Help- ship's tours med 14 day

[CLEMM]

Hi all! My dh and I will be taking the 14 day med cruise in October on Millennium. We weighed taking private tours but since we are novices in both cruising and the Med we opted for the ship's tours. Any tips or tricks about making these as problem free as possible? Please don't tell me I made a mistake as my mind is made up and I simply can't be up worrying anymore that I made a mistake. Any advice or anything that you have first hand experience with would be helpful. Thanks!

[hcat]

I do not think you made a mistake..We always take ships excursion & have signed up for one in almost every port for our Sept medit trip on Century--less hurry & worry. Have never had a bad tour yet! We usually get to the departure lounge or meeting place as early as possible so we can locate in front of the bus near the tour guide & get a good window for taking photos. We stay with the group & ignore anyone who is annoying/stragling/complaining--do not let them ruin your day! Also take a bottle of water & small snack (crackers) to tide you over in case there are delays.. have a great trip-what are your ports & what excrusions have you picked out?

[CLEMM]

Thanks hcat! We have picked the most basic excursions that will take us to the tourist spots. Since this our first trip to Europe we did not want to miss the basics. Vatican, Colisseum, Acropolis, Leaning Tower, etc. In light of what is currently going on on the Millennium, I'm glad we elected the ship's tours. I know in most cases you don't have to prepay for private tours, and I'm sure(I hope) travel insurance will cover any losses, still I'm happy we won't have to worry about that. I appreciate the tips. I work in the public sector so am used to annoying people. I learned long ago how to tune them out!

[emcee207]

Summit to the med. Another excellent source of info re: tours in Europe is on the Europe section of the "Ports of Call" on these boards. Fantastic info here.

[Rev22:17]

CLEMM,

 

Hi all! My dh and I will be taking the 14 day med cruise in October on Millennium. We weighed taking private tours but since we are novices in both cruising and the Med we opted for the ship's tours. Any tips or tricks about making these as problem free as possible? Please don't tell me I made a mistake as my mind is made up and I simply can't be up worrying anymore that I made a mistake. Any advice or anything that you have first hand experience with would be helpful. Thanks!

 

No, you are not making a mistake at all. The ship's tours offer the best "bang for the buck" in terms of seeing as many of the major attractions as possible in a day in your ports of call. If you want to see the attractions, take the tours that actually visit the attractions rather than the "... on Your Own" tours, which really provide only transportation to and from a destination city that's some distance from the port of call.

 

The only other advice I have is to show up on the early side for your tours. They say to meet ten minutes before the specified departure time, but fifteen minutes before the specified departure time is better. You may find that you have to go to the end of the pier or whatever to get to your tour's meeting spot, in which case you'll need the extra cushion, in some of the ports of call.

 

Norm.