Normandy excursion

[Jaylie]

We are interested in a cruise that includes an excursion to Normandy (possibly the 10-day cruise on the Sapphire departing from Southhampton and ending in Rome). My question is do you get to see enough of the beaches and cemetery at this stop. We love Princess, but we are wondering if we would be better off taking a river cruise to get the most out of Normandy. We've never done a river cruise!

[Cruise Junky]

We are interested in a cruise that includes an excursion to Normandy (possibly the 10-day cruise on the Sapphire departing from Southhampton and ending in Rome). My question is do you get to see enough of the beaches and cemetery at this stop. We love Princess, but we are wondering if we would be better off taking a river cruise to get the most out of Normandy. We've never done a river cruise!

 

How comfortable are you driving? We had 5 nights in an apartment in Honfleur back in 2010 and absolutely loved it. We covered the entire area that a river cruise does at a fraction of the cost and we could do things at our pace. Still my favourite vacation.

[ggprincess2004]

I highly recommend a private tour company called Overlord. They offer a full day tour of the Normandy landing beaches and the American cemetery. It was excellent. If you join your roll call you can probably put together a group - about 10 or so - to do this private tour.

[wheezedr]

On our cruise we did the princess tour while others in our roll call went with Overlord. For unclear reasons my DW, ( not always so D) did not want to go that route. From every way we could compare, the Overlord tour was superior. Smaller group, better lunch, more things seen. You will never see it all in one day.

[Micahs Grandad]

I highly recommend a private tour company called Overlord. They offer a full day tour of the Normandy landing beaches and the American cemetery. It was excellent. If you join your roll call you can probably put together a group - about 10 or so - to do this private tour.

 

We did it with them and they did an excellent job. Highly recommend them

[2cruizinfools]

On our cruise we did the princess tour while others in our roll call went with Overlord. For unclear reasons my DW, ( not always so D) did not want to go that route. From every way we could compare, the Overlord tour was superior. Smaller group, better lunch, more things seen. You will never see it all in one day.

Overlords tours gave our group of six a wonderful private tour. We were not rushed from stop to stop and had ample time to see everything. They were very knowledgeable, prompt and professional. We even made stops that weren't on the other tours. It was great to be in a small private van and not one of 100 people stuffed in a bus. The cost was reasonable it broke down just over $350 per couple. Won't hesitate to book them again.

 

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[capriccio]

Another enthusiastic recommendation for Overlord Tours!

[DrivesLikeMario]

While the river cruises do go close to Normandy WWII sites, they still involve being bused to them. Some river cruise companies get closer than others. FWIW, this is usually the most sold-out itinerary on river cruises, so book early if you decide to do one. They can be exhausting though and involve a lot of walking. Just depends on how much you want to see and whether a river cruise or an ocean cruise is the way to go for you.

[dfields1814]

This was by far the worst excursion we ever took from Princess. To be fair the ship arrived a couple hours late which messed up the guide's timetable. On our bus ride we got to listen to the guide tell us about all the cows were were seeing not the battles. Once there the guide just talked about the Americans ignoring the e Brits and Canadians who were on the tour, They had to cut time so the cut the time at the battlefield. They kept a lunch that took two hours. When we got to the cemetery we had 30 minutes there. We did not see the then new museum. The guide flat out lied about why we did not. When we got to Omaha beach the guide said to get off the bus and take a picture and get back on the bus. All of 5 minutes there if that. This was probably a one time problem because the ship arriving late. But the guide could not adjust and had no idea why were were on the tour. So what that being said I would take a private tour as mentioned by other posters.

[ghstudio]

There are essentially two major tours from cruise ships. One goes to the Normandy beaches, stopping at the german bunkers above the beach and includes the Normandy American Cemetery. The other goes to Mt Ste Michelle and stops at the relatively unknown but equally beautiful Britanny Cemetery. We have done both on private tours....and both are exceptional.

[Tucker in Texas]

The first time we did the tour from Le Harve, w\We took a ship's tour (NCL) only because the time there was around 8 hours as was the length of all the private tours we looked at and we were afraid to get so far away from the ship on a private tour with such a tight schedule. It was o.k. and the ship was required to delay embarkation because the tour wasn't back yet so I don't think we made a bad decision.

 

The second time, we took a private tour out of another port in France. Starts with a C but can't remember it offhand. It was set up by a fellow cruiser and it was so much better. We had more time in port so we weren't so worried about getting back to the ship on time.

 

Go with the private tour if time constraints don't factor in. No wasted time with "shopping opportunities" either.

Smaller group, better commentary, great guide.

[Blondilu]

We took the Princess tour. Stopped at one beach (Gold Beach, I think) with German bunkers, Omaha Beach, The American Cemetery and Arromanches.

 

It was a pretty long drive which meant the rest of the trip was a bit rushed. Not too bad except at the first stop where we didn't even have time to go into the museum. Lots of time at Arromanches and enough time at Omaha Beach.

 

We did not go into the museum at the cemetery either. The line was really long and time was getting a bit short. Plus, this was our last day of a port-intensive cruise and we were a little worn out.

 

Lunch, on the other hand, was pretty darn good.

 

We really could have used another couple of hours at least to really get to see those places that we stopped. To do the whole area justice would have probably taken another day. So, if I get to go back it will either be on a private tour, or DIY with a rental car.

[eatdrinkfly]

I've done Normandy as a day trip from Paris to visit the Canadian sites and landing beaches and I've done the Paris to Normandy river cruise and I can not speak highly enough of the river cruise.

If you really want to see all the lovely little areas in France that most tours miss, you can not beat this river cruise. Our itinerary was 7 nights roundtrip Paris up the Seine.

We actually skipped the Normandy landing beaches tour with Avalon because we had already done it the year previous, but those that attended said it was wonderful. They took 2 groups, one American and one British & Canadian. As well they had a historian onboard the ship the day before to do a talk (my husband attended and said it was informative).

I think it comes down to if you'd like France and the Normandy region to be the focus of your trip, or a 1-day event.