Do we still get port maps? Shore excursion booklet?

[JessWright]

I was on the Zaandam in May (2022) for a 9-day cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to Montreal.  There were 2 duplicate binders with a listing of shore excursions for each port at the Shore Excursion Desk, but nothing more.  

[MAVIP]

20 hours ago, syesmar said:

That’s unfortunate. These talks often conflict with other activities and it was always nice to catch up at our convenience. I wonder if this is due to a staffing issue?

I recall the last time I sailed, in 2019, the first night’s EXC talk was not put on TV (a good number of passengers were still at dinner, too). There were a lot of passengers who complained and every EXC talk, port talk, etc., was aired thereafter.

I never go there any more as I prepare our visits carefully at home. But "before",  wasn't there a difference beteween Exc talks (Excursion company people) and port talks (Cruise director and/or assistants)?  Before Covid I already missed the very good assistants and the Cruise Director. In every port we saw them checking towns/connections etc. and they joined excursions too. I hope those functions will be re installed when the post Covid period calms down (and of course the financial position of companies and ships).

 

[Wayfairers]

18 hours ago, ontheweb said:

A map story from an Eastern Mediterranean cruise we did on HAL many years ago. When in Santorini, we got LOST. We stumbled upon a museum in a cave. We decided to go in. There was a tour and the guide gave it in English for us and in Greek for the other couple doing the tour.

 

After we were done, we showed the guide our map, and asked where we were on the map. He looked and laughed and said we were off the map. He asked if we had a car, and when we said no he unsuccessfully tried to get us a cab. He did then show us a shortcut back to where the map showed.

Some of the best finds are when you are lost and off the map!

[Wayfairers]

4 hours ago, MAVIP said:

I never go there any more as I prepare our visits carefully at home. But "before",  wasn't there a difference beteween Exc talks (Excursion company people) and port talks (Cruise director and/or assistants)?  Before Covid I already missed the very good assistants and the Cruise Director. In every port we saw them checking towns/connections etc. and they joined excursions too. I hope those functions will be re installed when the post Covid period calms down (and of course the financial position of companies and ships).

 

Oh yeah, I had forgotten…those port talks were fantastic!   

[Mary229]

18 minutes ago, Wayfairers said:

Oh yeah, I had forgotten…those port talks were fantastic!   

I think it is dependent on the Shorex manager.  I had little good to say about the manager on my last cruise but she really shone when giving port talks. She gave meaningful information about tours and independent options.   I truly wish they had offered the replay on TV .

[ontheweb]

1 hour ago, Wayfairers said:

Some of the best finds are when you are lost and off the map!

Yes, sometimes the serendipity factor kicks in and you discover something unique.

 

But still you should plan ahead.

[Btimmer]

We hardly ever relied on the old printed maps.  Now we extensively use an app POCKETEARTH which gives us detailed maps that we can download upon arrival at our destination and then we don't need cell phone or wifi access after we leave the ship (although we generally have cellphone access through our TM cell plan).  Tom's Port Guides are very good.  We also use another app GPSMYCITY which provides nice walking tours and maps and detailed information.

[syesmar]

9 hours ago, MAVIP said:

…But "before",  wasn't there a difference between Exc talks (Excursion company people) and port talks (Cruise director and/or assistants)?…

 

Yes. Usually the Port Talk was vital port information and the other was highlighting shore excursions.

In our case in 2019, though, the EXC talk was more of an enrichment talk serving as an introduction of sorts to Norway, rather than a shore excursion-selling talk.