kickballpro

Thank you...I am getting the feeling it may be our least favourite as well, but I want to at least say we were there rather than stay onboard.

Keep an open mind. We did have a great experience in France. I'll never forget the view from the church. I love my soap!!! Its just that Barcelona, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Sicily, Dubrovnik, Venice, etc.. are all so magnificant that it made France a little ho-hum in comparison.

Marseille was pretty incredible as well. Its just, if I have to rank the ports, its not AS amazing as the others.

We ate at Vieux Point? Not sure if its spelled right. But I can't recommend it.

I watched a Travel Channel show with Samantha Brown and figured out that the city is known for its nightlife, which I wasn't going to be there for and:

1. Soap (I bought several bars. Smells great, looks great, nice gift for a co-worker)

2. The Notre Dame Cathedral (Another European Church!! But this one has an amazing view)

3. Bouillabaisse (The Soup is famous in this town)

Marseille was my least favorite port. It has the most expensive shuttle and you get the feeling that they need to have tourist, but they aren't exactly happy you're there.

Is the main gate/city walls walkable from where the ship docks?

Its far. Don't know the distance, but its a few miles.

You might want to check if they even allow you. There were 2 ports in which you had to be in a bus or cab to leave the port. Salerno was one, don't remember if Dubrovnik was the other.

We plan on returning to Dubrovnik someday as a seperate vacation as we loved it so much, I don't want you to think that I disliked the city.

A European Cruise vacation is something we saved for 2 years for and still accumulated a large debt that we'll be paying for another 2 or 3 years. It was very expensive for my income level but it is something we have always wanted to do.

So, when we booked excursions, we took alot into consideration. For example, Dubrovnik was our shortest length of stay in port. We didn't feel we could get as good of value during a short stay in Croatia vs. 12 hours in Rome. Also, the port in Rome is quite a travel from the sites, in Dubrovnik its a short drive into a wonderful town. We wanted to go to both Pisa and Florence, not easy for DIY if you want to cover alot. Too much travel.

Don't take it as an insult that people call it a DIY port. Its DIY for its convience that it offers due to location. Its DIY for its stunning beauty by merely walking around. Its DIY because other ports are almost mandatory for excursions and some of us can't afford an excursion at every port. Its, DIY because on many itineraries its a shorter stop.

I came back with more souviners and more pictures from Dubrovnik than any other port. I loved it and we did it DIY. We left wanting more. Its a beautiful city. But don't think because we call it a DIY port means that its not a special place.

Dubrovnik, take the shuttle from port into town and it drops you off right in the Old town. Dubrovnik was my favorite stop on our trip. Beautiful city, clean, nice people, just amazing. Plenty to see and do from the Shuttle drop off. Enough to fill two days. Walking around the Old Town is 'the thing to do.' Its even an excursion, lol. There are places by the water in Old Town where you can get a 45 minute boat tour for REALLY cheap, you can take 500+ amazing photos on this boat. There is also a very affordable Bus Tour that awaits at the Shuttle stop.

Don't bother with a tour in Dubrovnik. Great DIY port.

Lol, after suffering and almost biting a couple of times, I can sit through a timeshare presentation and take my free stuff and walk out.

In fact, I can give a timeshare presentation. They are all exactly the same sales pitch.

"Do you realize that right now you are merely renting a vacation?"

"How would you like to own your vacation?"

The tour above this post sounds like a good deal to book in advance. One thing to consider is the more ships in port, the more difficult its going to be to get a bargain on the pier. You can haggle the price down alot, they will not pass up business over 20-30 bucks. But if there are large crowds, more than 1-2 ships, it may be more difficult.

Did you just get a taxi at the port when you arrived? Did you remember which company you toured with? This is what we want to do.

A little background, we paid for the excursion in Grand Cayman on the ship and it was really pricey. Right when we got off the ship we could have got the same excursion from a local guy for $125 less per person (Booked a $150 excursion that my Brother in law negotiated for $25 on the pier for his family). So I was a little dsigruntled at my decision making. So, I vowed, no more Carnival Excursions.

We get off the ship and just walked with no plans at all. We run into a rental car place right next to the place with all the cabs. We decide to rent a van, but then just for the fun, we get the rental car guy and the Cab in a bidding war. The Cab driver ended coming all the way down to $125. Which I can't remember who was cheaper, the rental still might of been cheaper. But we didn't know where to go or how hard it was going to be to park, etc... So we went with the van and paid the guy $125 and tipped him $25. The van driver spoke English very well, was proud to show off the island, and like I said, took us everywhere.

We were a party of 11 and paid $150 bucks for a van for 6 hours. And the dude took us everywhere. He took us shopping, to a beach, to a stadium, a church, a hospital, ruins, a new housing development, the projects, snorkling, and to a remote part of the island that is protected because of turtle breeding. There was a soccer game at a park between the Carnival staff and the RCI staff that was kinda cool. In the remote part of the island we took pics that looked like they were from a Corona commercial. Everytime we asked the guy to stop he did. We even went to a school and jumped out the van to check it out.

It was our first cruise, we went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. The first 2 places we booked excursions with Carnival, the last one I decided I was going to do a DIY tour. The family followed along and we had the best time ever!

Never booking an excursion again. The excursions were overpriced dissapointments.