Excursions question, need honest answers

[bobcholmes]

First time ever posting, anyhow....my wife and I are booked on Royal Caribbean Mediterranean Venice cruise 15 May.

 

I decided some time ago to use only RCL excursions, and I need to know if there are some to be recommended/avoided on this cruise? Before someone here tells me to use privately arranged tours instead of the ones from RCL and their rationale - I appreciate the reasons (price, etc), but let me try and explain my reasons for not doing that. This is our first large ship cruise (mine with the U.S. Navy don't count since my wife, unfortunately, didn't get to participate). We've done the European river cruises (super, super trips), knocked around Europe on our own a few times (some, courtesy of the aforementioned USN), but this time, at our age (67 and 66) we want to do this with convenience our uppermost aim. I want to be told when to go, go where they want me to, let them tell me what they think I need to know when I'm there, a truely non-thinking trip as your might have surmised. Purely pleasure!

 

Any advice and recommendations you might have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Liz54]

You might get more feedback if you go to the Royal Caribbean Boards. Also the Roll call for your sailing. Good Luck - Hope you have a great cruise!

[English Teacher]

I agree with you, for what it's worth.

[riffatsea]

I have visited Venice on land vacations. I read the descriptions of the RCCL tours and the 2 that would be of interest are:

a-Masterpieces of Venice --which goes to 2 of my favorite places--the Frari Church and the Scuola Grande di San Rocco with the life work of Tintoretto on walls and celing.

b-Doges Palace,St Marks Square,glass showroom

The other tour that goes to Murano and Burano might be OK if you have already seen the above places.

 

[eandj]

Personally you can get all your wishes by joining a private tour with 6 or 8 others. Costs will be lower and you will surely get an experience that is 100% more fun and educational than being carted around on a tour bus.

 

We did the Med in Sept. and booked 3 private tours with others we met on the roll call for our cruise. The best decision we made. We saw MUCH more than the busloads did and planned our personalized tours ahead of time. The van will pick you up at the ship and drop you off. You'll have as much or as little walking as you want. A van can get you much closer to sites than buses can.

[MrsPete]

but this time, at our age (67 and 66) we want to do this with convenience our uppermost aim.

You asked for honest answers:

 

Respectfully, private excursions are much more convenient. They'll meet you at the port, take you in a private van to where ever you're going, and do whatever you'd like to do. If you want to stop at a restroom, they'll find one for you. If you see a little bar that looks interesting, just say the word and you can pop in for a beer. If you're just not as interested in one aspect of the tour, you can say, "Let's head on to the next stop." Or if you're loving a certain museum, you can decide to skip lunch so that you can have an extra hour in a place you may never visit again. For most private excursions, you're with a small group, perhaps 10-15.

 

On the other hand, if you go with the ship excursions, you'll be in a herd of people all following 1-2 lackluster ship employees who are stuck with this job for the day. They'll take you to your chosen destinations, and you'll have no chance to stop at any interesting places you might see along the way. You'll be forced to walk right by that interesting museum, that cute little boutique, that bench where you would've liked to rest a moment. But then you'll spend an hour and a half in some flea market of their choice. You'll go on their schedule, like it or not. You'll be one of a huge crowd, and you'll have few opportunities to ask questions of your tour guides.

 

I know that's not what you want to hear, but it is honest.

[138east]

I agree - you don't want to hear the answer, but private tours is where it's at. Hook up with some other CC'ers - you'll have a fantastic time with a more intimate group. I've been on enough big bus tours to be really turned off by them. Too much down time stopping at their preselected shopping spots and waiting for the hoard of people to get on and off the bus. Not only are they non-thinking tours, but they waste a lot of your valuable time and money. You're way too young to join the "senior" tour - take a risk!!!

[Fredr]

Hello,

 

You can easiy see Venice onyour own...buy a Vaporetto pass and off you go. You can geton and off as much as you want and yet see everything. Venice is very small so you need not purchase any excursions. Buy Rick Steve's bookon Venice or Italy.

 

What other ports are you visiting?

[EGG]

If you take an independent tour with one of the recommeded tour companies on this board you will get what you want.

 

"I want to be told when to go, go where they want me to, let them tell me what they think I need to know when I'm there, a truely non-thinking trip as your might have surmised. Purely pleasure!"

 

Find the roll call for your cruise and let people know that you are interested in joining a private tour that they are arranging. Then you don't have to worry about all the details. You may find people to share who are doing exactly what you want for a few of the ports. For the rest, take ships excursions.

 

Please remember that most of us who are active on these boards are here because we like to plan, plan, plan and find the best value for the dollar.

 

1-Go to your cruise line boards and print out all the excursions. Narrow your choice down to the one's you think you would like best.

 

2-Then go to the Cruise review boards. Find the reviews for your ship and any others from that line that goes to the same ports. Many people give detailed descriptions of their excursions, what the like and what they didn't like.

 

3-Go to the Ports of Call Boards, Find Europe and then Med. There are thousands of posts. You can do a search of a board by typing in a search word/words towards the upper right corner. If you can't find any information, ask. We love to answer. The more specific your question, the more specific the answer. So if you ask what excursion to take on a Med. cruise, most people don't know what ports you are going to or where to start. But if you ask "I am going to be in Naples and I would like more information about Excursion A and Excursion B. Which would you do?", you will probably get better answers.

 

Unfortunately, everytime you ask that question half the people will tell you to take an independent excursion. Take what you want and leave the rest.

 

Good luck and have fun planning. It makes my cruises last for months.

[sandm]

Please do not get discouraged by the responses so far. We have been on 2 Mediterranean RCCL cruises and have used both private and ship tours. We take my parents and in-laws who are all above 76 years old. We have found ship tours work better for us. Mrs Pete's description of the ship tours were exactly our private tours in Rome and Naples. They were both by HIGHLY recommended companies here on cc

 

Our private guides were lackluster, unorganized, late to pick us up after touring a site on our own, and one brought us back to the airport after our tour. We were supposed to be brought to the SHIP!

 

On ship tours the guide does not drive so offers information and conversation while driving to sites as well as at the site. It is paid for through the ship so no need to carry large sums of cash with you. Where many private tours require payment in cash. Our lunches, on ship tours, were provided so no thinking involved or worrying about how much it cost. (One private guide refused to take us for pizza for lunch but had a better place in mind where he "knew the owner" even though he got lost and we ate at a very late hour)

 

On our ship tours the guides or a site specific guide took us through places and offered tons of info and fun facts. This was all included in the cost. Private tours can connect you up with guides but again it is an extra cost mostly requiring cash.

 

Ship tours do in fact lead you and take care of details and this is exactly why they work for us. Just be sure to read the descriptions carefully when choosing. We have found they are very accurate. Only once did the tour not exactly fit the description and we were refunded for all 8 of us.

 

Our private tour companies told us it is at the discretion of each guide.