Europe cruise October 2023

[travelfool123]

I'm cruising Europe in October 2023.  I noticed there are some excursions already listed on Carnival's website and a few  sold out!  I would think there would be more available as time goes on.  Someone told me I should wait 6 months to book excursions.  Any thoughts?  Also, anybody have favorites on these ports of call?

[nybumpkin]

I think it's way too early. We're sailing on Pride to Norway in June 2023 and there are no shore excursions listed yet. 

 

What are your ports of call?

[luv2trvlnow]

They are probably looking at the Italy, Greece, and Turkey cruise.  We are also on two in September and October.  Some of the ports have excursions listed already.  It looks like there are 2 or 3 that say they are sold out from the Naples port.  But they seem to be sold out for a more than 1 cruise.  In fact we go to Naples on each cruise and those excursions are sold out on both cruises.  I think they might not have a contract set up with a vendor yet.   It will probably sometime before those are available. 

 

I hope to arrange independent tours and not go on the cruise line ones.  I know I will probably end up with 3 or 4 cruise line ones out of the 13 ports.  Some ports require going a bit of distance to see things and might be best to use the cruise line.  But I still have lots of time to get things settled.  I have already arranged 2 private tours in 2 of the ports for just my husband and me.  They are a good deal and I haven't had to pay a deposit, so I want to make sure I have a good option.  Some of our ports have several ships there at the same time.  

[mar214]

We are sailing 10/8/2023 on Pride. For us, this cruise is replacing the other Mediterranean cruises we had canceled. We had a very active bunch of fellow cruisers for our May, 2020 cruise. My husband and I were leaders on a few non-ship excursions and there was an extensive spreadsheet posted and updated regularly. I don't see that this time around. I've been checking our roll call and haven't seen much posted there. Are there other 10/8/23 cruisers interested? Will someone start the spreadsheet and I will dig up what we had booked in 2020 to see if others are interested? (There was hours of research put into our efforts back then!!!) Also need to see if those tour companies are still in business, so additional research needs to be done. 

[travelfool123]

nybumpkin - Myknos, Ephesus, Turkey, Santorini, Athens, Kataklon, Messina, Naples.  I know it's early. I just want to be able to get what I want!  So excited.

 

[ninjacat123]

DH and I are on Pride 10/18/2023.  I just booked us on Best of the Amalfi Coast - Positano and Sorrento.  Pretty pricey but this excursion was highly recommended by a CC reviewer.  When it comes to a long day away from the ship at a distance, I want to be on a Carnival excursion just to be safe in getting back to the ship.

I am following a CC live review currently of my cruise itinerary.  I would love to hear what everyone is selecting for excursions!

 

[luv2trvlnow]

3 minutes ago, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I are on Pride 10/18/2023.  I just booked us on Best of the Amalfi Coast - Positano and Sorrento.  Pretty pricey but this excursion was highly recommended by a CC reviewer.  When it comes to a long day away from the ship at a distance, I want to be on a Carnival excursion just to be safe in getting back to the ship.

I am following a CC live review currently of my cruise itinerary.  I would love to hear what everyone is selecting for excursions!

 

We have also booked that same excursion on our October 8 cruise.  I feel the same way about doing a Carnival excursion when you are traveling a long distance away from port.  I have heard that the road on the Amalfi coast can get very crowded.  I read that earlier this year they were only let cars with car tags ending in an odd number on odd days and those with even on even day to cut down on the traffic jams.

 

I also want to get the excursions I want.  I don't want to miss out on something we really want to do.

 

I am following that same live review for any tips that will make our cruise better.  We had our cruise cancelled in October 2020 also.  Just got to keep on trying.

[luv2trvlnow]

3 hours ago, mar214 said:

We are sailing 10/8/2023 on Pride. For us, this cruise is replacing the other Mediterranean cruises we had canceled. We had a very active bunch of fellow cruisers for our May, 2020 cruise. My husband and I were leaders on a few non-ship excursions and there was an extensive spreadsheet posted and updated regularly. I don't see that this time around. I've been checking our roll call and haven't seen much posted there. Are there other 10/8/23 cruisers interested? Will someone start the spreadsheet and I will dig up what we had booked in 2020 to see if others are interested? (There was hours of research put into our efforts back then!!!) Also need to see if those tour companies are still in business, so additional research needs to be done. 

I don't even know how to do a spreadsheet online, so I would be no help.  I started the roll call for this cruise here on Cruise Critic, but so far it only has 8 views and no replies.  Even the site that shall not be named doesn't have much activity other than welcoming people.  Hopefully things will pick up as we get closer to the sail date.  I will be interested in what you had planned before.

[ninjacat123]

3 minutes ago, luv2trvlnow said:

I don't even know how to do a spreadsheet online, so I would be no help.  I started the roll call for this cruise here on Cruise Critic, but so far it only has 8 views and no replies.  Even the site that shall not be named doesn't have much activity other than welcoming people.  Hopefully things will pick up as we get closer to the sail date.  I will be interested in what you had planned before.

Me too!!😃

[mar214]

I'll dig out what we had planned for May 2020 and I'll be sure to report back. I'll need a little bit of time since I work full time, but stay tuned!

[travelfool123]

I feel the same way about not missing out on getting the excursions I want. Only 1 is listed for Athens on Carnival's website right now.  I would think that will change.

[luv2trvlnow]

15 minutes ago, travelfool123 said:

I feel the same way about not missing out on getting the excursions I want. Only 1 is listed for Athens on Carnival's website right now.  I would think that will change.

Which October cruise are you on?  I am on the October 8, 2023 cruise and I have 14 different excursions listed but 2 of them are listed as sold out.  Of course 1 of the sold out ones doesn't make any sense.  It's title is "Athens & the Acropolis with airport transfer".  But no one on this cruise would need a transfer to the airport.  This is not a embarkation or debarkation port.

[Old Fart Cruisers]

On 9/18/2022 at 5:10 PM, travelfool123 said:

I'm cruising Europe in October 2023.  I noticed there are some excursions already listed on Carnival's website and a few  sold out!  I would think there would be more available as time goes on.  Someone told me I should wait 6 months to book excursions.  Any thoughts?  Also, anybody have favorites on these ports of call?

 

Carnival uses "sold out" instead of unavailable at times.   For one thing it creates a sense of urgency book the other excursions before they sell out. The sold out excursions often become available as it get closer to the cruise.

[travelfool123]

I'm on the October 18 cruise.  They had only 1 Athens excursion and it was sold out.  I know that can't be the only exercusion.  

 

[ninjacat123]

31 minutes ago, travelfool123 said:

I'm on the October 18 cruise.  They had only 1 Athens excursion and it was sold out.  I know that can't be the only exercusion.  

 

Right now it's just the mobility challenged excursion.  I bet more will show up soon!

[scott_gallant]

On 9/19/2022 at 1:30 PM, ninjacat123 said:

DH and I are on Pride 10/18/2023.  I just booked us on Best of the Amalfi Coast - Positano and Sorrento.  Pretty pricey but this excursion was highly recommended by a CC reviewer.  When it comes to a long day away from the ship at a distance, I want to be on a Carnival excursion just to be safe in getting back to the ship.

I am following a CC live review currently of my cruise itinerary.  I would love to hear what everyone is selecting for excursions!

 

Hi @ninjacat123! Doing this cruise in September, followed along on your cruise last year! I continue to be tormented on which excursion to book for Naples. I'm strongly considering the one you mention in this post...I know you didn't get to do it due to the water portion being cancelled, but wondering if you recall which CC reviewer posted about it? Would love to read their take on it!

[ninjacat123]

14 minutes ago, scott_gallant said:

Hi @ninjacat123! Doing this cruise in September, followed along on your cruise last year! I continue to be tormented on which excursion to book for Naples. I'm strongly considering the one you mention in this post...I know you didn't get to do it due to the water portion being cancelled, but wondering if you recall which CC reviewer posted about it? Would love to read their take on it!

I don't remember her name, think she was on the Italy Port of Call Boards from at least three years ago, maybe longer.  My thoughts are to book a car tour through another company independent of Carnival that doesn't include time on the ocean. I looked at italytours.eu and they had good reviews.  We had great success with the tours we booked through TripAdvisor.at the other ports. I'm glad you followed along on our trip, it was sooo much fun!!  Good luck with your planning!!

[jimbo5544]

15 hours ago, scott_gallant said:

Hi @ninjacat123! Doing this cruise in September, followed along on your cruise last year! I continue to be tormented on which excursion to book for Naples. I'm strongly considering the one you mention in this post...I know you didn't get to do it due to the water portion being cancelled, but wondering if you recall which CC reviewer posted about it? Would love to read their take on it!

Not sure I understand the specifics tied to your question.  We used a private service (trying to find the name) that was really flexible with us as a small group (5, and I am sure they would do any size) that we had with someone who was mobility challenged.  If interesed, I can try and dig further.