Don't want to stuck in Cannes...

[sciguy07]

My ship "docks" in Cannes on Sat. Nov 28 at 7am. My first question is if I am not on a boat tour what time can I expect to get off my boat and onto the dock (please mention if your giving a long or short estimate). More importantly, I need to be back on the boat by 3pm (yes, that timeline DOES really suck). What do I have time to do? I really don't want to spend my time in Cannes and would love to visit Saint Paul de Vence and Èze. I know that there is a train to Nice and a bus to saint paul de vence but I would like to know if I will have time to take the train/bus. I have a pretty cheap father-in-law and sister-in-law that I have already convinced to do private excursions in three other ports so I don't think another one will fly. PLEASE HELP!:confused::eek:

[dfwguy62]

My ship "docks" in Cannes on Sat. Nov 28 at 7am. My first question is if I am not on a boat tour what time can I expect to get off my boat and onto the dock (please mention if your giving a long or short estimate). More importantly, I need to be back on the boat by 3pm (yes, that timeline DOES really suck). What do I have time to do? I really don't want to spend my time in Cannes and would love to visit Saint Paul de Vence and Èze. I know that there is a train to Nice and a bus to saint paul de vence but I would like to know if I will have time to take the train/bus. I have a pretty cheap father-in-law and sister-in-law that I have already convinced to do private excursions in three other ports so I don't think another one will fly. PLEASE HELP!:confused::eek:

 

I don't have the details you seek, but when I was in Cannes in July from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, I decided that with tendering and the short stay, I could not comfortably pull off the public transit option to St. Paul de Vence. It was just cutting it too close to be back in time. You may not be in the same situation, but our ship departed at 3:00, that meant we were supposed to be back on board by 2:30 and with tendering, you need to allow another 30 minutes or so just in case. I don't think public transit to St. Paul de Vence and back will allow you enough time to explore the location to make it worth the while. If you hire a tour guide/transport, you can do it. We chose to just stroll around Cannes for a while and relax since we had toured ourselves a ton in the other stops we hit on the cruise.

 

Keep reading the past posts on here (search on Cannes) and you'll find quite a bit of info on what it takes to pull off a trip to St. Paul de Vence via public transporation.

[eandj]

If your ship is scheduled to arrive at 7. If all goes well you'll be off the ship easily by 8. That would be the latest. Of course if the ship is smaller and there aren't many leaving early for ship excursions, you will be off earlier...closer to 7:30.

 

Personally unless you have a cab or private tour I wouldn't use the buses in your situation. Too little time. Do a forum search here for ideas and possibilities.

[Hlitner]

I would have a disagreement with the last post regarding getting ashore by 8 am. Keep in mind that Cannes is a tender port and most cruise lines (including NCL) generally give priority tendering to their own tours. This can often leave independent cruisers (always me) waiting in a lounge for anywhere from a few minutes to more than an hour. Much depends on tendering conditions and the efficiency of the specific ship. One most also consider that being back on the ship by 3pm usually means the last tender will leave the tender pier around 2:30 (sometimes as late as 2:45). As I have previously posted, it takes about 20 - 30 min to walk between the tender pier and the train station and finding a taxi for that short distance is never a certainty. We have consistantly recommended that anyone wanting to visit St Paul de Vence (one of our favorite places in the south of France) consider using the ship's tour if you are on this short port day schedule. Using public transportation (train to bus) does not make reasonable sense because of the early ships departure. Renting a car in Cannes (we often rent cars in France) is also not a great idea since you would need to drop the car by around 2 pm in order to ascertain getting back to your ship and we have known more than one person who got lost trying to navigate the one-way streets in Cannes in order to return their car. We do know this part of France very well (having spent weeks in this region) and would not even consider using public transit under these conditions. Personally, I think the planners at NCL should be "strung-up" for having such an idiotic short port day. Many things in France are not even functioning much before 10 AM and cutting things close in this port is not a wise decision since public transit can sometimes run late and the oft road traffic along the coast (and in Cannes) can frustate even the most experienced drivers. As much as we detest taking any cruise ship tour, in this situation it is the only reasonable option to get to St Paul de Vence.

 

Hank