just a small bit of info I came across whilst seeing if I could somehow add the golden triangle tour.It would appear that the Taj is to under go a cleaning process which would have the main dome covered in 'mud' and scaffolding from April and is expected to be in place for about a year. This could be cause of great disappointment for a lot of people without prior knowledge having forked out a great deal of cash to do the tour. as a visit to the Taj was my main reason for trying to book the triangle tour as a result we have abandoned the idea and may just look to do a separate holiday sometime next year. So sorry to be a bearer of bad news. Look forward to seeing you all on board.

Harry

TAJ MAHAL DOME RESTORATIONS

The main dome on the Taj Mahal will undergo mud pack therapy due to begin in April 2017. It is likely the entire dome will be obscured by iron scaffolding. Portions of the white marble façade will be covered in mud and plastic sheets during the cleaning process. The restorations will be carried out in sections and the work on the dome is expected to last one year.

TAJ MAHAL DOME RESTORATIONS

The main dome on the Taj Mahal will undergo mud pack therapy due to begin in April 2017. It is likely the entire dome will be obscured by iron scaffolding. Portions of the white marble façade will be covered in mud and plastic sheets during the cleaning process. The restorations will be carried out in sections and the work on the dome is expected to last one year.

Wow, iron scaffolding, that is newsworthy in of itself it seems that the only scaffolding that we ever saw for our journey through India two years ago were constructed of bamboo and rope (like that shown of the minaret in the right foreground in one of the photos above. They were working on the one "behind" it the year that we were there!)

While not the "usual" photo of the Taj Mahal any with that scaffolding around the dome will certainly be "unique"!

Hello GG88, your comment about the tour to Taj Mahal starting from Mumbai, ending in Muscat, is very interesting. Can you tell me wich tour operator you hired ? Thank you in advance

India is worth a trip by itself. The Taj is very nice to visit, but there are so many other places...why would you pick just that one place....and then pay "top dollar" at the same time you've already paid for your cruise. It doesn't compute for me (and yes, we've visited the Taj..we also say tigers, Jaipur and much more. My suggestion is that you see the ports that the ship visits and don't try to cram in the Taj to this cruise. If you must see it, figure out how to do it before or after the cruise.

I am sure that those who have taken it enjoyed it. If you do it, I am sure you will also enjoy it.

 

 

In our case, we will be taking a tour starting in the USA with 10 days in India visiting five cities including, of course, Agra. Cost including airfare is $1499. Some meals will be an additional cost. A couple of optional sight seeing tours will also be an additional $40.

 

Personally I prefer doing it this way and not missing three days of a cruise and the chance to tour Goa and Cochin.

This is the way to go. When we were on RCCL around India, we really enjoyed Goa and Cochin as well as Mangalore and Mumbai. To have taken the excursion, we'd have missed all of that and paid as much as we paid for the entire repositioning cruise! Your tour sounds great and is on our bucket list.

Dear GG88, your comment about the TAJMAHAL tour from the sailing on Celebrity Constellation, starting from Mumbai and arriving in Muscat, is very interesting. Please, can you tell me which tour operator you hired ? Many thanks in advance !

I was on the Constellation last year and my friend did the Taj tour with Celebrity and I did it on my own after. It's only about a 3 hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Delhi.

Both of us had great experiences. She had great things to say about the tour. I would say I would have been sad to miss Cochin and Goa. New Mangalore wasn't that much of anything. If you can work it out, I'd suggest doing it on your own either before or after the cruise. If that is not possible, don't miss the opportunity to be that close to the Taj Mahal and not go see it.

Hi - I'm interested in using those two sea days between Oman and India (we are going eastbound in 2019) so I'd like details please. Please contact me using my gmail address and my cruise critic name so that is sbrayr located at gmail.

Thanks

Sharron

I agree with you Jim, doing it yourself is the way to go! It's a little work, but it's worth it!

 

I was on the same sailing as you and did something similar. We went to all four ports of call in India, but debarked the ship in Mumbai. We were picked up from the pier in Mumbai for a short, private tour of the city prior to being dropped off at the airport. From there, we flew to Delhi, where we were picked up for a private drive to Agra. We stayed in Agra for the night and went to the Taj Mahal at sunrise (which was definitely ideal - it was still cool and there weren't many tourists at all which made be excellent pictures). However, we didn't opt for the professional photographer - our private guide actually took a lot of pictures of us and since I'm sure he does it every day, the pictures were excellent! (Food for thought if anyone else is considering going because the photographer is reasonably expensive... but then again, the Taj Mahal is a 7 Wonder of the World!). Like Jim, we were able to go back to our hotel for breakfast and to refresh prior to going to the Agra Fort. At the end of the day, we went back to Delhi for the night.

The next day, we toured around the city of Delhi, which is quite an interesting city! We were brought back to the hotel late afternoon to refresh and then to check-out, and were then brought to the airport, where we flew to Muscat at night.

We spent that night in Muscat, and in the morning were picked up for a private tour of Muscat, prior to being dropped off at the port to reboard the ship.

I'm really glad that we visited the Taj Mahal in this fashion. Everything was private (private transportation, private tours, etc.), and we never felt rushed. As well, we were able to experience all ports in India, and only missed two sea days (oh well! I've had dozens and dozens of sea days before). The cost, similar to Jim, was about 1/3 of the Celebrity price.

 

Another alternative for anyone looking to add the Taj Mahal to their cruise experience.