Booking Excursions

First time cruiser May 2018 and super excited! I have been researching excursions through Carnival as well as other travel sites. I am kind of leery about using third party sites. Even reading reviews of some of these companies hasn't helped me feel more confident. Any suggestions, recommendations for booking excursions? Is the safest route to book through Carnival or are their any reputable travel sites?

There is some degree of security in staying with the cruise line excursions. They guarantee to either wait for you if you are late or get you to your next port of call That's what we did the first few times we cruised. However, what you find over time is that the reputable private tour operators could not stay in business if they caused people to miss their ship.

We we have also found is that the reputable private tour operators are frequently less expensive, have better tours, and fewer guests on the tour.

I'd look at sites like Tripadvisor for reviews, and also the port of call forums here on Cruise Critic:

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5

You can also join your Roll Call to share excursion info with your fellow passengers.

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I've booked a lot of excursions through the cruise ships. It was especially nice on my first cruise because everything was new and I was a bit nervous about where to go and what to do. When you book through the ship, they have your tickets waiting in your cabin or in the mail slot outside of your door. There are directions on where and when to meet. It's very simple and stress-free.

If you are interested in looking at excursions that are not through the cruise ship, I would recommend reading here at CC under the various ports. People give great reviews and recommendations. There is nothing wrong at all with booking excursions on your own, but by reading reviews here you can ask questions and that might make you feel better.

If travelling to the Caribbean I would not bother with overpriced ship excursions. Easy to pre book with local operators or pick up a tour or taxi at the cruise terminal.

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First time cruiser May 2018 and super excited! I have been researching excursions through Carnival as well as other travel sites. I am kind of leery about using third party sites. Even reading reviews of some of these companies hasn't helped me feel more confident. Any suggestions, recommendations for booking excursions? Is the safest route to book through Carnival or are their any reputable travel sites?

As afirst time cruiser I would recommend you use the ships tours. As you cruise more you'll get comfortable and use private ypirs instead.

As afirst time cruiser I would recommend you use the ships tours. As you cruise more you'll get comfortable and use private ypirs instead.

I agree with Kamloops, at least for the first few excursions. When you use ship excursions you simply show up and go; no hassle at all. If your ship misses a port where you bought a shorex you will not pay anything nor will you need to deal with the excursion operator to get a refund.

Once you get some experience you can better determine whether you want to go it alone on later port visits.

Before you book any excursions, read a guidebook...find out what there is in each place, and a guidebook will pretty much show you how easy it is to do on your own! In the Caribbean, most things are VERY easy DIY things!

Are you saying the Caribbean?

If so, you do not need an excursion in every port. In fact, some you can do very easily on your own and you don't have to go far from the ship so no worries about getting back on time as you will be nearby.

As a first time cruiser the few excursions you do I would do though the cruise line so you can get used to everything.

Most importantly and cb at sea mentioned this is to do your homework.

If it is the Caribbean do pick up a guide book. Also use the sources on the internet. This included the ports of call boards on Cruise Critic and also the section of CC where they have a nice writeup on each port including what is close by. Just a google search asking what are the top things to do in "x" port will bring up lots of ideas as will using sites such as http://www.tripadvisor.com and http://www.frommers.com

I always believe that part of the fun when it comes to travel is the planning and research so start with the research.

Keith

Hi, and welcome to Cruise Critic,

If it's the Caribbean, I'll certainly go along with those who say DIY - even for a first-time cruiser unless you're particularly nervous, it's what we've done from the outset.

Just get off the ship at a sensible time - mebbe around 9.30 to 10 - and join the throng on the pier or at the port gate negotiating with the taxis & vans parked there. Drivers at the port all know each-other, they are reliable, friendly and trustworthy, they know their island & they know the importance of your back-on-board time. They can replicate or modify ship's tours for about a quarter of the price (tho no food etc included), and at the end of the tour they can drop you back at the ship, or in town, or at a beach near the ship (so take your beach gear with you).

Agree a price (US dollars), approx. itinerary & return time before you board, pay when you get back - it's the norm.

A few caveats...............

- do a bit of research to decide where you want to go, what you want to see or do. Ships' excursion details are a good start.

- be very wary of offers of taxis etc beyond the port - they may not even be licenced.

- scenic tours or beach transfers are easy to negotiate on-the-fly. But activities - zip-wires, snorkelling from a catamaran, river-tubing, 4x4 or ATVs & such - are difficult or impossible to replicate on-the-fly, best to pre-book either with the ship or independently.

- if the places you want to visit are hours away (eg Chichen Itza from Cancun or Playa Del Carmen) or involve a ferry (eg the mainland from Cozumel or Virgin Gorda from Tortola) or anywhere else where there's no Plan B if your arrangements go belly-up, it's best not to DIY.

More "secure" is to tour-share with others on your ship. Check out your cruise RollCall for those looking for sharers. If you don't know how to find your RollCall, post your ship and sailing date & some kind soul will provide a link to it.

Best not to get involved in actually arranging a tour-share yourself, leave that to others who know the pitfalls for organisers.

Booking seat-in-bus with a local operator will be cheaper than ships' tours but do be sure it's a tour geared for cruisers - if everyone else on the tour is hotel-based there's less urgency to return on time if the tour is delayed.

Booking privately will certainly give you a better excursion experience than the other options, but is probably the most expensive option.

For any non-ship bookings, do check out the operator on independent websites, including Cruise Critic. As Clarea's post, long-established & reputable tour operators couldn't stay in business if they didn't provide a reliable service..

If you pre-book and are required to pre-pay or quote a credit card number, do check the booking terms for cancellation - ships sometimes do not make it to a scheduled port (usually because of weather or sea conditions) and you need to be sure of getting your money back if that happens.

Ships' tours are always over-priced, you are usually herded like cattle & travel at the pace of the slowest, and they're pretty inflexible.

But they do have advantages

- you are the responsibility of the cruise line. If the tour gets back late the ship will almost-always wait for you, and on the rare occasions that it can't it's the cruise line's responsibility to feed you, bed you, get you to the next port of call, etc.

- if the ship fails to make port, you're not charged for the non-event tour.

- your money is safe with the cruise line - none of the "third party" woes that concern you.

The above for almost-all Caribbean ports but there are exceptions.

If it's not the Caribbean, my typing finger has been worn out to no avail ;)

JB :)

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We personally would not book an excursion through the cruise line. They're way overpriced and too crowded and slow. We like going through private tour operators. They're cheaper, move at a much better pace and you typically see/do more. They're also cheaper. As mentioned, that's their business and livelihood. They know if they make people miss the ship, they will go out of business from bad reviews. Just search the ports of call here on CC, and also look on TripAdvisor. You can also ask on your roll call groups to see what other people may suggest.

(and I always love to lol at the guidebook response)

If you are going to the Caribbean - first decide what you would like to do in each port. And looking at shore excursions can be a helpful way to see what’s available.

If you want to go to a place - beach, Atlantis, etc, simply grab a taxi when you get there. No need to arrange transportation through an excursion where you’ll only be there for a few hours and on their time table.

If you want to take a tour or do an activity (snorkeling or whatever), my preference is to book locally. I research through TripAdvisor. I prefer that and actually feel more confident of my tour than a ship excursion because then you know who your tour is through and can see their reviews. You never really know what you’ll get with a ship excursion and there are plenty of people that end up unhappy with the ship tours.

That’s not always an option and I have used third party excursion sites also. Never had a bad experience with that. For example we did a ATV tour in st Martin and it turns out there’s only one ATV rental company near the port. They provide tours for ship excursions and independent tours. We ended up starting with the ship excursion and were apprehensive - group was at least 30 ATVs and clear many were novices so there was a ton of stopping to wait for people to catch up. At the first stop we broke off with our tours guide and it ended up being just 4 ATVs and we went places the large tour never could have done. Had a blast.

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There are a lot of private tour companies that have been in business for years and that have wonderful reviews. They would not be staying in business if they were consistently messing up.

DON