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Why I booked through the ship — and what I’d do differently next time

My week-long Mediterranean cruise from Barcelona had four port stops, and I bought excursions through the cruise ship at three of them. This is a little unusual for me, so I wanted to talk about why I did it, and what I might suggest that you do a little differently.

Two of these ports (La Spezia and Civitavecchia) were new ports to me, and I’d only been to the third (Naples) once before, about a decade ago. In a way, buying these excursions let me outsource some of the work that I’d usually put into researching and planning a port day.

This was especially true for the excursion I bought for Naples, a round-trip transfer to the archaeological site in Pompeii. I knew that there were other ways to visit Pompeii (the train is a popular one), but I just didn’t want to spend the time figuring out how to get there. I knew it would be hot, and by this point of the cruise, I figured I would be tired (I was right).

I chose my excursions specifically to see more off-the-beaten-path places, rather than visit the popular big cities of Rome, Florence, and Pisa that are located close to these ports. For instance, in La Spezia, I chose not to visit Florence or Pisa; instead, I took an excursion that took me by boat to two small towns on the Gulf of La Spezia, Lerici and Portovenere.

Booking excursions through the ship also made sure that I got in some of the quintessential tourist experiences during my trip: for instance, a wine tasting in Italy, which I did on my excursion from Civitavecchia.

But what might be most important about booking through the ship is the reassurance that you get that even if your excursion is delayed in returning to the ship, they’ll wait for you. To be honest, I don’t usually care much about this, but in a large part, that’s because I’m so familiar with ports that I know how to get back in time for the ship’s all aboard.

Finally, ship’s excursions were a great fit for me on my Europe cruise because I was traveling alone. I explore cruise ports on my own all the time, so it’s not impossible to do this — really, it’s not even very difficult. Most cruise ports are safe, and you just have to take the usual precautions you would in any city.

Overall, I was pleased with the excursions I took. I was introduced to some cities I’d love to re-visit with more time, like Portovenere. It was nice to have all of the arrangements taken care of without my having to do so much research. While these excursions did sometimes try my patience a bit, they were a good way to see the area outside of the cruise port.