Western Mediterranean Cruise excursions & restaurant recommendations

My feeling is the excursions through the cruise line go too slow and cost too much. For such a short period of time in port, I'd read Rick's book about getting around in each port using public transportation. Even if you resort to taking taxis, you will be hard pressed to match the cost of the excursions. I think you will have time for no more than two sights, one first thing, then lunch, then a second sight. If you have time afterward, check the map for a nice park area, or old center to explore, that isn't far from the ship. That might be a good way to spend a little time before you have to board again in the afternoon. Rick's book on cruises will discuss sight options, but you can also go to Tripadvisor and view the top sights for the city then pick the one's that appeal most to your group.

If you worry you will get lost or separated using public transportation, every excursion the cruise offers will be duplicated by private guides. Viator.com is one operator that seems to be everywhere - but far from the only one. You can contract with a guide just for your group using a smaller van that will allow you to move faster, see more, save money and be back well before the boat weighs anchor.

I'm really bad about restaurants in port too. You have such a short period of time, sitting down to a good lunch probably consumes too much precious time. I'd lean toward grabbing a quick snack and drink on the go. Since you will have children, you will thank yourself for packing snacks from the boat. Pack plenty of zip lock bags and either make sandwiches or take fruit/cookies for an energy boost while you're touring. Some of the lines offer free 24 hour room service; you could have them bring you a sandwich and pack it instead of eating it right away.

For the "Parental Units" having them select some of the ship's shore excursion is not necessarily a bad choice for them. As with most things "It All Depends". I have found a good highlights tour is a good "low stress" way to see the "highlights" of a port for a first time visitor. Unless one has done lots of research about the city being visited a highlights tour is a great overview and can peak an interest about what to see when you come back for an in depth visit to that city. "It all depends" on what they think they want to see. It also depends how active they want to be. There are some that are mostly drive by the highlights and others drive around and stop and walk around the sights included in the tour. Some are morning or afternoon tours others are all day tours. Have them read the tour descriptions and have them choose the ones that "sound interesting to them."
I have found while many ship tours may not be considered cheap they are usually at least interesting and make a good first visit to a foreign city. And so they are not really a bad value. There are good ship's shore excursions, there are very good ship's shore excursions and yes there is the occasional bad ship's shore excursion.
Usually the shore excursion are listed on the ship's website. They can be booked in advance or can be booked on board after the shore excursion department makes their presentation about each tour.

A cruise is just a good highlights tour of a region that can peak your interest enough for you to say
"I could come back to this place"

And as Rick says.... "YOU'LL BE BACK"

I have never cruised. I do not know exactly where your ship (or its tenders) will dock at the ports you list. That said:

The very lowest-stress thing to do in Marseilles is probably to walk around the picturesque Old Port area. There's a bit of shopping there. Then (or previously) one can take a boat ride out to the Calanques (to the east, between Marseille and Cassis). I took a short trip. There may also be longer trips that allow time for swimming at one or more of the isolated beaches.

A slightly more aggressive activity from Marseille would involve taxiing to Marseille-St. Charles Station and taking the short (less than 1/2 hour) trip to Cassis. Trains are generally frequent, at least on weekdays, but there's an odd gap between 10:02 AM and 11:32 AM. Be careful about the return schedule! The train station in Cassis is substantially uphill from the port (historic area). There's a bus, though I'm not sure at what frequency; I wouldn't be surprised if the buses are timed to meet the trains, so don't lollygag inside the tiny train station. Going back up the hill, I assume one could find a taxi in the port. I don't remember seeing a taxi at the train station. Cassis is a very picturesque little town; you will be among many fellow tourists. There are boat trips to the Calanques from here as well as from Marseille. Again, some might allow swimming opportunities. The SNCF website for some reason doesn't recognize "Cassis" as a destination. You can see the schedule on the Deutsche Bahn website. The train will be a regional, so there's no price advantage to buying tickets in advance. I paid 6.20 euros round-trip. The bus from the port to the station cost about 1 euro.

Viator is a consolidator (re-seller) of other companies' tours. It does not run tours of its own.

This is the book referred to in an earlier reply. You might find it very helpful......

https://store.ricksteves.com/shop/p/mediterranean-cruise-ports

Thank you for your replies!! Wonderful suggestions!! I just ordered the Rick Steves book as well!! & will definitely be taking lots of ziplock bags for the kids!! What a great idea!!

Cruisecritic.com has a forum for ports where people recommend guides and tours, as well as activities they’ve done on their own. Also see Tom’s Port Guides, a great resource on line, and free. There are rules about removing food from a ship. Sometimes it’s prohibited, so you need to be informed.

lenachun, this newsboard does not specialize in cruising, so I suggest you do additional research. Cruise Critic is often mentioned as a resource. I would point out that a group of 13 might save a lot of money by taking a custom tour together, but it's hard to get 13 people to agree on an itinerary, and for people of such varied ages to have the same stamina for X hours of touring. Is the budget of no concern?

Are you aware that independent excursions will not prevent the ship from leaving without out if you are late? Those expensive tours run by the ship will hold the ship until they return. You also need to determine which ports (like Naples and Palma) have plenty to do on foot without a tour, and which (like Civitavecchia) require a substantial excursion to do anything interesting.

Ship excursions are, as many will tell you, more expensive that touring ports on your own. If your plans in a particular place are such that you will remain relatively close to the port you can save money by doing it yourself. But if your plans will take you good way from the port, the ships excursions may well be worth the extra money as the ship will wait for you to return. Not so if you are on your own or on a non ship excursion. On several occasions we've seen people literally running down the pier as the ship pulled away. Every time we've been in Naples we've gotten stuck in terrible traffic jams and the ship did wait. Just something to consider.

Since you will have children, you will thank yourself for packing
snacks from the boat. Pack plenty of zip lock bags and either make
sandwiches or take fruit/cookies for an energy boost while you're
touring. Some of the lines offer free 24 hour room service; you could
have them bring you a sandwich and pack it instead of eating it right
away.

Bets alluded to this earlier, but I wanted to add a comment. Please be very careful about bringing any food off the ship. At some ports this may contravene customs regulations regarding bringing fresh produce or meat into the country. Generally prepackaged snacks would be fine, as would bottled water/soda/juice.

Thank you everyone for your wonderful input!! I just got my Rick Steves book on Mediterranean cruise ports & it's great! It does not have 2 of the ports we come into but everyone's suggestion about cruise critic has been awesome!! The site has been a wonderful resource!! I loved the idea of bringing food for the kids & appreciate the caveat that there may be issues with some of the items I bring. I think I'll be packing goldfish & some boom chicka pop popcorn from the States to take instead :) Thank you for the input re Naples, I will be keeping the thought of our boat pulling away clearly at the forefront of our mind! I had initially thought that we would not go out to Cassis but after reading the above & Rick Steve's book, it sounds like the most impressive thing to do in Marseille. Thank you!

One other suggestion. For each port google "things to do in such-and-such" or "cruise excursions in such-and-such". This will bring up private tours or excursions, many of which will be much less expensive than the cruise line's offerings. Don't be too spooked at the thought of the excursion being late ....... these people having been dealing with cruise passengers for years. They know that timing is important. I was once on a cruise where two passengers were left behind but the ship waited at least 30 or so minutes before finally leaving them behind. It didn't scoot off exactly on departure time.

I always review cruise critic but I find the information there skews to using ships' excursions. The warnings you heard here are the same ones you will hear there. Maybe they are true somewhere?

I took a Princess cruise to the Baltic Capitals that spent two nights at St. Petersburg. The ship repeatedly warned everyone, I believe untruthfully, that if they didn't take a ship's excursion, they wouldn't be allowed in St. Petersburg and that if they tried to bring food from the ship, it would be confiscated. I had booked a private tour (ten people in a van with a driver and guide) for two days.

The tour company organized the group with passengers I hadn't met. They told us exactly what we needed for customs. Following their instructions to the letter, we had no problem getting into St. Petersburg. In fact, we were departing the port in our van before the buses were even beginning to load.

As far as food went (and St. Petersburg is supposedly the strictest) they didn't seem to care at all what we had in our day pack. The people on the tour with us brought no food the first day so we shared the snacks we brought. The next day we brought more to share, but everyone else brought snacks too. The ship cared more about what you brought back on (primarily alcohol) than Russian customs did.