Celebrity City Stay ~ Anyone try this?

[JimAOk1945]

We are experienced cruisers but haven't had the pleasure of cruising on Celebrity yet. We are Diamond on RC and I understand we would be elite on Celebrity.

 

My wife and I are considering a Med cruise in 2018, probably September or October. We are considering a cruise out of Barcelona, Rome, or Venice, but haven't decided which one just yet.

In doing my research on the Celebrity site, I came across the City Stay package. It looks like a wonderful idea for us as a pre-cruise add on. I would appreciate input from anyone who would like to share their experience with this package. Good and bad experiences welcome. Thanks in advance for your insight.

[JimAOk1945]

Anyone? :(

[Cruise Raider]

I have not done one of the add on's but when looking at these, they seem rather pricey to me. I have taken a cruise that had 2 days in port before setting sail ... now, that was too much fun!!

[rayandjean]

We did the city stay in Rome prior to our med cruise in Oct 2016. It was well done and would recommend it and would personally do one again. Nice meals, got to do the Rome highlights and great tour guide. I felt this helped us to optimize our time there and everything was included.

 

Valerie

[CruisinNole]

We did a City Tour in 2013 before a British Isles cruise. We flew in to Paris and spent a couple of days there. Part of the time is guided tours but there was still lots of free time. We took the Chunnel to London for a couple more days. Again, there were guided tours and free time. Hotels in both cities were very nice. I especially liked the hotel in London. It was the Melia White House. It was beautiful and the room was huge. The same tour guide was with us in both cities. There are usually one or two meals provided and breakfast was included at both hotels.

 

If you enjoy planning all your sightseeing, hotels, etc. then you won't want to do this. I've done both and after planning a trip to London a couple of years ago for my husband and I and another couple, have decided that I prefer for someone else to do the legwork. I never felt herded around on the City Tour and definitely felt like I had enough free time to explore on my own. It is pricey but we had a great time and enjoyed it so much that we're signed up for a City Tour in London before our Eclipse TA in October.

 

Forgot to add that all transfers, airport to hotel and hotel to cruise ship, are included.

[JimAOk1945]

Wow! This information is wonderful and will go a long way in helping me decide what to do. I really appreciate all the responses I have received. I hope others will chime in and add to this thread. Not only is it helpful to me, but may help others as well.

[Canuckcanuck2507]

You mentioned the city stays are pricy .

How pricy?

Thanks so much we are thinking of this for our  Celebrity cruise that starts  in Rome and ends in Barcelona 

[jelayne]

We have not done a City Stay but did look into one a few years back.  It seems very pricey so I broke down the components and priced them separately.  Some parts like tours,I was  not able to compare like for like, since they are booking for groups and vans or small buses.  I found we could stay at the same or better hotel with breakfast,  have airport to hotel  and hotel to port transfer and 2  tours with a guide & for just the 2 of us.  Added in an estimate cost for dinners and for the 2  of us the cost would by about 60 - 70% of the City Stay package. 
 

We have always done independent tours when cruising and when out of the US we normally add on a pre or post cruise 2-4 day stay, so I am comfortable doing the legwork for those trips.  I would thought I check out a city stay and let someone else to the work.  But in the end we decided to continue doing our own and save the $.

[Arizona Wildcat]

Agree with Jelayne.  Not hard to fly in 2-4 days early and really explore.  Lots of guidebooks and have always found transport easy.  Makes for less stress as no worries about getting to the port.

We usually go on EBAY and buy a used slightly older country or city guide.  Rick Steve's usually has organized 2-3 day suggestions.

Staying afterwords also makes for a more relaxing journey. 

 

[Joanne G.]

2 hours ago, Canuckcanuck2507 said:

You mentioned the city stays are pricy .

How pricy?

Thanks so much we are thinking of this for our  Celebrity cruise that starts  in Rome and ends in Barcelona 

I’m on a cruise this summer from Barcelona to Rome.   I’m traveling solo, and the City Stay packages for Barcelona are ridiculously expensive, for example currently over $5,000 for 3 nights or about $2700 per person for double occupancy for 3 nights.   Periodically they are reduced maybe 30%-40% during Celebrity’s “flash sales”, but it’s still a lot of money compared to making similar arrangements on your own.  Prices are a little more reasonable for Rome.  You should be able to see the prices and options when looking at shore excursions for your cruise.  One, two, and three night packages are available for my cruise.  If they appeal to you, keep watching for one of the flash sales.  

[Canuckcanuck2507]

So you are doing a city stay?

Or did you find a good alternative and if so what ?

Thanks so much

Jane

[Kteacher]

We used City Stay in 2019 when we sailed out of Barcelona. The reasons we booked it were that we only had a few days to spend pre-cruise in Barcelona, we weren’t sure if we would ever get to go back, and had a list of places we really wanted to see. The City Stay package description covered most of the places on our list, the hotel was right off Las Ramblas, so we gave it a shot. We ended up with a private guide and driver for 2.5 days, a private wine tasting and tour of a vineyard (La Scala), front of the line and guided tour of La Sagrada, trip to Montserrat- we were very happy that we booked this. 
    Our guide was local, and a retired professor of architecture. She and the driver were phenomenal. Could we have pieced together everything on our own for less money? Maybe, but I’m not sure the experience would have been the same as what we received. 

[Joanne G.]

13 hours ago, Canuckcanuck2507 said:

So you are doing a city stay?

Or did you find a good alternative and if so what ?

Thanks so much

Jane

I did book a one-night post-cruise City Stay in Rome during a 50% flash sale for just under $500 for a solo.   That was acceptable to me for the transportation into Rome, the Vatican tour, the hotel with breakfast (Hotel Hoxton), and transportation the airport the next day.   I wanted more time in Rome and had booked a flight for 3 nights after the cruise, but the price for a 3-night City Stay, even during the sale, was way more than I wanted to pay.  Plus, I had my own ideas of what I wanted to do which were different from the activities on the longer City Stay tours.   So I booked 2 nights on my own at the same hotel as my one night with the City Stay package.  I'll probably forfeit the airport transportation part of my one-night package.  Or perhaps Celebrity will let me join the three-night package people for the transportation to the airport; I am going to ask when onboard.   

 

But I could not accept the much higher prices, even during the sale, for the pre-cruise Barcelona City Stay packages.  I have no idea why the Barcelona City Stays were so much more than the Rome ones.   I booked 3 nights at Hotel Jazz on my own, and I booked activities through Viator and Get Your Guide.   I will use taxis between the airport and the hotel and the hotel and the port.  (I booked Hotel Jazz based on my own research.  I don't know what hotel(s) Celebrity uses in Barcelona.)

 

Despite the prices, the app tells me many of these City Stays for my cruise are sold out or have only a few spots left.  As @Kteachersaid above, they can offer an enjoyable experience.  If you are interested in them, get the Celebrity app if you haven't already, and you will get notifications of the flash sales.  I just got a notification of a "leap day" sale today.  Items on sale vary by cruise.