Victoria Horse Drawn Trolley Excursion

[midwestsunshine]

Hi. We will be on the Solstice in Sept and are interested in a Horse and Carriage ride in Victoria. The ship excursion says Horse and Trolley excursion. Does anyone know how many people are in the trolley and if you took the tour, how was it? Thanks

[Putterdude]

There are 2 horse drawn carriage operators in Victoria so it is likely one of them and if I were a betting man I would go with Victoria Carriage Tours as I don't believe the Tally Ho folks have the large trolleys.

 

http://www.tallyhotours.com/

http://www.victoriacarriage.com/index.asp

[martincath]

It is Victoria Carriage PD. There's a link on their site to their Trolley Tours but they say nothing about the size, cost, etc. - however they have pictures in the gallery that confirm my recollection of 5 rows of bench seats, 4 people per seat for 20 total. If you end up as one of the middle two people OP, in any row but the first, the view is going to be somewhat restricted.

 

OP - compare what the ships offering price-wise vs. the cost of your own carriage on the links PD provided. NB: the pricing is virtually identical as the more expensive operator includes tax whereas the 'cheaper' does not.

 

If you're a couple consider splitting the cost with another couple (or two IF you're all skinny, those carriages theoretically seat six, but frankly are not designed for six even relatively average rear ends!)

 

As to whether you'll like the tour or not - browse the different lengths of tour to see what you'll see (however long the ship's trolley tour is, you'll almost certainly be doing the route of the equivalent-length personal tour).

 

In case you've never down any carriage tour before, be aware the pace is slow - pretty much walking pace for a person, so really you won't see any more than you would on foot. All the carriages use a collection device for the horse poop which means if the wind is the wrong way you may get a noseful occasionally. I've never seen a horse that doesn't look in good health in case that's a concern, and I'm assuming if you're asking about carriage rides you don't have an ethical issue with working horses in an urban environment.

[Putterdude]

Yes, that is what I thought I had never seen a Tally Ho operate a trolley, however, the OP indicate that they are looking at a ship sponsored tour may be a custom route just for ships' passengers. Incidentally, the cost for a 20 person trolley is $350+tax from Ogden Point for a one hour tour which may give the OP some idea if they are booking for a large group or want to put together a group from their roll call.

[midwestsunshine]

What I really want is a tour for 4 people so the trolley is out. I've contacted both Victorian and Tally-Ho and will go with one of them. Thanks for your info. I appreciate it.

[MarcJ55]

If you're paying less than $70 per hour, you're going to be on a trolly with several others. They're ok, just not as quaint as the private carriages you can get from the west side of the Parliament buildings, which are expensive.

 

Tally Ho definitely runs the big trollies in Victoria.

[notentirelynormal]

It's been a few years since we booked it and I think it was Tally Ho that we used ..... so with that said, I booked two horse drawn carriages in advance. They met us at the ship instead of picking it up downtown (I think that cost an extra $5 or $10) but it was SO worth it. As the huge 20 person trolley was filling up we were on board and leaving. We were the first to leave. Yes, it is slow, but that's what makes it so nice. It can be extremely relaxing and we would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

We actually felt like royalty.... leaving in our own horse drawn carriage while the lower class (nose in air here) were loading up on the trolly.