Thread: Money Saving Tip #5...

Are you on a budget and still want to take a tour? You can book your own tour/excursions after you arrive in port and save 50%, or more off the same ship tour/excursion. Ever notice all those vendors holding up signs advertising the same tours that are advertised on the ship? You can save 50%, or more and most of the time get a better tour/excursion. These men are independent vendors and have business cards, websites, email addresses, cell phones for emergencies, and will give you a good tour in hopes of a word of mouth referral to friends.. A lot of people think this isn't safe, but we've done this a least three dozen times without a hitch. We were just in Puerto Rico on our last cruise and booked the 'old San Juan/new San Juan tour' (also included were two forts, Rum distillery and shopping) for $15. each. We went in a fairly new air conditioned bus that held 12 people. The same tour purchased on the ship was $33. each.


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You know I've heard of the same thing happening. Never tried myself thinking it might not be safe. I wonder if anyone has had a bad experience?

We have done a number of private tours/excursions without any problem whatsoever.

On our last cruise, we did ALL of our tours this way. Booked them ahead of time over the internet.

In just one port - Grand Cayman - there was a snafu... had to do with time zones, and we were late, but we were able to get on an alternate tour. This provided a bit of a sense of adventure, and everything actually turned out quite nicely.

The only problem with a private tour like that, at least in the more popular ports, is that they often wait until the vehicle is filled, which means you can wait for an hour or so sometimes while they drum up business. However, it is cheaper if you are patient.

Good tip. We have done some of this before, but not when we have a short stay at the port. We are so afraid of missing the ship!

We used to book all our excursions with the ship, but have more recently started using independents who come recommended by other cruisers. Their prices and more personalized tours make it a much more enjoyable tour. The only time where I cruised alone, I stuck to the ship's tours for the security, but from now on, the independents will get our business if they can provide the same or similar tour as the ship.

I'm not sure if the cruise lines just want more money, but they always discourage taking these types of tours and encouraging their tours. I personally wouldn't take these kinds of tours unless we were staying somewhere like Bermuda where we're docked for several days because the cruise line isn't responsible in case a car/jeep/whatever breaks down or something like that.

The extra peace of mind that the ship won't sail away without me is worth the extra few bucks to book on board. Unless its an hour or two excursion early enough that we will make it back for sure. We were in Costa Rica and did a tour through the rainforest and it took us over 2 hours by bus to get there and 2 hours to get back. Even then I was worried that we might be late, even though we booked on board.