Mediterranean Cruise Excursions

[southcarolinacruiser]

We are taking the 7 day Med cruise in September. Has anyone done the Rome, Naples or Villefrance excursions? Since the excursions are so expensive, I want to make sure I choose the right ones. In Hawaii, we did it on our own but I am a bit leary of doing that in Europe when my french and spanish hasn't been used in over 30 years! Suggestions anyone?

[jstducky]

i would be interested in this answer as well as i am looking into this cruise for next year! a lot of people have suggested checking out the ports of call page. i've heard that its better to use the trains to get yourself into the city from the port, supposedly its a lot cheaper that way...

[southcarolinacruiser]

I just found another thread recommending the driveinrome.com website. We are on the 9/11 Splendour cruise with 2 days on the front end in Barcelona and one night on the back end. The cruise was really cheap. $2800 for a mini suite through cruisequick.com for both my husband and myself. But paying $350 each for an all day tour in Rome is a bit scary when there are still 4 other ports! Let me know if you find out anything else and I will start hitting on my research more heavily.

[jstducky]

wow thats a great price you got on that cruise! i'm jealous!

 

but i agree $350 for an excursion per person for one port alone is scary!

[vivian02]

Hi all you Cruisers,

Let me see if I can give you some good information. Cathy and I just returned three weeks ago from our first European Cruise on Splendor. We are in our fifties, have been to Europe before, and found this to be the best of our three cruises in the past year.

First we flew into Barcelona two days early mainly to recoup from jet lag and to see the sights in Barcelona for the first time. On the back side of the cruise we chose to stay an extra two day in Barcelona two blocks from the beach and a one night stay over in Frankfurt before heading back to the States. By the way the Beaches in Barcelona were the nicest beaches we saw on the whole trip. (Bela Mar Beach is really different).

At Marsellie we did the Les Baux de Providence tour by Royal Caribbean. I did it because Cathy didn't want to get up early on the first port and go the way I like to go. The tour was very relaxing traveling up into the highlands and farm areas of Les Baux. Very scenic area with that touch of mistic, vinyards, olive groves, double tree lines country roads leading you up to the rustic village of Les Baux. This was on a Sunday and the outsides cafes and shops were open. This tour left me with a really nice image of southern France. I talked to others that did the tour of Marsellie and they seem to think Marsellie was kind of dirty. Not to scare anyone but I did talk to a couple the following day that were robbed. The guy told me he thought they might be in the wrong area when he saw people passed out in the street(hint).

Villedefrance we did our own tour to Monico. The train for a round trip ticket was only 4.50 Euros round trip each. From Monico you can take the bus to the Palace for around 1.40 Euros each way. The beaches at Villedefrance are nice but the sand is pretty coarse. Very nice scenery.

On Monday we did the ship tour into Florence with a stop on the way back at Pisa. I heard it takes about an hour to get to Florence by train so the tour can be done on your own. I did hear that if you go to Pisa by train but you have to take a local bus to get to the leaning tower. Trying to do all that in one day could cause timing issues. We were impressed with the leaning tower. On the other hand we thought there were too many street vends trying to sell you watches and so on. Annoying but not completely disappointing. Taking the bus tour does garantee you will get back to the ship on time for departure.

Rome. This was the highlight on the cruise. We did the Rome on your own tour and could have spent three days in Rome. The is so much to see and do that we will return again. On Wednesdays if you want to see the Pope just go to St Peter's square and have security ok your presents and you will be able to see the Pope. We choose not to go where the crowds were so it was off to the collisium.

By the time we got to Naples we were tired and just walked around the port. There were some nice sights in the port area but watch out for the drivers. In Naples traffic rules just don't apply. On our next trip we will do Pompei. For those of you that want to go to Capri its real easy. There are Hydrofoils leaving every fifteen minutes from the port weather pending.

This is just my opinion, this is very port intensive and if you get a suit or mini suit remember the only full day to enjoy it will be on the return trip to Barcelona on day six. We had a inside cabin on deck 3 that had all the conforts of home. Even the TV had great programing. Our trip including airfare, cruise, tours, hotels, taxi's, bues, shore lunches, tips, kennel fees ran us $2500 per person. I know how much this cruise could have ran. I also know that with the money saved we will be planning a 12 day cruise next year that will include the Greek Islands. Tim and Cathy

 

Norwegian Sky 5/03

Norwegian Star 11/03

Royal Caribbean Splendor of the Seas 5/04

[RickT]

We did those ports and wanted to see it all so we took the ship excursions. The port of Villefrance is part way between Nice and Monte Carlo. If we had only wanted to see one of these cities we probably would have done it on our own but since we wanted to see both we felt the cruise tour was best. It was a long day but we got to see everything we wanted.

 

Rome is about 60 minutes from port and we had some concerns over finding our way around and missing the ship so we again took a ship tour. We feel we got our monies worth and had a no worry day seeing the sites.

 

As far as naples goes, we did take the ship tour but I doubt we had to. The ship docks right at Naples and it seemed pretty easy to get around. We did go to Pompeii and with the ship tour didn't have to wait in line to get in but I think it could have been easy on your own.

 

Good luck and enjoy your trip. With all the sites to see you'll need a vacation by the time you get home.

[jezzdogg]

We are on Millennium for a 14 day cruise this august, find 7 days are just not enough in Europe to warrant the long plane trip, jet lag, etc................. We have booked most excursions on our own and sharing with another couple we meet on the boards, you might want to go that way, for it is usually less expensive that the ships tours, and you can design where you want to go