Worried about not using ship sponsored tours

[jrewing007]

I know this has probably been asked on numerous occasions but I have not found a thread on it yet. My wife and I will be on a 12 night departing from Barcelona, Spain; Nice (Villefranche), France; Florence, Italy; Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy; Naples, Italy; Kotor, Montenegro; Venice, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Barcelona, Spain. We are really scared that we will miss the ship if we venture out and do it ourselves or use an outside tour company. We have done done it ourselves before but have heard about train strikes in Europe and were wondering if anyone could shed some light on their experiences on DIY excursions as apposed to the "safe" way of paying the inflated prices provided by the cruise ships. Thanks :)

[paul929207]

First, you are not obligated to do things on your own. If you are really uncomfortable, stick with the ship tours.

 

We have taken private tours all over the world and never had a problem getting back to the ship on time.

[CathyCruises]

Well, you've come to the right place. You will find that most of us on this board are die-hard DIYers; and not one of us has ever been left behind as far as I know. Most of us advocate doing a lot of research beforehand, and then using public transportation to get to our chosen places of interest.

 

For instance, there are step-by-step instructions on how to take the train into Rome and what route to follow when you get there; how to take the train to Florence and Pisa; how to take the train to Pompeii or Herculaneum, etc.

 

So if you decide what you'd like to see in these ports, someone here will be able to tell you exactly how to do it, and how NOT to miss the boat, so to speak!

 

You can see and do many things with your port day, and IMO have a much more authentic experience actually on the streets eating and drinking with the locals, if you DIY, rather than waving to the Colosseum as you pass by in a 50 seat bus!

[CACruzrs]

I know this has probably been asked on numerous occasions but I have not found a thread on it yet. My wife and I will be on a 12 night departing from Barcelona, Spain; Nice (Villefranche), France; Florence, Italy; Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy; Naples, Italy; Kotor, Montenegro; Venice, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Barcelona, Spain. We are really scared that we will miss the ship if we venture out and do it ourselves or use an outside tour company. We have done done it ourselves before but have heard about train strikes in Europe and were wondering if anyone could shed some light on their experiences on DIY excursions as apposed to the "safe" way of paying the inflated prices provided by the cruise ships. Thanks :)

 

Whenever possible, we do DIY excursions because we want more control of when and where we go and don't want to be constrained to somebody else's schedule priorities; i.e., you can only move as fast as the slowest one in the group. However, we do a lot of advance research and carry a daily folder in our backpack that contains our planned itinerary for the day, local maps, admission prices, schedules, etc. We make extensive use of public transportation, but also do a lot of walking.

 

We were at some of the same ports as you mentioned above in 2008, and plan to return for a similar cruise in July of this year. If you're interested in what we did in the Med in 2008, scroll through our (long) review in several posts at the link below.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=872740

[epixx]

It sounds like you'd be much better off going on the ship's tours. I doubt that you'll enjoy private or DIY if you're constantly worried about missing the ship.

 

We've done all 3, and, if we have a reasonable choice, we prefer DIY, but we never worry about missing the ship. We have plan B to return to the ship in case of accidents, strikes, misdirection, etc. We also have plan C to get to the next port, if necessary.

 

Take the ship's tours. If you return for another trip and can go without worrying, then try DIY or private tours.

[KirkNC]

We are 90% DIYers but just based on the phrasing of your question I would recommend you stay with the ships tours. Maybe you could pick a couple of the easier DIY ports and give those a try on your own which would give you confidence on your next cruise. Depending on what you want to see, you have several easy DIY ports, Barcelona, Naples and Venice to name a few.

[rdtsmith1234]

Or another option, do a half day tour and keep the afternoon for staying around the port area. Sometimes there can be sightseeing or shopping done nearby...save that for later..or plan to get back to the ship four hours before it sails.

 

I have had one friend left behind...coming from Pompeii actually..they got stuck in a huge traffic jam and didn't make it. Luckily they had the ships daily bulletin with them where they could call and make arrangements to meet the ship at its next port...at their own expense of course.

[kat1007]

We do DIY excursions on most of our cruise holidays the only place we have ever paid for a ship excursion is to Rome on our very first cruise in 1994, we had two young children then and we thought it was too complicated to sort it out ourselves. We went DIY in St Petersburg and we have done DIY in Central America both places which can be quite daunting but we had no problems. Only you can decide if you would be comfortable going it alone, with us it's not just about the money we save but also we are both keen photographers and we prefer to move at our own pace rather than fit in the dynamics of a group tour. ;)

[jrewing007]

Maybe I should rephrase my statement about being "scared" of missing the ship. We are both seasoned travelers and have taken 7 cruises together. My wife came across some websites, not cruise critic, which had mentioned cruisers missing thier ships because of strikes in and around Europe. So I thought I'd see if anyone knew of this happening so as to ease our minds when we leave in May. I believe you guys to be a wealth of knowledge so I trust you guys the most. We love DIY just don't know about the reliabilty of transportation in the mediterranean or in and around Europe in general .We are frugal and adventurous, just want to do our homework!

[cruisemom42]

Maybe I should rephrase my statement about being "scared" of missing the ship. We are both seasoned travelers and have taken 7 cruises together. My wife came across some websites, not cruise critic, which had mentioned cruisers missing thier ships because of strikes in and around Europe. So I thought I'd see if anyone knew of this happening so as to ease our minds when we leave in May. I believe you guys to be a wealth of knowledge so I trust you guys the most. We love DIY just don't know about the reliabilty of transportation in the mediterranean or in and around Europe in general .We are frugal and adventurous, just want to do our homework!

 

Transportation in Europe is very reliable, as much or more so than anywhere else.

 

Despite what some mythologizers like to say, strikes are relatively uncommon and are generally known in advance -- in Italy, but also in Greece, for example.

 

Here on these boards, we often have posters who will make others aware of upcoming strikes, and there are places to look for this info more comprehensively online.

 

Other than that, as long as you have planned out a reasonable day (not overly ambitious) and have thought about contingencies, you should be fine.

 

I love to DIY and have been on 6 Med cruises along with numerous land trips to various Mediterranean countries. I'm sure it will happen someday, but so far, knock on wood, I have not encountered ANY serious issue with taking public transportation, whether its the trains in Italy, the metro in Athens or the trams in Istanbul.

[ConnieInNewJersey]

The only "concern" I would have to consider the ships tours would be in Florence and Rome. The ports are far away and Rome traffic ( from experience) is very bad.

 

Otherwise if I were you I would do a private tour or do public transportation and start out at the site farthest from the port and work your way closer and closer to the port so you are pretty close to the ship about two hours before the ship leaves. And don't worrry about possible strikes. :)

[D4]

There are other options. You can arrange private tours in advance. You can often find people on your roll call to share the cost. Those cost a lot more than DIY, but usually a lot less than ship tours. This is a great middle ground for people that don't want to ride the public transportation (either because they don't want to have to navigate it or because they don't want to worry about pickpockets on packed buses/trains.) Those companies usually have preset tours but you can alter them depending on your interests. The benefits are that you leave the driving/navigating up to the driver, you get dropped off and picked up at convenient spots, and you should have comfortable a/c. When doing this, I recommend using private companies that have a great reputation here on CC.

 

We often do a modified DIY where we hire a taxi driver at the port; sometimes just to get someplace (such as the Parthenon in Athens) and we'll take a different taxi back. Or sometimes we get a taxi to takes us somewhere and wait for us (such as Pompeii from Naples.) So we're paying more than it costs to take public transportation and less than ship tours but we are still on our own to figure out the rest. When we do this, we often find another couple getting off the ship to share the cost of the taxi, at least one way.

 

Part of the reason we use that approach is because DH has walking issues. He can't walk a lot or hurry fast such as to get on/off a bus/train quickly.

 

But I agree with the others. If you will worry a lot about missing the ship, then relax and take the ship tours. You can also use different approaches at different ports.

[Loonbeam]

This is our approach as well. We use the roll call to help manage costs and always plan to arrive at the ship earlier than we need to. Knock on silicon, haven't had a problem yet with getting back to the ship with time to spare.

 

A reputable private tour company will monitor local conditions and adjust accordingly. For example, when we did Naples, we were supposed to do Pompeii first but our driver suggested we revise our schedule to take advantage of changes in traffic and it worked out better.

 

There are other options. You can arrange private tours in advance. You can often find people on your roll call to share the cost. Those cost a lot more than DIY, but usually a lot less than ship tours. This is a great middle ground for people that don't want to ride the public transportation (either because they don't want to have to navigate it or because they don't want to worry about pickpockets on packed buses/trains.) Those companies usually have preset tours but you can alter them depending on your interests. The benefits are that you leave the driving/navigating up to the driver, you get dropped off and picked up at convenient spots, and you should have comfortable a/c. When doing this, I recommend using private companies that have a great reputation here on CC.

 

We often do a modified DIY where we hire a taxi driver at the port; sometimes just to get someplace (such as the Parthenon in Athens) and we'll take a different taxi back. Or sometimes we get a taxi to takes us somewhere and wait for us (such as Pompeii from Naples.) So we're paying more than it costs to take public transportation and less than ship tours but we are still on our own to figure out the rest. When we do this, we often find another couple getting off the ship to share the cost of the taxi, at least one way.

 

Part of the reason we use that approach is because DH has walking issues. He can't walk a lot or hurry fast such as to get on/off a bus/train quickly.

 

But I agree with the others. If you will worry a lot about missing the ship, then relax and take the ship tours. You can also use different approaches at different ports.

[mskaufman]

As an earlier poster mentioned many on this board are die-hard DIY'ers. I tend to do a mix of DIY and ship tour. It really depends on what I want to do at a port and how well the ship tour matches and how much of a premium there is to book the ship's tour. Last year we were on Liberty of the Seas and overlapped with about half of your ports. Just leave yourself plenty of time to get back. I do have to say that Royal C. was tremendously organized in their tours. Each tour had a meeting place on the boat, they left on time and we always had a good guide. There is no place that we took a ship's tour that I could not recommend the tour. Based on my research we probably paid 10 - 15% more than if I booked a tour through a private company and even more than if we did it totally on our own (with MP3 files that we downloaded from the Internet).

 

We took ship tours on places that we may never get to again and did not want to take a chance that we made a mistake in our travel directions and didn't get what we wanted to see. That was more of a concern than getting back to the ship.

 

If there are any specific tours for which you would like a review, just let me know.

[John Bull]

At well over 90% of ports we're happy to DIY, without even a guide. All that's needed is common sense - which includes confirming back-on-board time, allowing for the rare occasions when ship's time is different to local time (using a watch rather than phone or local clocks), avoiding excessive alcohol, allowing time for unexpected delays (& starting at the furthest point first & working back to the ship), & having a Plan B plus reserve cash, such as hailing a cab (which excludes using island ferries late in the day cos there isn't a Plan B) Sounds like a lot to think about, but its all just plain common sense.

Have had travel plans affected by strikes a couple of times, but like other posters' experiences these weren't called partway through the day. For instance a general strike in Athens was called with 24 hrs notice so we booked over-priced ship's transfers.

 

If you're seriously concerned about missing-the-boat, nothing any of us say will convince you otherwise.

But how about you choose to DIY one port on your up-coming cruise. Make it one where the sights aren't miles away. And where the next port is easy to reach if you foul-up - because of your concern I'm sure you won't foul-up but it'll give you peace of mind.

 

JB :)

[jrewing007]

Trust me we have done it DIY style the majority of the time. I have enjoyed reading all the responses and feel alot more confident about the public transportation being reliable in Europe. That was really my concern all along. Thanks to all who have replied so far. If anyone has any tips on the ports we will be stopping at it would be greatly appreciated. The people here on cruise critic are the best!

[rdtsmith1234]

We live in Europe and travel often. There are a slew of websites and Twitter feeds that announce strikes ahead of time. I can't think of a single strike that wasn't announced before it happened.. If you need help finding those resources, let me know.

 

I once had to cancel a trip cause of an airport strike in Venice (I couldn't react fast enough as they announced it the day before and it was before I knew to check) and another time almost got stranded in Spain because of an Air Iberia strike. Luckily I knew that the first flight of the day would not be cancelled as per the airlines website, and that's the one we were booked on.

[MasterNotCommander]

Of the ports that I know and remember:

 

Nice

Direct trains into either Nice or Monaco from very close to the tender pier, only 10 minutes either direction.

 

Civitavecchia

About 10 minutes walk from the port entrance there is a train directly to Rome, plenty of info on here, plenty of taxis, about an hour if I recall correctly.

 

Naples

Your in the middle of naples, easy to get taxis to the local attractions.

 

Venice

Very easy to get into town.

 

Dubrovnik

Shuttle busses to the old town, or its a 30 minute walk if your fit and healthy.

 

Barcelona

Shuttle buses/taxis to the city, but its also only a 30 minute walk across the bridge to La Ramblas.

[Eurosalt]

I know this has probably been asked on numerous occasions but I have not found a thread on it yet. My wife and I will be on a 12 night departing from Barcelona, Spain; Nice (Villefranche), France; Florence, Italy; Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy; Naples, Italy; Kotor, Montenegro; Venice, Italy; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Barcelona, Spain. We are really scared that we will miss the ship if we venture out and do it ourselves or use an outside tour company. We have done done it ourselves before but have heard about train strikes in Europe and were wondering if anyone could shed some light on their experiences on DIY excursions as apposed to the "safe" way of paying the inflated prices provided by the cruise ships. Thanks :)

 

I have been a do it yourselfer for years with trains throughout Europe. However, this past year I had the restriction of getting back to a boat on time. After doing some research before we went on our 12 night Mediterranean cruise, I discovered the port locations would make DIY more challenging than my previous rail trips. However, do not panic. I had been using Rick Steve's guides for years. I was saved. Rick has a Mediterranean cruise ports guide out and a Baltics port guide coming out this spring. The med book was great. He outlines the ports you can easily do yourself or the ones you should take a ship excursion from. We DIY in Naples (Capri), Venice, Dubrovnik, La Spezia, and Corsica. We took ship excursions from Rome and Toulon.

 

Enjoy you cruise.

[MADflyer]

If there was anything that might affect transportation or tour operations the ship has a local agent in every port and they have daily contact with the ship concerning any possible issues in any given port. If you are aware and do proper planning you will never have a problem. Even your DIY tour company would want a good relationship with this local agent.

 

Your concern is realistic as ships do pay by the minute when they exceed their scheduled departure time in most ports. They have the issue of port movements keeping schedule and the hours of the pilots that must board ships to guide it out to sea.

 

As mentioned, Rome is the highest risk. I had 2 members of my group lost on a MSC "ship sponsored" shore excursion. When dealing with this issue onboard they told me that with MSC that each passenger was given a paper on the seat of the bus that stated that the line was not responsible for anyone missing the ship. They were given a telephone number to call to the ships agent in the port. They had done this and were in a taxi on the way to the port when we sailed. The agent put them on a train from Civitavecchia to Genoa and we met them in the morning and the ship had packed their bags and delivered them to the terminal when we disembarked.

 

On this particular sailing there were about 14 passengers not onboard when we sailed 15 minutes late. The MSC reception indicated this is not unusual for Rome and their line.

 

Strikes in Spain and Italy are required to be announced as mentioned here. I think unions in France are the only ones that can still call a last minute strike legally, but am not sure of this. I just remember many stranded travelers here in Switzerland last year when there was a sudden train strike. Things such as fires in train tunnels and the like do occur and are usually handled fairly well with buses being put in.

 

I even had Trenitalia have me get off a high speed train in the middle of nowhere last year with about 20 others at least as it could not get into Milan on the planned route due to incident, but we were literally just waiting on the side of the tracks. About 20 minutes later a substitute train arrived and took just us to our station that we needed that was outside Milan and near Malpensa airport. Strange experience, but I made my flight.

 

I do not have current experience with France, but got stuck in Paris overnight one time in 1989, but they arranged a train for the ship passengers to get back to Le Havre in the morning and we were maybe 80 passengers and staff stranded in the station overnight. This fortunately was an overnight and was not an issue. The ship was aware of the incident as their agent had informed them. With technology today this information would flow almost immediately to the ship.

 

Higher end cruise lines always have a representative of the ship on each ship sponsored excursion as well, traditionally.

[NavyVeteran]

I also mix DIY, third-party tours, and ship's tours. My wife walks slowly, so sometimes she has trouble keeping up with a large tour. We went to Ephesus on a third-party tour (4 people with 1 guide) and walked at our own pace - watching the ship's groups hurry past us.

 

If I'm going a long distance from the ship or planning to be gone almost until departure, I will take a ship's tour. If I'm going to be in the local area and I'm planning to get back several hours before departure, then other options are usually best.

 

On Princess in Rome, I plan to take a ship's tour train to Rome and back with the time in Rome (5 1/2 or 6 1/2 hours on the cruise I have booked) on my own. Although it may be more expensive than booking a train on my own, I don't have to worry about how to book it, and I only have to worry about getting back to the train station in Rome on time - I don't have to worry about any delays on the train back.

 

Another thing to look at when making a decision is the location of your next port. If you miss the ship in Naples and the ship will be in Rome the next day, you only have to worry about a train ride and a hotel for one night (an inconvenience but manageable). If you miss the ship in the last European port on a trans-Atlantic repositioning cruise, you have a real problem.

[Got2Cruise]

I hear ya on the train strike thing. I had the same obsession, right or wrong. I decided to go with the ship's "on your own" tours for the places which are far from where the ships is actually docked. Basically they are a coach bus which drops you someplace in the city center, and then picks you up at a later time.

[Hlitner]

As a confirmed DIYer ((our last cruise went to 27 ports (13 countries) and we did take 1 ship excursion)) our advice to the OP is to simply book all the cruise excursions. That way you will not have to concern yourself with missing the ship. Thirty+ years helping DIYers has taught me that no amount of hand holding will assuage the fears of some.

 

Hank

[jrewing007]

As a confirmed DIYer ((our last cruise went to 27 ports (13 countries) and we did take 1 ship excursion)) our advice to the OP is to simply book all the cruise excursions. That way you will not have to concern yourself with missing the ship. Thirty+ years helping DIYers has taught me that no amount of hand holding will assuage the fears of some.

 

Hank

Thanks for your reply but if you read my responses I have stated that I have done DIY the majority of the time on 7 cruises. We are frugal with our money and don't like to pay the inflated prices for the ships tours. We have also not been overly impressed with the one tour that we did purchase thru Royal Caribbean. We have used guide books the majority of the time (Rick Steve's, etc.) and have had great success. Most of the ports in Europe that we have been to were very easy to navigate because of their proximity to the port (Barcelona, Venice, Split, Mykonos), just to name a few. We don't need hand holding, we are just trying to be as prepared as possible. We love the adventure of DIY as well as the on our own pace feel. We also like the cost savings of DIY. We were only concerned about a few things my wife pulled up on the internet concerning strikes and possible traffic problems if we were at a port that was more challenging to get to. We had and experience with going to Olympia 3 years ago where we were going to catch the train to Olympia from the port but it stopped running that particular day. I never got the reason why so we rented a car and drove. Hopefully we will never encounter these problems and from reading a few of the previous posts all does not always go 100 percent smoothly when it comes to public transportation. We appreciate all the help we can get because it just strengthens our knowledge in areas we have never been before. We have navigated all of our cities without any problem and hopefully when it comes to ports that are more challenging when it comes to proximity to the major attractions we will (knock on wood) have no problems.

 

Thanks, JD

[John Bull]

We had and experience with going to Olympia 3 years ago where we were going to catch the train to Olympia from the port but it stopped running that particular day. I never got the reason why so we rented a car and drove.

 

Thanks, JD

 

Both that train and the Katakolon Express coach are a bit hit & miss. I don't know the reasons (possibly out on a limb & without nearby back-up in case of mechanical issues) but they have a reputation of their own & aren't typical of European transport.

But I can understand why that didn't give you confidence

 

JB :)