Monaco, Monte Carlo and Eze DCL excursion

[slg]

Need more reviews from this excursion. We've booked it, but since I read one terrible review here, I'm reconsidering changing it to the more expensive premium one.

Advice gladly accepted.

Thanks.

 

[poohmomof5]

Funny you posted this, I JUST canceled my excursuion for next week as I don't want to have a bad outing on our first day! Would love more input as well!

 

[tajz90]

We canceled ours as well. We are going to try and go it on our own.

 

[debsters41]

For those of you doing it on your own, please let us know how you get on! Have a wonderful cruise!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

Need more reviews from this excursion. We've booked it, but since I read one terrible review here, I'm reconsidering changing it to the more expensive premium one.

Advice gladly accepted.

Thanks.

We did this excursion in 2010. I enjoyed it. While we didn't have a lot of time in Eze, we had a really nice lunch there. We were seated with the onboard lecturer and his wife.

The weather that day was very nice. But there is a lot of walking, especially in Monaco (uphill). We went in the cathedral there and saw Princess Grace and Prince Rainer's tombs.

In Monte Carlo we went to the "downtown" area for a snack (ice cream & drink) then had free time. Some people went to the casino (I think there's something like a $5.00 charge just to go in. We just walked around and took pictures. We also visited an open market near the beach for about an hour.

Not really part of the tour, we saw the Onassis yacht on the way back to the ship. Our guide had the driver pull over and stop so we could take pictures of it.

 

[slg]

The excursion I booked doesn't included lunch. The one with lunch is $80 more per person and doesn't have any free time in Eze which we wanted.

Hoping to hear more!

 

[lilpooh108]

The excursion I booked doesn't included lunch. The one with lunch is $80 more per person and doesn't have any free time in Eze which we wanted.

Hoping to hear more!

I was the one who posted the negative review. With this excursion, we only had 50 or 60 minutes in Eze. I walked through the town once and did not have time for lunch. Some of the restaurants looked really cute and I wished we had more time here. Oh and the bathroom at the visitor center cost .50 Euro but it was very clean.

 

[slg]

Did they not give you a 30 minute guided tour of Eze like it says in the description? And then 60 minutes free time? This was why we really want to go on this excursion, otherwise we would take another one.

Also, I thought the lunch spot was Monaco, with a 90 minute free time slot. Did you eat lunch in Monaco? What was it like?

What did DCL say about the poor excursion?

 

[lilpooh108]

Did they not give you a 30 minute guided tour of Eze like it says in the description? And then 60 minutes free time? This was why we really want to go on this excursion, otherwise we would take another one.

Also, I thought the lunch spot was Monaco, with a 90 minute free time slot. Did you eat lunch in Monaco? What was it like?

What did DCL say about the poor excursion?

Guided portion was 20 min, spend 10 min, in church, walk 10 min down to the bus, 10 min for bathroom break, get to bus 10 min early and there is the entire 1 hr.

90 min Monaco was pointless. Most restaurants weren't open yet when we were there (10:30, 11-ish). We had crepes at the only non sit down that was open and it as swamped within 5 minutes of us arriving. We spent 45 min in the Palace Square.

Monte Carlo was super expensive, not much to do during the hour we were given, so I really think this excursion was just logistically poorly planned.

I also booked this for Eze and should have just hired a private driver for the day.

 

[slg]

Hmmm. The description says 30 minute guided tour and then 60 minutes free time.

You had said that you had complained and found out that there had been lots of other complaints as well. Did you get any money back? What did Guest Services say to you about it?

I'm hoping that perhaps they may have improved the excursion.

My dh and I are disappointed to read that the description was false. Usually DCL excursions are pretty good.

Still debating what to do. We leave in a week, and don't want to hunt for a private tour at this point I don't think. Also, we spent last night going over all the other options and this one is still the one (based on the description, not on your review) that we are most interested in. The other option was the premium one which is $80 more per person and included lunch, but it doesn't have any free time in Eze and that is disappointing. What to do?

 

[lilpooh108]

I didn't ask for and didn't receive money back. It wasn't worth the hassle. I gave feedback to Port Adventures and no one followed up. I then made detailed notes on the comment card. We heard from a guide the next day that DCL got a lot of complaints an the next day sent out DCL employees to monitor all the groups. We had a much better time on our private tours. I booked this to avoid having to plan this port.

The entire week flew by and if we weren't so tired, I probably would have to gone to guest services to discuss. I did notice that alot of people were complaining all week about various things and the CMs were kind of phoning it in.

 

[slg]

I can't believe Port Adventures didn't follow up! I have always had follow ups when I've provided feedback. That is very disheartening. Since we have booked DCL with all her excursions to make this part of my vacation easy and stress-free(we are doing 10 days in Paris on our own and am planning everything) I am sad to hear that this excursion, which is the first one, is sub-par.

Sigh. What to do?

 

[lilpooh108]

I can't believe Port Adventures didn't follow up! I have always had follow ups when I've provided feedback. That is very disheartening. Since we have booked DCL with all her excursions to make this part of my vacation easy and stress-free(we are doing 10 days in Paris on our own and am planning everything) I am sad to hear that this excursion, which is the first one, is sub-par.

Sigh. What to do?

It also rained on our day, and I saw lots of people complaining. I'm willing to bet that they made a policy decision not to refund because that would have just been too many people. The tour groups also left people behind. I'm sure those people got refunds.

 

[slg]

Why did they leave people behind? I've never had that happen in 8 cruises and mostly DCL excursions?

This tour guide sounds like a real dud. I'm hoping that she/he will be barred from doing any future excursion.

As for refunds, well, DCL will refund if the tour company refunds. We got 50% back off of one of our excursions.

Rainy weather makes people cranky and it is hard to be excited to do stuff like walk around when the weather isn't any good.

Sigh.

Did you do any other DCL excursions?

 

[DisneyOHFan]

This is the only DCL excursion we did on the 6/8 cruise. The rest were on our own (actually through RIL).

We found we spent way too much time waiting around. I was surprised we spent more time in Monte Carlo than Eze considering the # of kids in tour and you can't go into the Casino in Monte Carlo if you are under 18. Therefore, there isn't much to do.

It wasn't horrible. We got to see the places we wanted, but we spent the amount of time in places that we definitely would not have if we did it on our own. However, it did show us that we will probably not do a DCL excursion again so we have more control over our time and locations by doing it on our own.

 

[lilpooh108]

This is the only DCL excursion we did on the 6/8 cruise. The rest were on our own (actually through RIL).

We found we spent way too much time waiting around. I was surprised we spent more time in Monte Carlo than Eze considering the # of kids in tour and you can't go into the Casino in Monte Carlo if you are under 18. Therefore, there isn't much to do.

It wasn't horrible. We got to see the places we wanted, but we spent the amount of time in places that we definitely would not have if we did it on our own. However, it did show us that we will probably not do a DCL excursion again so we have more control over our time and locations by doing it on our own.

I agree with this. Logistically it was poorly planned with long periods of wait time in places that didn't merit the time.

 

[lilpooh108]

Why did they leave people behind? I've never had that happen in 8 cruises and mostly DCL excursions?

This tour guide sounds like a real dud. I'm hoping that she/he will be barred from doing any future excursion.

As for refunds, well, DCL will refund if the tour company refunds. We got 50% back off of one of our excursions.

Rainy weather makes people cranky and it is hard to be excited to do stuff like walk around when the weather isn't any good.

Sigh.

Did you do any other DCL excursions?

Our guide chose to leave late people behind. It was jaw dropping.

 

[ky71]

Gosh I hope DCL have ironed out these issues by now!
We leave next Tuesday and are cruising for the very first time leaving Barcelona on July 13. We are doing the above mentioned port excursion booked through DCL.

 

[Billybob7]

We took this excursion on the June 8th Med cruise...it was our second fave excursion...we had plenty of free time everywhere we went with suggestions at each stop....I find it unlikely that there was not enough time to eat lunch in eze....that was the last stop of the day and we did not get there until very late in the afternoon....lunch should have been eaten in Monaco as that is when it was lunchtime....our guide was wonderful and made sure no one was left behind...I do not recommend doing excursions on your own on a Med cruise because the main cities are incredibly far from the ports and Disney will only wait for you if you are on a DCL excursion....when we were leaving Rome, a family of 3 went out on their own and almost missed the boat...anyway, we loved this excursion and highly recommend it!

 

[slg]

Thanks for this...I feel better now!

I am nervous about being left behind, and this excursion sounded just right. Perhaps now that DCL got the feedback from the first med cruise, they have ironed out all the glitches.