Thread: Jewel of the Seas transatlantic - Sept. 4-18, 2010

Hi fellow cruisers, just checking in on this site to see what's up. We are so looking forward to our transaltantic as first timers. However with all this excitement we are also on Serenade for 2 weeks Feb/Mar, I have been lacking in preparations for that vacation. Air hotel cruise of course are all booked but not the extras.
I am looking for some advice as to excursions in France on the TA. DH is into history so wondering if the beaches or villages are the best way to go. Also has anyone any experience with those on RCI excursions.
KAtherine

Hi Katherine.

We've done tours both with the cruise line and a private company. Both are good and I absolutely recommend that any excursion include the American Cemetery at Colleville.

In 2007, I used Overlord tours (there is a link on the LeHave page on our cruise website). We had 2 vans with 8 people per van. Each van cost €650. That did not include tip, lunch or museum entry fees (although I think the one we went to was free - I just don't remember which one it was). Our itinerary was set up as:

• Omaha Beach
• American Cemetery
• Pointe du Hoc
• Lunch (nice out-of-the-way restaurant)
• Pegasus Bridge (depending on time but we don't sail until 9:00 so it should work)
• Honfleur (shopping for the ladies, but the guys enjoyed it as it was a nice place to walk around and people watch while having a glass of wine)

Even if they've gone up 10%, that would make the cost just under $150 per person (with 8 people) including tip, but not lunch or museum entry. So the cost would be about the same as the ship's tour that does not get to Honfleur. I worked with Alain Chesnel and he was very helpful in getting to our final itinerary worked out. Plus he was an excellent guide - very knowledgeable and he spoke easy-to-understand English. He was willing to use one of his standard tours priced for 8 or customize one, which is what we did. Our price ended up higher than his quoted full day tour because he bundled in all the mileage (we went well over the 300km allotment).

I can confidently recommend Overlord, but the ship's tour is also worth consideration. Not counting that our tour included Honfluer, the total cost was not significantly different. With the cost for the ship's tour this year being $179 plus tip, I suspect the difference would be less than $5 per person. I think private tours are generally better and would not hesitate to take one, even if the cost were slightly higher. Even for 6 people, the cost should be no more than $20-30 more than the ship's tour after buying lunch and paying any museum entry fees.

Hope this helps.

Thought I would check out this forum. Have belonged for several years, but usually our cruise roll calls aren't active over here (unlike this one).

Bob, thanks for all your good work on the web page -- it's great!

I am somewhat of a lurker on both sides, but will chime in at times.

Kay

Hi Kay.

We aren't nearly as talkative on this site (at least on roll calls). But I keep looking here from time to time. I look forward to chatting with you and meeting you on board.

Just jumped our here to see what was going on. Boy, some testy posts overat home thread!!. I guess that is what happens when there are many varied opinions. I think there needs to be some spontaneous experiences on trips, so getting too much info may not always be good, although appreciated. Hopefully things settle down on the thread, so everyone feels like inputting but with some reference to where we have been. I know there are lots of pages and a lot of reading, but necessary if one plans to be giving strong suggestions. Right now I am a little overloaded.
Bob, I spent some time on the webpage yesterday looking at France ports and now think we are just going to do RCI excursion. Our friend who grew up in the area is going to chose the exct on for us.
Katherine

Darlene and I are going to use the ships tour for this one. Couldn't find any independent tours that made sense. We are going to spend two days in Iceland on the way over to London. Will do a couple of tours while we are there. Have been researching it currently and will share the results just in case anyone else is interested in doing a pre cruise stopover in Reykjavik.

Dick

Originally Posted by Dick

Darlene and I are going to use the ships tour for this one. Couldn't find any independent tours that made sense. We are going to spend two days in Iceland on the way over to London. Will do a couple of tours while we are there. Have been researching it currently and will share the results just in case anyone else is interested in doing a pre cruise stopover in Reykjavik.

Dick

Dick,

We've done several stopovers in Iceland in the past and highly recommend it. All of the tours we have taken were excellent but the Golden Circle is probably my favorite. We have always stayed at the Grand Hotel Reykjavik. It's a short cab ride to the center of town but the location is quiet and the town is easy to get around. The morning that you are ready to fly on the London, the hotel opens the breakfast room around 4:00 a.m. for full breakfasts reckognizing that many of their guests have flights to catch. All of the major tour companies will pick up and drop off at the hotels and you can get the Flybus to the airport at your hotel also.

Any questions, just ask.

Tom

Tom:

We are going to stay at the Hotel Fron on our stop over. We are going to use go travel iceland for the tours. The are highly rated by tripadvisor. Have you done the South Coast. We were thinking about that since the CC group is arranging a short version of the Golden Circle. Any comments would be appreciated. We will be flying Icelandic Air. Any comments on them?

Dick

Originally Posted by Dick

Tom:

We are going to stay at the Hotel Fron on our stop over. We are going to use go travel iceland for the tours. The are highly rated by tripadvisor. Have you done the South Coast. We were thinking about that since the CC group is arranging a short version of the Golden Circle. Any comments would be appreciated. We will be flying Icelandic Air. Any comments on them?

Dick

Haven't had any first hand experience with either the hotel or go travel iceland but I've heard good reports about both of them. We've done the South Coast twice (once alone and once when we brought our kids over). I loved this tour! The black sand beaches are spectacular and there are a couple of great waterfalls. If I remember correctly, you can walk a trail up and behind one of the falls. It does tend to be very windy along the coast which makes it cool even in the summer. A good windbreaker is highly recommended. I love Icelandair. Because they are doing shorter hops they use smaller planes and the service has always been first rate. They are my first choice when we are flying to Europe as long as I can make the schedules work.

Anything else, let me know.

Tom

Decided to come over and look at CLF (thanks for the suggestion Garry)! This is a smaller group of people to try and get to know before the cruise. We are doing the B2B--anyone else? We'll be on board when y' all (just moved south--do I have that expression right?) get there. Looking forward to meeting everyone.

Barb