What are Captain Curated Excursions and Have You Ever Booked one?

[Traveling Fools]

I noticed a new class of excursion being offered called Captain Curated Excursion.  A search of this forum produces a hit on the name, but does not provide any details or feedback about them.  

 

This class of excursion is not the same as Private Journey, as both types are being offered on our 2024 Greek Intensive cruise.

 

What are they and does anyone have any feedback about them?

 

[jelayne]

We have not done any of them.  There were some in Greece that were developed with input from some of the Captains and included some of their “favorites”.  I saw a video of Captain Dimitris showing some of his favorite spots on one of the excursions.

[Tudy]

I have done some.  They are an excuse to charge more money for a routine excursion. Surprise, surprise.  There were about 40-50 people on our bus. The sites we went to were just a crowded as ever. At times they combined several buses for demonstrations. We were paraded through the same obligatory "Celebrity certified" shopping areas.

All in all, mostly disappointed with Celebrity's excursions on our last 2 cruises (Iceland and Mediterranean). Even our "small group" tour which is supposed to have 24 or less had 27 people in it. But we are learning how to read between the lines with the excursion descriptions. Stop at the Shore Excursion desk onboard and ask to see the tour schedule (how long you will be at every stop). Ask how many people are scheduled on the tour. Ask any other questions that concern you. AND make sure you do this at least 24 hours before any scheduled excursion so that you can cancel and get a refund.

I know, this is way more information than you asked for.

[patty1955]

We went on the Captain Curated Excursion, Mykonos On Foot-Food Walking Tour on our last cruise and it was one of the best excursions we've been on. The guide was wonderful and the stops were all interesting. It was little pricey but worth every penny.

[SusieAV8R]

On 8/16/2023 at 11:33 AM, Tudy said:

I have done some.  They are an excuse to charge more money for a routine excursion. Surprise, surprise.  There were about 40-50 people on our bus. The sites we went to were just a crowded as ever. At times they combined several buses for demonstrations. We were paraded through the same obligatory "Celebrity certified" shopping areas.

All in all, mostly disappointed with Celebrity's excursions on our last 2 cruises (Iceland and Mediterranean). Even our "small group" tour which is supposed to have 24 or less had 27 people in it. But we are learning how to read between the lines with the excursion descriptions. Stop at the Shore Excursion desk onboard and ask to see the tour schedule (how long you will be at every stop). Ask how many people are scheduled on the tour. Ask any other questions that concern you. AND make sure you do this at least 24 hours before any scheduled excursion so that you can cancel and get a refund.

I know, this is way more information than you asked for.

On 8/16/2023 at 11:33 AM, Tudy said:

I have done some.  They are an excuse to charge more money for a routine excursion. Surprise, surprise.  There were about 40-50 people on our bus. The sites we went to were just a crowded as ever. At times they combined several buses for demonstrations. We were paraded through the same obligatory "Celebrity certified" shopping areas.

All in all, mostly disappointed with Celebrity's excursions on our last 2 cruises (Iceland and Mediterranean). Even our "small group" tour which is supposed to have 24 or less had 27 people in it. But we are learning how to read between the lines with the excursion descriptions. Stop at the Shore Excursion desk onboard and ask to see the tour schedule (how long you will be at every stop). Ask how many people are scheduled on the tour. Ask any other questions that concern you. AND make sure you do this at least 24 hours before any scheduled excursion so that you can cancel and get a refund.

I know, this is way more information than you asked for.

We asked all those questions for excursions on our April cruise.  Yup!  Our definition of "small" group and X's differed dramatically so we cancelled our excursions.  

 

On 8/16/2023 at 1:46 PM, patty1955 said:

We went on the Captain Curated Excursion, Mykonos On Foot-Food Walking Tour on our last cruise and it was one of the best excursions we've been on. The guide was wonderful and the stops were all interesting. It was little pricey but worth every penny.

[wineoclock]

We’ve booked a couple on our upcoming cruise as we have a lot of OBC so will report back.