Sold out Excursions Norwegian Getaway/ La Havre D-Day Landing May 14 2024!! Help

[Dolly2]

We will be on the Norwegian Getaway 9 night Europe- Northern Capitals May 12 2024. 

 Ship Excursions for the La Havre----- D-Day Landing Beaches May 14 2024 SOLD OUT!!!

Any ideas?

[hoopslover]

We used Overlord Tours.  Best excursion ever!

[John Bull]

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

There's no suitable public transport, so your other options are:

 

- Overlord will almost certainly be fully-booked - they book out early - but worth an e-mail.

 

- On cruises anywhere  fellow-cruisers often book a van and then look for sharers.

Go on your cruise RollCall

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2815904-getaway-to-northern-europe-may-13-2024/page/5/

(I've linked you to the last page  of 5)

to see if anyone is offering seats.

Post on there anyway to say "Hi" to your fellow-cruisers, and mebbe ask.

 

- You could try https://www.europebattlefieldstours.com/Tours/British-and-Canadian-Highlights-1-Day.html (I've linked you to one of the appropriate pages). It's not an operator that I know.

They might have seats-in-bus available. Or you might want to consider booking a van & finding sharers (finding multiple sharers not advisable for a first-time cruiser)

 

- There are other D-Day tour operators, but I don't recall names. Google is your friend.

 

(Be aware with any shared tour that a high proportion will be Americans, and they'll naturally want to concentrate on the US beaches & sights).

 

- E-mail a few taxi operators in Le Havre to ask if they can provide a car & driver who speaks reasonable English and knows the main D-Day sights. Not having a proper guide isn't the end of the world, the sights have printed information and knowledgeable staff.

I'm guessing you'll want to visit Juno Beach at Courseulles-sur-Mer, the Canadian sector. It has an excellent museum, when we went some years ago visits were guided but that may have changed.  L'Abbaye d’Ardenne, scene of a *** atrocity against Canadian PoWs is also high on many Canadian visitors' list.

On the way there or back you'd also have time to drop into Pegasus Bridge (British), which comes before Juno and has an excellent museum. Or even continue past Juno to Arromanches then the American Cemetery overlooking  Omaha Beach at Saint Laurent-sur-Mer.

 

- Rent a car.  The road to the area is mainly divided highway, no city driving and no tolls other than for the bridge over the mouth of the River Seine. In the country lanes around the landing beaches you might get lost a time or two, but no big deal 😏. Parking at pretty-well all stops is plentiful and free. We can provide you with a suggested route & timings

Or to make it all easier (at a cost) you can check if the tour operator that I linked has a guide who can travel with you in your rented car, it's a service which they offer on their website.

 

If you fix up a taxi or rental car, post on your RollCall to find a couple to share.

If you find sharers ensure the taxi. or rental car f you book a guide, has 5 seats.

 

Lots of options, none as easy as booking a ship's or Overlord tour but worth the effort.

 

Good luck

 

JB 🙂

  

[pompeii]

On 2/15/2024 at 6:13 PM, hoopslover said:

We used Overlord Tours.  Best excursion ever!

 

On 2/16/2024 at 10:20 AM, John Bull said:

 

- Overlord will almost certainly be fully-booked - they book out early - but worth an e-mail.

 

Lots of options, none as easy as booking a ship's or Overlord tour but worth the effort.

 

Good luck

 

JB 🙂

  

Regarding Overlord, I'm trying to book it from Le Havre for our stop on the Regal Princess in August, but they won't commit to running the tour.  The email communication I've received is vague and says

 

"I have added you to the wait list and we will let you know if we can open the tour.

Again:

We open group tours depending on demand.

Please note this offers no guarantees and is demand dependent.  We need a minimum of 8 people to open the tour but it also depends on how many and which guides we have available as to whether we can open the tour."

 

For those who have used Overlord, did you run into this?  I know from our roll call that at least one other couple is on their waitlist.  It makes it very hard to plan if they don't even know if they'll have a guide for Normandy that day.  It seems very odd to me for a tour operator that specializes in Normandy tours.

[pompeii]

On 2/15/2024 at 5:11 PM, Dolly2 said:

We will be on the Norwegian Getaway 9 night Europe- Northern Capitals May 12 2024. 

 Ship Excursions for the La Havre----- D-Day Landing Beaches May 14 2024 SOLD OUT!!!

Any ideas?

Here's another option for you.  I have never used this operator and cannot vouch for them, but I am considering it for our date in August.

 

Normandy D-Day Beaches Shore Excursion from Le Havre Cruise Port (vexperio.com)

 

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, pompeii said:

 

Regarding Overlord, I'm trying to book it from Le Havre for our stop on the Regal Princess in August, but they won't commit to running the tour.  The email communication I've received is vague and says

 

"I have added you to the wait list and we will let you know if we can open the tour.

Again:

We open group tours depending on demand.

Please note this offers no guarantees and is demand dependent.  We need a minimum of 8 people to open the tour but it also depends on how many and which guides we have available as to whether we can open the tour."

 

For those who have used Overlord, did you run into this?  I know from our roll call that at least one other couple is on their waitlist.  It makes it very hard to plan if they don't even know if they'll have a guide for Normandy that day.  It seems very odd to me for a tour operator that specializes in Normandy tours.

I think this is related to operating out of Le Havre, and having enough interest from your ship. They also operate out of Bayeux and run multiple standard tours, but a limited number of the more specialized tours. We visited Bayeux on a land trip last June, booking two tours about 6 months ahead. But the specialized tour got canceled about 3 months ahead. But the day we did tour, there was 5 or 6 Overlord tours departing. 

 

Overload is a great outfit. 

[hoopslover]

2 hours ago, pompeii said:

 

Regarding Overlord, I'm trying to book it from Le Havre for our stop on the Regal Princess in August, but they won't commit to running the tour.  The email communication I've received is vague and says

 

"I have added you to the wait list and we will let you know if we can open the tour.

Again:

We open group tours depending on demand.

Please note this offers no guarantees and is demand dependent.  We need a minimum of 8 people to open the tour but it also depends on how many and which guides we have available as to whether we can open the tour."

 

For those who have used Overlord, did you run into this?  I know from our roll call that at least one other couple is on their waitlist.  It makes it very hard to plan if they don't even know if they'll have a guide for Normandy that day.  It seems very odd to me for a tour operator that specializes in Normandy tours.

There were 4 of us traveling together.  I asked on our roll call and got 2 other couples to join us so we had 8

[pompeii]

54 minutes ago, hoopslover said:

There were 4 of us traveling together.  I asked on our roll call and got 2 other couples to join us so we had 8

What I don't like is that it's not just the number of people signed up, it's that they don't know if they'll have a guide.  So there can be plenty of people interested but they'll still not run the tour, or they'll cancel it.  Just seems kind of iffy and unreliable to me.