Mediterranean Excursions

[Deb T.]

Here's a link to a GORGEOUS photo of the Disney Magic anchored off Cozumel with a tender at it's side:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=842460&page=282

It was on the "DCL Picture of the Day" thread, page 282, post #4224. Thanks, captchris!!

 

[profdsny]

I have booked private trips in five of the seven ports, and I think the price is cheaper than DCL for a familiy of four, now remember I have to convert Pounds>dollars for DCL, but straight to Euros for private trips.(QUOTE]

Can you give us a bet of info on these, and how you found them? And,how price compares?
Thanks
Joe

 

[misseulalie]

Hate to be the party pooper about the excursions, but thought it may need mentioning again...
If you plan to leave kids on the ship while at port, you want to go with a DCL excursion. The ship will only wait for people running late on DCL excursions. If you get caught in traffic in a private excursion and miss the ship, it won't wait...You'll have to catch up at the next port.

 

[funnybunny921]

I figure I'll post this in this thread as well... I have the pdf of the excursions for the med trip... i am also currently working on an xls sheet witht he prices and lenghts of each excursion (to later be filled in with a time i hope)

pm me with your email address if you would like the pdf. I'll post when i've finished the xls sheet....

 

[PURTYPAT1]

Thank you so much funnybunny921

 

[disneylover5]

I figure I'll post this in this thread as well... I have the pdf of the excursions for the med trip... i am also currently working on an xls sheet witht he prices and lenghts of each excursion (to later be filled in with a time i hope)

pm me with your email address if you would like the pdf. I'll post when i've finished the xls sheet....

You are just the best!!

​

 

[funnybunny921]

You are just the best!!

​

Just glad that people appreciate my crazy trip planning obsessions.

 

[MrsJobba1]

Hi

The excursions we fancy doing are;

Mondello beach (4,5hrs) Palermo Siciliy
Italian Island & Beach resort (9hrs) Naples
Kayak in Gallura (5hs) DH ONLY Sardina
Pisa (4-5hrs) La Spezia
Evening Casino - Monte Carlo (4.5 hrs) Ville Franche

I have several questions I need answering before booking them. But these are our initial thoughts.

Anyone know what the cancelation policy is after we have booked on line @90 days. I believe its normally you have 2 days before the excursion???

I also am wondering (and getting excited ) about what other things ie shows and entertainment they will have for us?

Counting down the days

 

[funnybunny921]

so my husband and I have just started discussing...

after compiling the info twice I have a pretty good idea what is offered and the only port/day I am disappointed with is la spezia.... I just wish we could be closer to florence/ the trips to florence could be better. I don't know what to do... i really want to see florence but 5 hours on a bus for 5 hours there seems silly. (esp since we will probably be out all day in rome).

Anyone looking into private tours that day?

btw I too can't wait to find out hte entertainment and timing of things

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

As requested Private tours, I used some web browser searching but also ''MV_Photon'' posted the long list of these before on the Med thread and I used a lot of thoose, for a familiy of four a private taxi or minivan is often in the region of 500 Euros comparing that to DCL shore trips for a familiy of four there isnt much difference some vans can accomodate 6.

Barcelona
www.pepitotours.com/private-tours-barcelona.html Jose Soler
http://wwguides.com/forums/member.php?u=243
www.gobarcelona.com/
BCNtour-taxi Armando Panedas
(34) 60-419-756 armandopanedas@vodafone.es
www.barcelonatourguides.com/ Patrick
http://www.taxiinternacional.com/en...ternacional.htm Angie

Palermo, Sicily
Havent booked anything
www.easytoursicilia.it/indexe.htm Sylvano Lunetta
www.sicily-tour.com/ Stephen Davies
www.sicilylife.com/Tours.htm
Don't miss the Capuchin Catacombs:http://www.palermoweb.com/sottopale...cappuccini1.htm

Naples (Pompeii)
www.limoinrome.com/home.htm Claudio Caponera , Fabrizio ( I BOOKED found very helpful)
http://driveamalfi.com/ Salvatore Lucibello, Adriano, Roberto
www.drivesorrento.com/ Nello Russo
www.seesorrento.com/chi_sono_eng.html Marcello Maresca, Eugiene, Marco
www.aptours.it/Site/default.asp?Lang=EN Alberto
www.francescomarrapese.com/excursions.htm Francesco
www.pleasantravel.com/index.htm Mariano Fiorentino
www.jackthedriver.com/ Jack, Lorenzo Bianco
www.benvenutolimos.com/ Giovanni
http://www.sorrentocardrivers.com/S...ult.asp?Lang=EN Raffael
www.cuomonet.it/ Renato
http://aldotaxi.net/ Aldo
www.driverinrome.com …but avoid Guiliana
http://tourofitaly.com/
www.hiddenitalytours.com/ Mariano Fiorentino

Olbia, Sardinia


Civitavecchia (Rome)
www.limoinrome.com/home.htm Claudio Caponera , Fabrizio I HAVE BOOKED
claudio@limoinrome.com <claudio@limoinrome.com>

La Spezia (Florence / Pisa)

Http://www.papillonservice.com/thanks.html I HAVE BOOKED BOOKED info@papillonservice.com

Pre-book tickets to Ufizi and Academia Galleria:www.florenceart.it/
Dial 011 (U.S. international access code) 39 (Italy's country code) 055-294-883 during the hours of 8:30 AM -6:30 PM M-F & 8:30-12:00 Sat. Florence time.
Pre-book to Leaning Tower of Pisa (available 45 – 16 days in advance): www.opapisa.it/boxoffice/index.jsp

Marseilles
Http://provencesightseeing.com/ I HAVE BOOKED BOOKED

Villefranche (Monte Carlo / Cannes / Nice)

www.dream-tours.com/layout.php?page=106&lang=us Alain, Frederic, Jean Marc I HAVE BOOKEDBOOKED

 

[funnybunny921]

As I said yesterday, I have been working on an xls sheet that has some basic info about the excursions which might make it easier for budgeting or comparisons to other options. I started this one for myself, so it has the things that would interest me or that I would want to know, however it would be easy for you to add a column of say wheel chairs allowed? or ages allowed? or something similar.

If/when times are announced I would add them so i have a better idea of what is going on.

I am sure to many of you this might be over board, but if you are interested email me at sarahyoung921 at gmail dot com and I can sent it to you.

as always I still have the pdf and if you need that pm me with your email address.

Thanks!!

 

[jrabbit]

Hate to be the party pooper about the excursions, but thought it may need mentioning again...
If you plan to leave kids on the ship while at port, you want to go with a DCL excursion. The ship will only wait for people running late on DCL excursions. If you get caught in traffic in a private excursion and miss the ship, it won't wait...You'll have to catch up at the next port.

At least on this trip "catching up" to the ship is not as big of a deal as it is in the caribbean! (except between Palermo and Naples, and Naples to Olbia, and Olbia to Rome ) I expect some people won't get back on board in Naples and go up to Rome and spend a couple of extra days there and rejoin the ship in Civitecchia.

 

[profdsny]

Andrew, thanks for posting the links. The Florence, and Pompei ones look interesting and almost had me hooked, until I saw the prices. For the two of us it would run about $500 just for a car and driver. However, I can see where groups of 4 might do well with something like this. I assume they are only using 5 passenger cars, not vans. But, they do sound interesting.

 

[hankt10k]

Okay, so there are three of us. Me (old Dad), DD (age 20) and DS (age 14). Never been to Europe so trying to figure out which excursions to do. First, I established an arbitrary excursions budged of $3,500 (which means no shopping for DD - think I'll win that one?). Then we went through and made the following initial selections erring on the side of doing a very pricey Vatican tour at the expense of doing any organized excursions in some ports. So here's what we came up with as a first cut:

Barcelona : Montserrat half day
Naples : Mt. Vesuvius hike & Pompeii
Olbia : Jeep safari
Civitavecchia : Private behind the scenes tour of the Vatican
La Spezia : VIP Pisa

So what's everybody think? Having never been to Europe this is kind of guesswork for us in terms of choosing one excrusion over another. Are we missing something really incredible? Do you think the "behind the scenes" Vatican tour is worth the big bucks or should we cut back there and try to do something in other ports?

Any advice is much appreciated and thanks to funnybunny921 for the great pdf of all the excursions.

Hank T.

 

[misseulalie]

At least on this trip "catching up" to the ship is not as big of a deal as it is in the caribbean! (except between Palermo and Naples, and Naples to Olbia, and Olbia to Rome ) I expect some people won't get back on board in Naples and go up to Rome and spend a couple of extra days there and rejoin the ship in Civitecchia.

Though could you imagine having to "catch up" with your 4 and 6 year old on the ship!!!

 

[profdsny]

Okay, so there are three of us. Me (old Dad), DD (age 20) and DS (age 14). Never been to Europe so trying to figure out which excursions to do. First, I established an arbitrary excursions budged of $3,500 (which means no shopping for DD - think I'll win that one?). Then we went through and made the following initial selections erring on the side of doing a very pricey Vatican tour at the expense of doing any organized excursions in some ports. So here's what we came up with as a first cut:

Barcelona : Montserrat half day
Naples : Mt. Vesuvius hike & Pompeii
Olbia : Jeep safari
Civitavecchia : Private behind the scenes tour of the Vatican
La Spezia : VIP Pisa

So what's everybody think? Having never been to Europe this is kind of guesswork for us in terms of choosing one excrusion over another. Are we missing something really incredible? Do you think the "behind the scenes" Vatican tour is worth the big bucks or should we cut back there and try to do something in other ports?

Any advice is much appreciated and thanks to funnybunny921 for the great pdf of all the excursions.

Hank T.

Sounds interesting. Good luck on the shopping thing. I think with a budget of $3500 you should be able to do a lot of touring.
Anyhow, as with hearing good things about Florence, I understand one can spend days just in the Vatican museum. So, behind the scenes might be great. May I suggest reading Angels and Demons, by Dan Brown(I think) which is a prequel to the DaVinci Code. A lot of this takes place in the Vatican, in the parts most tourists don't see. Might give you a good perspective on what you should see on this tour. Maybe others might have some ideas on things to read also.

 

[funnybunny921]

So here's what we came up with as a first cut:

Barcelona : Montserrat half day
Naples : Mt. Vesuvius hike & Pompeii
Olbia : Jeep safari
Civitavecchia : Private behind the scenes tour of the Vatican
La Spezia : VIP Pisa

So what's everybody think? Having never been to Europe this is kind of guesswork for us in terms of choosing one excrusion over another. Are we missing something really incredible? Do you think the "behind the scenes" Vatican tour is worth the big bucks or should we cut back there and try to do something in other ports?

Any advice is much appreciated and thanks to funnybunny921 for the great pdf of all the excursions.

Hank T.

Hank,

you are quite welcome, but I would like to let you know that the half day excursion to montserrat is only available for the transatlantic trips. the full day one is available one day prior to leaving at 10 am. I don't know if you got me new pdf or the one i made before christmas, but disney released this extra info around christmas time.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Andrew, thanks for posting the links. The Florence, and Pompei ones look interesting and almost had me hooked, until I saw the prices. For the two of us it would run about $500 just for a car and driver. However, I can see where groups of 4 might do well with something like this. I assume they are only using 5 passenger cars, not vans. But, they do sound interesting.

Can I say I would not drive in Italy, I have driven everywhere else but do not hire acar in Iatly unless you have nerves of steel.

If you can get six in a van the price is very low and I have added a private guide for Rome on the walking bit

 

[Ruth B]

Hello All,

looking at poss excursion in the diff port and hoped to spend the day at the beach in Palmero.
Priced the disney excursion, which is $79 each to go to Mondello beach( my son is going to be 12 so will be charged as a adult! )

Then looking through the rough guide and other site's and found info on a bus from Palmero to Mondello, thats cost a whole 1 euro! each way. Its only 15 min away, so this is def a cheaper way to do it.

The following quote from th web-
"Want to spend time on the beach, jump on a 101 or 102 service bus get off on the Via Liberta and catch the 806 to Mondello, 1 ticket for the whole journey @ 1euro (Oct 06) great value, Long clean beach at Modello with clean clear water."

"Palermo was great, we were there last weekend and it was hot and sunny, take a number 806 bus from Via Liberta to Mondello about 15 min ride, great beach and was great for people watching bid maybe not so good mid Nov, but for 1 euro worth the trip."

Best wishes
Ruth

 

[woody73]

So what's everybody think? Having never been to Europe this is kind of guesswork for us in terms of choosing one excrusion over another. Are we missing something really incredible? Do you think the "behind the scenes" Vatican tour is worth the big bucks or should we cut back there and try to do something in other ports?

In March, we visited St. Peter's Basilica on our own. As they say in the TV commercials, "Your mileage may vary."

We attended the Papal Audience at St. Peter's Square at 10:30 (no charge, reservation required), had a lovely sit-down lunch (wine, pizza, pasta, and dessert), then went on the Scavi Tour (a tour the excavations beneath St. Peter's, with a view of the bones believed to be of St. Peter) (~15 EUR). After the tour, you can enter St. Peter's without standing in line.

We also went on the 2-hour guided tour of the Vatican Museum, which ends in the Sistine Chapel (~20 EUR).

Woody