Shore Excursions Highlight Coastal Virginia in a Single Day for over 1,000 Cruise Line Visitors
Background: Princess Cruises is a premium cruise line known for delivering exceptional travel experiences to its guests. Offering 380 destinations across all seven continents, their impressive vessels have been calling on Coastal Virginia, through the Port of Norfolk, since 2002. We have worked with Princess on all 16 of their visits to deliver world-class shore excursions for their passengers.
Opportunity: Royal Princess recently called on Coastal Virginia in November 2018. This ship carried over 3,000 passengers, and our company hosted 1,070 people on pre-selected shore excursions during their day at port. This required an extensive amount of design, planning and logistics in order to deliver the highest quality service and tour experiences to their guests. We were responsible for welcoming their guests and moving them in efficiently from disembarkment to excursion departure, directly from the terminal. The passengers had a wide variety of ages and some guests had special mobility needs.
Result: In just a few hours, we facilitated the movement of over 1,000 visitors onto 23 motor coaches and four walking tours. Guests had pre-selected one of the six tour offerings, including full-day visits to the Historic Triangle (Williamsburg, Jamestown, Yorktown), tours of Norfolk, including Naval Station Norfolk, Nauticus and USS Wisconsin and a two-hour, guided walking tour through historic Freemason and the downtown waterfront. The excursions, each led by one of our dedicated guides, were well-received by the guests. Princess’ Shore Excursion Manager and her staff were very pleased with the attention to detail and seamless execution.
After 42 years of providing destination management services in Coastal Virginia, we have closed our business. Our president, Anne Phillips, is retiring. We want to thank our staff, tour guides, clients, vendors, and industry partners for over four decades of partnership. This website will be taken down on January 31, 2021. Before then you can reach us at anne@discovercoastalva.com. Thank you and best wishes.