We're going on the June Disney Mediterranean cruise (11 in our party). We're debating booking Disney excursions or private. We've read some negative comments about Disney excursions but unsure about booking our own. Any advice?

What are your ports of call on this cruise?

I did the Mediterranean Cruise and never took the ships's excursions at any port.

Always do it myself have done 2 Med cruises

www.cruisecritic.com can give you ideas for each port.

but big cities do fine touring around on local xport

usually regional trains and a good guidebook.

In more remote port easy to hire a guide/driver

from $50/half day hook up with nice folks on my cruise

share costs and save a tonne.

Disney cruises tours are especially expensive according

to reviews so might DIY for better lsss crowded cheaper

experience....Have fun,

Agree with above. Its very easy and much less expensive to do the excursions on your own. Hello Percy. We had a bit of an ice storm yesterday and I'm looking out my window at the coating of ice on our roof. Oh well. BTW did you watch the golf yesterday? There was snow and a hail storm in AZ. of all places. What will global warming bring next?? Cheers, Larry

I've not done any Disney cruises/excursions, but I've done them on other lines, and there is no question that privately arranged excursiona are much better. You must do a bit of work to locate reliable tour operators, but there are a lot of resources, e.g. tour books, the internet, cruise critic and such, and this site. Ships tours are almost always strongly weighted to getting you into favored rug shops, t shirt shops and other merchants - for "shopping opportunities." I've spent 30 -50% of tour captive shopping. Actually this is also a problem sometimes with large group private tours. If you are with a group, hiring a private car or van can work well. They ussually charge by the vehicle, rather than per person. So the cost difference narrows.

Hi jacketwatch

Yes I saw the golf and I was surprised to see snow in Tucson.
Been to Tucson and it was always Hot.!

Where is Tiger now in World rankings.?

Waiting for those ports of call Dale08!

Not sure but no more that 5th. Do you think he will ever return to playing golf the way he did B4 all this??

I sure hope so. I like seeing him play golf, there seems to be more excitement when he is in the hunt.

Despite all that has come out it is more interesting when he is on the leaderboard. Will his image ever be even close to what it was?? To me its sad but its his own doing too. Well I hope he regains his golf skills at least.

I would take private tours like we did during our Mediterranean cruise last year: We started in Barcelona and at Livorno, Civitaveccia and Naples we took a tour through: www.shoreexcursionsinitaly.com and they did a great job. Our driver-guide took us everywhere and gave us very useful tips regarding places to buy (avoiding some expensive and touristic shops) and to eat (nice little local restaurants where just Italians ate). At Messina (Sicily) we went on our own to Taormina, very beautiful city worth the visit. In Athens we just took a taxi from the port going to the Acropolis.