Europe cruise tour feedback?

[knbcruisers]

I have searched but I can’t find any reviews or detailed information about the Europe cruise tours.  I am considering a 6 day precruise land tour in Italy.  I am wondering if anyone can provide details on the kinds of hotels—are they in the city center or in the outer areas? Was there enough time to do your own sightseeing? How large was the group? Quality of the included meals? Quality of the included sightseeing?  The Princess tour is very tempting, 2 nights Venice, 2 nights Florence, and 2 nights  Rome before the 11 day Rome-Southampton inaugural on the Enchanted.   But it is pricey and I wonder if I am better off doing something like this on our own?   Any insight is much appreciated!!

 

[claudiniusmaximus]

I’ve never done a land tour but it does sound like a wonderful intinerary. Out of the three, my favourite is Florence. 

 

2 nights in each place will only give you one full day in each place so can’t imagine tonnes of time to sightsee on your own but probably a half day/evening. I’ve booked a pre-and-post cruise package with princess (not a tour) and they only use very good hotels in central locations. 

 

You can almost definitely do it cheaper by catching the train, booking cheaper hotels and local tour guides (driving into Italian cities isn’t recommended because of odd locations with city taxes etc according to the TripAdvisor road trip forum) But the deals they had on the five star hotels were amazing for us we couldn’t have got that quality at that price. 

 

Am sure someone with better info will be along later.