Princess - Paris On Your Own Bus

[CSloan]

Any experience with the Princess tour - Paris On Your Own (bus to and from Paris).  Thinking of the train, but wondering if we should just do this bus.  Our goal is to spend Time  at the Eiffel Tower.

[princeton123211]

10 hours ago, CSloan said:

Thinking of the train, but wondering if we should just do this bus.  Our goal is to spend Time  at the Eiffel Tower.

Assuming this is after docking in Le Havre? Its a bit of a haul to get in and out of Paris no matter how you do it leaving not a ton of time to see the city. The train might be a tiny bit faster but for this I would personally have a much more enjoyable day being on a ship's excursion knowing that as long as I made it back to the bus the ship would wait for me. 

 

Given how little time you'll have you also might want to buy a tour that involves a guided touring element. The Eiffel Tower is very pretty but its actually better viewed from a small distance. It's also a bit out of the way of a lot of the other major sights in town like the Louvre and Notre Dame. 

[CSloan]

Thanks for the info, that helps!

Cathy

[lynncarol]

We were in Paris this past October and sadly Notre Dame is but a shell of itself now and blocked off from all visitors. Eiffel Tower and Louvre are both very popular and mobbed with tourists. However, we got timed admission for 'top of the (Eiffel) tower'  one evening and being up there at night was magical! 

[CSloan]

Curious to know if anyone has done the Princess "Pars on You Own" Le Havre to  Paris, or even the Princess "Best of Paris" tour?  Still debating what to do in April.  If you've done either of those excursions, with Princess, do they use a full-size bus, or do they use smaller buses?

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, CSloan said:

Curious to know if anyone has done the Princess "Pars on You Own" Le Havre to  Paris, or even the Princess "Best of Paris" tour?  Still debating what to do in April.  If you've done either of those excursions, with Princess, do they use a full-size bus, or do they use smaller buses?

You should also ask these questions on the Princess board if you haven’t already done so.  Also, call the Princess shorex dept; they should be able to tell you about the buses. 

 

[Hlitner]

On 2/23/2020 at 10:32 AM, CSloan said:

Curious to know if anyone has done the Princess "Pars on You Own" Le Havre to  Paris, or even the Princess "Best of Paris" tour?  Still debating what to do in April.  If you've done either of those excursions, with Princess, do they use a full-size bus, or do they use smaller buses?

Unless things have recently changed, they use large buses.  The ride is at least 2 1/2 hours each way and can be longer depending on traffic.  

 

Hank

[CSloan]

On 2/29/2020 at 8:21 PM, Hlitner said:

Unless things have recently changed, they use large buses.  The ride is at least 2 1/2 hours each way and can be longer depending on traffic.  

 

Hank

Thanks.  I think we’ll skip Paris. 3 hours on a bus doesn’t sound like a fun vacation. I appreciate everyone’s input!

[Travlin grrl]

I did the Princess shore excursion "On your own" in Paris. It is about a 2 1/2 hour - 3 hours each way so it's very fast paced.

We went before the fire and saw "Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Walked past the Louvre and walked down Champ D'Elysse before heading back to the bus. When we left Notre Dame we stopped by one the restaurants to get some panini/sandwiches to go and ate on the bridge. Right after we hopped on the local bus to get back to the Eiffel Tower which I think was only about €2. 

What I noticed a few people do is, (Being that Paris is the last port before going back to Southampton) they would disembark in Le Havre and spend a few days in Paris. Then fly out of Paris to go home. I think that would be a better option. 

[John Bull]

30 minutes ago, Travlin grrl said:

I did the Princess shore excursion "On your own" in Paris. It is about a 2 1/2 hour - 3 hours each way so it's very fast paced.

We went before the fire and saw "Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Walked past the Louvre and walked down Champ D'Elysse before heading back to the bus. When we left Notre Dame we stopped by one the restaurants to get some panini/sandwiches to go and ate on the bridge. Right after we hopped on the local bus to get back to the Eiffel Tower which I think was only about €2. 

What I noticed a few people do is, (Being that Paris is the last port before going back to Southampton) they would disembark in Le Havre and spend a few days in Paris. Then fly out of Paris to go home. I think that would be a better option. 

 

OP - That makes a lot of sense if the cruise finishes next morning in Southampton, unless you're planning post-cruise time in the UK.

Most cruise lines (incl Princess) permit disembarkation in Le Havre by prior arrangement. No discount for missing the last night, and there might be a small admin charge

Flight costs (out to London LHR or LGW, & back from Paris, usually CDG) should cost no more than a standard US to London return fare, as long as you use the same airline or air alliance and book an open-jaw (aka multi-city) return

 

JB 

[Hlitner]

On 9/12/2020 at 4:18 PM, Travlin grrl said:

I did the Princess shore excursion "On your own" in Paris. It is about a 2 1/2 hour - 3 hours each way so it's very fast paced.

We went before the fire and saw "Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, Walked past the Louvre and walked down Champ D'Elysse before heading back to the bus. When we left Notre Dame we stopped by one the restaurants to get some panini/sandwiches to go and ate on the bridge. Right after we hopped on the local bus to get back to the Eiffel Tower which I think was only about €2. 

What I noticed a few people do is, (Being that Paris is the last port before going back to Southampton) they would disembark in Le Havre and spend a few days in Paris. Then fly out of Paris to go home. I think that would be a better option. 

We have done just that a few times although we tend to then stay in Paris and France for several weeks before flying home.  However be forewarned that there have been some hints that those early disembarkations may not be allowed in the post COVID world.  Another bothersome issue is that several cruise lines had (before COVID) started charging extra fees for early disembarkation.  The procedure with most cruise lines is that you must make a formal request (in writing) weeks or months before the cruise and get an approval from the cruise line.  Once on the ship you should then follow-up with a visit to Guest Relations.  The last time we did this on Princess we did get written approval only to later discover that Princess never bothered to notify the ship.  This turned out not to be a problem since the purser's office quickly agreed to our early disembarkation.  Princess even suggested we put out our luggage the night be LeHavre and then Princess took our stuff off the ship and had it piled in the small terminal building.  Prior to COVID there were no formalities with the French authorities.  We just walked off the ship when we pleased, grabbed our luggage, and took a taxi over to the train station where we took the train to Paris.  On that particular cruise there were at least 50 passengers who disembarked in LeHavre.

 

Hank