booking shore excursions - Cruise Line Fans: Cruise Forum, Reviews and Chat From Real Cruisers

albertan · 06-25-2005, 11:30 PM

Hello everyone!
We've done lots of travelling but this is our first cruise - somehow we let our travel agent talk us into it and I'm a bit apprehensive. We are sailing in late July on the Tahitian Princess for 10 days in Fr. Polynesia and the Cook Islands. Here's what my husband and I are arguing about: I think we should book the onshore excursions now, through the cruiseline, because of the limited time in each port. I don't see how we could posibbly have time to find private tour operators at each stop. My significant other thinks we will be able to book when we get to where we're going. (They'll be lined up at the dock waiting for us ,kind of thing).

This is what we've always done on previous holidays and have had great experiences but I don't think it's going to work for a cruise.
Any advice would be highly appreciated!

Albertan

canarymoon · 06-25-2005, 11:38 PM

One thing of which you might want to make him aware is this:

If you are on a cruiseline booked excursion, and something happens to make your group late returning, the ship will wait for you.

If you are on a privately arranged tour, and you are late returning, the ship will have left, and it will be up to you to get yourselves to the next port to rejoin the ship. (At your own expense)

If you are visiting out of the way or less 'developed' places, there is a greater chance that you could be late - roads washed out, vehicles breaking down, what have you.

That said, you CAN save a bit of money arranging for the tours on your own. And you CAN even book privately arranged tours yourself, on the net. We did all private tours on our last cruise, all booked in advance. We were in the Caribbean, not the South Pacific... not sure I would have gone the private route so far from home.

MCcruiser · 06-26-2005, 01:03 AM

Canarymoon makes some very good points. When we cruise, we will go private if we are going somewhere that has cruise ships visiting often, and we have a good recommendation from other cruisers who've used that company in the past. Even then, I would be reluctant to go private with an all day excursion.

Last cruise, we went to Costa Maya. It has not been on cruise itineraries for very long, so we stuck with the ship's excursion. Originally we had intended to swimming with the stingrays in Grand Cayman, but our ship had to change the itinerary because of Hurricane Ivan. There we had reservations with a company that knows all about how tight cruise schedules are, and told us everything we needed to know starting at how to use the ship's tenders. There was also no language barrier.

But that doesn't mean you can't find a great guide who's honest, speaks English and understands you need to stay on your ship's schedule right on the pier. If you do decide to go that route, I recommend leaving your ship as early as you can after docking, and planning an excursion that gets you back to the pier at least 2 hours before your scheduled departure from the port. Also, take along the ship's agent's number for the port, in case you are held up somewhere. The agent is there to help passengers. If you can't find it in the ship's list of activities for that day, ask at the purser's desk before you leave the ship.

isujim · 06-26-2005, 07:32 AM

Both of these posts pretty much sum up the pros and cons.......I think I would book with the ship this being new ports of call and you aren't 100% sure as to what to expect.

Just wanted to say welcome to CLF. Glad you joined us.

Jim

Bombero · 06-27-2005, 08:07 AM

I copied this from an older thread I wrote several months ago...

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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