excursions for eastern mediterranean

[bubbieX4]

Rich and I will be on the Ruby Princess for the July 15th sailing. Was hoping to hear from people who have traveled the easter med. as to which excursions are wothwhile. Is it better to book through the ship or an independent company. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks loads

Carol

[sanjim]

I think ships tours are to expensive, Private tours are much better but only if you have 4 ,6 or 8 people . The best thing is really to do it on your own, You will save a huge amount of money and you will see and do most of what you want. Take the time to study all the ports by reading this site and many others on the net, by maps of the ports you are going to at a good book store, read read read take notes and pictures with you don't worry you wont miss the Ship just do some planning ahead of time and plan to be back at the ship 2 hours before sailing.

 

Its one of things that my wife and I are really proud of we did we saw and we did it on our own, and we did not brake the bank. When we got back to the ship and talked to people who took ships tours and private ones we saw just about everything they saw, and in most cases more.

[aussiecruzer]

Rich and I will be on the Ruby Princess for the July 15th sailing. Was hoping to hear from people who have traveled the easter med. as to which excursions are wothwhile. Is it better to book through the ship or an independent company. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks loads

Carol

 

Hi Carol and a warm welcome to the cruise critic message boards!!:):)

 

I'm not sure which ports the Ruby Princess will be visiting but we did the Norwegian Jade Istanbul to Athens eastern med cruise in Sept 08. Our ports were Istanbul, Izmir (Ephesus), Mykonos, Santorini, Alexandria (Cairo) , Iraklion, Corfu, Katakolon (Olympia) and Athens. If these ports are of any interest to you I have details of what we did at each port in my ports of call review - link in my signature below. Generally independent tours are better for cost and flexibility of planning, esp if you can get together with others from your roll call. Have a great trip!

[chipmaster]

Rich and I will be on the Ruby Princess for the July 15th sailing. Was hoping to hear from people who have traveled the easter med. as to which excursions are wothwhile. Is it better to book through the ship or an independent company. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks loads

Carol

 

 

Welcome, depending on your vigor, sense of adventure, and budget there are many options for the ports.

 

Some ports are easily and best done by your self; Venice is one that comes to mind as can Istanbul.

 

Others like Rome, Florence/Pisa, or Naples can be more challenging if you really want to hit a lot of sites.

 

Others like Athens and Barcelona are a toss up.

 

For the more challenging ports Private tours always are better then all the ship tours, both for value and often for what you'll get. Traveling with a large bus of 40-60 people is simply going to be slower and less efficient then a small van/car with 4-10 people. The most $ efficient way to do the ports is private with 3-4 or 6-7 people. This way you can share the cost of the car/van with more people and you'll always end up cheaper then the cruise tours and see more. Even in some ports that can be done by your self, Private tours still can make sense due to their efficiency. Also if you are traveling in the heat of summer there is the luxury of coming back to a AC cooled vehicle versus hiking to the local bus / train / subway stop.

 

Good luck planning, you'll find lots of information here on the boards!

[luvz2run2000]

Check out the roll call for your cruise. There will probably be others who have organized private tours that have still space available. That way you can benefit from the their experience and research. Here's the link, just incase you don't know how to find that section of the boards.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=807609

 

We are on the Ruby 6/21 and we have several people who have organized tours for other members to join. We did all private tours organized through our roll call for our 2006 med cruise and had a blast.

[sillysailor 1955]

My husband and I did the NCL Jade Eastern Mediterrean cruise this last December. We were really glad to be able to book the cruise line excursions and did so in every location (Rome, Turkey, Malta and Egypt - we were supposed to go to Athens but the weather was prohibitive). Trust me you are really out of your element in that part of the world. The cruiseline excursions may cost a little more but believe me when I tell you that you don't want to be negotiating with the locals - they are beyond agressive, particularly in Egypt. I think its really wise to use the Cruiseline excusions. Have fun you are really going to see one of the most fabulous sights you will ever see (the pyramids are unbelieveable - but believe me so are the vendors, don't let them ruin the experience for you... just ignore them - if you can):eek:

[bubbieX4]

i read your reviews and really am l now more ooking forward to my cruise. what did you do in athens? did you take a private tour or did you go with the cruise line? also what do you think is the most important places to see.? thanks loads

carol

cruisegirl88@verizon.net

 

 

Hi Carol and a warm welcome to the cruise critic message boards!!:):)

 

I'm not sure which ports the Ruby Princess will be visiting but we did the Norwegian Jade Istanbul to Athens eastern med cruise in Sept 08. Our ports were Istanbul, Izmir (Ephesus), Mykonos, Santorini, Alexandria (Cairo) , Iraklion, Corfu, Katakolon (Olympia) and Athens. If these ports are of any interest to you I have details of what we did at each port in my ports of call review - link in my signature below. Generally independent tours are better for cost and flexibility of planning, esp if you can get together with others from your roll call. Have a great trip!

[aussiecruzer]

i read your reviews and really am l now more ooking forward to my cruise. what did you do in athens? did you take a private tour or did you go with the cruise line? also what do you think is the most important places to see.? thanks loads

carol

cruisegirl88@verizon.net

 

Hi Carol,

 

As Athens was the end of our cruise and we had an afternoon flight out back to Australia, I organised a private 1/2 day tour of Athens with Paul of Athens taxi. He picked us up at the port with our luggage ( there was 9 of us altogether-3 families) and took us to the Acropolis, Parthenon, Syntagma station and Parliament house and the changing of the guards, and the Temple of Zeus, and then we admired the views of Athens from Lycabbetus Hill, and saw the sites of the first Modern Olympics as well as the 2004 Olympics before being dropped off at the airport. It worked out very well and I can highly recommend Paul. If you google Paul and Athens Taxi he has a website. My favourite sites in Athens were the Parthenon, the excavations at Syntagma station, and the changing of the Guards.

Hope this helps!:)

[agabbymama]

Carol,

 

We did Grand Princess in Oct '08 Civitavecchia, Monte Carlo, Livorno, Santorini, Kusadasi, Mykonos (missed due to high winds), Athens, Katakolon (Olympia), Corfu and Venice.

 

I had planned a lot of "do it ourself" because of cost, but upon our arrival in Paris, I soon learned my friend couldn't do all of the walking that would be necessary. She was really in a lot of pain walking, so we had to go slow and missed a lot of things because of the stairs and uphill climbs.

 

We ended up doing a combination of all three. We only saw Monte Carlo from the pier, as we were unable to make the climb up the hill. The fiaso in Monte Carlo kind of scared us, so we booked ship excursions in Livorno (Tuscany winetasting), Santorini, and Kusadasi. We hired a private taxi of our own in Naples for Pompeii & Sorrento (the best day of our entire 21 day trip, but the most expensive too at 100 EUR pp). Shared a taxi with other CC member in Athens. And did Corfu, Katakolon and Venice on our own.

 

Ships excursions are usually more costly as they are pp, whereas the taxis or private tours the price is usually for the vehicle. Just be prepared, have your plan "A", then have a plan "B" for when plan A falls apart. You have to be willing to go with the flow, and not get upset or disappointed when things don't go as you had planned. That was my big mistake, I only had plan "A" then had to wing it when things fell apart.

[bubbieX4]

thank you for all your great information, i'm going to start using the infor right away. if anything else comes to mind.....i would appreciate hearing from you all

again, thanks loads and be well

carol

[bubbieX4]

we already have private tours set up in rome, istanbul, and kusaidis...am still looking into athens, florence, naples. would you be able to provide me with the information of the excursions your roll call is using. i would certainly appreciate it. thanks so much. if you prefer to email me at my home........cruisegirl88@verizon.net, again thanks

carol

 

ote=luvz2run2000;18293910]Check out the roll call for your cruise. There will probably be others who have organized private tours that have still space available. That way you can benefit from the their experience and research. Here's the link, just incase you don't know how to find that section of the boards.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=807609

 

We are on the Ruby 6/21 and we have several people who have organized tours for other members to join. We did all private tours organized through our roll call for our 2006 med cruise and had a blast.