Mediterranean Cruise Shore Excursions?

[Cruise2End]

Are there any excursions that you have taken that you were highly disappointed in? Any that you really enjoyed and felt they were well worth the money? We do some private tours but will also do ship excursions or sometimes do it on our own. Just wondering what your experiences have been. Ports are Florence/Pisa, Monte Carlo, Toulon (for Provence), Gibraltar, Valencia,Spain, Barcelona, Cartagena, Marseille (Provence), Genoa (for Milan).

[Cruise2End]

Especially interested in any Princess shore excursion experiences. Thanks!

[Cruise2End]

No experiences or no one takes the Princess shore excursions🙄??

[CruiserBruce]

Your question is very broad. Excursions change...what may have disappointed someone last year, may not be offered any more. Same with some "wow" excursions.

 

Narrow down the questions with some research. Look over on the Ports boards....most ports have private vendors highly recommended. Many are also easily done on your own, our favorite exercise.

 

Lastly, "worth it" makes the question even more difficult. Every one has a totally different value system. So assigning my values does little to help you decide what you want to do. You need to do what interests you, not what we say you should.

Edited July 10, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[Posaune]

One consideration that I think is very important. The further away the port is from the major sights, the more important it is to take a Princess excursion, especially if you are not an experienced cruiser in Europe. We have seen more people miss the ship in some of these ports than anywhere else. Traffic can be outrageous on the coast, especially in August. My wife and I experienced a wildcat train strike that almost made us miss the ship in Monte Carlo. We arrived after the last tender time but several Princess tours had suffered the same problem with trains we had and they held the ship for them. Several people did miss the ship and had to get from Monte Carlo to Barcelona on their own.

[Cruise2End]

Your question is very broad. Excursions change...what may have disappointed someone last year, may not be offered any more. Same with some "wow" excursions.

 

Narrow down the questions with some research. Look over on the Ports boards....most ports have private vendors highly recommended. Many are also easily done on your own, our favorite exercise.

 

Lastly, "worth it" makes the question even more difficult. Every one has a totally different value system. So assigning my values does little to help you decide what you want to do. You need to do what interests you, not what we say you should.

 

Thank you - I appreciate your candor. I do wish that Cruise Critic or Princess would allow reviews of their excursions. While you can go online to see reviews of restaurants, lodging, private shore excursions,etc., there is no where that you can get reviews of a particular shore excursion... And while some do change, many remain constant. The thing that changes are the clients, that have no knowledge or past experience of the excursions... 🙄

[zoncom]

Involves you spending time educating yourselves. You can spend thousands on tours or in most ports DIY. Just Google every port by name. Tripadvisor also good. Books and websites by Fodors, Frommers and LonelyPlanet.

[spiceyxi]

In Marseille we ended up taking a bus from the port in to town. We were being cheap and didn't want to sit on another long bus ride. The town was under a lot of construction, pretty dirty and fairly underwhelming. However, one of the highlights of our Med cruise was taking a boat from the main harbor to Cheateu D'iff. If you want an easy port day and don't fancy being stuck on another bus ride I would recommend checking out D'iff as it is a small little island in a surprisingly pretty sea and an enjoyable boat ride.

 

The one piece that always disappoints/annoys me with the med shore excursions through the ship (ours was with Carnival) is getting packed in the bus and having long trips to the attractions. We try to avoid that now, but it can not always be avoided. In Rome it got really frustrating because our bus and all of the others had the same bathroom stop and everyone had to use the bathroom at the same time. This caused us to be late and cut the tour of the coloseum short. Rome isn't one of your stops, but many are similar be sure to pay attention to the travel time in the excursion description.

Edited July 10, 2016 by spiceyxi

[Cruise2End]

Thanks all for your input.... Will continue my search and research 😊. I do appreciate your responses!!

[cruisequeen4ever]

I'm currently in the middle of writing my review for my recent 14 day Med cruise that included many of those same ports. I provided an in depth synopsis of each port. Check it out at:

 

Med Cruise- Royal Treatment Athens to Barcelona

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2372451

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[moki'smommy]

Florence is not a port. Depending on which port your ship uses, you may have a 90 minute bus ride each way to get to Florence. Pay attention to whether the cruise line excursions include priority admission to the various sites. You can spend A LOT of time standing in line if they only include general admission tickets!

 

OK, I love Florence and vacationed there for a week in another lifetime....but one day on the ship means you really need to max out your time.

 

Gibraltar is easy to do on your own/privately.

Barcelona is also easy. There are several Hop on/Hop off bus routes that will get you to the main sights, or again, an easy private tour. My experience with cruise line tours at some ports was way too much time spent waiting for people who couldn't get to the meeting spot on time. Private or a small group eliminates that mess.

 

Monte Carlo was fun (best picture ever--an old VW next to a Lamborghini on the street.) There is a train to Nice, Eze, etc. if you've done Monte before or don't want to see the casino, etc.

[TracieABD]

Hi-

I just returned from a Med cruise that shared many of your ports. We DIY'd every port.

 

Here is a very brief overview:

Cartagena- Walk off the ship and see the ruins/ shop / eat

 

Gibratar- Walk off ship and walk to the tram to see the top of the Rock. We then walked down to the center of town to shop

 

Genoa- Walk off the ship and walk up the hill. Shop/ eat/ walk

 

Marsielle- Cab to the train station to rent a car. Drove to San Remy and the aquaduct

 

Livorno- Cab to the train station. Train to Pisa. Saw the tower and shopped and ate. Boondoggle trying to get back to the ship. You really cannot walk back from Livorno to the ship. Just not possible

 

I did write a "live from" and there are many more details in it. Here is the link:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2371183

 

Also, I have a pretty detailed spreadsheet that I would be happy to share with you if you email me at tracie <@> carolina <.> rr <.> com.

[Colo Cruiser]

One consideration that I think is very important. The further away the port is from the major sights, the more important it is to take a Princess excursion, especially if you are not an experienced cruiser in Europe. We have seen more people miss the ship in some of these ports than anywhere else. Traffic can be outrageous on the coast, especially in August. My wife and I experienced a wildcat train strike that almost made us miss the ship in Monte Carlo. We arrived after the last tender time but several Princess tours had suffered the same problem with trains we had and they held the ship for them. Several people did miss the ship and had to get from Monte Carlo to Barcelona on their own.

 

 

Great point!

[traveling1969]

Are there any excursions that you have taken that you were highly disappointed in? Any that you really enjoyed and felt they were well worth the money? We do some private tours but will also do ship excursions or sometimes do it on our own. Just wondering what your experiences have been. Ports are Florence/Pisa, Monte Carlo, Toulon (for Provence), Gibraltar, Valencia,Spain, Barcelona, Cartagena, Marseille (Provence), Genoa (for Milan).

I recommend doing a cruise ship shore excursion at these ports: Livorno (Florence/Pisa) and Toulon. I recommend doing the following ports on your own: Gibraltar, Valencia, Barcelona, Cartagena, Marseille and Genoa. Here's why. Most of the "sights" at Livorno and Toulon are far from the port and doing them on one's own is a bit daunting. As for the others, most of the points of interest are readily accessible from the port and one can walk to them. Many folks overlook Genoa in favor of Milan, but we thought Genoa was a delight. The exception is Barcelona (not an easy walk from the port) but there is a convenient port bus to get you into the center of things. Enjoy!

 

Harry

Edited July 10, 2016 by traveling1969

[partybarbie]

I highly recommend booking the Pisa/Florence on your own through Princess. You are really not on your own. You get on a nice bus and a friendly, knowledgeable tour guide gives you all kinds of information and maps.

 

The first stop was Pisa and I think we had about an hour there. It was plenty of time to see the Leaning Tower and walk around.

 

Then we got back on the bus to Florence. You are dropped off in the downtown area and there's plenty to explore. If you need help, no worries. So many Italian people can speak English and are proud to show off their city and help you.

 

Then you get back on the bus and go back to the ship. It was so easy. No worries about the trains, missing the ship, etc.

 

In Gibralter, there are all kinds of private vans right where the ship docks. They will take you to see the monkeys and to the fort. You can get dropped off in town and walk back to the ship.

 

In Valencia, we took the ship's tour to the Lladro factory. The are closed on Sunday, but opened only for Princess tours the day we visited. Even if you don't collect Lladro, watching the workers is fascinating. In a day and age where everything is machined, all of the Lladro figures are still made by hand.

 

In general, we do a lot of the half-day walking tours through Princess. If you go in the morning, and if you stay close to the ship, after the tour you can keep exploring on your own. Most of the time you can walk back to the ship or take a bus or cab back. It's nice to have a guide to explain what you looking at, and then still have free time after the tour.

 

BTW, if you need a bathroom break, look for the Hard Rock cafe. The bathrooms are clean and are free to use with a drink purchase. We had Italian beer and Chianti in Florence, and an order of bruschetta.

[Gabrielle R.]

One tour I was disappointed in was a Pompeii tour. We liked that we saw Sorrento and had time their... Pompeii was amazing..... our tour guide was TERRIBLE..... I am a history teacher and was glad about my knowledge coming in... a few people tagged with my DH and I and asked me questions- I was talking to my spouse about something so the couple's asked me when our guide was off talking about himself and not the site...

I had wished I had picked a different excursion or had done a private tour... next time I promised myself.

This was the only time I was disappointed with a Princess tour.

[IECalCruiser]

Are there any excursions that you have taken that you were highly disappointed in? Any that you really enjoyed and felt they were well worth the money? We do some private tours but will also do ship excursions or sometimes do it on our own. Just wondering what your experiences have been. Ports are Florence/Pisa, Monte Carlo, Toulon (for Provence), Gibraltar, Valencia,Spain, Barcelona, Cartagena, Marseille (Provence), Genoa (for Milan).

I can't really answer your questions. However it looks like you are booked on the 14 day Rome RT on the Majestic departing next April 9th and you will be in Livorno, Toulon and Gibraltar twice. On our Med cruise we departed from Barcelona and only shared the ports of Toulon and Livorno with your itinerary. We had an active enough Roll Call and had a fantastic private tour of Pisa and Florence with no wait entrance to the Uffizi. In Toulon we actually docked in La Seyne-sur-Mer. We walked the nearest bus stop to get the bus to the train station and then the train to Bandol. It is a nice little town on the coast.

[Cruise Junky]

Our first med cruise we did private tours rather than ship excursions and saw so much more. Check out your roll call and see what people have booked that you could join. A Princess excursion that we did on a later cruise was Cinque Terra which was very good.