Poll: Excursions with carnival or private?

[Carnival Platinum Cruiser]

1) Exclusively with Carnival no matter what the price

 

2) Exclusively with private tour

 

3) Depends on the price difference between Carnival and private tour

 

4) Depends on the port of call due to safety or other concerns

[oceanbums]

I'll go with the 4th choice. Now that dh and I have cruised a few times and have more experience with how things work, we're comfortable doing excursions on our own or private tours. Of course it also depends on the port and its particular safety concerns.

[nlb1050]

#4. The first cruise we took we had one excursion with the ship canceled due to weather and found that since we were at a very safe port we were fine on our own and so since then if possible we do things on our own especially if we have been to the port before.

 

Of course some excursions are best done with a ship excursion, if it is one that takes most of the time in port. Such as the one we did in Panama, the ship did not go thru any locks and we wanted to so went with the ship tour. Went thru 2 locks to the Pacific and then bus ride back. We were 3 hours late getting back and so the ship waited, there were 300 from the ship on this tour. Of course they could not leave us.

[golfadj]

Depending upon the circumstances can be anyone of 2, 3 or 4.

 

Generally we will book privately as we get better tour at better price and not as crowded.

 

Have had occasions that private guy has turned us over to someone else and were not thrilled with that person but overall private works much better.

[BC Todd]

I will vote for number four as well. There may be a premium when booking through the cruise line, but there is also the security aspect as well. We are only taking one arranged tour on our upcoming cruise. The other two stops will be jumping in a taxi and finding a beach with bar!:eek:

[CorvetteLady]

We've done both ship and private. The time we took the family we did private tours because that was cheaper for 8 people. If it's just us we tend to go with the ship tours. Also if it is a 6 or 7 hour tour we will go with the ship.

 

Still looking at excursions for our Dream cruise. Most likely be a combination of ship and private.

 

One thing for sure, no taxies in Antigua! :eek:

[grandmato4]

Can I add a #5?- Depends on the excursions offered by Carnival vs a private tour-

 

Our most common reason for taking a private tour is that the cruiseline is not offering the package we wish to do while in port. Privately we have much more freedom to choose what we wish to experience while visiting a port vs taking a canned tour.

 

We usually do one cruiseline excursion each cruise because they are offering what we wish to do at a price similar to a private excursion or it happens to be a location that just doesn't have a lot of recommended tour guides to choose from and we have always enjoyed these tours. It could be because we are traveling far from the port in a country with poor road condtions and wish to be sure the ship will wait for us if we should run into any problems.

 

In one port we always just wander around on our own without booking an excursion with the cruiseline or a private tour guide. Sometimes taking a taxi to a beach and other times just wandering around the port city.

 

In our other ports we book private excursions to be able to see and experience all the thing we wish to do that we could not do if booked on a cruiseline excursion.

[Ren4l]

I vote for number 4. If there is not a safety concern, we usually just choose based on how long the excursion is compared to the time in port. If the excursion is greater than 3/4 the time we are in port we definitely go with a ship excursion. If we are just sighseeing we usually take a cab and do our own thing and make sure we leave a couple of hours in case something happens and we end up having to find another way of getting back to the ship.

[rednose83]

I do a combination of 3 or 4. So we usually end up doing 1/2 Carnival tours and 1/2 private tours.

[KULPN]

I have never tried a private tour. My DH gets too nervous about what he reads in the news about bad things that have happened, however rare. We book thru Carnival. I would be up for a private tour if I could convince him.

[KruznKel]

Always private here.. only way I would book thru Carnival is if we were interested in the ruins tour or something that was an all day thing..

 

Never had a problem with private tours..

 

KULPN.. just book a private tour and don't tell hubby.. he will never know the difference.. except maybe on the SS bill:p

[buddylover]

A combination of #3 and #4 for us! Depends on safety issues of port first.....but if it is a safe port we ALWAYS book them ourselves. The computer is a wonderful way to search and read reviews etc. in order to make up your mind. But we feel we would far rather spend 1/2 as much for the exact same tour in many instances, and ues the savings for other fun things to buy or do while on the cruise. We have booked many tours on our own, and have actually been with the cruise passengers from our ship, but paid 1/2 of what they did and had the freedom to choose other things to do as well. We have NEVER had a bad experience doing this thus far.

[mtchg]

.....frankly, the 'meet in lounge and sit around for 30 minutes....hurry up and wait..cattle call'with the Carnival tours are maddening; not to mention the inflated prices.

 

Any tour is researched and purchased from an independant prior to the cruise. Always a small group....great experience...at sometimes half the price.

 

...The one exeception might be some of the "Rum Party Boats"...who frequently partner exclusively with Carnival. In those cases tickets are only available on board prior.

 

 

Mitch

[Chacooe]

I know as a person who travels solo, I would never take the chance of booking privately just to save a few bucks because I know what happens when a passenger does not get back to the ship on time, they leave without you. I saw this happen twice last year on my cruise, the first happened in Puerto Vallarta, when a group of about 20 people booked their tour privately and the bus broke down. They got back to the port about 5 minutes after the ship pulled out and as a first time cruiser I asked one of the waiters why the ship did not go back and get them. He said that they probably booked something private and Carnival is not required to wait for them. Well, it happened again in Cabo San Lucas, a group was on one of those glass bottom boat tours and the boat broke down and they did not get back to the ship on time. In fact the ship passed them as we were leaving the Port.

 

Personally, I will pay that few extra dollars just to make sure the ship will wait for me because I do not have the financial means to get home any other way.

[cruisetobeaches]

We've done some ship sponsored excursions and felt "ripped off" on a couple of them.

 

We've gone with private tours and been pleased.................So far.

 

an option not mentioned.............Make your OWN tour. Example is Cozumel. We've been there enough times that we now make our own schedule on the island and skip both the ship sponsored and private operators.

[pokergirl34]

1) Exclusively with Carnival no matter what the price

2) Exclusively with private tour

3) Depends on the price difference between Carnival and private tour

4) Depends on the port of call due to safety or other concerns

 

We have done both private and Carnival tours. For all day excursions, such as ruins, we would only do a Carnival tour. Also, we had one excursion for which we had to go through Carnival. The tour operater had an exclusivity contract with Carnival for certain hours of the day.

 

One tour we booked privately (and saved $$$ on) was the same one that our shipmates booked through Carnival. I was a little disappointed it was so crowded, but at least we saved money.

 

For our trip next month, we have booked 2 private tours and 1 Carnival tour (ruins) and will just decide what to do on our own in the 4th port. Of course, I have a little notebook with options in it ;)

[BlueC5Kitten]

In the past, all excursions with the ship...for my next cruise, ½ with, ½ without.

 

Dive trips are better without because you can qualify the type of diving with which you have experience, and some private ops allow you to dive computer limits. Woo hoo! Looking forward to that.

[cruiserbryce]

we have always booked our excursions through the cruise lines directly...it usually is a little more expensive but the $ is worth it since it guarantees that you wont get left behind if something happens that delays your tour back to the port. Far too many things that can go wrong to risk it in our opinion