Beware of non-sponcered ship excursions

[boiledham]

Who did you book with? It would be nice to have that info for an upcoming cruise. Thanks.

 

For Athens we wanted to also go to Corinth and the Corinth Canal. This is the website and I really "stumbled upon it" because I was on Matt Barrett's Website. http://www.athensguide.com/bus-tours/index.htm Billy is the son of "George the Famous Taxi Driver"!! I know it sounds hoakie but Billy was wonderful! The traffic in Athens is HORRIBLE but he was a very patient and good driver. I'd go with him again in a heartbeat!

 

The Kusadasi tour was thru www.tur-tour.com. I can't begin to spell or pronounce the guide's name. We had a driver and guide. He was very knowledgeable and we saw the Virgin Mary's house, Ephesus and the Terrace Houses. It was a 1/2 day tour and there were 9 of us and we paid $40 each (in USD). The sites last two sites will take credit cards and I got a Capitol One just for the trip. The turkish lira was calculated when I used it in Turkey and the exchange rate was much better than that of the Euro.

 

For Italy I used www.italylimousine.com and Mario was our driver for the Amalfi Coast and Pompei. He was great. Marco showed us around Rome. And Artan was our driver for the Pisa/Florence trip. This company cut a deal because we were using them in all three ports plus they were running a special the month (March) that I booked. None required charge cards or deposits. We paid in Euros at the end of the trip. There were 7 total of us on each of these ports and that was very comfortable. I wouldn't have wanted more.

 

We were blessed with great weather (a little on the hot side but just down my alley)and great trips. If you need any further help don't hesitate to ask. I'm delighted to share and wish for everyone the great time that we had!

[TracieABD]

We were blessed with great weather (a little on the hot side but just down my alley)and great trips. If you need any further help don't hesitate to ask. I'm delighted to share and wish for everyone the great time that we had!

 

Thank you so much for the detail response. I have it "filed away" for the future!

[boiledham]

Thank you so much for the detail response. I have it "filed away" for the future!

 

Noticed you went to Alaska. Did you do private or ship tours? I'm beginning my plans for a future cruise...land/sea maybe the 4 day land, 7 day sea. Share some of your pointers. Thanks!

[TracieABD]

Noticed you went to Alaska. Did you do private or ship tours? I'm beginning my plans for a future cruise...land/sea maybe the 4 day land, 7 day sea. Share some of your pointers. Thanks!

Seattle: Because my family is from the Seattle area, we negotiated this on our own. We arrived in Seattle a day early just to poke around. We stayed at the Westin (very nice) which had a great location close to the tram, Pikes and the downtown shopping. We did venture down to Pikes to lunch at one of my favorite eateries: Beechers Cheese. My DH was a bit skeptical, but I have made a believer of him. He fell in love at the first bite of grilled cheese sandwich and mac and cheese. We did a bit of tourist shopping in the market, but we are not big shoppers, so we took the tram to the Space Needle. We have been in it numerous times, so we decided to walk to another favorite eatery: Dick’s Hamburgers in Capitol Hill. There is a closer Dick’s in the Space Needle area, but we needed to stretch our legs, and decided to walk the hour uphill to get to Broadway. We like the area, because there are few tourists, and restaurants are great. We ended up eating a picnic in the park.

The following morning, we ran through Seattle and got ready to board the ship.

 

Juneau: My DH planned for three excursions at this stop. We booked privately and were not disappointed on any. Our first excursion was a quick ride up the tramway above Juneau. The cost was $27 pp and this afforded unlimited rides through out the day. We did see people that were hiking.

We stop for a snack at Tracy’s Crab Shack. My husband really enjoyed the crab cocktail and the bisque. As a side note, if you are not a seafood eater, there is a hot dog stand, a creperie, and a smoothie shack right next door. The crepes were pretty good.

The second tour was a helicopter/ dog sled adventure with Coastal Helicopters. Our pilot was a very young woman, who was just excellent. When we reached the Herbert Glacier, we landed at true dog camp. There were 73 dogs, and several tents. The owner of the camp, Rick, is an experienced Iditarod musher, and he and his team placed 2nd in the 2008 Iditarod! He was our personal guide, and allowed us to steer the sled. Unlike some of the cruise ship excursions, we actually were pulled on snow. He explained that this process of pulling tourists was actually a great workout for the dogs. The dogs were very sweet and friendly.

Our last tour in Juneau was a whale watch with Dolphin Jet Boat Tours. The tour guaranteed we would see whales, and we were not disappointed. The tour that went before us saw not only humpbacks, but orcas and were even treated to view the bubble feeding of the whales. We were not quite a lucky, but we did see numerous whales, seals, eagles… The tour was very professionally run.

My husband also had enough time to eat at the locally famous Hot Bite. They are known for their milkshakes. We walked around the marina and spotted a couple of yachts that were stunning (one even had its own helicopter- someone is living well!).

We would cheerfully recommend both of the tours, as they provided exactly what they advertised and more.

 

 

Skagway: We got of the ship at 6 am so that we could take pictures of the town before the influx of tourists. It is a lot of jewelry, t-shirt, and souvenir shops. We did two tours in this port. Our first was booked independently and was a van ride to the summit of the White's Pass and then a train ride back to port. Surprisingly, I liked the van ride a bit better than the train. The train moved very slowly, and was not terribly comfortable. It was a lot of sitting, which does not always work well for us.

The second tour was booked through Princess. We took a bike ride through the Dyea rainforest with Sockeye Tours. I was so glad to be moving! The ride was not particularly challenging (about five miles of flat). The guides were young and goofy and a lot of fun. In hindsight, we may have chosen a more challenging ride, but at least we had a chance to stretch our legs. I would use this tour company again for any bicycle tour.

 

Tracy Arm Fjord: While this is not a port stop, it is an adventure. We traveled slowly through the channel and were able to see quite a bit of ice, but had to turn before we reached the glacier, due to fog. We did pass the Star Princess, and heard that they also had to turn prior to reaching the glacier.

 

Ketchikan: We arrived a bit early, and were the second to disembark the ship. We were able to take lots of pictures and many of the shops were open. We took a flight with Island Wings to see the fjords. The flight was lovely, and we were even able to leave the plane for a bit on a small island, but I did get a bit airsick.

 

Victoria: We had a ship's tour arraigned for the Buchart Gardens. Getting off of the ship was a complete boondoggle. Once on a bus, the rest of the trip was fine. The gardens are beautiful and there was a live band playing so we were treated to music throughout our tour.

[DONNALAKA]

OMG BILLET. i was trying to get the bug off my screen for awhile ............ LOOLOLOLLO:p

[photojunkie]

We have never used the ship excursion as we don't want to be on a bus with a hundred people. We go online and arrange our tour before we go and always have found people either on cruise critic or right on the ship that want to join us. It is more than a few dollars. With four people, it can be more than $100 per person per excursion. We get a local guide and get to go to more places since there are only 4-6 of us.

[billet]

OMG BILLET. i was trying to get the bug off my screen for awhile ............ LOOLOLOLLO:p

 

Don't use the fly swatter or fly spray you will damage your screen! If you press ESC it will be in suspended animation (like those prehistoric bugs)