Excursions to Normandy

[SleepyDeb]

I just booked a Disney Dream cruise to Iceland. The first stop is Cherbourg, France, which is pretty close to the Normandy beaches. There are no excursions on the DCL website. I can find some non-Disney ones by googling, but I'm worried about not getting back in time. When I search for Cherbourg or Normandy on this site, I find nothing at all. Is this a new stop for Disney and maybe excursions will come later. It's hard to believe that DCL wouldn't have excursions to Normandy. That's a bucket list item for us.

 

[auntlynne]

Would you consider renting a car and driving? It’s just a little over 1 hour drive each way to the US Cemetery, which is located inland from Omaha Beach. Cars are usually manual shift; sometimes you can pay more for automatic. But at least it’s left-hand drive. I’ve driven in France; it didn’t seem odd. And this area won’t be big-city driving.

The bus or train are going to take 2-3 hours each way.

There is a website you can check if you want a tour guide on-site.

There are probably down-loadable walking guides, too, for your phone. Start looking on the internet and you could be researching for hours as you Would probably get pulled in reading about history.

 

[auntlynne]

Found a Trip Report from 2017. They docked in Le Havre and did an excursion to Normandy.

Excursions for your cruise may still be in the planning / negotiating stage - or they may not offer it. And they are not prone to let you know either way.

I checked Viator for tours. The ones they had listed were not currently being offered. Covid? Workers? They were also 8-9 hours in length.

 

[Marc D]

It is usual for DCL to release at the last minute the excursions for a new stop. I’m pretty sure Cherbourg is one for them. We had the same thing happen when we stopped at Plymouth on our British Isles cruise. The expedition popped up in the week before the first guests could check in.

The best way to guess what type of excursions they will offer is to look at excursions offered on other cruise lines. It seems the main attractions when stopping in Cherbourg are Ravalet castle, Mont St-Michel and the D-Day beaches.

 

[anricat]

We are booked on this cruise and it's crazy we are going to be in Cherbourg on a Sunday. Literally everything is closed. And I mean literally in the literal sense of the word!

I haven't found a single third party tour operator that is operating on Sunday and every single car rental agency is closed on Sunday. I'm a total loss. It looks like we may be able to somehow find a way to get a car rental agency to leave a car somewhere? I found one reference on Trip Advisor to someone doing that. I don't have an international calling plan, though so I can't call any of them to figure it out. I have a friend in Geneva, Switzerland so I'm going to see if she can help us out with maybe calling one or two rental agencies.

I imagine because of the Sunday thing, DCL is going to have to do some serious negotiations with tour companies to open up on a Sunday and get some tours going. I'm sure they will come up with something. It's a pretty major stop for this cruise and they need to be able to deliver.

 

[anricat]

Ravalet castle, Mont St-Michel and the D-Day beaches

We don't have a lot of time in port and that's a lot of travel for Mont St-Michel. We are only there 8-4

 

[nalabear]

We drove this summer from Disneyland Paris to Mont St Michel via the Normandy coast and back to Paris.

Given 8-4 = 8 hours; that's tight to do anything at scale.

You have to choose: Mont St Michel vs Normandy coast.

This is what I'd suggest if you get a car -- we drive an automatic and google maps was quite adequate to get you around.
https://goo.gl/maps/kE7uratG9Fg7jdgs9
N13 - easy large road
-Church with John Steele - quick 30min stop is sufficient -- the square is quite busy. the shops are very nice and we ate lunch there.
-American cemetery - spent 2 hours there. - there's a museum just outside the cemetery and that's one of the larger ones.

-drive along Omaha beach - and along the small 2 lane D514 to Pointe Du Hoc to see the rangers scaling cliffs and the ramparts defense line. It's a very nice overview of the scale of the beach landings. There a few small visitor museums there if you're interested - we skipped those along the way

Utah beach is really nice too; but I think you'll be pressed to go up to that area as they are small roads like D514 and doesn't add much more if you hit the above.

 

[anricat]

This is what I'd suggest if you get a car

Once again, we have an issue here. It's Sunday. Every single car rental place is closed on Sunday. Every one.

 

[Micca]

I can find some non-Disney ones by googling, but I'm worried about not getting back in time.

Won't they work with you to guarantee you'll return to the ship on time? It would seem if enough people from the same cruise were interested, they'd create a schedule that would work for you.

 

[anricat]

I can find some non-Disney ones by googling

Did you find any actually operating on Sundays? I didn't find a single one.

As for not making it back on time (if one were to locate someone available) I wouldn't worry about them making it back on time. They won't be in business long if they don't get their customers back to the ship on time!

 

[nalabear]

Well we did do a portion of this on Sunday - last day for Tour De France no less -- lots of activity along the beaches and restaurants were all open along with fair amount of tour buses.

Rental car was open in Paris for drop-off too; so it is feasible.

 

[anricat]

Well we did do a portion of this on Sunday - last day for Tour De France no less -- lots of activity along the beaches and restaurants were all open along with fair amount of tour buses.

Rental car was open in Paris for drop-off too; so it is feasible.

Disney has never been to Cherbourg that I'm aware of. Are you speaking specifically of Cherbourg?

While rental car agencies may be open in Paris, we won't be anywhere near there and I'm not finding any agencies open in Cherbourg on a Sunday. Not to beat a dead horse, but literally everything in Cherbourg appears to be closed on Sundays.

 

[SleepyDeb]

Even if car rental places were open, that would make me too nervous that we wouldn't be back in time.

I don't know how to drive a manual. Mother tried to teach me when I was 16 and that was a big fail. Husband tried to teach me when I was 21 when we lived in England, and big fail. I didn't learn to drive until I was 26 and we bought an automatic. Hubby hasn't driven a stick in 35 years.

The shore time is only 8 hours, drive time appears to be over 2 hours one way, and I hear the traffic in the area on a Sunday is very busy, so I want the guarantee of the ship not leaving without us. If Disney doesn't come out with any Normandy beach excursions, we will be VERY disappointed, but I think we'll just have to go back to Normandy another time.

 

[auntlynne]

Anyway to add vacation time before the cruise and visit the area? It wouldn’t be a Sunday and you wouldn’t be so limited by a ship departure time.

 

[nalabear]

Even if car rental places were open, that would make me too nervous that we wouldn't be back in time.

I don't know how to drive a manual. Mother tried to teach me when I was 16 and that was a big fail. Husband tried to teach me when I was 21 when we lived in England, and big fail. I didn't learn to drive until I was 26 and we bought an automatic. Hubby hasn't driven a stick in 35 years.

The shore time is only 8 hours, drive time appears to be over 2 hours one way, and I hear the traffic in the area on a Sunday is very busy, so I want the guarantee of the ship not leaving without us. If Disney doesn't come out with any Normandy beach excursions, we will be VERY disappointed, but I think we'll just have to go back to Normandy another time.

We got an automatic without issue. The drive wasn't busy on either days (wed and sun) in the area for us -- dead of summer too -- but it was during the Tour de France period so that perhaps may have been a factor? don't know.

8 hours IS short. by giving 1 hour on either side for buffer that leaves 6 hours and driving time. You really can feasibly do 2-3 stops and the rest is driving and quick shore stops.

The beach itself really isn't much. Taking in the length of the beach and the topography of what our troops had to cross IS dramatic.

Doing this from a tour bus along the shoreline drive is a bit harder with the small road though so I would imagine it would do the easy N13 drive to - John Steele church, American cemetery and a quick stock at Omaha beach for a pic and call it a day. --

 

[anricat]

Even if car rental places were open, that would make me too nervous that we wouldn't be back in time.

I think as long as you don't try to do too much, it won't be an issue. 8 hours isn't ideal, however, it's still quite a bit of time. Mont St-Michel is out of the question but a Normandy beach would definitely be doable. Just get a car with automatic transmission. Again, assuming a car can be found on a Sunday. I'm going to try to figure this out. I'll report back if I can figure out a way to get a car.

 

[auntlynne]

Found a discussion on Travelocity about Sunday car rental in Cherbourg. The OP was arriving by ferry. (“SNCF“ is the train company).

 

[auntlynne]

I have been seeing cruise vloggers renting cars from Turo. It is a peer-to- peer car rental program (You rent from an individual). Turo is in the process of acquiring OuiCar, which currently operates in France. If you are interested in pursuing alternative car rental, you can check them out.

 

[auntlynne]

There are companies offering private tours. Get a few couples or singles together to split the cost. The first one I found was designed for guests arriving on cruise ships.

Good luck.

 

[bigAWL]

I know DCL stopped in Cherbourg at least once in the past. We were there on a 7-day Barcelona to Dover repositioning cruise in July 2018.

We were there on a Saturday, but I have to think they will be offering excursions even on a Sunday. Our port time was from 8:30-5:45. We did an excursion that included stops at the the American Cemetery, Sainte-Mère-Église, Pointe du Hoc, and a full lunch stop. I know at least the cemetery is open every day.