NCL Shore Excursions

[YVRteacher]

What are some of your favourite and least favourite NCL shore excursions?

[Taishartrueblood]

Where are you referring to? NCL sails all over the world. 

[YVRteacher]

I know!

Just starting a conversation.

[complawyer]

actually,based on their costs, and the specific port, i'd rather get off the ship and hire a cab or just walk around, shop and/or take pictures.   the costs of some of these excursions are oftentimes outrageous. we've hired a cab in naples, rome, florence, marseiles, tenerife, and ive walked around cozumel, grand cayman, juneau etc. 

 

the most interesting ones, have been to pompeii,ephesus, and tulum, but i'm into seeing ancient ruins, and i anticipate i will take the ncl excursion for the seine river cruise in paris 

[complawyer]

i had to add this as you asked for least favorite. im a vietnam vet, and a couple of years back we were on the ncl star. one of the ports was saigon (even though its ho chi minh city) it will always be saigon to me. anyway, one of the shore excursions was to cu chi. i served there with the 25th infantry back in 1969-1970, and i wanted to show my wife and grandson where i was for a year.

 

important to note the tour guide was 42, this was 2016, and the war ended in 1975. he kept talking about the"american war" and how they could forgive but not forget. my 1st thought was what exactly was the "american war". at the end of the tour there was a 20 minute film kind of like a newsreel, but to me it seemed like a propaganda film for the viet cong. even m grandson walked out after 5 minutes. he was 17 at the time

 

well he wasnt even born when the war ended, so there was nothing for him to forget, and after pouring billions of dollars into the country how dare he say they wouldnt forgive. my point is as a vet, i couldnt have been more offended by this piece of s**t.

 

when we got back to the ship, i immediately went to the shore excursion desk, told them about this tour guide and calmly indicated that if i had a .45 with me, i probably would have blown his head off. and im a very peaceful person. sometimes, some people just rub you the wrong way

 

this was my worst shore excursion by far, and its probably the only one i can really b**ch about and we've been sailing with ncl since 2010

[YVRteacher]

Wow!  
How did they respond at the Shore Excursion desk?

[complawyer]

they were very glad and relieved that i wasnt carrying.  lol.

[YVRteacher]

I hope you got your money back!

[complawyer]

i wasnt even concerned about that, although we did get 50% back,and i didnt even ask for it. 

 

as an aside, one of the points on this particular excursion was a shooting range. you could shoot anything from an m16, a 50 caliber machine gun, even an ak47.

 

remember, my grandson at the time was 17. also note prior to being drafted in1968, i had never fired any type of weapon, after discharge in1970, to date i have never fired or lifted any type of weapon. i bought my grandson a clip, got him the m16, told him to put it on single shot, as automatic would have gone trough the clip instantly, and told him to go to town. this was a complete firing range. after he was done, i told him this was the one and only time in his life i was going to let him fire a weapon.

 

got  a great shot of him holding an m16 next to hid cheek

[Sailing12Away]

This one was a big hit in Florence. You got to check off the leaning tower of Pisa from your bucket list, then spend the afternoon eating and drinking until your belly was full. Pisa & a Taste of Tuscany

 

This was by far one of the best we did in Alaska. You got insanely close to the glacier, we saw so much wildlife I took nearly 1000 photos, and we got margarita's made from fresh ice fished out of the water. Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer

 

This one stunk - don't do it. We literally drove in circles for half the tour and had no time on our own beyond a 10min bathroom break. Monumental Lisbon

 

However, this one was really good. We just wish it was longer. Our guide was great, lots of hidden gems he took us to, custom tailored to what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go, it was a great short trip. Oporto by Tuk Tuk

[BirdTravels]

2 hours ago, YVRteacher said:

What are some of your favourite and least favourite NCL shore excursions?

I would second that the best tour is the Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer. Depending on the day, you'll get up close and personal with some of the Alaskan Natives,,, before having the closest encounter with the glacier (while the ship hangs back)

 

 

 

And our second favorite was Neets Bay Ber Watch

 

And Glacier Point Wilderness Safari

 

 

[The Shrike]

Least favorite:  City tour of Cartagena on the "Party Bus".  It was just loud and obnoxious.

 

Favorite:  tough to pick just one, but it was probably the river tour of St. Petersburg.

[BklynBorn47]

7 hours ago, complawyer said:

one of the shore excursions was to cu chi. i served there with the 25th infantry back in 1969-1970, and i wanted to show my wife and grandson where i was for a yea

Thank you for posting.  My husband was with the 168th Eng and 984th Land Clearing Engineers (Cu Chi, Dau Tieng, Tay Ninh) Sept 69-Aug70.  He won't travel there at all.  

[BklynBorn47]

My least favorite of all time was in Alicante, Spain in May - about 6 hours to Murcia.  One hour on a bus each way through uninteresting countryside to an OK city with a cathedral.  Should have explored the citadel in Alicante instead.  

[bookbabe]

Least favourite, the hotel beach day in Puerto Plata that we didn’t go on…we were in the Haven on the Encore, and the concierge wouldn’t let us book it, basically said (without actually saying it straight out) it was terrible and the place was a dump.  🙂  We loved the mudbug excursion we booked there instead.

 

I guess we’ve been lucky, we enjoyed the vast majority of the excursions we’ve booked over the years.  There’s been a few that we maybe wouldn’t do a second time, but I can’t remember any where we actually had to complain about it to the shore excursions folks afterwards.

[ColdCruise]

15 hours ago, BirdTravels said:

I would second that the best tour is the Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer. Depending on the day, you'll get up close and personal with some of the Alaskan Natives,,, before having the closest encounter with the glacier (while the ship hangs back)

 

 

 

And our second favorite was Neets Bay Ber Watch

 

And Glacier Point Wilderness Safari

 

 

Those were great excursions @BirdTravels!
May I ask what timeframe you made them? We did a northbound the 1st half of June in 2018 but the bears were mostly absent except fora DIY visit we did on a small plane …and saw 1 bear at quite a distance (Ranger said they were all gorging themselves on clams when he arrived so were sleeping it off - natch)

[genealogyfan]

On an Alaska Cruise, we really enjoyed the "In Alaska's Wildest Kitchen" at Icy Straight Point. A local woman showed us how to cook different recipes with local seafood. Being that Icy Straight Point is such a small place, you couldn't get a similar excursion with a private company and was worth it. I highly recommend it.

 

https://www.ncl.com/shore-excursions/ICY_01/In-Alaska-s-Wildest-Kitchen

[ColdCruise]

Worst excursion - whale watching in Madeira on Epic during this past December’s TA. They added the excursion while we were en route from Spain. We saw nothing cut the water. The distant coastline and very few (unidentified) birds. Oh Kay. That can happen since were not at SeaWorld. But what made it worse excursion  - the operator had “money back guarantee if no whales were sighted” plastered all over their shop where we were deposited by NCL. Afterwards I asked them about the guarantee and they said I’d get it back from the cruise line. Checked with NCL excursion desk and they seemed as if they never heard of that but would check. Never happened. I’d have been happy with a voucher for future use since I’ll definitely return to Madeira.

 

My best cruise excursions have been DIY and with MSC.
 

Still waiting for an NCL excursion to really deliver that “wow”  moment. Usually too overpriced and too many people like the 2 buses we experienced to Jerez for a mass sherry tasting  or the 3 buses for a wine tasting & Florence walking tour (only way to get off the bus & into Florence last year) 

[cafevita]

9 hours ago, bookbabe said:

Least favourite, the hotel beach day in Puerto Plata that we didn’t go on…we were in the Haven on the Encore, and the concierge wouldn’t let us book it, basically said (without actually saying it straight out) it was terrible and the place was a dump.  🙂  We loved the mudbug excursion we booked there instead.

 

I guess we’ve been lucky, we enjoyed the vast majority of the excursions we’ve booked over the years.  There’s been a few that we maybe wouldn’t do a second time, but I can’t remember any where we actually had to complain about it to the shore excursions folks afterwards.

Would you mind sharing the name of the hotel? I was looking at one for our November cruise, to the the “All inclusive Day Pass by Emotions” in Puerto plata. Anyone have any experience with this all inclusive beach hotel… through NCL?

[bookbabe]

1 hour ago, cafevita said:

Would you mind sharing the name of the hotel? I was looking at one for our November cruise, to the the “All inclusive Day Pass by Emotions” in Puerto plata. Anyone have any experience with this all inclusive beach hotel… through NCL?

That one wasn’t offered on our trip.  We had planned to do the Lifestyles Resort one, but that was cancelled because it was over the Xmas holidays, so we were going to book Coconut Cove instead.  It’s the Coconut Cove that our concierge warned us off of.

 

[ChiefMateJRK]

Besides being a cruiser, I'm also a railfan, so the White Pass and Yukon in Skagway will always be near the top of my list.  Fantastic scenery.  A lot of great Hawaii excursions as well.

[BirdTravels]

6 hours ago, ColdCruise said:

Those were great excursions @BirdTravels!
May I ask what timeframe you made them? We did a northbound the 1st half of June in 2018 but the bears were mostly absent except fora DIY visit we did on a small plane …and saw 1 bear at quite a distance (Ranger said they were all gorging themselves on clams when he arrived so were sleeping it off - natch)

The first few photos of whale and the golden colored bear were from a cruise on the Bliss in early June pre-pandemic. On that same cruise, we ran into a few more bears during shore excursions. We were sailing at the same time (early June) this year and did not see any bear.  

 

The bear chowing down at Neets Bay was on a Mid-/Late- August cruise when the salmon were running. Along with the adventure hike up to the face of the glacier. 

[ATXBecky]

We have two faves

 

"Good time girls and ghosts" in Skagway last Aug. A "Madam" is your walking tour guide. It was funny, entertaining and educational.

 

Our two days in St. Petersburg Aug 2019. The Russian tour company was fabulous, early entry to everything. Canal cruise, Catherines Palace, Ride on the subway, lunch, Cathedral of Spilled blood and the list goes on. Same guide and driver for both days.

[PATRLR]

On 7/16/2022 at 11:49 PM, Sailing12Away said:

This was by far one of the best we did in Alaska. You got insanely close to the glacier, we saw so much wildlife I took nearly 1000 photos, and we got margarita's made from fresh ice fished out of the water. Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer

I second the Tracy Arm excursion as the best I've ever been on.  Hands down the best.  And the funny thing is, probably the best non NCL excursion I ever did was the whale watch (Alaska Humpback Adventures) we did the morning of the Tracy Arm excursion.  It was a busy day, we were pretty beat, but, absolutely best day we've had at a cruise port.
 

On 7/17/2022 at 5:59 AM, The Shrike said:

Favorite:  tough to pick just one, but it was probably the river tour of St. Petersburg.

We were planning on summer 2021 to do a cruise that included St Petersburg.  Then Covid messed up all the scheduling and so we were looking at summer 2023.  And now we can't go there anymore.  Hopefully that situation resolves itself soon.

 

[PATRLR]

On 7/16/2022 at 10:58 PM, complawyer said:

i had to add this as you asked for least favorite. im a vietnam vet, and a couple of years back we were on the ncl star. one of the ports was saigon (even though its ho chi minh city) it will always be saigon to me. anyway, one of the shore excursions was to cu chi. i served there with the 25th infantry back in 1969-1970, and i wanted to show my wife and grandson where i was for a year.

 

important to note the tour guide was 42, this was 2016, and the war ended in 1975. he kept talking about the"american war" and how they could forgive but not forget. my 1st thought was what exactly was the "american war". at the end of the tour there was a 20 minute film kind of like a newsreel, but to me it seemed like a propaganda film for the viet cong. even m grandson walked out after 5 minutes. he was 17 at the time

 

well he wasnt even born when the war ended, so there was nothing for him to forget, and after pouring billions of dollars into the country how dare he say they wouldnt forgive. my point is as a vet, i couldnt have been more offended by this piece of s**t.

 

when we got back to the ship, i immediately went to the shore excursion desk, told them about this tour guide and calmly indicated that if i had a .45 with me, i probably would have blown his head off. and im a very peaceful person. sometimes, some people just rub you the wrong way

 

this was my worst shore excursion by far, and its probably the only one i can really b**ch about and we've been sailing with ncl since 2010

Thanks for sharing.  Having not served I can only imagine your state of mind. 

 

Your story did remind me of my father, a WWII Marine in the Pacific.  He had a really, really bad time dealing with going out to the Arizona Memorial and seeing all the Japanese tourists there too.  It really bothered him.  He knew it wasn't their fault, but, it still really bothered him.