Help a First Time Celebrity Cruiser

[bwmchr]

I have booked a Celebrity Cruise on the Summit for a 12 Night Mediterranean Legacies Cruise that departs Venice on August 3rd. As this is my first cruise and first time in the Med, I was looking for suggestions and helpful hints geered specifically to this ship and ports of call. (Dubrovnik, Santorini, Athens, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice, and Barcelona) One of my many questions is, should we take the on-shore excusions offered by Celebrity or go out on our own? Any suggestions that will help make my first cruise memorable will be greatly appreciated.

[Texed]

As this is my first cruise and first time in the Med, I was looking for suggestions and helpful hints geered specifically to this ship and ports of call. (Dubrovnik, Santorini, Athens, Naples, Rome, Florence, Nice, and Barcelona) One of my many questions is, should we take the on-shore excusions offered by Celebrity or go out on our own?

 

I suggest going to the Ports of Call board, and click on Europe (Med) section. That way you can decide. Also, find the roll call for your cruise and you will find a lot of info and/or be able to join others on your sailing for excursions.

[hajekfam]

We did a Med cruise this past Nov. and did private shore excursions for Athens, Kusadasi, Naples, Rome, and Florence and Pisa. We did a private excursion for Villefranche on a previous cruise so we opted to take the train to Nice on our own. Dubrovnik you can take the shuttle to the old city and walk around on your own. And in Barcelona, there is tourist bus that stops at all the attractions.

We joined up with other members from our roll call to book the private excursions. We found that private excursions are better as you only have to wait for 8 people to get on and off the vehicle and you can eat at a little local place instead of the catered luncheon at a hotel that Celebrity usually uses. Because you don't have to wait for people to show up (on a ship tour, there is usually one or two at each stop who seem to think they can take their sweet time), you can actually add one or two extra stops on a private tour. Private tours in Italy, France, Turkey, and Greece charge so much for the car and with 8 people even paying for admissions and lunch, was much cheaper than Celebrity's price. We have taken Celebrity tours in Europe (it was actually cheaper in Malaga and Cadiz to book through the cruiseline because private tours charge per person instead of per car there) and we had to wait 20 minutes after lunch for two people who decided to shop.