Grande Corniche, Eze & Monaco Excursion

[rosie#1]

Hello,

 

Does anyone have a review of this RCL excursion?

[42trvl]

We just did this excursion on our Celebrity cruise. I'm assuming they will be the same, since it's the same company. It started off pleasantly enough. From the ship we got a nice tour of Nice and had some time on our own there. Then we went to Eze, which is a very charming village and they also provided lunch here. The lunch was "okay" but we felt quite rushed in Eze and that too much time was allocated for a so-so lunch. There were enough cute places in the village that we could have eaten at on our own. The ride from Eze to Monaco was tough - very scenic in the beginning, but then we hit awful traffic which we were told is the norm there. We did not feel that Monaco was worth our time at all. Out of curiosity, it would have been nice to drive through just to have seen it, but we wasted a lot of time there doing nothing aside from hearing the guide go on and on about Princess Grace and the rest of the family and how rich everyone who goes there is. The two stops made in Monaco were quite useless and blew our whole afternoon. It would have been much better to spend more time in Eze or even the village the ship docks in. If you are interested in Monaco and the Grand Casino, then you would be much better off doing an excursion that focuses on that. Otherwise, other than an "oh, that's interesting" we did not think Monaco was worth an entire afternoon - we also had bad traffic leaving.

[rosie#1]

Thank you for the review.

[texancruzer]

We had a completely different experience.

 

We tendered in Villefranche, went to Nice and had time on our own (got to see the French President very up close and personal @ 3 feet) then to Eze. Plenty of time to climb all over the "upper" village and then a REALLY good lunch at White Horse Restaurant. Then to Monaco (the rock) to see on our own the Palace, the Cathedral (Princess Grace etc buried here) and even had time for a quick run thru of the Jacques Cousteau Oceanagraphic Museum (very cool) before heading into Monte Carlo. Some people went into the casino (guide had vouchers so no cost) and some opted to wander. We window shopped a bit and then sat at an outdoor table at the Cafe De Paris right outside the casino entrance and people watched while having a wonderful French crepe and a cup of coffee.

 

We enjoyed our Royal Caribbean ship tour alot....even tho we don't normally like to do ships tours. We also felt it was a good value for the $$ since it was a full day and we paid in US $ !

[42trvl]

We may be talking different excursions here. It would be best to check carefully just what the one you are thinking about entails. Ours allowed only 30 minutes in Eze before lunch, which was no where near enough time to really enjoy the village - you would basically have time to run up and back down with a couple of very quick stops. It's a nice village to have some time to explore. As for Monaco, our excursion did not include entrance to the casino - the excursion description should specify whether or not iyours does - so if people wanted to go in, they had to pay separately. There was less than an hour for the first stop, and while we did go into the Cathedral little time was left for much else - The ticket line alone for the Oceanography Museum was over 20 minutes long.

[texancruzer]

We may be talking different excursions here. It would be best to check carefully just what the one you are thinking about entails. Ours allowed only 30 minutes in Eze before lunch, which was no where near enough time to really enjoy the village - you would basically have time to run up and back down with a couple of very quick stops. It's a nice village to have some time to explore. As for Monaco, our excursion did not include entrance to the casino - the excursion description should specify whether or not iyours does - so if people wanted to go in, they had to pay separately. There was less than an hour for the first stop, and while we did go into the Cathedral little time was left for much else - The ticket line alone for the Oceanography Museum was over 20 minutes long.

 

Could be different one.....but went same places. I was only trying to comment on our different experience as far as that we enjoyed all the places we went. Including Monaco which you said was "not worth your time at all". I dont think we had much more than 45 minutes to explore the upper village of Eze but that was plenty for us. Our excursion did not say it included entrance into the casino but when we went from Monaco to Monte Carlo our guide said that for anyone wanting to go in she had vouchers..... a nice surprise for those wanting to go inside. We wandered all over Monaco -first to the palace, then cathedral and we even had about 30 minutes or so in the Oceanagraphic Museum (well worth the 11 euros).

 

So. I would agree - read the descriptions carefully. Decide what you really want to see and then start narrowing down the choices. We decided we wanted to see as much of the area as we could (but Eze was a must in the list) and felt we got a good "taste" of this area of France.