Protocol on organizing private tours

[Rocket4Oh]

I am new to the CC boards and cruising. I’ve seen quite a few private tours organized by one of the passengers but I have a question about how one shares the cost. There are some tour guides (really taxi companies) who only have 4 passenger vehicles and they change by the taxi. It works out perfectly if you have exactly 4 passengers per cab but what if, for example you only have 10 wanting to go on the tour. Is the typical protocol to divide the TOTAL charge for all the taxis and divide amongst the 10 or does each taxi group take care of their own thereby leaving the taxi with only two to actually have double the cost? (This could also happen if, at the last minute, someone dropped out)

[LHT28]

First go to the roll call for your cruise to share private tours

Ask the tour company if they have Vans

I have booked 2 vans for our private tour, the guide I have charges PP for the tour so not problem.

We have also booked 3 taxi's vans for a trip to the city we will share the cost of each van of 45E per taxi ( each van holds up to 8 passengers)

You have to agree among your group how the fee will be split, you could probably pick up extra people to share on the ship if the roll call is unsuccessful in filling the taxis

 

Enjoy the trip

lyn

[brian_uk]

Last year on our Roll Call I suggested in open forum a particular Tour and was swamped with 32 people who wanted to join. I decided to limit it to just 6 which I feel is a manageable number.

 

I also stipulated after discussions elsewhere that we only wanted Non Smokers.

 

Someone else took over the main tour which eventually collapsed as nobody could agree to the exact Itinerary and I think that it broke up into a number of small groups.

 

On our Cruise I think we did 3 Private Tours of between 4 and 6 people and all worked well.

 

Brian

[2travelers]

I am new to the CC boards and cruising. I’ve seen quite a few private tours organized by one of the passengers but I have a question about how one shares the cost. There are some tour guides (really taxi companies) who only have 4 passenger vehicles and they change by the taxi. It works out perfectly if you have exactly 4 passengers per cab but what if, for example you only have 10 wanting to go on the tour. Is the typical protocol to divide the TOTAL charge for all the taxis and divide amongst the 10 or does each taxi group take care of their own thereby leaving the taxi with only two to actually have double the cost? (This could also happen if, at the last minute, someone dropped out)

 

Hi - We leave on July 11 and I have booked guides in several ports. I contacted the guides and asked for their itineraries, price for the tour and how many passengers they can accommodate. Once I decided on a guide, I reserved the date (and if requested gave a deposit), then I posted on CC and asked if anyone cared to join us. So far it has worked well. Anyone joining us splits the cost for the day. If there is one person joining us then we divide the cost three ways.

We have been doing this for years and have never had a problem....and the bonus is, we have met some really great people on our cruises - some which we might never have met ;)

Ronnie

[mountain grandma]

Hi Keith,

 

I am familiar with your situation since I am on the same cruise with you and saw your postings on our roll call. What I would suggest is that you tell everyone that no matter how the taxis are divided up, the total cost of the taxis will be divided up among the 10 of you. One person in each taxi should pay that driver and then settle up amongst you at a later time. IMO, that seems to be the fairest way to handle it.

 

See you on board :),

Billie (Mountain Grandma)

[joan24]

HI,Billie. I hope all is well with you and Ted.

Joan

[mountain grandma]

HI,Billie. I hope all is well with you and Ted.

Joan

 

Hi Joan,

 

What a coincidence--earlier today we were looking at pictures of the six of us on our Malta tour because we are thinking about an itinerary in 2011 that includes a port stop in Valletta!

 

We are fine and I hope that you are both doing well, also. I saw that you are booked on the Marina for one of her early sailings. We hope to be on the London-London sailing in July, 2011 so please send me an email after you are finished with your cruise and give me your impressions. So far everything that I have read sounds really wonderful. :)

 

Say hi to Bob,

Billie

[Bruin Steve]

I have organized a number of small group tours myself...

For our recently completed Nautica Med cruise, we had groups for Tunesia (6), Malta (6), Port Said/Cairo (6), Ashdod and Haifa (6), Kusadasi (4) and Istanbul (4)...I organized the tours for Tunesia, Malta and Israel, others in the group organized the other ports...

 

For my upcoming Baltic cruise, I have organized tours in Warnmunde/Berlin (6), St. Petersburg (8) and Amsterdam (12)...

 

First, the best way to find people (unless you already know others going) is to find them on the Roll Call here on Cruise Critic...Often someone might already be organizing a tour that you can join...or you can do the research, make the contact and then offer it on the Roll Call to others...

 

I have found that 6-8 people seems to be the optimal tour size--keeping the cost fairly reasonable, but keeping the group small enough to be manageable...

 

A lot does depend on the vehicle the tour providers use...but many can offer you a choice...Some have avalilable vans that carry 6 passengers (outside of the guide and driver...or guide/driver), some have larger vans that carry 10...or minibuses that carry up tio 16 ( Our Amsterdam tour is in a minibus that seats up to 16, but we chose to limit it to 12 to keep it from getting out of hand)...

 

Often the tour providers will have a set price, no matter how many in your party, other times they do it with a quote per person, based on the number of people in the group...

 

In some ports, it is customary (or required by law) that payment is all done in person on the day of the tour, in others, there is a deposit --often by credit card but sometimes by bank wire transfer...Sometimes there may be payment in advance (though rare)...When there's a pre-payment or deposit, I've usually just fronted it for my group, then account for it later...

 

On tours with a set price, we've always just split the cost per person...

 

Hope that helps...

[Rocket4Oh]

As usual the CC posters have gone above and beyond in answers.

Thanks to all. I feel much more comfortable now.

[bbwex]

Once you organize a group, and let's presume you have six people but want 8 or 10. You can put out there that you have the ABC tour set up in X city, and you are looking for 2 or 4 more people. When you have them, put up another note that you have your group, and are no longer looking for people.

 

I have to agree with many of the earlier posters, you want to organize a van trip, put everyone in your group together so that you aren't waiting for the third cab that somehow got lost. If you stay in a small group, you can move quickly and often add things that aren't in the tours stated itinerary. Do some research on the Ports of Call section, and you might get some thoughts for extra stops in a given city.

 

I don't mean to push any one company, but shoretrips.com sets up tours in most cities that cruise ships hit. There are lots of other companies, and smaller ones that operate in several ports in a distinct area.