Mediterranean Shore excursions

[RNluvsDis]

Anyone have suggestions on the shore excursion at any of the stops on the Med Cruise? It's 4 adults and price doesn't really factor. Just looking the best and the worst. Thanks everyone!!

 

[sinnika]

Anyone have suggestions on the shore excursion at any of the stops on the Med Cruise? It's 4 adults and price doesn't really factor. Just looking the best and the worst. Thanks everyone!!

We only did one DCL excursion and that was Carthage and Sidi Bou Said, which we really enjoyed. If we were to go back to Tunis, we would hire a taxi and do these on our own, although having a guide to explain the sites in Carthage and at the museum are very helpful. The rest of the ports, we did on our own, with the exception of a walking guide who met us in Rome at the train station. He was excellent! (roninrome.com) He does not give tours in Aug though due to the heat. It really depends if you like touring with just your group and money is not a factor, arrange private guides to meet you at the port and go. Or if you are flexible and sponataneous, hire taxis when you get to the ports. There are probably lots of write ups about DCL excursions under the Med trip reports if that helps.

 

[Pluto 2]

do the best of rome. in tunis do not do tunis on your own, in adjaccio do not do the imperial town. climbing the leaning tower of pisa was really nice, but you do not get to go to florence. in villefranche monte carlo,monaco, and eze was nice.

 

[jlwhitney]

Here is what we did:

Malta: Blue Grotto and Fishing village, wonderful and fun. It was absouletly beautiful. It was an afternoon tour so we had time in the morning to explore valletta a short walk from the ship.

Tunis: 4x4 Jeep Experience, defiantly worth it and it takes you in to the countryside and it was so beautiful and mountainous.

Pompeii and Sorrento: Good, but our guide was not the best. The farmhouse portion with the lemo groves and lunch was so cool. Sorrento was cute and I wished we had more time in Pompeii so we could have explored on our own (really not the best guide)

Rome: we did this all on our own

La Spezia: on our own to the Cinque Terre

Corsica: Les Calanches: absoultely amazing. the main part took us to the area of the island that has red granite in the rocks and it was just awesome. plus went to a couple of small towns

Villefranche: Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze, personally i was not a fan of monaco and monte carlo but loved eze. The tour wasn't that bad though I was so tired of tours and such by the last day.

 

[abdmom]

These are the DCL tours we did (mom + at least one child)

Tunis - Carthage and Sidi Bou Said - really poor tour. Museum.... what museum? We were shaken down by our guide for a "photo fee".

Malta - Valletta for Kids - informative and interesting. Recommend.

La Spezia - Lerici's Castle and Dinosaurs - the castle advertises itself as a "museum". It's not. It has statues of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Not worth anywhere near the $100+ price.

Villefranche - Perfumer's Apprentice - very interesting and interactive. Recommend.

 

[JulieWent]

Here is what we did:

Malta: Blue Grotto and Fishing village, wonderful and fun. It was absouletly beautiful. It was an afternoon tour so we had time in the morning to explore valletta a short walk from the ship.

Tunis: 4x4 Jeep Experience, defiantly worth it and it takes you in to the countryside and it was so beautiful and mountainous.

Pompeii and Sorrento: Good, but our guide was not the best. The farmhouse portion with the lemo groves and lunch was so cool. Sorrento was cute and I wished we had more time in Pompeii so we could have explored on our own (really not the best guide)

Rome: we did this all on our own

La Spezia: on our own to the Cinque Terre

Corsica: Les Calanches: absoultely amazing. the main part took us to the area of the island that has red granite in the rocks and it was just awesome. plus went to a couple of small towns

Villefranche: Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze, personally i was not a fan of monaco and monte carlo but loved eze. The tour wasn't that bad though I was so tired of tours and such by the last day.

Could you tell us more about the Tunis excursion? So many people have had bad experiences with their Tunis stop overs. This is the one I'm looking at (for next year), and you're the first person I've seen who has taken it.

Julie

 

[sayhello]

If price isn't a factor, see if they have the Adventures by Disney add-on available for your cruise. A really nice variety of quality excursions at each port.

Sayhello

 

[sinnika]

These are the DCL tours we did (mom + at least one child)

Tunis - Carthage and Sidi Bou Said - really poor tour. Museum.... what museum? We were shaken down by our guide for a "photo fee".

Malta - Valletta for Kids - informative and interesting. Recommend.

La Spezia - Lerici's Castle and Dinosaurs - the castle advertises itself as a "museum". It's not. It has statues of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Not worth anywhere near the $100+ price.

Villefranche - Perfumer's Apprentice - very interesting and interactive. Recommend.

That is sad to hear that your tour was disappointing. Were you on one of the first Med cruises? We were on the May 26th one. There were lots of groups that did this one. Our guide was good, not excellent, but he did give us some "photo vouchers" so we would not be charged to take photos in Carthage (apparently that's the norm to charge from what I read on cruise critic). I'm sure DCL got lots of feedback from previous cruisers about concerns. Our guide did not make a big deal about the museum, just said we could go in if we wanted - lots of others stayed out to shop from the vendors, but the museum had some nice murals from Carthage as well as beautiful tapestries and huge choir books. The shopping in Sidi Bou Said was fun - you definitely have to haggle, or get ripped off, but apparently much less aggressive than in the souks. We could have stayed in Sidi Bou Said much longer. It was really beautiful, esp once you got away from all the tour crowds and wandered.

 

[poohkinandpiglet]

These are the DCL excursions we did:

Malta: Turkish Schooner-- (cruised to a beautiful spot, swam, had lunch and drinks) Very relaxing! Loved it and was great for kids.

Tunisia: Carthage and Sidi Bou Said-- some people didn't like this one but we really enjoyed it. It all depends on the tour guide you get! Ours was phenonmenal.

Civitavecchia: Classical Rome- long day but wonderful tour guide. Our kids really enjoy it too.

Naples: Pompeii, Sorrento and Capri for Families Overall very good

La Spezia: Pisa-- short tour which was all the kids could handle after three long touring days.

Villefranche: Scenic French Riviera-- 4 hour tour through Monaco, Monte Carlo, Nice and Eze. Stopped in Eze for lunch/shopping. It was perfectly relaxing after many days of long tours. We left the kids on the ship since this was a short tour.

I enjoyed every Disney tour we booked. We were fortunate to have wonderful guides throughout.

 

[mindelmouse]

These are the DCL tours we did (mom + at least one child)

Tunis - Carthage and Sidi Bou Said - really poor tour. Museum.... what museum? We were shaken down by our guide for a "photo fee".

Malta - Valletta for Kids - informative and interesting. Recommend.

La Spezia - Lerici's Castle and Dinosaurs - the castle advertises itself as a "museum". It's not. It has statues of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. Not worth anywhere near the $100+ price.

Villefranche - Perfumer's Apprentice - very interesting and interactive. Recommend.

Thanks for those recommendations - we signed up for the valletta for kids and the perfumers' apprentice excursion, glad to see you recommend them.

 

[abdmom]

That is sad to hear that your tour was disappointing. Were you on one of the first Med cruises? We were on the May 26th one. There were lots of groups that did this one. Our guide was good, not excellent, but he did give us some "photo vouchers" so we would not be charged to take photos in Carthage (apparently that's the norm to charge from what I read on cruise critic). I'm sure DCL got lots of feedback from previous cruisers about concerns. Our guide did not make a big deal about the museum, just said we could go in if we wanted - lots of others stayed out to shop from the vendors, but the museum had some nice murals from Carthage as well as beautiful tapestries and huge choir books. The shopping in Sidi Bou Said was fun - you definitely have to haggle, or get ripped off, but apparently much less aggressive than in the souks. We could have stayed in Sidi Bou Said much longer. It was really beautiful, esp once you got away from all the tour crowds and wandered.

We were on the 5/15 cruise. I saw other groups going into Carthage without paying a fee. We were taken in on the left where men - who didn't look official- were set up to take our money. I never saw a museum. Was it at the Carthage site?

Our guide was a block ahead of us by the time we got to the street that Sidi Bou Said started at. The shops that we saw all seemed to have the same things. I have seen similar souvenirs in tourist places in China or Costa Rica - I can't remember which.

 

[gatzsd]

Did anyone do the scavenger hunt for Malta? If so, did they let to keep your questions? I would love to see what it was, but don't know if the price justifies this essentially DIY tour. If you have the questions they asked, could you please share?

 

[mrosen]

We joined the April 24th Med cruise late so missed Malta and tunis but here is what we did and our opinions:

• Naples - Mount Vesuvius Hike and Pompeii Ruins (wonderful and tour guides were fabulous)
• Rome - Classical Rome (enjoyed alot)
• La Spezia - Lucca and Pisa (Lucca visit and tour was very neat. We enjoyed that part the most of this tour. While it was nice to see the Leaning Tower, that part of the tour went quick and we did not have alot of time in that area and seem to be nothing but tons of street vendors selling their stuff all around this area where Leaning tower is too)
• Corsica - Imperial Town (worst of all the ports for us on excursion and would not recommend this excursion - waste of money)
• Villefranche - Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze (wonderful tour).

We booked all our shore excursions through Disney and enjoyed all our shore excursions except for Corsica. In each port, there were other choices we would have loved to do so in a few ports we had a tough time deciding (reason to go back and visit in the future another time). The only other comment is as were 2 adults, 2 kids, long days for our kids doing sightseeing (tough on my youngest who is 10).

 

[llkoolj40]

Excursions we did:

Malta -Blue Grotto (DCL) We enjoyed this tour! It was in the afternoon so we had time to explore Malta as well.

Tunis - Dougga (DCL) The drive to the ruins was about 2 1/2 hours,much longer than the 90 minutes stated in the brochure,but it was well worth it in the end. The countryside of Tunisia is beautiful and the ruins were worth the trip. Plus we were the only ones up there which allowed for much more indepth look at the ruins.

Naples - Private tour (Romelimotours Tours) of Pompeii,Amalfi Coast, including Positano and Sorrento. Loved it, especially lunch in Positano.

Civitavecchia -Private tour (romelimotours Tours) Of Rome and the Vatican. Great tour but time was short in St. Peter's Basilica.

La Spezia - Private tour (romelimotours Tours) Florence and Piza. Another good tour.

For the private tours I liked the fact that there were only 8 of us and the van could go thru streets in the city that buses cannot.

Corsica - Sweet Corsica ( DCL) This was a very relaxing tour which only took half a day and left us time to explore Ajaccio.

Villefrance - Monaco and Nice with lunch in Eze (DCL) - Dissappointed in this tour for the money, especially lunch in Eze. The restaurant was at the bottom of the village with no view. We left lunch and explored Eze which was beautiful. I would explore these places on my own next time are they are so easy to get to by public transportation.

 

[pixie08]

do the best of rome. in tunis do not do tunis on your own, in adjaccio do not do the imperial town. climbing the leaning tower of pisa was really nice, but you do not get to go to florence. in villefranche monte carlo,monaco, and eze was nice.

Would you recommend Best of Rome? We booked this for Aug. The price was a bit high but we liked that it is supposed to be a small tour, the stops it makes and that it stops for a "starred" lunch. DH is nervous about taking our own excursion because of the long day and making the ship.

 

[jlwhitney]

Could you tell us more about the Tunis excursion? So many people have had bad experiences with their Tunis stop overs. This is the one I'm looking at (for next year), and you're the first person I've seen who has taken it.

Julie

We really enjoyed this day alot. The port is still one I don't need to go back to but this excursion gave us a more positive note for the day. The guides spoke excellant english and the pace was good. Plus, no markets for those who do not enjoy that experience.

From our blog:
This tour took us more into the country side so we did not see much of the city. We started the trip by going to a small village(now when I say small I mean like one family small!) about and hour outside the city of La Goulette. In this village they let us tour all the rooms and the bath house in the complex(which is what they called the village) and explained how the highest room was for the leader of the village(which when you have one family their tends to be the father) and all the rooms had names above the door which were for all the women in the village. They also baked us some fresh berber bread which they cooked by sticking it to the side of a fire pit(really really good bread fyi). We also got to dip it in honey and olive oil which was very good as well, the last thing they gave us here was a hot tea and tasted pretty sweet and was flavored with honey(I actually did enjoy this!). After this stop we drove cross country(I mean we were on one lane dirt roads) and we even got to cross a bridge that had the road all torn up before it so the only way to cross was with the 4x4 jeep. After our trip through the country side we came up to a little town that was literally perched on the peak of a mountain (or at least a very large hill). We walked through the town and got some good photos (although it was a little odd because we were far out of the normal tourist areas so the locals looked a little confused as to why we would be there). Next we drove to the beginning of the old roman aqueduct for the area. As we entered the park that this was in we saw three mice men and were informed that these statues were the symbol of Tunisia's environmental awareness. We got to see the old roman temple they used to bless the water at the start of the aqueduct. Our last stop on this trip was lunch which was very interesting. When we arrived we sat down on what looked to be very plush chairs but we quickly found out that they were really plastic chairs with some cloth covering them to make them look fancy. They fed us couscous with potatoes and veggies on top with the main dish sitting on top of all of it, before this dish they brought us some egg roll like things and more berber bread.

 

[sinnika]

We were on the 5/15 cruise. I saw other groups going into Carthage without paying a fee. We were taken in on the left where men - who didn't look official- were set up to take our money. I never saw a museum. Was it at the Carthage site?

Our guide was a block ahead of us by the time we got to the street that Sidi Bou Said started at. The shops that we saw all seemed to have the same things. I have seen similar souvenirs in tourist places in China or Costa Rica - I can't remember which.

The Carthage Museum was on Byrsa Hill (where you could look out with distant views of the Magic). On the grounds there were some ruins, with a few lifesize statues missing the heads (several people posed behind the female statue - nice photo op!). There was also a cathedral up there, which we did not go in, and the Carthage museum was nearby. You walked thru a courtyard that had roman mosaics on the walls of the courtyard (some were just fragments of mosaics). Inside were Roman and punic urns, jewelry, a huge Roman head statue, models and maps recreating how Carthage would have looked. I have photos of all of these, that's how I remembered. I could swear there was a second floor that had tapestries and choir books but I have no photos - does anyone else recall this or am I confusing this part with another museum in another port???

Did they take you into the museum house in Sidi Bou Said? It was a re-creation with figures dressed in wedding attire of the bride and groom and all the family (spread out over different rooms). We were offered mint tea in the open courtyard. This area was very crowded. After this house museum tour, we were given time to wander and shop, and met back at the bus which was located at the bottom of the city.

If you come to Sidi Bou Said by taxi, you will get much closer to town, although the walk really was not too bad. You do cross over the train tracks as well as pass some outdoor cafes.

 

[tripodjw]

We did Carthage and Medina in Tunis - OUr guide was very good and we didn't feel too rushed. There's lots more i would have liked to see at Carthage but it was only a half day tour.

We also did the Hike Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii trip. Personally i felt this a bit of a waste of money - i enjoyed the day and the guide was fine. The time we had at Vesuvius was just right - but then we spent more time at lunch than going round Pompeii. Considering it was a full day tour of around 8 hours we got less than 90 mins at Pompeii which is way too little .

I'd have preferred a quick lunch of 30-45 mins and then 2 1/2 - 3 hours at Pompeii.

I'd suggest organising a private tour or getting the train to Pompeii yourself (and maybe a taxi if you want to go up Vesuvius).

 

[sinnika]

We arranged a taxi once we got to Naples. We could have decreased our cost by having other passengers going with us, but we did not want to go by anyone's schedule but our own. We told the head taxi guy (who summoned another taxi driver for us once we settled on only going with the four of us), and said we wanted to go to Pompeii and Sorrento, and possibly a quick stop at Positano if time permitted. Our first stop was Pompeii and we told him how long we wanted to stay (we were there about 2 hours), we also visited a cameo store recommended by the shopping guide on the ship prior to going into Pompeii. We used Rick Steve's guide book to get us around (we had the Rick Steve's free audio tour which was "accidentally erased" by my son. If money is no object, splurge for a private guide. Rick Steve's recommends an excellent one in his book - we actually ran into the recommended guide (I recognized him from his video website) on our self tour - he was privately touring 2 people and we had a chance to eavesdrop for a few min. Still we managed pretty well with his guidebook and only got lost once! Its very big there, and can get very hot and very crowded so bring an umbrella for shade and water bottles. I would not recommend Pompeii for the elderly or young children unless you plan to carry them on your back. After Pompeii, we asked the driver if we had time to go to Positano and he was able to accomodate us. We stopped for some photos, then headed back to Sorrento. This was really enough winding roads for us as my DD tends to get carsick. We stopped in Sorrento at the Natturno inlaid factory store just outside of where the touristy part of Sorrento starts. Our driver drove us up a steep ramp to the 2nd floor where the factory is located. They have beautiful tables pictures, music boxes, a huge collection really and you can have things shipped back to the states (included in the price on the larger items). After, he drove us past all the shops and to the beach where there were several cafes right on the water, and a beach area to swim. We dined while looking at Mt Vessuvius in the background. After we ate, he asked if we wanted to stay in Sorrento to shop, but we chose to go on to Naples to visit the Archeological Museum. Unfortunately the entire wing for viewing the exhibit for Pompeii was closed, but there was still plenty to see in the museum including artifacts from Herculaneum and other exhibits. Our taxi tour ended here being dropped off a the museum in Naples, and he showed us how to walk back to the ship ( a 15 min walk). We paid him $265 eruo plus a tip. We were in the taxi from maybe 8:30am until 4pm. It was an amazing day!

 

[everafter1]

We did mostly DCL tours and enjoyed almost all of them.

Malta- on our own and it was very easy. We stopped at St. John's Co-Catherdral and it was beautiful. My parents did a DCL excursion. I can't remember the name, but it was mostly a bus tour and they loved it.

Tunis- Sidi Bou Said and Carthage- we really enjoyed this and our guide was very informative. Maybe it depends on the guide you have. We were on the May 5th cruise, so we were the 2nd Med cruise and had a good time. My parents did the Panoramic Tunis tour here and were disappointed in their guide.

Naples- Pompeii half day- this was a great tour and the length was just right. My mom and sister did the Leisurely Sorrento tour and also loved it.

Rome- Classical Rome- loved the tour guide. It's a tour mostly of the Vatican and the Coliseum which were the things we wanted to see most. Some people on the tour were a little disappointed that we didn't stop in more places, but we really liked it.

La Spezia- Cinque Terre Boat Tour- this was the only excursion we were disappointed with. The weather was bad that day, so it was changed from a boat tour to a bus tour (we knew this ahead of time, though). The scenery was beautiful, but we felt like we missed out on some. Also the tour guide was not very good. I'm sure it's a great tour by boat, but skip it if they switch it to a bus tour for weather.

Villefrance- Nice and Eze with wine and cheese- this was my favorite! Very informative, loved the guide and the wine was amazing. Also was in the afternoon, so you could sleep in some and explore Villefranche.