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realspeed
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realspeed is offline
South coast
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04-01-2019, 08:20 PM
1

Cruise tip

Just thought it worth a mention in case one does not know or be aware of
With all or most cruises day excursions are not included when booking they are extra
Now we made the mistake on our first cruise to wait until we boarded before we booked any trips out and most of the decent ones were already booked. however we did manage to get cancellations for what we wanted to go on.

So my best bit of advice is to book as soon as the excursions are announced and don't wait, the excursions fill up very quickly.
So for our Japan trip they announced the excursions this evening and Sue and I decided which we wanted to go on and booked straight away.

Just got confirmation that those excursions have our name on, already some only had 20 places left, at least a third/half had already gone.

My guess is if we had left it for a couple of days most would have sold out.

SO BOOK AS SOON AS EXCURSIONS ARE RELEASED

Also make sure your passports have at least 6 months on them left and watch out to get travel insurance and see what it includes.

next check to see if a visa is required to enter the country,this can be obtained via the embassy.

If taking medician/treatment do get a Dr's letter showing what you have on prescription. Without it the product may be confiscated, we have just got ours at a cost of £25 each.

Some places do require having a jab against some local infections ,so again worth checking first.
Realist
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04-01-2019, 08:46 PM
2

Re: Cruise tip

I think you're right Realspeed but really only for the more popular excursions. I just completed my 33rd cruise today and in all honesty it is rare now that we ever take a ship's excursion. Reason being I find most of them pretty underwhelming and vastly overpriced.

There are exceptions and they include excursions that you really need to do with the cruise line to guarantee getting a place at the attraction or to guarantee getting back to the ship on time. Those that require very long drives for example.

For many other trips it can be cheaper and better to do your own thing. Once you get to know a place you tend to gain the confidence to go it alone.

A prime example. On a call to Naples in Italy the cruise line offered a transfer only excursion to the beautiful town of Sorrento for £40 a person. Same for Pompeii.

We simply made a short walk to the Naples train station and bought the equivalent of a tube ticket to take us straight there, which called at Pompeii station along the way and whose journey ran past the impressive volcano Vesuvius. The train ticket cost just 6 Euros.

Excursions are one of the many ways cruise lines grab more money from you and much of it is unnecessary. You can get yourself to places and see and do things far far cheaper by yourself and you're supporting local buses, trains and taxis when you do so.

But again, to re-iterate there will always be specific attractions that can only take a certain amount of people for which pre-booking an excursion is a necessity.
realspeed
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realspeed is offline
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Posts: 12,931
realspeed is male  realspeed has posted at least 25 times and has been a member for 3 months or more 
 
04-01-2019, 09:33 PM
3

Re: Cruise tip

In our case a tour guide will tell about the history of the place , more than one can get out of books.
For example in Egypt everyone wanted to go to the valley of the kings and see king Tuts tomb. Our tour guide took us there and instead to the artists tombs who did the wall paintings which we found far more interesting. This you would not find or get to or indeed know about from going it alone. Also on a guided tour events are laid on such as national dance.

saw in caribbean for example some native caribbean dance you would not see going it alone




If you have been somewhere before then yes try a go it alone excursion but not a first time visit
 

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