Thread: Shore Excursions - book ahead?

We are cruising on the Carnival Valor to the Western Carib (G. Cayman, Roatan, Belize, Coz).
1. I think the general consensus is to not book the Carnival excursions?
2. Should I book ahead of time with a tour provider or book after we get off the ship?
Thanks!

Originally Posted by idahoeng

We are cruising on the Carnival Valor to the Western Carib (G. Cayman, Roatan, Belize, Coz).
1. I think the general consensus is to not book the Carnival excursions?
2. Should I book ahead of time with a tour provider or book after we get off the ship?
Thanks!

If you are going to go with a private provider.... 2 things

1) do your homework ...not everyone that advertises is legitimate..and some require pre pay most allow you to pay on day of service.
2) book early ....some of these vendors sell out of availability very quickly..

Good Luck..

This is a good place to start looking --> Welcome to ShoreTrips® - Your Guide to Shore Excursions

We usually book ours ahead (P&O) because....
A) can't be bothered to worry about it, we are on holiday
B) Want to know what we are doing & when/who with
C) don't want any problems, if there are with a ship-trip we don't need to worry

Most of the time we don't bother with any excursions; I do some research about the ports and we pick out some sights to see before doing a little shopping. We definitely haven't thought much of the few excursions we booked at the pier. Most of the ship's excursions we have gone on, we've liked and felt comfortable about the arrangements and the vehicles, as well as the security of the ship waiting for the tour to return (we did get back late to the ship when our van encountered heavy fog -- the driver was in touch with the ship, which waited for us as it was a ship-booked tour).

If this is your first time in a port, it may be worth it to go with a ship's excursion. If you go with an independent excursion, do your homework, go with a recommended company. Make sure of the cancellation policy if you can't go due to illness or not getting to that port. Bring the phone number of the operator.

Another advantage is when it's a tendered port, those on ship's sponsored excursions get priority for the tenders. If you're on an indy excursion, make sure you don't have to be on shore early.

And no matter what you do, bring the day's newsletter as it will have the time to be back on the ship (don't go by the sailaway time) and double check your watch against ship's time (sometimes it's not on local time).

Another reason to bring along the newsletter is that the name of the port agent should be listed there. So, if you have any problems on shore that might delay your return to the ship, you can call the agent to keep them informed.

I always consider my options if I should miss the ship for some reason. On a Western Caribbean cruise, we did independent trips, but took our passports with us. We knew it would be easy to get from Roatan to Belize to Costa Maya if we ever missed the ship. Of course, we had no plans on doing that. It was just our back-up plan. In the Eastern Caribbean, it would be a real pain and real expense to catch up to the ship in the next port.

You have already gotten some great information from everyone!

We've been on 36 cruises and we've only done 1 shore excursion offered by the cruise lines (my wife says she thinks it's 2 but can't remember for sure). Yet we've done alot of shore excursions either on our own or through independent companies. As Char pointed our, Shore Trips is a very good reputable company that we have a contract with and we've personally used them on many occasions. While sometimes their prices may be the same, most of the time we're the only ones on the excursion, so there's no crowd at all.

As was pointed out, do your homework, look at what the cruise line offers, look at what the independent company offers, and then talk it over with your agent. They should be able to offer some personal advice as to what to do if they've been there before.

I'm just not a big proponent of cruise line excursions - too crowded, too expensive, too regimented, and too short on time. There's just much better ways to see what you want to see and do what you want to do.

But as was stated, take your daily newsletter with you - it has the local port authority information on it, which can be very helpful if needed.

Pete