Have you ever had a problem doing a non-Carnival excursion?

[gslargent]

We're cruising on the Dream in just over a week and this will be my 8th Carnival cruise. However, this time we're doing all non-Carnival excursions: cave-tubing.com in Belize, Victor Bodden's Zip and Dip in Roatan, Nachi Cocom beach resort in Cozumel, and a taxi to the beach in Majahua while in Costa Maya.

 

Has anyone ever had a problem doing a non-Carnival excursion? Did you ever miss the excursion or get left on the island because they brought you back late? I hear that Carnival gets the people on Carnival sponsor excursion off on the tender boats first. This applies in Belize. Thanks for any feedback about your experiences or the excursions that we have chosen.

[augie]

After our first cruise we've never taken the ship's excursions - in any port.

 

Never missed a ship either. It could happen, but it's unlikely. Do your research - the reputable tour operators don't want to be associated with bad customer experiences - there's too much competition for them and the word does get out in this day and age!

[DEBnGAB]

We're cruising on the Dream in just over a week and this will be my 8th Carnival cruise. However, this time we're doing all non-Carnival excursions: cave-tubing.com in Belize, Victor Bodden's Zip and Dip in Roatan, Nachi Cocom beach resort in Cozumel, and a taxi to the beach in Majahua while in Costa Maya.

 

Has anyone ever had a problem doing a non-Carnival excursion? Did you ever miss the excursion or get left on the island because they brought you back late? I hear that Carnival gets the people on Carnival sponsor excursion off on the tender boats first. This applies in Belize. Thanks for any feedback about your experiences or the excursions that we have chosen.

 

 

The only time we did a Carnival tour was to Chichen-Itza because it was a full day tour...otherwise our tours have always left us with plenty of time to leisurely get back to the ship.

 

Also, you'll have folks come on here talking about CCL tours being "safer"...sorry, but there is a sense to risk in any tour, CCL sponsored or not, especially since CCL uses many of the same vedors that you can book on your own.

[jennmaybe]

We do nothing but non-Carnival excursions and never had any problems. Never even been close to missing the boat! These tour companies rely on the cruise ship tourism for a living and they're not about to take chances on being undependable.

 

They are way cheaper too than Carnival excursions. I would highly recommend you check out CC and trip advisor to get ideas on highly recommend tours.

 

Happy Cruising!!:)

[tiggerman101]

I rarely do a ship sponsored tour anymore. The only time I do is when it is something that is easier to book through them (Rail trip in Skagway) or long and complicated (ferry through the Panama Canal). Otherwise we always go on our own or with a private tour. As others have said, I don't worry about it too much as the operators heavily rely on cruise ship passengers. They know word of mouth is their main selling point. They will not risk a bad reputation.

[gslargent]

Thanks for the feedback. There is no doubt that booking non-ship sponsored excursions saves you a ton of money!

[kelz66]

Never had a problem. I have found that the more reliable and better service oriented tours are the ones that can stand on thier own and not have to give the cruiseline a cut, just to get business.

 

Good reviews and word of mouth, on how good they are, excellent service and dependability keep them in business.

[pezgirl43]

We just got off the Victory and had taken a private taxi to a quiet beach. Was a great day and we gave ourselves plenty of time to get back to the ship. (2 hours). Unfortunately when we got back to town, there was a huge traffic jam. All traffic was at a complete standstill! We all got very nervous but our driver was local so he knew some back ways. Still, we got back to the boat with only 15 minutes to spare! Too close for comfort. I will probably continue to take private tours but will give myself much more time!

[lsycko1]

We rarely do Carnival excursions. Just be sure to check the times..

 

I keep in mind that these tour comp. are trying to make a living. If folks miss the boat, they will not be open for long!

[chachi]

I prefer to book Carnival, but I've never had a problem booking independently. I do a lot of research before booking independently though.

[Yazoo cruiser]

We have cruised with Carnival 23 times and have never had a problem. However, a couple at the next table in the dining room did. They booked a private company in Montego Bay and if you have ever been there, you know how the traffic can be coming back into town. Their cab had a flat tire and then got caught up in a traffic jam. Needless to say they missed the ship and had to get their way to Grand Cayman on their own. I know this is very rare, but it does happen occasionly.

[bankerbabe]

I think that if you are realistic in what you can accomplish during your time in port then you will be fine. Don't plan a 6 hour tour when you only have 7 hours in port. Always plan to be back at the ship in ample time to catch the last tender (we prefer at LEAST an hour).

 

Also, the more complicated tours are probably best done through the cruise line. If it involves multiple modes of transportation (i.e. Chichen Itza from Cozumel, where you will take a ferry, then a very long bus ride, then back to the ferry) then you have a higher risk of missing the ship. Or if the tour requires you to travel a great distance, you're probably best off sticking with a ship tour.

 

But for the average snorkeling adventure, ziplining excursion, or island tour, you can easily book on your own and have minimal risk of missing the ship. To help mitigate this minimal risk, we always leave the ship with a credit card with sufficient availability to (hopefully) get us to the next port to catch up with the ship. Just in case.

[Vanessa L]

After our first cruise we've never taken the ship's excursions - in any port.

 

Never missed a ship either. It could happen, but it's unlikely. Do your research - the reputable tour operators don't want to be associated with bad customer experiences - there's too much competition for them and the word does get out in this day and age!

 

This advice is spot on. I too have never used a cruise sponsored excursion and have never, ever had any problems. The secret? Research your fingers off!!! I understand that, in life, anything can happen and a company with a spotless reputation can have a bad day once every 10-20 years. I never go into any excursion expecting perfection (though I've come very near to getting it on many occasions), but also never go into any excursion without information either. Research these boards and do a Google search also. With knowledge, you will have everything you can control. Everything else is up to the Big Guy in the sky.

[Grumpy100]

We have done mostly the cruise excursions but the last 3 cruises we started doing private excursions and I am less nervous about it now.

On our upcoming cruise on Carnival we are doing one private excursion and one ship excursion.

On our upcoming cruise to British Isles I plan on doing mostly all private excursions. I better get started I only have 11 months to plan.:D:D:D

[divetrash]

I've done all the tours you are listing, with the exception of Nachi Cocom, and I have never had a problem. As others have said, word of mouth is what these operators rely on, they aren't going to mess with that.

 

For the cavetubing.com excursion in Belize and tendering... In my experience, in tender ports, they actually start running tenders before they officially call them. Go down to wherever you pick up your tender tickets as early as possible and they may tell you to just head down. Granted, you might be ashore with some time to kill. If you do have to wait to get on a tender, they generally do not make you wait until every Carnival excursion is off. You can probably get on an early one.

 

Now the year that I did my cavetubing.com excursion, I was on the Valor with my niece. My excursion confirmation had a meeting time of 9:15 am. My niece and I had both been out late the night before, her with her friends and me in the piano bar. We both slept right through our alarm and were woken up by the announcment of the first tender at around 8:40 am. I yelled at my niece to get up! We threw on bathing suits and clothes, stuffed our things into our bags and ran to the shore excursion desk to get tender tickets 10 minutes later. I think we were given letter D and before we could even get into the theater to sit down and wait, they were already calling our tender. We made it to shore and our meeting spot by 9:20 am.

 

So you see it is quite possible to get ashore in Belize in time to make an early excursion, even if you are hung over and over sleep.

 

Happy Cruising,

 

Laura

[golfadj]

WE also do private almost exclusively.

 

Make sure you have plenty of time to get back to the ship just in case of a delay.

 

Do not go on a tour that gets you back at 3 if the ship leaves 3 30 for example.

 

Private tours we have found are much better and less expensive inspite of what good old John Heald says.

[proudpatriot07]

On my last cruise on the Fantasy, we booked two excursions independently. It was a Taste of Nassau tour in Nassau, and Pat and Diane's snorkeling in Freeport.

 

We loved Taste of Nassau... it was only like $30 and worth every penny! It even included lunch (you had to buy your own drink, though). We tipped our tour guide well too, he was really good and it was in an air conditioned van, I definitely recommend.

 

We loved snorkeling with Pat and Dianne's too. However, we almost missed our own excursion! The printout I had from the website said the excursion left at 10:30. Well, I thought that's when they picked you up from the ship. Turns out, they picked you up at 9:30, and the snorkeling boat left the pier (which is a 20 minute drive) at 10:30.

 

We got off the boat at 10 and saw no one, but we finally got in touch with the representative, who got us on the next taxi to Our Lucaya. They held the boat a few minutes for us, too. They also offered a refund if we had missed the excursion, since my website printout didn't list to be waiting for the taxi at 9:30.

 

I did look at my confirmation e-mail when I went home and saw that it said 9:30. I don't know why they didn't list that on the confirmation page on the website, but the representative said it happened a lot. Hopefully they'll fix the website, but I would definitely book a tour from them. Since that happened, it actually gave them an opportunity for their customer service to shine.

 

I would only book an excursion through the ship if that was basically the only way it was available and I wanted to go on it. I wouldn't rule one out, but I'd always try private booking first.

 

By the way, you can read my fantasy review below and I talk about both excursions, if anyone's thinking about booking those.

[MustardMan]

I did all private excursions on my first (and only) cruise and everything went fine except for one little problem in Belize. I did my homework and read a LOT of the threads on Cruise Critic and had no problems scheduling any of our excursions!

 

We were on our way back to the ship in plenty of time and found out there is only one major road that connects the port and Belize City and it was blocked by a celebratory parade for Women's Day or something like that. Long story short, Major Tom was on the phone with the bus driver every two minutes asking where we were and the driver did a great job getting us back as soon as he could get by the parade. The last tender was at 4:00 and we made it back to the port at about 3:50 and RAN to get in line for the tender back to the ship! Some tense moments, but we made it. I heard later that the Carnival excursions were also delayed by the parade and we beat them back to the pier!

[Scootercruise]

We rarely use the ship excursions, mainly because there seems to be a better selection outside if the ship. The best example we have ever experienced was in Juneau we had booked a whale watching tour with an independent operator, we ended up in the middle of a pod of orcas no more than 15-20yards from our smaller boat of which my wife and I were the only passengers. The ship excursion boats had 150-200 people on them and were unable to get any closer, the best part was we paid less than half for the better experience. So I agree with other posters about the companies getting you back in time, their livelyhood depends on it.

 

Scott and Diane

[Tapi]

We book our excursions from Carnival, NOT because we think they are better or cheaper, but to have peace of mind (if the excursion is running late, the ship will wait for you. If you're on an independent excursion, you better have an alternate plan to meet the ship at the next port of call).

 

As others have mentioned, the chances of something going wrong are minimal, but what if we're the "lucky ones"?

 

-0-

 

We also purchase travel insurance for the same reason. Chances that we'll actually need it are minimal, but what if....?

[chickie_mite]

Never had a problem.

 

My only advice---give yourself double the time to get back to the ship than you think you need.

[mystone99]

We're cruising on the Dream in just over a week and this will be my 8th Carnival cruise. However, this time we're doing all non-Carnival excursions: cave-tubing.com in Belize, Victor Bodden's Zip and Dip in Roatan, Nachi Cocom beach resort in Cozumel, and a taxi to the beach in Majahua while in Costa Maya.

 

Has anyone ever had a problem doing a non-Carnival excursion? Did you ever miss the excursion or get left on the island because they brought you back late? I hear that Carnival gets the people on Carnival sponsor excursion off on the tender boats first. This applies in Belize. Thanks for any feedback about your experiences or the excursions that we have chosen.

 

DW and I used Rony's Tours when we went to Roatan and loved it. You'll have a great time once you get up the hill and out of the port area at Mahogany Bay.

[tdogcruiser]

I did cavetubing dot com in Belize and Nachi Cocum in Cozumel and had a wonderful time with both, no problems at all getting back to the ship. We are booking thru the cruiseline this time as mentioned because we are doing train excursions that can't be booked privately.

[dstone]

Would never book a ship sponsored excursion. But they do let their ship excursion passengers tender first...so be careful with the times.

Example, cruised to Alaska and booked a whale atching tour on our own and fellow passengers were on the same boat watching the same whales for DOUBLE what we paid by booking ahead of time online!

[JerseyshoreBruce]

We did a non-Carnival one in Belize and on the way back the bus blew a tire....along came another of their buses and we had to stand all the way back to the ship.....that was the worst thing thats happened so far:)