On shore trips who to book with...........

[trumpet56]

Who do you book with the Cruise ship or on shore tour companies which is best .

Does any one know the answer?

We travel first July can anyone give some good advice.

:cool:

[Loving My Life]

Since you leave in 4 days, it is really late to just be thinking about excursions. You have most likely missed the window of opportunity to book independent tours in your ports of call, although you can go to the Ports of Call boards here on CC to find recommendations for each port. Even excursions booked through the ship can be full this close to sailing. I'd go to your booking on Celebrity.com and see what's still available. You could also wait until you get on board and go to the Excursion Desk, but again some may be sold out or have limited availability.

 

Other options are to get off at each port and just walk or shop at the pier, take a taxi (usually readily available at the pier) to the beach or sights, or hire a tour company right at the pier if there is something that interests you.

[Gonzo70]

I usually book most of my excursions with private vendors, but this involves some planning and I book several months out. This close to your cruise most likely the best private vendors will be fully booked, so you would have to settle for the leftovers. With such a short time frame, you are likely better off booking tours with the cruise ship, though you can search the Port of Call section of Cruise Critic for recommended vendors in your port and see if they happen to have anything available. In the future I'd encourage you to start researching excursions at least a few months out so you have ample time to find and secure a quality vendor. While the ship excursions are often good, a quality private vendor generally offers both a better price as well as a smaller, more personalized and often superior experience.

[TLCOhio]

Who do you book with the Cruise ship or on shore tour companies which is best .

Does any one know the answer?

We travel first July can anyone give some good advice.

:cool:

 

Time is very close, as noted, to do that type of planning which is normally done farther ahead. As you can see in the details below, we did some through the ship, but others privately. For the areas near the ports for Pisa, Rome and Naples, we had great success with Romeinlimo. You can Google them and find their website. Check out my postings below. Lots of great options in these areas. Especially in the Naples area, we loved this firm and their guide, Carmine.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

You can see all of the details and lots of visuals on our June 7-19 Solstice cruise from Barcelona that had stops in Villefranche, ports near Pisa and Rome, Naples, Kotor, Venice and Dubrovnik. Enjoyed great weather and a wonderful trip. Dozens of special pictures with key highlights, tips, comments, etc., plus much on wonderful Barcelona. These postings are now over 13,000 views for this live/blog re-cap on our first sailing with Celebrity. Don't be shy in asking any questions, making comments, etc. Check these postings and added info at:

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1426474

[epixx]

Who do you book with the Cruise ship or on shore tour companies which is best .

Does any one know the answer?

We travel first July can anyone give some good advice.

:cool:

 

It's not at all too late to do it yourself. Most of your ports, including Barcelona, Civitavecchia (Rome), Venice, Dubrovnik, and Naples, are really easy to explore on your own without a tour company. I can tell you this from my own experience. I don't know about Kotor or Provence, since I have never been to either of these ports. You can visit the Ports of Call section of this website for detailed information how to negotiate these ports by yourself and what to see at each location. Go for it!

[CathyCruises]

More importantly I would go immediately to the Roll Call for your cruise and see if any of your fellow shipmates have extra room on private tours they have booked!

[Lsimon]

There is no best answer. Most of the time we either book a private excursion or, if it is appropriate for the port, we book no excursion at all and just explore on our own on foot or by taxi or public transportation. But at some ports a ship's excursion is the best option. At most, but not all, ports you can hire a private tour from a tour company or a taxi driver right at the pier but this may or may not be a good option.

 

Private excursions or exploring on your own have the benefit that they are often either a lower cost or more flexible than traveling with a larger group.

 

Ship's excursions have the benefit that you don't need to do any advance preparation or research to determine what to do or where to go. They also offer the advantage that there is no risk the ship will leave without your group. If you are on a private excursion and return late the ship won't wait for you but they will wait for any ship's excursions to return if they are late. This is particularly comforting at places where the destination is a considerable distance from the port and/or where it would be impossible to catch up with the ship if you miss it (such as the last stop before an ocean crossing on a trans-atlantic cruise).

[trumpet56]

thanls for the info folks

 

as we've visited a lot of these citys before we'll do most our selves it was mostly Naples and the Amalfi coast.

 

but

Happy Days..:cool: