Private DIY shore excursions vs Ship's shore excursions

What's the skinny on this? Would like to hear opinions on either of these options. We are going on a 15 day Holland America Panama canal cruise that will stop in Cartagena, Columbia, Puerta Caldera (Puntarenas) Costa Rica, Corinto, Nicaragua, Puerto Quetzal, Guatamala, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Holland America is offering us a 10% discount if we book our shore excursions through them by March 15.

We only take ship's tours. No stress in worrying about getting back in time to avoid missing the ship.

I suggest head to the port of call section. There are reviews and Intel on local guides. With few exceptions, I used this website and TA on tours. The vendors know good reviews and ensuring you are back on board is vital for their business. I also like the fact with the private tours, small or I the only person. Often see more and better in-depth of a port stop. Now I have also taken ship tours and overall they were good. The fair to poor ones were mainly due to having a large group, being shuffle along and sometimes dealing with annoying folks.

If the ship is in port a long period of time,not definitely. But if you are constantly going to be stress out and not able to enjoy yourself,just book a ship tour

I rarely take ship excursions. In most places you can find the same, or better, excursions for less money. Another advantage I have found with independent excursions is that you usually have smaller groups, more personalized service and longer time on the excursion.

Do some research here on CC in the Ports of Call Forum and on Trip Advisor. There is lots of good information and recommendations. Stick with those that have good reviews and you will be fine.

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To clarify -- to me DIY means "do it yourself" not using a private tour provider (e.g., you arrange your own taxi on the spot or you use public transportation -- no driver, no guide). More difficult but more fulfilling in my opinion, but others may not enjoy the planning or may worry about getting back to the ship.

Private tours are a good option in many places -- they can cost less, sure, but to me the more important thing is that they are often better. At least, this is generally true in Europe; maybe less so in the Caribbean where the tourism infrastructure is more hit or miss...

In nearly every case I will do whatever I can to avoid the ship tours on most cruise lines. I don't appreciate the numerous "shopping" stops, the inconsiderate fellow passengers who can't or won't keep to a schedule, and the often lacklustre guides.

DWSterrett, Hi. We've done both HAL tours and DIY at those very Ports you referenced. . We are physically fit adventurists. SOMETIMES Tours by the cruise line are actually the best deal, ie less monkey business. ie Bus to Antiqua, Guat., or to Corinto, Nic. Other times the Cruise Line doesn't offer Parachuting, SCUBA, fly fishing, Volcano hikes etc. etc. I just booked a HAL tour in Spain for a scary hike along a cliff. Go figure...

We only take ship's tours. No stress in worrying about getting back in time to avoid missing the ship.

We only take ship's tours as well, mainly for the ease. I don't want to worry about the difficulties of rescheduling, refunds or changes should the ship not make a port or be delayed getting into port. Also, I'm on vacation, I don't want to have to do a lot to research and comparing for tours. If there is a ship-based tour I like, I'll do it. If not, I'll just go ashore and wander around the port area or the town within walking distance from the port. I have never noticed too long shopping stops on the tours, but maybe I pick my tours better than others.

I've found that researching the area you are going to will help you decide whether to do a ship excursion over a DIY excursion. For example, in Hawaii, it made zero sense to do a ship excursion for a few reasons: car rentals are dirt cheap, DIY excursions are all over the place and they are really really good and MUCH cheaper than the ship excursions.

On the other hand, Roatan... we did a DIY excursion and I'm not sure what I was thinking on that one. The port (once you get beyond the gate, the meeting place for most DIY excursions) it's absolute chaos. Kind of like if you have ever been in the Cancun airport... it's like that. If I was going to do Roatan again, I would take a ship excursion which left from inside the port gates.

All that to say, it depends on the port, the cost, getting back to the port on time, breaking language barriers, etc. As others have said, I suggest researching each port.

Welcome to Cruise Critic! Check on your "roll call" if there are others making plans for tours. Your roll call is on the roll calls forum and your sailing will have it's own thread where those on the same cruise can chat and plan. Can't give you the direct link until we know which departure port and date.

We don't like to do pre-arranged private tours in tender ports, not sure if there are any on your itinerary. At tender ports we will sometimes take a short taxi tour, maybe share it with other cruisers, works well for an overview tour. In tender ports we are more likely to do a ship tour to avoid difficulties in meeting up the private party, and to maximize time in the port because ship tours usually will get the first tender.

We only do private tours that will get us back WAY early before scheduled departure, like at least 2 hours.

We prefer ship tours in third-world type environments: factors we would be concerned about from a private company are: a robust guide company with good reviews; back-ups in case of a vehicle break-down, so we'd need to find a well known or large company (see trip advisor); good communications, as evidenced by good communications setting up the tour; sanitary foods and drinks if offered (see trip advisor); refund of any money pre-paid if the ship skips the port (read the terms and conditions); secure ways to pay for the tour... and again, good communications!

Ship tours have been researched for their abilities, safety records, food safety, and they carry insurance, thus must be insurable! - all in addition to the "ship won't leave without you" guarantee, which is all most people think about.

Happy planning, m--

....I just booked a HAL tour in Spain for a scary hike along a cliff. Go figure...

Is that the slot canyon out of Malaga? Fabulous! m--

We're torn between ship tours and do it yourself. We used to purchase all ship tours, but on our last cruise, we were very disappointed in a couple of the tours. I reported them onboard, and also after we got home. Onboard, they listened intently, but didn't offer any refund (like we've gotten a few times on Royal Caribbean). They did have me fill out a form, but again, nothing came of it.

We had one bus that had seats so uncomfortable, we almost left the tour at the first stop and took a taxi back to the ship. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure how much they'd charge for a taxi. The seats were so bad, even our guide after sitting in the seat a few seconds got up and spent the rest of the tour standing at the front of the bus.

They made adjustments as the cruise progressed like bringing step stools for the high bus steps, and having the buses drop us off right at the gangplank. I'm thinking they did this with me in mind, because after the first two ports in Australia/New Zealand, we had only two people that were mobility challenged. But I did see move people at the meeting room, they just didn't pick our tours.

We've done the Victoria (BC) Pedicab, because we take along our cell phone and call a cab if necessary.

If we're driving a lot of miles out of the port, we'll probably put up with the ship tours. We've had some really good ship tours over the years, but also some real stinkers.

What's the skinny on this? Would like to hear opinions on either of these options. We are going on a 15 day Holland America Panama canal cruise that will stop in Cartagena, Columbia, Puerta Caldera (Puntarenas) Costa Rica, Corinto, Nicaragua, Puerto Quetzal, Guatamala, and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Holland America is offering us a 10% discount if we book our shore excursions through them by March 15.

With those ports, I'd stick w/ the ship tours. I'd also say if you don't feel safe in a particular port, stay on the ship. Every once in a while I read articles robbery on tourist buses. But most of the time, they know what parts of the ports to avoid. I know I don't.

I have done the Panama Canal and we had private tours in several and in several we DIY. In the Mexican ports, it's not hard if you don't mind walking and we had a little catamaran tour booked.

For Cartagena, Corinto, Guatemala, etc., I was so glad we did private tours. I remember watching the HAL bus pull up as we were about to leave. We had been out, seen the monkeys in the trees, had fruit cut for us to try, etc. While the HAL tour was craning their necks to try to see the monkeys through dirty windows in their bus.

Private tour operators that are good have you there before the big tour buses arrive. And before the crowds. Timing is imperative ;)

I have done some HAL tours on most cruises but have gone further and further away from them due to the poor service, untimely starts and itineraries changing on us.

Private tours are usually much smaller groups, far more flexiblity and because of the numbers you have the availabity to see more things. (We saw far more than the HAL tours offered in Cartagena and our other ports - and with fabulous guides). DIY is it's own challenge but fun. You just need to do a bit of planning. I wouldn't do a DIY in Cartagena or several other ports. Not because it isn't safe, but because you just can't get where you need to be without wheels.

Oh and before someone says it, we've never missed the ship yet ;)

We have done private tours in the Caribbean as well as Mexico....all were great! Check out Trip Advisor for your ports of call & look for the ones that are highly rated. I actually arranged for a city tour in Cartegena for a group from our ship -- cost was considerably lower than the ship offered one & we saw a lot more.

We tried to utilize the street bus system in Amsterdam. Looked fairly straight forward, but didn't work so well for us. First, we got on going the wrong way.

We'd been told to meet at a particular dock for a canal ride that few of the locals knew about, because it was and old dock. And the church nearby was closed. But first, we tried to go to the Rijksmuseum, because that was clearly marked. We found the street signs on the buildings and not the corners, and we also found all the stops were announced in Dutch. They had a sign near the front of the bus, also in Dutch.

But the really weird stuff when we tried to find the dock for the Canal tour. They told us our stop was miles from where we needed to be. And the doors opened and closed so fast, we ended up on two separate stops.

Good thing we left early.

Still, if we make it back to Amsterdam, I want another look at the Rijksmuseum.

Two cents on private tours and than I will mind my own business: some are excellent with outstanding guides, well worth the money!

Kazu and I will no doubt agree to disagree on the topic of private tours arriving late (post all aboard time) at the ship. I have stood at the bottom of the gangway several times looking for late arriving pax who were on a private tour with absolutely no way to get a hold of them so, consequently, no ETA for their return. And yes, they were left, at times, because the captain could no longer afford to wait.

It (late returning pax on a private tour/they eventually made it back and did not miss the ship) occurred as recently as December last year in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico to a group of six individuals who had booked a private small boat tour to Las Caletas beach.

Private tours can work well and you can get your money's worth, depending on where you are, but you've got to have some means of communication with the ship, or better yet, with someone from that private tour company who is standing on the pier and who can relay pertinent info to the ship's crew at the gangway. When tours/pax are running late, it is imperative that the ship knows where the bus/van/boat is, and how long it will take them to get back to port. We had it happen in Livorno to two bus loads full of Chinese pax however, they had good comms, and made it back, albeit 45 min late.

We pretty much use HAL shore excursions 100% of the time and are 95% happy with them.

Sheer convenience and the variety of choices they offer - many active enough for our own tastes. No one pretends they are going to have an in depth experience during a cruise port stop, but often the candid comments of the guides will give more local insights than anything they try to show you.

We like HAL tours because for the most part they do not become forced shopping stops, unless that is disclosed up front. We also have been robbed twice when doing port stops on our own so that beomes a consideration after a "certain age".

................................We found the street signs on the buildings and not the corners, ........................................

Very common in Amsterdam and Dutch cities/towns

I also am one who prefersband organizes private tours. The only time we have ever been late on a tour was a ship's tour we took in Messina, Italy. Book with reputable companies - their reputation and business are on the line if they get you back late.

When we docked in Cartagena, the dozen or so HAL excursion buses were lined up to haul people off to quick picture taking stops and crowded shopping tours. The DW and I were off to a private tour (just the two of us) of the old city on segways. Not necessarily cheaper, but not riding around on a bus or walking in the famous Colombian heat. And a great tour.

Very common in Amsterdam and Dutch cities/towns

 

And in many other European cities - Spain, Portugal come to mind.

Looking very much forward to our first visit to Amsterdam, by the way ;)

And in many other European cities - Spain, Portugal come to mind.

 

Looking very much forward to our first visit to Amsterdam, by the way ;)

I have a feeling you will like my old city of birth! Be sure to take a canal tour by day, or by night. The two main companies depart from in front of the Centraal Station (Central Rail Station). The Dutch love the Canadians and will never forget what they did for them at the end of WWII!

I have a feeling you will like my old city of birth! Be sure to take a canal tour by day, or by night. The two main companies depart from in front of the Centraal Station (Central Rail Station). The Dutch love the Canadians and will never forget what they did for them at the end of WWII!

thanks John :)

I am sure we will love it and had planned that already but with your sage advice I will make sure we do it :)

I still remember the warmth in Normandy. the Dutch were very kind to us in Rotterdam and the Dutch passengers we have met on the ships have always been wonderful.

Looking forward to it very much and by the way, my dad, uncle and aunt all fought in WWII. My Uncle was a POW and actually had a documentary done on CBC (Canada's station), I take their sacrifice and that of many others very seriously.

thanks again :)

And in many other European cities - Spain, Portugal come to mind.

 

....and in Rome:

We almost always use a private excursion co. Expedia is wonderful. Blue Water also. They are very mindful of time frames and making sure you get back on time. They are less expensive and offer a little more plus smaller groups.

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