Question on shore excursions from Isignia (Venice to Barcelona), from new member

[Isidoro]

Hello to the Cruise Critic community from a new member.

 

The only cruise my wife and I had taken so far was a river cruise on the Po, in Italy. Small ship, small crew, small cabin, circa 120 passengers, low water levels in the river due to drought, so we took a lot of buses...

 

For very specific common anniversaries we, together with a couple of friends, booked on the Insignia cruise from Venice to Barcelona.

 

Because all four of us are very independent travellers, and had alwyas planned every detail in our trips ourselves, here we are having to consider decisions on shore excursions as available from a cruise ship.

 

The ports of call:

 

Venice: we know very well, no problem;

Dubrovnik: never been there;

Corfu: never been there;

Sorrento/Capri: never been there;

Amalfi/Positano: never been there;

Rome (Civitavecchia): we know Rome very well. Would like to do something near Civitavecchia: had thought of taking a taxi to Ostia Antica but it is a 70 km. one way drive so maybe it isn't a good idea;

Portoferraio (Elba): never been there;

Florence/Pisa (Livorno): we know very well Florence, Pisa, Siena, etc. How is Livorno, what can four people do there to get to know the city? Other suggestions?

Portofino: never been there;

Provence: we know the region very well but had so far avoided Marseille.

Palma de Mallorca: this one is somehow decided: my wife and her friend are classical musicians and teach piano and so George Sand and Chopin will be on their minds. Anything else as an option for the two "boys"?

Barcelona: been there, done that- we will head straight to the airport for the return home.

 

Those who have been around, please tell us what you think you would do or had done.

 

Also, do we really need to pre-book those shore excursions that interest us or could we just wait and make these decisions once on board?

 

So, we would appreciate any suggestions, and also undertake that, once back, I will make myself available to others and their questions on this message board.

 

With thanks,

Isidoro

[Andee]

We don't care for ship's shore excursions. We like self-guided historical walking tours, so tend to do them in lots of cities, but here are some things particular to each city.

 

Dubrovnik: Walk the city walls with the audio guide--great views and interesting information.

 

Corfu: There's a trolley (with narration) that goes out to sites that are too far for a walking tour, including a 1000 year old church. Do it in the middle of the day, and it's a nice break for your feet.

 

Sorrento/Capri & Amalfi/Positano: With another couple, we arranged for a day tour with Giovanni from http://www.tourofitaly.com Our ship docked in Naples, instead of the planned tender in Amalfi, and we stopped in Amalfi, Sorrento, Positano, and Ravello.

 

Palma de Mallorca: I remember the Arab Baths, the Cathedral with it's Gaudi altar piece, and cappuccino in a sidewalk cafe for some people watching.

[tropicalkerry2002]

Hi Isadora( another fellow Toronto area cruiser!)

 

We were on Med tapestry last fall, our first cruise ever, and travelled with another couple. If you click on my name, you will be able to find my trip report, incl the tour guides we used. All our tours were private, non-ship tours.

 

The 4 of us found that by taking a tour booked ourselves, the cost for the 4 of us was comparable to what the 4 of us would have paid for a ship's tour, yet we were not on a busload of people, and could tell our guide what WE wanted to see, leave a site when WE were ready to move on ,etc.

 

I did go on the roll call, and ask others if they wanted to join us, to a limit of 8, and that would then drop the price PP much lower. We did find wonderful folks to join us on 4 of our 6 tours.( Seems we must be the ONLY people who hadn't been to Rome or Florence before!)

 

I would highly recommend all our guides, and my personal favourite tour was with Jean Marc at the Monte Carlo stop. All of the guides we used were more than willing to personalize the tour to what I requested when I originally contacted them.

 

You will love this cruise!

[pondnana]

Hello from a fellow Canadian;

We had a wonderful time recently in the Amalfi region with Aldo Esposito www.aldotaxi.net. We were with another couple and went to Pompeii Vesuvius one day and the next day went to Positano. He is delightful, great fun and we felt we were leaving a friend behind when we left him. He also took us to out of the way family-run restaurants which were great fun. He is an ex-restauranteur so really knows his stuff.

In Marseille we used Catherine from www.provence-travel.com. She took us to Aix-En-Provence and Cassis and that too was a memorable day.

At the Livorno port we rented a car and went to Lucca. You might want to check out Puccini as he came from that area.

Dubrovnik is a great walk around the walls and it is very interesting to see how they have restored the city after the war.

Hope this helps.

Diana

[Isidoro]

Dubrovnik is a great walk around the walls and it is very interesting to see how they have restored the city after the war.

Hope this helps.

Diana

Thank you, Diana, great information and recommendations. All go in the book!

 

Regarding Dubrovnik: how did you do the visit: with the ship excursion (which?), or the so called Discovery Walk with the iPod or privately arranged?

 

Thanks, Isidoro

[Isidoro]

We were on Med tapestry last fall, our first cruise ever, and travelled with another couple. If you click on my name, you will be able to find my trip report, incl the tour guides we used. All our tours were private, non-ship tours.

Thank you for the detailed report and the fine tips, Kerry! I have saved the report, and I'll start getting all the excellent tips in our book.

 

We will travel with another couple, but we assume that, at different points, we will go separately depending on the interests and the places in which we have already been.

 

How long in advance did you make your reservations with the good tour guides/drivers?

 

This is a very good, relaxed forum; enjoying reading all the valuable information!

 

From Toronto,

Isidoro

[Isidoro]

Sorry, don't know yet how to delete a message...:confused:

[Isidoro]

We don't care for ship's shore excursions. We like self-guided historical walking tours, so tend to do them in lots of cities, but here are some things particular to each city.

 

Andee, in our small group the opinions are split right down the middle. I think that once on board, and understanding a bit better the debarkment/return to ship routines, we will be a bit more daring on going independently. This is an area for which we have no previous experience.

 

What would be a typical routine for ship arrival in, say, Amalfi at 9 a.m., choosing a shore trip, and having to be back in time because the ship leaves at 6 p.m.? I assume quite of bit of time is spent with getting off and back on the ship. Feels tight to me...

 

Thank you for the tips. You, guys, are super!

Isidoro

[Andee]

One of the advantanges of the smaller ships is the ease in which you can get on and off--it doesn't take long at all. Generally, you need to be back 30 minutes before the listed departure time.

 

We booked our private guide about six months in advance.

 

In Palma, we had talked about riding the hop on/hop off Bus Turistic, so walked (about 20 minutes) to where we could get it. We had trouble finding the spot, and then realized that we were there earlier than it started running, so we took a city bus into the old town.

 

In Corfu, we walked from the ship into town--it took about 30 minutes. At the end of the day, we were tired, so we took a city bus back.

 

In Dubrovnik, we tendered right into the old city. At the end of the day, we were a little disconcerted to find that the ship wasn't there and there weren't any tenders. But there was an Oceania employee telling us the ship had moved because the seas had gotten rough. We walked back to the Pile Gate, and there were buses waiting to take us on a 10 minute drive to the dock.

[tropicalkerry2002]

Hi Isidoro,

 

I booked our private guides in Jan- Feb for a cruise at the end of Sept, and even then, my first choice was gone for one port.

I think you will be surprised...it doesn't take much time to get off the ship, even when tendered to shore. I doubt we waited more than 5 mins to get on a tender.

Travelling with another couple was great, the days we had tours we were together, but other days were spent on our own sometimes. We didn't always dine together, or spend our evenings together. And we're still great friends, hope to do it again someday!

[tropicalkerry2002]

Also,

the private guides are VERY familiar with people having to be back at port by a certain time, and we never had a problem. I know it DOES happen that traffic, etc, can make you miss your ship, but from what I have heard/read, it's quite rare. I never even thought about it once I was on the cruise.

[Isidoro]

Diana, Kerry. Andee: I will pass on tonight the link to this topic to my friends. It is all very interesting and useful and, in a way, you have started to shape our excursions.

 

We were indeed suprised how early the best (and more expensive!) options on the ship were gone!

[pondnana]

Diana, Kerry. Andee: I will pass on tonight the link to this topic to my friends. It is all very interesting and useful and, in a way, you have started to shape our excursions.

 

We were indeed suprised how early the best (and more expensive!) options on the ship were gone!

 

With respect to your question about Dubrovnik, we took a taxi from the ship and just walked around on our own. We wandered into a church and spent some time speaking to the attendant who had lived in Canada. He gave us a great deal of info as to the restoration. We then sat at a café and had a coffee. Great experience, took taxi back to ship and had lunch.

We found that the guides were very conscientious about getting us back. On the Amalfi coast we left at about 8:30 and were back by 3:00pm in plenty of time. Some of our party even went shopping before boarding.

There are certain ports eg. some of the ports in Asia, Middle East the traffic can be so heavy that you don't want to take the chance. As well, cruises that take us out of what we know eg. the Amazon cruise, we tend to use the ship excursions because we assume they have been vetted and the ship will wait if the tour is held up.

Diana

[2kiwis]

Hi

 

We did this trip in reverse three years ago and loved it.

 

For Rome and Florence we booked Claudio and he was FANTASTIC........ = Claudio Caponera [claudio@limoinrome.com]

 

He picked us up and took us where ever we wanted to go and had all our tickets pre-organised so we did not have to wait anywhere.

We initially booked for just the two of us and meet up with another couple on the boat who decided to come with us and share the cost. Claudio had a mercedes van that takes up to 8 but with just the 4 of us it was perfect. He was also a great tour guide = imparted history and local knowledge with such enthusiasm.

 

Most other places we just did our own thing when we got off the ship except we did take the ship's tour to Pompeii which was really worth while.

 

Cheers