Should you sign up for shore excursions on Mediterranean cruise?

definately go through the cruise ship. any port will have beggers and theives that will do anything they can to get your money. we just returned from a cruise and were unsure about our choice in excursions, but ended up being extremely happy with what we did. MAKE SURE YOU RESEARCH YOUR EXCURSIONS! we were signed up for a beach one in the bahamas, and a week before we left my fiance researched that particular excursion and came across news reports of that specific area having extreme lice breakouts. sure enough, during the cruise we met 2 people who had to be rushed to the infirmary because of it and heard about another couple needing to be air-vacced right on location. it was my first time cruising without parents and i was fully prepared to get lost or something unexpected to happen and ruin our plans, but the excursion procedures the ship provides you are extremely easy to follow and reliable. if you exit your ship and are unsure where to go to meet with your excursion group, people are more than willing to point the way. i noticed as soon as we got off the ship in the bahamas people were begging to give us rides places, most their "cabs" were not legit and we even called to check one cabbie number and it turned out to be a false cab as well. whatever excursions you do do, take care to ensure that they will not add stress to your vacation. my parents had signed us up once for an excursion that started at 8 AM and it was pure hell for all of us. what we did this last trip was embark on shorter excursions, and then gave ourselves lots of free time to roam on our own.

My husband and I just got back from a 2 week mediterranean cruise a month ago. Out of the ports that you are going to, I can give you advice on two of them: *Rome: We did completely on our own and it was great. From the ship, we walked to the train station and bought all day metro passes (18e for both of us) and took the train into the city. Since we did it on our own (instead of with a group) we were able to see so much more and actually experience the culture. We did do a lot of walking, but we got to see a ton. We allowed 2 hours to take the train back to port (just to make sure there was enough time). *Barcelona: We flew into the city a day early for our cruise and spent many hours wondering about and seeing the different parts of the city. This was one of our favorite places. La Sagrada Familia and the Gothic Quarter are two important (can't miss) things to see. Barcelona, like Rome, is extremely easy to do on your own. I highly recommend purchasing some guide books (I personally love the DK Eyewitness Travel guides - the "top 10" ones are wonderful)...they helped us out so much. Most of them even come with a map in the back (of the city and the metro lines) that you can pull out for in your pocket. We knew that we wanted to do everything on our own, so we researched a little, made a plan for ourselves, and everything went like clockwork. We did a "shore excursion" from the ship for Cairo, and it was rush, rush, rush. You have to constantly check your watch and you can't spend as much time as you would like at some sights, and there is too much time spent at others. I know that a lot of people enjoy the ship's excursions, but if you don't mind doing a little bit of reading, there is so much more to experience at these places than just two or three "famous sights". If money is no object, you can also look into private drivers/tours at some of the ports. We had a private tour in Turkey and got to see/do everything at our own pace...and we beat the tour buses to the sights! :) We wish that we would have done this for Cairo! Also, another thing that I would highly recommend is buying a Pacsafe bag. They are absolutely wonderful and keep all of your belongings safe from pickpockets.

Sign up with the cruise ship. That way you will know that your tour guide speaks Good English and most important gets you back to the ship on time, guaranteed. Traffic can be terrible in Italy for one and a tour could get stuck in traffic. If you went with a tour not from the ship, you could easily miss the ship.

On our Med cruises we departed from Barcelona and had stops in only 3 of the ports you mentioned, Monte Carlo, Rome and Florence. There is not a whole lot to see in Barcelona, just a few attractions you may not want to miss, like Gaudie's church. We did a tour of the city with an airport dropoff our first time there and that was plenty enough for us. You can also get a hop off-hop on bus to tour on your own if you are staying in the right location in the city before or after your tour. The tour buses run a set route and you get off and back on at whatever stops you want. If your shore excursion funds are limited I suggest spending them on Rome and Florence, with Rome being a must see. Both of those cities are a good distance from the port (Rome is an hour away from the port by bus, car or train) and its best to have the ship's tours so you do not get lost or delayed and miss your ship's departure (they will leave you). We took a ship's tour in Monte Carlo that went to the casino, the palace in Monaco, and then to Nice. It was OK, but I suggest not doing a ship's tour and just see what you can see near the port.