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Any reviews of Paris excursion


Jaylie
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We will be taking the Viking Paris to Normandy river cruise next year. We are trying to decide if we should add the Paris pre-excursion beforehand. Can someone give me information on that. Thanks.
Morning Jaylie,

Our names are Lisa and Gary LoneStarCruisinCouple and we are getting ready ourselves to leave for Paris September 19 -25. Cruising with Scenic and doing the Spectacular South of France with Paris and Monte Carlo.

We have made our own plans as we have been so lucky in using the Concierge Desk at our hotel and from the moment we arrive until we set out for our ship have a Full NonStop itinerary of this magnificent city of Romance and Lights.

The evening we are arriving doing a VIP Seine River Dancing Dining River Cruise, the next morning a Private Tour of Versailles and Giverny with a Country Lunch, later that evening dinner at Duorant. The next day a Private Limo City Tour with Light Lunch and including photo stops and also a stop at Brethilon, that evening dinner at Le Jules Verne top of the Eiffel Tower, the next day a Private Tour of the Louvre with coming back to the hotel in the afternoon to meet some of our friends that are flying in from Canada, that evening having dinner at Le Grand Colbert. The following day all four of us have a Private Grainer Opera House Tour with also a Tour Backstage which is very hard to get. Across the street is a huge department store the name I forgot but you can ride up the lift to the roof and get a view of the city. That evening Lisa and I have VIP tickets to the Dinner Show at the Moulin Rouge. The next day we have tickets to go to the Meuss D'Orsay and that evening we are having our Reception that is put on by Scenic as to find out what time to be at the train station to ride the TGV down to Dijon and our awaiting ship the Sapphire and our cabin the Royal Owners Suite.

Just a matter of trying to decide what you want to see and arranging with Jean Marc the Head Concierge at The Marriott Opera Ambassador.

Hoping this may help as everyone has different ideas but at least we shall get to see a lot but not all while we are there.

We just decided we would fly in early and do some sight seeing on our own.

Best Wishes

LoneStarCruisinCouple

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

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Paris is a very easy city to navigate independently, as is its mass transit system. We took a different approach than Gary and Lisa are, and did everything independently. We prefer the smaller, boutique hotels, and stayed only a few blocks from the Louvre. We planned what we wanted to see in advance, and purchased the Paris Museum Pass, 2 day card. We covered a LOT of ground in those two days! And, with the Museum Pass, you get to "skip" the lines at the Louvre.....that, itself, was worth the cost.

 

The two things we did which weren't included with the pass were 1) going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and 2) going to the Catacombs. We also climbed to the top of Notre Dame, and the Arc de Triomphe (both included with our pass)

 

Food isn't that important to us, so we just played it by ear, and asked our hotel for a good local restaurant. The highlight of our hotel, after walking endlessly for two straight days, was being able to reserve an hour of private time in their spa pool.....with jets, for the aching feet:-)

 

Gary, not to nitpick, but, do you realize the Jules Verne is on the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower, and not the very top? They do serve champagne at the top (which we enjoyed) but the restaurant isn't way up there!

 

To the OP, I think it all depends on how much of an independent traveler you are. We went only a month after one of the terrorist attacks, and never felt unsafe. The people there were very welcoming.

 

We really enjoyed Paris on our own.

 

Robin

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We will be taking the Viking Paris to Normandy river cruise next year. We are trying to decide if we should add the Paris pre-excursion beforehand. Can someone give me information on that. Thanks.

On the Paris pre-extension to the Swiss Alps cruise, there is an optional paid food walking tour of St. Germain. It was fabulous and by far the best excursion of any type the whole cruise. Wonderful guide took us into all kinds of small shops, many out of the way, to try an amazing variety of things.

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We haven't taken this Paris pre-cruise yet but we have it booked. I guess a couple of things come to mind about your question. First off, Viking uses different hotels for this stay. I don't know what criteria they use to choose who goes where so I can't help you there. It is only a minor difference but it could be the difference between being walking distance to the Eiffel Tower or walking distance to the Arch de Triumphe but not both. As far as excursions offered with the pre-cruise there is a free walking excursion on the second day and there is an optional tour that you are required to pay for. We found both excursions to be more of an interference with our own plans so we have opted not to take them.

 

The suggestion to buy museum passes is probably a good idea. You can also buy passes for the Paris transportation whether it be bus, metro or RER for a specific number of days. Since the pre-cruise offered by Viking is 3 days the obvious choice is a 3 day pass. Tickets to the different levels of the Eiffel Tower are also available in advance. One good website is the Paristouristinfo website and for Eiffel Tower tickets their own website. It saves a tremendous amount of time depending on what time of year and day of the week you are going to not have to stand in line and buy tickets. The Louvre alone can be 1+ hours as well as the Eiffel Tower. Pre-purchased tickets allow you to bypass these lines.

 

Sorry I can't help you more!

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Paris is a very easy city to navigate independently, as is its mass transit system. We took a different approach than Gary and Lisa are, and did everything independently. We prefer the smaller, boutique hotels, and stayed only a few blocks from the Louvre. We planned what we wanted to see in advance, and purchased the Paris Museum Pass, 2 day card. We covered a LOT of ground in those two days! And, with the Museum Pass, you get to "skip" the lines at the Louvre.....that, itself, was worth the cost.

 

To the OP, I think it all depends on how much of an independent traveler you are. We went only a month after one of the terrorist attacks, and never felt unsafe. The people there were very welcoming.

 

We really enjoyed Paris on our own.

 

Robin

 

I totally agree with Robin. We always choose DIY and prefer to choose our own hotels, locations and tours. Paris is very easy to explore on your own. We were in Paris in April prior to a Normandy cruise and spent 4 days in the city. We are not big fans of Paris and, in retrospect, wish we had opted to extend in Lyon instead and then just come in to meet the boat. We did two day trips out of the city and enjoyed those.

 

We generally use a guide for a specific tour or area we want to explore as we are not big on group tours and excursions.

 

If you prefer to have everything chosen for you and not have to make any decisions, then you might be better off to pay the premium and book the extension.

 

The one time (of 14 river cruises) we opted for the cruise line extension we did not like the hotel or the location. That was with Avalon years ago.

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We will be taking the Viking Paris to Normandy river cruise next year. We are trying to decide if we should add the Paris pre-excursion beforehand. Can someone give me information on that. Thanks.

 

Overall, some of very best tours have been on the extensions.

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We did the Paris/Normandy cruise in July and added the Paris extension before the cruise. We booked with Viking but planned our own itinerary. We purchased multi-day metro passes by mail several months ahead of our trip and made good use of the system throughout our stay. It is not pretty or air-conditioned but the Metro is amazingly efficient ... we rarely waited more than three minutes for any train ... and it is fairly intuitive to use.

 

Viking had us in a lovely boutique hotel near the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Ellysees ... Hotel Rochester. It was very nice and the location was convenient to the metro station. They had a nice breakfast room and the guest rooms were very nicely appointed.

 

We planned our own itinerary and other that an evening cabaret show we did not engage in any of the Viking offerings for the pre-extension. We have been to Paris before and covered the iconic landmarks so this trip we pretty much stayed off the "beaten track". We did a culinary walking tour through Monmartre, visited some of the smaller art museums (L'Orangerie, The Museum of Decorative Arts, and Musee Jacquemart-Andre) and did a Paris Picnic (loved, loved, loved this!). It was a lovely visit to the city and our relatively relaxed itinerary provided us with enough time to rest off the jet lag before we got to the ship.

 

It was a great extension!

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Viking's hotels and tours are usually okay (have not done a pre-extension but have done one where they provided the hotel and a city tour if you wanted it then were on your own until cruise-hotel was good with good breakfast but away from the big tourist area). However when we took the Normandy cruise we did a boutique hotel and our own thing and it was easy. The Paris Museum pass is a good deal as there are lines at most times of the year (we were there in December and actual French people visit their museums and sites too) that you can bypass. One thing: if you have not been to the Eiffel Tower, the lines can be long-2 hours or more to go to the top and 1 hour to go to level 2 on a winter weekend. Book that online before you leave unless you go on a tour. There are a lot of good boutique hotels that are near the train terminals and not that long a walk from the major tourist areas that are more fun than the bigger chain hotels.

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