Rouen or Honfleur

Are these cruise ship tours or independent excursions? Honfleur is lovely but will not fill ten hours of sight seeing. Would a meal be included in Honfleur?Personally, I would choose Honfleur. It is a small city/ large town while Rouen is a city.

Why do you need to choose now?

How soon is the cruise? Are there capacity issues? I very rarely do ship's shore excursions anyway, and never to somewhere I either know or can reach with ease on my own.

Or is this a case of you have "Free at Sea", so are using those credits? "Free at Sea" is one reason I would never sail with NCL as it is not really free.

Both of these can easily be done independently from Le Havre, if they do sell out, and massively cheaper. Rouen is an hour's train ride away, Honfleur a quick city bus ride.

Rouen is for the history.

Honfleur for the so French ambience, the attractive town centre, the markets, the boat trip under the Pont de Normandie and along the Seine. It has a certain "je ne sais quoi".

Given that my excursion next time I dock in Le Havre or Honfleur is Monet's garden at Giverny (done independently) that is a different answer. I too love both Rouen and Honfleur.

I've berthed in Rouen itself so many times, but there are still things I want to do there.

I understand your conflict. Very narrowly I would choose Rouen, but it's on the toss of a coin.

Have you been to Giverny, would it interest you? I assume NCL offer that option.

I’ve been to both. Do you want to just sort of hang out during the excursion? If so choose Honfleur. It’s lovely and it’s more of a stroll around, go for walks, go to galleries and relax kind of place. Rouen has more things that I think of must dos such as its cathedral (Monet), the Joan of Arc related sights, the clock, and a nice museum. If I had been to neither, I would probably go to Rouen because of the cathedral.
Edit: My children (ages 25 and 17) just asked what I was typing and told them your question. My daughter said “Does bostonphil7 want to vibe all day or have things to do all day? Honfleur is for vibing and Rouen is for sightseeing.” To which my son said, “Fax, no printer.” So there you have it. LOL!

As it turns out, I can book both excursions.

The one to Rouen leaves at 7:30 a.m. and gets me back to the ship about 12:30 p.m. The excursion to Honfleur Leaves about 2:30 pm and gets me back to the ship about 7:00 p.m.

Neither excursion has a meal and I am not certain that I would be able to get a decent meal. I also might find it very tiring and the cost would add up.

Persons often book two shore excursions back to back.

isn31c

Yes, this is part of the so called Free at Sea program. I get $50 off of one shore excursion per port and then an extra 10 percent off because I have taken many cruises through NCL..

The shore excursions can sell out. It has happened to others. My cruise is not until October but I want to book well in advance. I can cancel free.

NCL does offer one to Giverny plus either Rouen or Honfleur (I can not remember the second city). I believe that it would be too much for me given my age and health issues. I already considered the one that includes Giverny

Good grief, £99 to Rouen for 3 hours maximum there and £91 to Honfleur for basically bus and a walking tour.
So you would pay in the round £40 to Rouen and £30 to Honfleur after discounts. If you have health issues, knowing where the tour buses park in Rouen I think Honfleur is better as you have much less distance to walk.
Hopefully they will have a free shuttle into Le Havre for the morning.
Eye watering at full price. Honfleur is daylight robbery at full price.
If the morning bus was back on time you would get lunch on ship of course.
In Honfleur you will have plenty of time and opportunity to eat.
Cruise companies will always try to sell you back to back.
But most cruisers I know will say not to do that in case the first tour is back late for any reason. I don't think there is enough time between the two tours for comfort there.
In terms of value for money Rouen is relatively better. But the train, booked ahead, can be 5 Euro each way, more typically 10 Euro.
Local bus to Honfleur is E4.20 each way!
But I see that is unsuitable for you.
Giverny and Rouen I can see for £191!!

isn31c

I. believe that I can get my amenity on only one shore excursion per port so if I take two separate ones, I have to pay full price for one.

Sometimes you have to walk 15 or 20 minutes from the ship to the coach and same with coach to ship. You go through security when leaving the ship. You are not allowed to take any food from the ship or drinks but they are glad to sell you an expensive bottle of water after leaving the ship before boarding the coach.

When you return to the ship from the excursion, you go through a very in depth security. It can take some time. Usually you come in on the fourth deck but then you have to take an elevator up to the cafe to eat and the lines can be long.

So you can eat on the ship but then you have to exit the ship again going through security and perhaps walking 15 or 20 minutes once again to the coach.

It can be very tiring and I think that I am going to have to make a choice about which excursion to take.

I love both Rouen and Honfleur so whichever one I take, I will love it. They are both beautiful places.

Leaving aside the question of which excursion to do this post is actually quite interesting.
I am used to rip off prices for shore excursions, but these prices are at another level.

I have done a fair few cruises, but never heard of anything like this. People have tried to get me interested in NCL as they do a great solo offer (not in dispute, it is) and can be picked up, sometimes, at quite a good price, especially on TA routes.
I have rejected NCL as it is not my style of ship, and I can see that the "Free at Sea" isn't all it makes out to be, and that is being polite.

But I have never heard of security, beyond scanning cruise card, to go ashore. Some countries prohibit taking food ashore (bio security, fair enough), but no country in the world prohibits water or drinks- even New Zealand or the Pacific Islands- I've been there, done that. Certainly no European country.
That is a purely commercial decision by NCL, which to me looks very counter productive.
Likewise I am used to security coming back aboard, but no more than walk through the metal arch, and bag/metal objects through X Ray, alcohol purchased ashore confiscated. A pretty quick affair, even at peak traffic times. Five minutes is likely all it has ever taken me.
I am struggling to think of a port outside the Carribbean where I have had to walk more than the length of the pier to board the shuttle or excursion bus (if that), so that is also a surprise. So I don't know why NCL do that as European ports, at least, are normally laid out for buses to come alongside (unlike the Carribbean). Very interesting indeed.

If that is what NCL are like, all I can say is that it is a revelation, and fully vindicates my previous decision.

one reason that I travel NCL is because I like traveling alone and they offer studio cabins for the solo passenger. You do not have to pay the single supplement unless you want more than a studio.

I think this upcoming cruise will be my eight with NCL so I now get some additional benefits

From the ship and to the ship can be quite chaotic . Sometimes is is smoother than other times but I have chronic pain from various health issues so it might seem a longer walk than for someone who does not live with and manage chronic pain..

I have it in my head that I need to take a cruise once a year instead of taking two or three one week vacations each such as visiting London for one week, Lisbon for a week and or another city for a week.

A cruise can be a good deal. You have your hotel, food, transportation, entertainment, and shore excursions ...

But the so called Free At Sea is not free as you are well aware. ...

By the way, I am leaning towards Rouen for my shore excursion.

Honfleur is a fantastic place to spend the day.

If this helps, here’s what I did in Rouen. The metalwork museum was worth seeing!

ROUEN: Now I understand why Monet painted an impressionists series of this beautiful cathedral! I enjoyed seeing the interior of the cathedral, the beautiful exterior, and it was the backdrop for my first French nighttime Light Show. Some highlights in Rouen were their quaint timbered buildings, the Jeanne of Arc church, some wonderful boulangeries, and the Horloge Clock.

I spent my second day of Rouen seeing their museums - definitely recommend their Fine Arts Museum – wonderful paintings, and hard to believe it is free and so uncrowded! The Ceramics Museum, a topic I enjoy, was surprisingly dull. Someone had told me not to miss the Metalwork Museum, Musée Le Secq des Tournelles. It was so interesting; I thoroughly enjoyed that one, too!

Thank you Jean and Anita for offering your opinions

I am still hoping that Norwegian might offer one excursion to both Rouen and Honfleur. Both cities interest and excite me. I am holding off booking an excursion in the hopes that that might add a combination of both places. There is no good reason that NCL can not combine both Rouen and Honfleur.

I think that each excursion is about 5 hours long and each one costs $119.00. The one to Rouen leaves about 7:30 a.m. which does not work well for me because I am a chronic insomniac. The one to Honfleur leaves about 2 pm which works so much better.

We'll see.

I believe the excursions are guided with some free time but I have to pick and choose what I can or want to visit.

Have you priced out booking an excursion from a provider other than NCL? Depending on price and timing it might be worth it to leave that $50 on the table to get exactly what you want.