My wife and I are leaving from Ft. Lauderdale for an 18 day cruise to the mediterranean ending at Civitavecchia(Rome). Stops on the way include the following ports. (1)Funchal, Madeira, Portugal. (2)Lisbon Portugal (3) Cadiz (Seville) Spain. (4) Casablanca, Morocco.
(5) Barcelona,Spain. (6) Monte Carlo, Monaco.
(7)Livorno (Florence)Italy.

My wife and I have looked at all the shore excursions in each of the seven ports and before we make our final decision I was wondering if there was anyone out there that has taken this repositioning cruise and could give us an idea what was the best shore excursions to take in each one of the above ports of call. We have no time for a shore excursion in Rome before our flight leaves.
Thank you for your time.

John

Maybe you would get a better response if you used "port chat" instead of "cruise lines" on this forum. It is located just below this one.

Done...I moved the thread from its original location.

John, welcome to cruise-chat...we have several members familiar with these ports who can give you some suggestions as to excursions.

John, welcome to cruise-chat.

I have only been to four of your ports, and that was in 2001 and on a different cruise line; so I can't be of much help except for a couple of suggestions.

It was our first time in Casablanca and Barcelona so we just took the "Best of . . ." tours in those cities and got a good overview. We had been to Monte Carlo and Livorno before; in Monte Carlo we took a walking tour in the morning and a escorted drive down the coast in the afternoon--both very enjoyable. Our first trip to Livorno we did Florence and Pisa in the same day--I don't recommend this. They are quite a distance from the ship and leave too little time for Florence. Save Pisa for another trip and spend the whole day in Florence. I'm sure others will have many more suggestions for you.

Sounds like a wonderful cruise. Please stay in touch.

I have to agree with f-mattox on Florence and Pisa. Don't stop at Pisa, head straight to Florence. If you want to do any of the museums, you can pre-book your tickets online. Avoind very long lines.
Enjoy it. It's a great city!

Hi John
We are going on the same sailing as you and like you looked at the tours.
We have done a lot of cruising over the years and find that in a lot of ports, you can do as much on your own as you can with a guided tour.
Not that we are cheap, but a lot of tours do not do what we like to do. I don't want to spend and hour and a half eating(as a number of them do)when we could be seeing what we want to see.
Funchal-we are in port up until 11 p.m.. There is a cable car that you can take for very little money that goes from very near the port.
Funchal is NOT large, so getting around is not a problem, but it is hilly.
Lisbon has a hop on-hop-off bus that goes from the harbour that takes you to all the tourist sights.
Cadiz-you have to take a tour into Seville as there is not a lot to do in town.
Casablanca-we are there on a Friday-which is the holy day of the week for Muslims. Casablanca as a city is not worth it. We are taking the tour to Fes, which our son has been too and recommends.
Barcelona-again you can get around on a hop-on hop-off bus, and you can also get a transport pass for very little, so you can see what you want to see.
Monte Carlo is not very big and there is not a lot oto do there. There are tours to the Cinque Terra(which are 5 towns, that are very pretty).
Livorno- a lot of people take the train into Florence and do their own tour. It can be done and it about a 1/3rd in price of what the ship wants.
There you have. What we like perhaps you won't, but do enjoy the trip, I know we will

THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION MY WIFE AND I APPRECIATE IT

JOHN