If you've ever dismissed cruise shore excursions as overpriced and overcrowded, you're not alone. Royal Caribbean Blog writer Jenna DeLaurentis spent years skipping them entirely, preferring to wander ports on her own schedule. But a recent Mediterranean cruise — with stops in Marseille and La Spezia — gave her two very good reasons to reconsider.
In Marseille, she booked the Avignon and Wine tour through Shore Excursions Group, a seven-hour outing priced at $256 per person. The small-group format made all the difference: just five guests traveled by private van to Château Fortia winery for a tour and five-wine tasting, then got roughly two hours of free time to explore the historic city of Avignon on their own. It's the kind of day that would be logistically tricky to pull off independently — Avignon sits more than 60 miles from the Marseille cruise port.
The La Spezia stop brought a different experience: the Cinque Terre by Train and Limoncello excursion, also through Shore Excursions Group, running eight hours and priced at $112 per person. The group of about 15 travelers hopped trains through three of the five famous coastal villages — Riomaggiore, Vernazza, and Monterosso — with free time in each to sample focaccia, gelato, and local limoncello. Summer heat did cut the final village stop short, but seeing three distinct towns in a single port day still felt like a win.
The honest trade-offs are real: a Cinque Terre train day pass runs around $40 on your own, and independent travelers can adjust their day freely when the weather turns brutal. Shore excursions cost more and lock you into a schedule. That said, Shore Excursions Group's rates generally come in below what cruise lines charge directly for comparable tours, and the insider knowledge from local guides added genuine depth to both days.
The takeaway isn't that shore excursions are always the right call — it's that the decision really depends on the port. Some destinations are easy to navigate solo; others reward the structure of a guided tour. Full details on both excursions are available at Royal Caribbean Blog.
