Allure Med Excursion info needed

[Kaos28]

[FONT=Times New Roman]Greetings! My wife and I will be on the July 12, 2015 sailing of the Allure. I have booked private tours for Rome and Naples. We will be using the ship tours in Marseille (Cassis- extended time) and La Spezia (Cinque Terre). Has anyone done the Cassis and/or Cinque Terre tours booked on Allure? Any info/helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. We are docked in Marseille on July 14, which is Bastille Day. Any idea whether shops, restaurants will be open in Cinque Terre? (it has not been easy in my due diligent search for an answer to this question!) Also, is tipping customary for tours booked w/ the ship (and if so, in euros or American currency?). Just wondering, are the tour guides RCCL employees or independent tour guides or something else? [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Thanks in advance for any info you can provide![/FONT]

[Clarea]

You may also want to post in your roll call:

[url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2050849[/url]

[Kaos28]

[quote name='Kaos28'][FONT=Times New Roman]Greetings! My wife and I will be on the July 12, 2015 sailing of the Allure. I have booked private tours for Rome and Naples. We will be using the ship tours in Marseille (Cassis- extended time) and La Spezia (Cinque Terre). Has anyone done the Cassis and/or Cinque Terre tours booked on Allure? Any info/helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. We are docked in Marseille on July 14, which is Bastille Day. Any idea whether shops, restaurants will be open in Cinque Terre? (it has not been easy in my due diligent search for an answer to this question!) Also, is tipping customary for tours booked w/ the ship (and if so, in euros or American currency?). Just wondering, are the tour guides RCCL employees or independent tour guides or something else? [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Thanks in advance for any info you can provide![/FONT][/quote]

Meant to say [B]"will shops, restaurants be open in Cassis" on Bastille Day?[/B]

[cindivan]

[quote name='Kaos28'][FONT=Times New Roman]Greetings! My wife and I will be on the July 12, 2015 sailing of the Allure. I have booked private tours for Rome and Naples. We will be using the ship tours in Marseille (Cassis- extended time) and La Spezia (Cinque Terre). Has anyone done the Cassis and/or Cinque Terre tours booked on Allure? Any info/helpful hints would be greatly appreciated. We are docked in Marseille on July 14, which is Bastille Day. Any idea whether shops, restaurants will be open in Cinque Terre? (it has not been easy in my due diligent search for an answer to this question!) Also, is tipping customary for tours booked w/ the ship (and if so, in euros or American currency?). Just wondering, are the tour guides RCCL employees or independent tour guides or something else? [/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman]Thanks in advance for any info you can provide![/FONT][/QUOTE]


The tour guides are not RCCL employees and often ask for tips. We typically do private tours because we usually travel in large enough groups to make financial sense. But sometimes we have done the ship tours and would usually tip $5-10 per person depending on the length and how good the tour was. As far as euro vs USD I think they are just happy to get tips.

One thing I usually do before a trip is make labeled envelopes with the amount I plan on tipping on each tour in each envelope. I sometimes adjust depending on how the tour goes, but that makes it easier for me. And then I just usually do USD because it's easier for me since I do it before the trip and I'm sure they know where to exchange it for a good rate.

[steamboats]

As the local currency is Euro the tour guides are happy to get their tips in Euro and not in US Dollar (they will loose a lot changing them to Euro).

steamboats

[cindivan]

[quote name='steamboats']As the local currency is Euro the tour guides are happy to get their tips in Euro and not in US Dollar (they will loose a lot changing them to Euro).

steamboats[/QUOTE]


If I put my tips in USD, I account for the exchange rate giving more dollars than I would have euros. So they should only "lose" the percentage in the exchange rate which I account for when calculating how many USD To give. Sure, I'm sure they would prefer getting Euros, but I would imagine they know where they can go (usually to a bank) where they can get best exchange rate. I have worked for tips for years and sometimes I would get them in other currencies. I would go to the bank once a week or so to exchange them. One more step sure, but not a huge deal. Gladly do that over not getting a tip at all.

[steamboats]

cindivan,

sorry to say, but with the Euro the banks over here don´t have any foreign currency exchange anymore. Usually you have to go to a bank specialized in foreign currency. My bank used to have all frequently asked foreign currency in "stock". So especially Swiss Francs, Austrian Schilling, Italian Lire, US Dollar and some more. Others you had to order in advance. A couple of years ago they closed down this department. Now I still can have foreign currency but they have to order it from the "ReiseBank" (TravelBank) and I have to pay a fee of 5.75 Euro regardless what amount I want. That special bank does only exist on airports or larger train stations (like in my hometown Munich, but not all over the country).

So it´s not that easy to change foreign currency anymore here in Europe! I gave up on it and withdraw local currency at an ATM.

steamboats

[smartpeach]

I was just reading the tipping guidelines at the Iatly Ports of Call board. It's a touchy subject, but the bottom line is... You should only tip a token amount when in Europe because it's the local custom. For restaurants and taxis Europeans just round it off to the nearest 10s, for example if your bill is €28, give them them €30 and that's it.

Here's the link: [url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2222523[/url]

I know we're used to giving 15% in North America but we shouldn't bring our tipping culture when abroad because it's doing more harm than good. The service people start to expect them because they've become "spoiled" by the Americans and the locals who live year round suffer.

I know some tour companies have tipping guidelines and suggest that you give 10%. But they are not supposed to do that. Personally, I plan on giving 10%, to those companies I've pre-booked and who have asked for them in their emails. But when in Rome, I'll do what the locals do...

:)

[griffy116]

I'm sure they will accept any currency rather than no currency, but it's preferred that you tip in Euros. We used private tours in the Med. For each of our Med ports, I used a zip-lock bag. I put the confirmation of the tour, the amount (in Euros) for the tour and the tip. I wrote the name of the port on each zip lock and put it all in the safe. On the morning of the tour, all I had to do was grab the zip-lock bag and go. No scrambling around trying to sort out the money at the end of the tour. That kept me from spending the money set aside for the tour on food, shopping, etc. Mornings start VERY early on the port intensive Med cruises. Just saved me a little time and stress.

[cindivan]

[quote name='steamboats']cindivan,

sorry to say, but with the Euro the banks over here don´t have any foreign currency exchange anymore. Usually you have to go to a bank specialized in foreign currency. My bank used to have all frequently asked foreign currency in "stock". So especially Swiss Francs, Austrian Schilling, Italian Lire, US Dollar and some more. Others you had to order in advance. A couple of years ago they closed down this department. Now I still can have foreign currency but they have to order it from the "ReiseBank" (TravelBank) and I have to pay a fee of 5.75 Euro regardless what amount I want. That special bank does only exist on airports or larger train stations (like in my hometown Munich, but not all over the country).

So it´s not that easy to change foreign currency anymore here in Europe! I gave up on it and withdraw local currency at an ATM.

steamboats[/QUOTE]


I didn't realize that. I just figured it was like the states. Another reason not to assume things....

I will make an effort to tip in local currency. The problem we run into is we can on,y take out so much euro per day using an atm and all the tour guides and companies don't want to take credit cards so we are often struggling have enough euro. I guess next time I will order some before we go if I know it's going to be tight. It's not as good of a rate as the atm but it sounds better than what you can get I guess I could ask my bank to on increase the amount I can take out per day but then I worry if it gets hacked.... Edited June 20, 2015 by cindivan