Excursions - safe to buy outside Royal?

{Itinerary: Cozumel, Grand Cayman, Falmouth}

I have never had a problem booking excursions from the ship or another venue (or just wandering around shopping in Cozumel) but this year is the first time I'm taking my kids (12yr and 16yr) and with all the warnings on the State Dept website I'm a little concerned. According to their advisories, Grand Cayman is the only stop we're making that does not have an "Increased Caution" warning.

That being said, has anyone who has cruised to these destinations lately felt at all unsafe? (I say lately because on our last cruise, several years ago, I felt completely safe in all these ports)

I had planned on only booking excursions through the cruiseline, assuming it would be safer that way, but I see that Expedia (where we booked the cruise) has some cool excursions at slightly lower prices. I would assume they would be safe as well, but wondered what other opinions are?

GC is a very safe, "well-to-do" place. No worries. Falmouth isn't really near much of anything...it was sort of built just for cruise ship docking...any "attractions" will not be within walking distance. But certainly you can trust local vendors!

A guidebook is the place to start...libraries have them if you don't want to buy one. Rarely do you NEED an excursion (especially thru the ship!) to have a great day ashore!

A ship's excursion isn't really "safer" than any other means as far as personal safety goes. If you are going a great distance from the ship, then you may like the "guarantee" of them getting you back to the ship on time...but to be honest, even private guides will get you back on time...they would go out of business if they made folks miss the ship!

We were on a RC sponsored tour from Falmouth and one of the participants got hurt and had to be taken to emergency facilities. They were not on the bus back to port and I reminder we were delayed leaving about an hour. If you don't go with a sponsored tour then you assume this risk. We were also on a tour in Belize and we were on the last tender back. Several people were running to catch the tender. They made it but they had done a private tour, their vehicle broke down and if they would have been two minutes later they would have been stuck there.

I would check the port of call forums here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=587

Another excellent resource would be reviews on TripAdvisor.

Just in Cozumel this week. Took a taxi to and from Paradise Beach. Felt very safe and had a great time. Two granddaughters had hair braided, while older gd got a massage. All at much better prices than on the ship.

We do not like ship sponsored tours. We have taken many tours through other providers. Do a search of an excursion search of a location & pick one. We have also gone out on our own. You know when the ship is to leave & leave yourself plenty of time. no problems mon.

I always book excursions that are not offered by the cruise line. As stated earlier, TripAdvisor is a great resource. No matter what excursion you choose to book chances are you won’t be alone, other cruisers will be going along too. Enjoy that cruise!

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