Karysa

Thank you eurocruiser for your thorough and detailed reply. We will be in Bologna and train to Ravenna and taxi to cruise port seemed like the best option when you factored in time and cost so I was looking for a possible glitch and wondered if that was going to be finding a taxi and basically you confirmed that. I will look for another option out of Bologna as I really don’t want to take a taxi, to take a train, to take a bus to take a boat! 😂 I’m sure that your post has helped a lot of people so again thank you very much.

How easy is it to find a taxi at the train station in Ravenna to take us to the cruise port? Celebrity has a transfer option but we would prefer to take a taxi if they are plentiful.

I think that some of your ports could be enjoyed in 1/2 a day. Look into the cable car in Dubrovnik. Kotor is beautiful and the town is lovely even for a short visit. You might find it more restful to sleep in and avoid the morning rush at the buffet and start your day a little later. I am not familiar with all of your ports but I would suggest that you skip just walking around in Messina and instead take a tour to Taormina as the ride and town are beautiful.

On 1/6/2024 at 10:58 AM, llarsen said:

Hi Karysa, We will be in Messina in September and like you, hoped to just do our own thing getting there and returning when we wanted. Transportation was a problem. 

I was wondering if you can share the name or link for the private tour operator with me?

Thank you!

We are using Shore Excursions Group. We are in Messina from 8-6 and chose the excursion that covers a tour in Castelmola, a visit to the open theatre and free time in Taormina. The tour lasts 7 hours. We have used this company in the past and have always been satisfied.

12 hours ago, Sageblue47 said:

We are going to be in port at Messina from 8am to 6pm. I think we will therefore have plenty of time to do a bus or train to Taormina. However, I’ve found a 5.5-hour transport excursion, which would make things easy, though more expensive ($50pp). My question is whether folks think ~3.5 hours in Taormina is sufficient to soak up the scenery, get a cannoli, and visit the teatro. I suppose we can always train back if we would like another hour, but I would appreciate your opinion if you’ve spent a half-day in Taormina. Thanks!

Yes 3.5 hours would be enough to see Taormina in the way that you described. I would suggest that over the bus or train due to the extra travel time. 

Thanks for the replies. I found a private operator that offered a longer excursion than those of the cruise company so I booked with them. The idea of the taxi was to make it a more go with the flow day but I gathered from reading the replies that the likely hood that it would end up being a carefree day was going to be slim so I decided to go with a tour. Thanks again for the help. I am really looking forward to the day now that it’s all set so that’s certainly worth something.

Thank you Hank,

I would honestly think that this is a perfect port for catching a taxi back and forth to Taormina as that seems like where many people go during their time in port. We are not interested in renting a car and would do a booked excursion with free time in Taormina first as we are looking for an easier DIY day without the need to find parking and a gas station to fill up before returning to port. 

Thanks for the replies. We have been to Taormina on a ship excursion in the past. We would rather just go via taxi. Getting off the ship and getting a taxi and not gathering in the theatre and marching to a bus basically just for transportation and having a set time to leave, are precisely the reasons that we would rather just taxi there and back on our own. I’m hoping that others who have done a DIY trip via taxi at a busy time of year will share their experiences.

We have many excursions booked for our June cruise and are looking to do a couple of DIY days. Would getting a taxi at the port in Messina to go to Taormina be easy? Would a return taxi from Taormina be something that we could get when we are ready to return? We really are hoping to just wing it for the day but would consider a booked excursion with free time in Taormina if getting transportation on the day would be problematic. We are not interested in taking a train or bus, just a taxi. Thanks for any help that you can offer.

Hi our port was changed since we booked the Celebrity Reflection back in September and I am scrambling to find a tour share that we can join. Please let me know if you are looking for 2 more for your tour. I have posted on the roll call board already but it was suggested that I post over here as well as not everyone on the sailing who is on cc joins the roll call. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

Does the VOS always dock in Pointe Seraphine when porting in St Lucia? I’m trying to arrange for a tour pick up and need to provide pick up/drop off location. Thanks 😊 

I’m having difficulty finding a non cruise-ship catamaran tour that includes Diamond Falls. We have done this at least twice in the past but can not seem to find one for our port day in March. Thanks for any suggestions.

1 hour ago, mom says said:

Op, you could also post your question on the Canadian  Cruisers forum. You may find the Insurance forum to be too US focused.

 

We have an annual travel policy, but previously have bought travel insurance from Manulife and through RBC, since we are clients.

Another great suggestion. Thank you 😊 

2 hours ago, lasekeye said:

We buy our travel ins from our home & vehicle ins. provider.  🇨🇦🇨🇦

Thank you for this suggestion. 

13 minutes ago, Janedoe2012 said:

CAA

Thank you so much. I have CAA. I will give them a call.

25 minutes ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Have you called your CC ? 

I booked on line and called Celebrity since I could not purchase insurance on line.

10 minutes ago, TeaBag said:

We booked through Celebrity and added their vacation protection plan.

Was this recently? I booked yesterday and could not book on line and today I called and was told that they only sell to US cruisers. Thanks

No that’s news to me. I figured it would be a cruise line by cruise line thing and that is why I posted here. We haven’t cruised since 2019 so I haven’t had to deal with getting insurance that would cover covid issues and just relied on are Credit card insurance.

Thank you very much for the information I will make my way over to the insurance forum. Have a lovely day.

Since purchasing travel insurance is not permitted through Celebrity by website or phone I was hoping that you would share the name of the company that you use. Many thanks in advance!

On 3/31/2022 at 8:49 AM, cruise questions said:

Thank you-this was my concern. We live at the beach so we are not really the type to spend hours on a beach but we really just wanted to see the planes. I was trying to figure out if worth the hassle of getting out to Maho with the crowds and people/traffic-or if we should just walk to the beach close to the port and hang out for an hour. Thank you for this info!

I think Maho is worth seeing especially when several large jets are coming and going.

If it’s very busy leaving Maho you can always just walk to the taxi stand about 5 minutes away by the Pharmacy on the Maho Entertainment strip. Walk past the Driftwood Boat Bar on Maho Beach and follow the sidewalk until you see the pharmacy across the street.

Me to. First trips post March 2020 were back in Nov 2021 and end of March/April. Lat cruise was Nov 2019 though and nothing booked yet.

My nephew is currently on a cruise so I thought that I would check the boards and see what’s going on. Pretty quiet still on the Ports of Call boards it seems.

I was at Le Galion on my last visit and it was still very, very quiet. No one on the beach. 

You could taxi to the Cul de Sac and take the ferry to Pinel Island. It only takes 5 minutes or so.

On 4/17/2022 at 3:21 PM, zackarykeef said:

Hi, all!

 

We will be in St. Maarten for a day on our cruise in July, and I was wondering if anyone has taking any private excursions or tours to either Anguilla or St. Bart’s for the day? I found some that say 9 hours, so just checking if anyone has actually done it. We are in port 8a-6p, so it’s a good amount of time. Have been to SXM before, so just trying to see some other ideas.

 

Thanks!

Many people have done Anguilla by ferry on a 10 Hour cruise day but booking a 9 hour non-cruiseship excursion would be risky in my opinion.

On 1/26/2020 at 10:26 PM, flowery said:

Thanks so much Karysa for your comments. Someone on the Celebrity board was just at Grand Case and really enjoyed the Rainbow Cafe. I had also considered Holland House for lunch but wouldn't swim there because of Great Bay pollution.

Is Grand Case still in recovery and not a good choice? Any lunch recommendations on the French side? I appreciate your help!!

We went to Rainbow Cafe in August and enjoyed it very much. Keep an eye out regarding the unrest on the French side. Looks like it should be ok until mid March at least. Hopefully when the talks restart things will go better. If you just want lunch on the French side the Tropicana at the Marina Royale is a good choice. I also think Orient Beach and the village their is recovering nicely.

Nice of them to make a reservation for you for the day that your cruise finally made it to St. Maarten.  They didn’t leave you hanging with nothing to do.