Do all Non-cruise tour companies in Meditteranean want payment up front?

Hi all........I'm back again and this may not be the right place for this question but in the Europe category, it is split up in separate countries, so here goes. We are booked on our first Med. cruise and the ship tours are outrageously expensive here, so I am looking to book shared tours from independent operators. I have signed up for one in Naples, joining a group from Roll call on Epic but had to pay them full amount and waiting to get confirmation. This makes me kind of nervous, cause the only other tours I booked independent over the internet was in Alaska and we didn't have to pay until we took the tour. I know that booking with the ship the cost will be on our final bill after we go, but the difference in price is literally hundreds of dollars pp, and big crowds, too. The company I am looking at is very well rated on Trip Advisor, so I may be worrying for nothing, but I'd rather pay for something when I use it........is this how it is with all the tours? Thanks for all your help for this silly old woman..............Patti

For all our European tours we paid on the day of the tour.

For all our European tours we paid on the day of the tour.

This has been our experience as well, with the one or two exceptions where companies were giving discounts if you paid upfront with a credit card.

OP, some research on the Med Ports board will be beneficial.

OP, are you sure they charged you for the full amount of the tour, or did they just ask for your credit card to assure the reservation?

Most tour companies with experience dealing with cruise passengers are willing to work with you, including not requesting up-front payment (due to the fact that you may have to gather a group together). However, in some countries -- France comes to mind -- it IS more difficult to find vendors that don't want payment in advance.

If you are paying in advance, be sure you also understand the vendor's policies regarding cancellation. What happens if your ship cannot dock at the port for some reason (weather, political issues, strike, etc.). You want to find one that will refund your cost in those instances.

As the other poster has already said, I think it would be helpful for you to at least do some reading of old threads on the various Med Ports of Call forums to get familiar with the process and perhaps get some recommendations.

It sounds as though you already paid; so any advice might be too little too late.

I personally prefer to book with companies that will accept payment the day of; and if they want a deposit I carefully check the refund policy to make sure that if the ship misses the port or is too late to make the tour, that it’s refundable.

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No, I’ve been on many private tours in Europe, and never paid in advance.

Also, use PayPal instead of a credit card.

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My experience is is similar to others.

They often want a credit card up front so that if you are a no show they can charge you but in most cases you are charged the day of the tour.

On occasion we have had to pay something up front.

Keith

Also, use PayPal instead of a credit card.

Why? Having filed disputes with both, a credit card provides sufficient protection.

Why? Having filed disputes with both, a credit card provides sufficient protection.

Yes -sufficient protections that deal with issues "after the fact." That can be a real PITA after a fraud attempt on your CC that results in new card, credit alerts, etc. With PayPal, there is far less chance of more people, in more places, physically viewing your card info.

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For a whole day trip from Almeria to Granada last spring, we had to pay in advance. The vendor has to buy the Alhambra tickets in advance and they aren't refundable so there is some justification for at least part of the charge being in advance. While we were in Malaga, there was an announcement that the port stop in Almeria was cancelled due to wind conditions making it hazardous to get into the port and we would overnight in Malaga instead.

After a couple of calls with the vendor, we found that they would send a minibus to Malaga to transport us to Granada if we would pay the extra cost. We had to get in contact with the other 6 people on the ship who had booked the tour to see if they were willing to split the cost (4 were easy because they were on our roll call), the vendor gave us the name for the other couple and reception helped us get in contact with them. After the extra cost, it still ended up cheaper than the ship tour (but the ship's tour included lunch - something that wasn't clear in the tour description).

In retrospect, it may have been worth it to pay the extra for the ship's tour in this case - we really didn't want to miss Granada and the Alhambra. There was a tense couple of hours after the port cancellation announcement while we waited to see if the vendor could get something arranged to pick us up. During that time, we checked to if the ship tour had room for us in case the vendor couldn't arrange something as I really wanted to see the Alhambra. If the vendor hadn't come through we would have ended up paying for both.

Many of the excursions in Alaska don't charge if you if the ship can't make port or is too delayed, but that isn't universal. We paid for a boat tour and for train tickets in advance.

I have done lots and lots of private tours . I have done tours where we paid when we took the tour. I have done them where we paid in full in advance. I have done everything in between. I have never had a problem w any of the scenarios but I have also checked with the company cancellation policy before I sent them the money.

We are off to New Zealand in a few days and will be taking about 6 or 7 private tours. All of them will have been fully paid for before we leave.

Don't worry about it.

DON

Thanks so much to everyone that replied. It seems that it's kind of a mixed bag where excursions are concerned. The company I am asking about seems to be well rated and the group was started on the Cruise Critic Roll Call board for this cruise, so it should be ok. This excursion is in Naples and had just what we were looking for without breaking the bank. I am still deciding on the other 2 Italy ports Rome and Livorno(Florence and Pisa) This company has what sounds like decent tours there too. Cannes is a tough call, being a tender port and Palma is kind of a short day. Anyway, I still have time to decide. All your information has been very helpful......Patti

On our B2B western med (Rome to Barcelona) and Trans-Atlantic (Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale) we participated in 11 private or semi-private (with other members of our Roll Call) tours. None required full payment in advance. Two private tours (for our group of 6 only) required 50 euro deposits; another that could have had additional participants required a 10 euro deposit; and finally one semi-private tour that included Park Guell (in Barcelona) required payment (5 euros each) for those tickets in advance.

Thanks so much to everyone that replied. It seems that it's kind of a mixed bag where excursions are concerned. The company I am asking about seems to be well rated and the group was started on the Cruise Critic Roll Call board for this cruise, so it should be ok. This excursion is in Naples and had just what we were looking for without breaking the bank. I am still deciding on the other 2 Italy ports Rome and Livorno(Florence and Pisa) This company has what sounds like decent tours there too. Cannes is a tough call, being a tender port and Palma is kind of a short day. Anyway, I still have time to decide. All your information has been very helpful......Patti

Patti,

Don't worry about paying in full. There will be no problem. Maybe you didn't fully read about the payment. I only put down a deposit to hold my spot and will pay my balance later. i could have paid it all but just felt like putting part of the payment. I had to make a full payment on another one of the tours we are taking in another port. I have no doubt in my mind that you will have no issues. I should know, I was the one that stated the tour group. Join us in Livorno. We are also using italytours.eu in that port. See you on the ship!!

Howard

We used private vendors in each port for two Med cruises and didn't pay ANY vendor up front. The tours were customized for what we wanted to do and how much time we wanted to spend. Incidentally, one of our stops was Naples. They insisted that we pay at the end of the tour and we paid in Euros, which they said they preferred. The vendors we had at each port was WONDEFUL and much more economical than the ship.