Shore Excursions

[lisakay927]

I am set to sail in June to the Western Caribbean and am thinking about arranging my shore excursions with a company called Island Marketing. Has anyone ever used them and if so, any recommendations or complaints?

 

Of course my main concern is them getting me back to the ship on time. :eek:

 

Thanks

[Off2China]

I am set to sail in June to the Western Caribbean and am thinking about arranging my shore excursions with a company called Island Marketing. Has anyone ever used them and if so, any recommendations or complaints?

 

Of course my main concern is them getting me back to the ship on time. :eek:

 

Thanks

 

Check out your roll call for this cruise and see what others are doing:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1043208

[nybumpkin]

We booked through Island Marketing twice, once in St. Maarten and once in Grand Cayman. We tried to book with them a third time for a tour in Jamaica, but the tour we wanted was not available. Remember that it is not a tour operator itself, but instead is a booking agent for independent tour operators who are generally too small to handle their own advertising and booking. Both times we booked, the reservations were handled very well - very prompt e-mail responses, very good about answering questions. Both tour operators were on time and very good about getting us back to the ship as scheduled. (When we book tours independently, we always make sure we have plenty of time before the last boarding time. We won't book independently if our port time is limited or if the tour is lengthy.)

 

Since you're going Western, the Grand Cayman tour we took was the "Outrage Eco-Tour" with Capt. John Michael and was really great. He took us to Stingray City first where we had plenty of time to snorkel and feed the rays. He then took us to a reef to do some more snorkeling; our two younger sons stayed on the boat, but he dove down and brought up a conch for them to see. Then we went to Starfish Beach, which our youngest son loved. I have a great photo of him with a starfish!

[lisakay927]

Check out your roll call for this cruise and see what others are doing:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1043208

I actually have checked my roll call but not too many people have registered yet. Thanks for the suggestion though.

[lisakay927]

We booked through Island Marketing twice, once in St. Maarten and once in Grand Cayman. We tried to book with them a third time for a tour in Jamaica, but the tour we wanted was not available. Remember that it is not a tour operator itself, but instead is a booking agent for independent tour operators who are generally too small to handle their own advertising and booking. Both times we booked, the reservations were handled very well - very prompt e-mail responses, very good about answering questions. Both tour operators were on time and very good about getting us back to the ship as scheduled. (When we book tours independently, we always make sure we have plenty of time before the last boarding time. We won't book independently if our port time is limited or if the tour is lengthy.)

 

Since you're going Western, the Grand Cayman tour we took was the "Outrage Eco-Tour" with Capt. John Michael and was really great. He took us to Stingray City first where we had plenty of time to snorkel and feed the rays. He then took us to a reef to do some more snorkeling; our two younger sons stayed on the boat, but he dove down and brought up a conch for them to see. Then we went to Starfish Beach, which our youngest son loved. I have a great photo of him with a starfish!

Thank you for your reply! It makes me breathe a little easier knowing they were very good about getting you back to your ship on time. I actually am looking at booking the Dunns River Falls River Tubing excursion in Ocho Rios and it leaves as soon as our ship docks and gets me back to my ship about 2 hours before.