Excursions?

Is it better to book excursions through norwegian or on your own? I am looking for things to do in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau. Thanks!

Depends on what you are looking forShore Trips and Shore Excursions Group are reputable companies offering excursions in most ports. You can find them online. They offer smaller tours. Sometimes their prices are lower and sometimes higher.

I'm doing a cruise in the near future. In Cozumel, I am using an NCL excursion, in Jamaica I am using Shore Excursions Group because it looked like a better excursion.

you will find arguments for and against. Not gonna go there - but we book 80% of ours on our own. And often do not do any.

But, to get ideas of what to book, go the ROLL CALL for your cruise and the PORTS OF CALL boards here at Cruise Critic.

Thank you both so much!! Garycarla I didnt realize there was a port of call portion to the board I will check it out!! Thanks again!!

Thank you both so much!! Garycarla I didnt realize there was a port of call portion to the board I will check it out!! Thanks again!!

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

You'll enjoy the ports of call section here. Lots of good suggestions for both excursions thru the ship or on-your-own.

Have fun planning! :)

LuLu

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Is it better to book excursions through norwegian or on your own? I am looking for things to do in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau. Thanks!

"Better"??

It's hard to say. Depends on what you are looking for.

The cruise ships use local tour companies for their shore excursions that can sometimes be booked on your own at considerable savings.

We have used ship excursions for longer tours just for the security of being able to get back on the ship at the end of the day if things run late.

More often, we have booked shore excursions directly online with the companies at the ports we were visiting. These can be found by doing a simple search for "shore excursions in XXXXX city".

As mentioned, you can then talk about them in the "PORT" or "ROLL CALL" boards to see if anyone has suggestions or tips for those tours.

GOOD LUCK!

:):)

Is it better to book excursions through norwegian or on your own? I am looking for things to do in St. Thomas, St. Maarten, and Nassau. Thanks!

You didn't mention your level of cruising experience. My feeling is: if this is your first cruise, or the first cruise to this area, you might want to book through the ship. While it's more expensive than booking direct, it gives you the peace of mind of not having to research tour operators, and not worrying about missing the ship if you get back too late (although I think that's a very rare occurrence).

If you're comfortable making the arrangements on your own, or you've been to these ports before, then I'd definitely save the money and book direct. Often you're getting the same excursion the ship uses anyway. You can also often find options for excursions that aren't offered through the ship.

Finally, if all you want is some beach time at these ports, you can often do that easily with local transportation.

As for *what* to do in those ports, definitely check out the port of call boards for those destinations.

We've done it both ways and it depends- when we went to the Pirate Museum in Nassau we did it on our own because we could just walk to it, didn't make sense to pay the cruise line $30 when the only thing extra we got was a ride to and from the museum. We look at 1) overall cost between the two options 2) is the ship's excursion more convenient 3) is there a great deal of distance or time involved that might increase the risk of running late 4) how trustworthy is the private excursion and what is their cancellation policy.

As others have said, it depends. There are advantages & disadvantages to both. Ship excursions cost more but the ship will wait for you if you are late getting back. You have to do your homework if you book privately. Also if this is one of your 1st trips out of the country be safe & conservative by booking through the cruise until you get the lay of the land.

The private trips are certainly less expensive & can be more initiate. But if anything goes wrong, you are on your own. We've had stuff go horribly wrong but I always had a plan B. I was actually ready to leave one tour -- just get in a cab & get away from the guide. It was that bad.

In those 3 ports you mentioned, we'd probably just walk around or take a taxi to the beach. I have never seen the sense in spending money on a beach break tour unless it comes with a lounge chair if that is important to you vs. just sitting on the sand.