which is best?

[lizian]

are the thomson excursions or d i y ones the best, in the caribbean and the med ? am a little affraid that if we do our own or hire taxis that we will miss departure times!

[Cymro1953]

It really depends which ports you are stopping at. For example our last cruise we did some shhip excursions but did Barcelona on our own as we had been there before.

And next one following advice in the reviews we are definitely doing a ship organised excursion to Cairo. but in 3 of the ports we are going on our own

The main advantage of a ship excursion that if it is running late the ship will have to wait for you.

[kruzseeka]

Yes, it really does depend on your preferences.

 

In the Caribbean I would say the local taxis/buses are generally excellent value - much cheaper than the equivalent Thomson trip. Also transfers to beaches are usually easy enough to do. But there are some trips which would be less easy to do yourself eg. the Scenic Railway in St Kitts or the Altos de Chavon trip combined with the Mississippi boat ride. You really need to try to get an idea of what you would like to do then research it on the internet first. Some of the excursions like swimming with dolphins, catamaran trips can be organised locally at a better rate and sometimes in advance through pre-booking.

 

In the Med it's often easy to do your own thing too. Even getting to Rome on the train isn't a problem - but a trip to the Alhambra Palace would perhaps be best done through the ship (because the entrance times are very regulated, it's a longish trip and the security of getting back to the ship in time is an issue). I wouldn't take a DiY approach in Morocco but generally it's quite possible to make your own arrangements, especially if you know where you want to go and have information about local transport etc. available. Often you can get information on bus/train timetables so that you can plan thoroughly in advance.

 

But as you are aware, the issue of getting back to the ship in time can be a concern - it will wait for you if it's a Thomson trip. My advice would be if you are taking a DiY option and travelling some distance from the port, to get off early and make sure you build in plenty of time to get back. In the Caribbean, we took local taxi trips in the morning getting back to the vicinity of the ship by early afternoon - then went to a local beach for a swim or look around the town so we knew we were close by and could get back in good time.