Thread: Private/Independent Excursions

How far away from the ship are you comfortable taking private/independent excursions by taxi or with an independent operator?

I'm not, I will do one from the ship or not go.

I'm just the opposite - won't do cruiseline excursions unless there's no reasonable independent option (it happens occasionally). BUT (and this is a HUGE but), I don't book the guy standing around the piewr, I book with independent operators with lots of positive and no negative reviews. The distance we go from the ship doesn't matter. I have never had a disappointing independent excursion.

In 38 cruises we've only booked 2 excursions through the cruise lines - much prefer to do our own thing. We will use independents as well as just wing it when we get to port, depending on where and when.

Some places we don't go far, whle others we've gone quite a distance. For example, in Europe, there are several ports that are quite a distance from the city - Paris, Athens, Berlin, London, Cairo, etc, just to mention a few. If you don't want to go far, you won't get to see much of anything.

Pete

We always do independent/private excursions but we have certain rules that we follow. First, we do a lot of research on the ventors we use and check with other cruisers on reliability, language barrier, and willingness to tailor the excursion to our interest. Second, we always make sure that our return to port will be 1 to 1-1/2 hours before the ship departs, and third, we make sure that we have a good, reliable, and comfortable vehicle with AC. Also, if we're in Europe and are sailing across the pond, we never do a private excursion at the last port. It would be too hard to catch up with the ship if we missed it!!! We try to keep our group small since we usually can do and see more with 10 or less.

Garry

If the excursion looks as it is going to be tight returning for the departure, we always book a ship excursion. If we have plenty of time to return we use independent cheaper excursions

Originally Posted by explorenorth

I'm just the opposite - won't do cruiseline excursions unless there's no reasonable independent option (it happens occasionally). BUT (and this is a HUGE but), I don't book the guy standing around the piewr, I book with independent operators with lots of positive and no negative reviews. The distance we go from the ship doesn't matter. I have never had a disappointing independent excursion.

I'm the same. I always plan well in advance and only with those who have a positive review. Thats why it so important to write a review, a lot of people relay on them.

In the British Isles and some places in Europe we have no problem booking a cab/taxi for the day and going exploring quite far from the port.

In the Caribbean we no longer do this sort of thing. A short taxi ride to a popular beach close to the port is about it for us.

I've never personally used any one but the cruise line.

However, the organizer of my next cruise, with a small group of perhaps 25, is working to do a private-our-group-only tour at Grand Cayman. I've researched her probable supplier and have learned that they're a very reputable firm and have offerings almost everywhere in the Caribbean. This comforts me!

Elsewhere on this particular trip, members will make their own arrangements. I'll provide some thoughts and insight - the group is mostly Seniors, mostly "handicapped" in small ways, and mostly have cruised fewer times than I - but that's all.

I'm personally still happy with most of what the cruise lines offer, and am willing to lay out the extra bucks that does seem inevitable. I guess I spoil myelf!

SWR

The last time we had booked something it was at the pier. Never again. Hubby has negotiated with a taxi driver a couple of times to give us a tour, but that's usually for the general area, not several miles away from town.

I do want to pass along something that happened to two people on our cruise (I'll include it in my report too). We met them while waiting for the bus to take us from downtown Hilo back to the cruise terminal. They had gone to the information office (where the bus depot is) that morning and got a taxi to go to the Volcano Nat'l park. But when they arrived at the entrance, the guard checked the list of taxis authorized to go in, and that company hadn't paid their fee lately (or something like that). The taxi had to turn back and return to town. When they got back to the terminal, they did tell the info desk what happened. While we were waiting for the bus, the woman said to me, that taxi, that's that company. The driver was picking up a fare, hopefully just to go somewhere in Hilo.

I would guess that if you were on a ship-sponsored tour, that wouldn't have happened.