Thread: Hurricane excursions booked independantly?

Have any of you been rerouted during a hurricane? What has happened if you had booked an excursion by yourself? Are the tour operators generous enough to give your $$ money back if you had paid in advance? Just wondering.

No not usually. If you book through the cruiseline you are not charged till you take it, Private is usually cheaper but paid in advance and in general if not taken your money is lost.

We've booked almost all of our excursions independently and whenever we've had to cancel due to weather or other reasons, we've always gotten 100% refund. In fact, on one cruise that was redirected because of a hurricane, we changed from doing the Eastern Caribbean to doing the Western Caribbean and we had excursions for 9 people scheduled in each port. Not all were through major companies, but I was able to cancel every one of the excursions and got full refunds, and then re-scheduled new ones without any problems.

The independent companies are well aware of problems associated with changes in itineraries, especially due to weather, and as long as you've booked with a reputable company, there is never any problems of getting a refund. They wouldn't be in business very long if they screwed over the cruise passengers and word gets around real fast about those companies causing problems.

Just another good reason to make sure you have travel insurance and check the policy just in case of situations like this.

But if you book independent excursions through some of the big name companies, like Shore Trips or Port Trips, you won't have any problems at all.

Pete

I haven't had any problems with any excursions booked through Shore Trips. Always very conscientious and great to work with.

Dolores

Originally Posted by sue miller

No not usually. If you book through the cruiseline you are not charged till you take it, Private is usually cheaper but paid in advance and in general if not taken your money is lost.

I know that is not true for about 4 of the tour guides on St.Thomas, if you read on my site you will see some thing like this,


You can make your payment for your tour via Paypal, your payment is refundable if cancel within 1 day of arrival. You will also be REFUNDED all of your payment if the ship does not make it to port for any reason what so ever.
Payments can be made upon arival also, payment of cash or travelers checks only.

If booked though a broker, they often require a deposit and it can sometimes be an exercise to get the deposit back, but is usually possible.

Some excursions are definitely non-refundable but the money paid typically is just a deposit.
This was one policy
"
>Payment terms are as follows: we send you an invoice on confirmation of the
>booking and we ask that at least 25% is paid 1 month in advance (by
>international bank transfer or through our web site by credit card), the
>balance to be paid in cash to our guide on the day of the tour. The 25% is
a
>non-returnable deposit; that is, if the tour does not take place for
reasons
>beyond our control, such as the ship failing to dock because of bad
weather,"
>this fee would be retained by us to cover cancellation fees.

Good Question ... and HELPFUL Replies!

And this is why you always book excursions with a credit card - if for some reason they won't refund your payment, you can always contact your credit card company and have them delete the charge.

But I would NEVER book with a company that had a policy of a non-refundable deposit if you had to cancel for reasons beyond your control. That's just not good business sense and not someone I want to do business with.

Pete

In the case I cited, the tour was a Berlin city tour and the tour operator had to arrange transportation for us from Warnemonde to Berlin and back. If the ship was a no show for any reason, or late, or..., the tour operator would still be stuck with the bus rental.

The independent tour was $129; through the ship was more than twice that. We decided the small risk of a 25% deposit was worth the huge savings.

I would have to look up which vendor it was, but I had been booked on a private tour to see the stingrays in Grand Cayman and then Hurricane Ivan came through and tore the island up. We were able to reach the guy and explain that even though the port would be reopened, our ship was not one of the few being allowed in that soon afterward. We had no trouble cancelling, getting our money back or anything else.

Many of these businesses survive by word of mouth, and it was just good business. I would think this would be true for other businesses on Grand Cayman and other islands that depend on tourists. I would stick to businesses that have been around awhile and that you seen recommended by several groups of people.