Shore excursions: cost and booking questions

[chimpanzoid]

Hi,

 

This will be our first cruise--on the Emerald Princess in August in the Caribbean. I have some questions about the shore excursions:

 

1) What are the costs of these excursions. They don't seem to show them on the Princess website.

2) Is it best or necessary to book before the trip?

3) Is it preferable to "do your own thing"?

 

Fitness is not a concern in our case and once we get our bearings, we can probably get around on our own, if that's an option and it's safe to do so.

 

Thanks in advance for any replies!

 

Dave

[Toto2Kansas]

Dave, if you go into your Princess Personalizer, your shore excursions will be there for August with the pricing.

It all depends on if you want to do a few particular things whether you book or not. Things like some catamaran tours are not usually available to just pick up on shore but need to either be booked privately ahead of time or through the ship.

 

Any shore excursions booked through the Princess website are not charged until you board, they will be billed to your shipboard account. And in the Caribbean, I have never seen any that can't be cancelled (time and date will be listed in the Princess Patter, the ships information newspaper that will be delivered to your stateroom each evening).

[caribill]

Hi,

 

This will be our first cruise--on the Emerald Princess in August in the Caribbean. I have some questions about the shore excursions:

 

1) What are the costs of these excursions. They don't seem to show them on the Princess website. They should show with prices when you go to your personalizer as mentioned in the above post.

2) Is it best or necessary to book before the trip? Popular excursions will usually sell out before the cruise, so if there are excursions you really are interested in, book before the trip.

3) Is it preferable to "do your own thing"? Many people are very good at "doing" their own thing, but if this is your first time in an area, you may get more out of the visit using a Princess excursion. That said, there are two good alternatives to this.

First is to go to the roll call section of Cruise Critic for your sailing. Go to http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=387 and locate your sailing. You will likely find fellow cruisers who are organizing private excursions that you may be able to join.

Second is go to the ports of call section of Cruise Critic and read about the ports you will be visiting. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5 You will find suggestions from people who have had good experiences with various tour guides and usually provide contact information so you can arrange a private tour in advance.

What I would not do is get to a port and then pick a random tour guide. You will have no way of knowing before the tour if you have picked a good or bad guide or if you are paying a fair price.

 

Fitness is not a concern in our case and once we get our bearings, we can probably get around on our own, if that's an option and it's safe to do so.

 

 

 

See above in red

[paul929207]

It is certainly possible to do ports on your own or with other passengers. As mentioned above, you may find someone organizing a private tour and looking on the roll call for others to join. In many ports, we have organized or joined private tours.

 

In some of the smaller ports, we just get off the ship and walk into town, wander around and see the sights then return to the ship

[chimpanzoid]

Thanks for the great replies. They are very helpful.

 

Dave

[cruiseAZ]

We were on the Emerald in May and did some excursions through Princess and others we arranged privately. Some of the excursions do book up early so you do want to get on the personilizer and pre-book. For example, we decided to do the Horse back riding excursion in the Grand Turk on board - we could only get tickets for the lastest time. I think this ended up being the best time because it was hot mid-afternoon and had started to cool down by the time we started riding. We did end up getting back to the ship right at sail-away. A good place to find out about private excursions is the specific island board.

[DonnaK]

Only very, very rarely do we book ship excursions. The exceptions would be if it is something exclusive that can only be done through the cruiseline, or if it's an all-day activity or one that takes us very far from the port. I suppose if we ever traveled to someplace very "dangerous", we might also stick to a cruise tour too.

 

Otherwise, we research the ports of call forum, and online resources, and find a reputable, highly recommended private tour guide. They are usually less expensive than the ship's tour, and provide a more personalized and better experience. Their livelihood depends on getting you back to the ship ontime, so I don't worry too much about this. I also start very early, and plan to get back at least 60-90 minutes before I need to, just as added buffer for unexpected delays.

[judynorth]

Be aware that if you are late getting back to the ship on an excursion, the ship will wait for you only if you booked the tour through Princess. If you booked an independent tour and are late you are on your own to get back to the ship. Make sure that you allow for possible delays by booking a tour that gets you back to the ship well before departure. This doesn't happen often but it is a consideration when booking.

 

Also, there are some ports in the Caribbean where it is not safe to just wander around alone. It is best to be with a tour of some kind.

[chipmaster]

My 2cents on this is this is way overblown. Everyone needs to do their research carefully. The ship sponsored tours have a "deal" with the vendors and from what I can determine probably get 20-50% of the total payment. The vendors that provde the service get the benifit of the volume cruise business at lower revenue / passenger. The differences in quality and reliability of the private tours varies wildly with Ports and I agree in the carribean I'd be very careful. In ports in Alaska and Europe I found the private reputable operators with a track record are extremely reliable in getting you back to port on time. Its their livelyhood and their reputation depends on passengers giving them good feedback. Nothing will kill a business more than one bad review of missed boat versus endless good reviews.

 

Book thru the cruiseline has advantages for those with neither time time, energy or comfort to do the reasearch, but for those that do the research one can almost always find something better and cheaper.

 

One thing I don't like about cruiseline tours is the big bus and lowest common denominator of these. You got to go with the flow of the pack vresus going private you can pick and control so much more. Also agree that some ports there is reason to consider the safety of numbers, but then you could ask why are you even choosing to stop there if the experience is going to be so sheltered to speak.

 

If one does research carefully and also takes responsibility for the day and adjust accordingly I think private is actuall always better.

 

Be aware that if you are late getting back to the ship on an excursion, the ship will wait for you only if you booked the tour through Princess. If you booked an independent tour and are late you are on your own to get back to the ship. Make sure that you allow for possible delays by booking a tour that gets you back to the ship well before departure. This doesn't happen often but it is a consideration when booking.

 

Also, there are some ports in the Caribbean where it is not safe to just wander around alone. It is best to be with a tour of some kind.

[teripp]

I tend to do both. But when booking on your own. Please use references from people on this board or friends.....Everything said is true about if you book private tour then you must be back to the ship BEFORE sail away. I have seen people running like the wind and I have seen people just run half way down the dock and stop as the ship was leaving. So Please please watch your time. It would be an expensive mistake if you have to fly to the next port.. Though on a lighter side every time this discussion comes up either here or with my travel friends all I can think about is the I love Lucy episode where she misses the boat HAHAHAHA HEHEHEHE

Teri

[Pam in CA]

As this is your first cruise and probably your first trip to some of the ports, I agree with the others that it might be better to book Princess tours. They guarantee that if there's a traffic jam, bus breakdown, etc., the ship will wait for you. Also, if you're going to the beach or snorkling, the tour guide will watch over your stuff. That's an issue that people booking private tours or going to the beach on their own run into, i.e., if they're all in the water, who's looking after their cameras, etc.?

 

If you do choose to go on your own, make sure you plan on being back to the port at least an hour before sailaway (an hour and a half if the ship is tendering); also, if it's a tender port, the ship's tours disembark first.

[Times Prince]

chimpanzoid and other first time cruisers -

 

We have found it advisable to take Princess excursions the first time we are in any port, and make our decisions on Princess vs. private excursions thereafter.

 

For shorter tours one can take the option, however for full day tours, I would highly recommend the ship's excursions for the reasons Pam in CA mentioned. There is also the element that tour operators for Princess Excursions swimming activities must be certified in stringent safety requirements set by Princess.

 

You will find that many excursions add in an element less interesting (shopping for me), and these are stated in the tour description. However if this is your first cruise, shopping for souveniers or local flavor is definitely part of the overall experience.

 

have a great cruise !

[MaryPoppinz]

We don't use too many of the onboard excursions, but I do think it would be great if Princess would at least attach the current price when they display the shore excursions. A lot of people are trying to research this before the Personalizer opens up the actual excursion list for their voyage -- and having a current price list would at least give them a ballpark idea of what to expect.

[Loonbeam]

The prices may vary based on peak season, etc, so the final prices may not actually be set much before they are opened in the personalizer.

 

As far as with Princess versus without, if you book through Princess you also (theoretically) have Princess backing you up in case of tour problems (not as promised, etc). I agree with the post above, for first time in port I would go with ship-offered options. When we go back to Alaska, now that I know the ports better, I'll consider private options, but when we go to the Canal, everything will be booked via Princess.

 

 

We don't use too many of the onboard excursions, but I do think it would be great if Princess would at least attach the current price when they display the shore excursions. A lot of people are trying to research this before the Personalizer opens up the actual excursion list for their voyage -- and having a current price list would at least give them a ballpark idea of what to expect.

[MaryPoppinz]

The prices may vary based on peak season, etc, so the final prices may not actually be set much before they are opened in the personalizer.

 

I get that -- I'm not looking for the price that is specific to my cruise, I'm looking for something that people can use to start to set a budget. As I said, a ballpark figure. Carnival does it -- you look up the excursion you want, they give you the current pricing. HAL gives you $, $$, $$$. I'd like Princess to give a little more information to help us plan.

[82871]

I too would like to know what ship tours generally cost before deciding on taking cruise. Surely they could give average cost of tours based on previous cruises. I am looking at Far East cruise and comments from previous cruisers range from "expensive" to "very,very expensive". Are we talking $150 or $500 per tour?

[Cruisin' Chick]

I too would like to know what ship tours generally cost before deciding on taking cruise. Surely they could give average cost of tours based on previous cruises. I am looking at Far East cruise and comments from previous cruisers range from "expensive" to "very,very expensive". Are we talking $150 or $500 per tour?

 

If you go on the princess.com website and look up a cruise going to the same ports, you can look at the shore excursions Princess will generally offer and get an idea of the costs. Of course, if your cruise is more than, say, 90 days away, it's always possible that an excursion listed may no longer be offered or be more expensive.

 

Before our Hawaiian cruise, I did this and we narrowed down what we wanted to do for each port. Of course, many times we just go into a port and sightsee on our own (I'm a compulsive planner who will read the guidebooks and go on each port's website). We have usually enjoyed what we've booked thru the cruiseline much more than the indy ones, but that's us.

 

Definitely no matter what you do, take along the day's Patters (the ship newsletter) and double check your watch against the ship's time (sometimes the ship isn't on local time).

[caribill]

If you go on the princess.com website and look up a cruise going to the same ports' date=' you can look at the shore excursions Princess will generally offer and get an idea of the costs.[/quote']

 

You can only see costs on another cruise if you are booked on it and can get into the personalizer.

 

Princess used to have an approximate cost when you looked at shore excursions under "learn about our cruises", but they no longer show prices this path.

[2new2cruzin]

We will be on the Emerald in just two weeks. Does nayone have reccomendatiosn for best cruise excursions? Also, we have our own masks and snorkles, can we just rent fins? Any other excursion related tips are much aprreciated.

 

Thanks.:o;)

[DonnaK]

We will be on the Emerald in just two weeks. Does nayone have reccomendatiosn for best cruise excursions? Also, we have our own masks and snorkles, can we just rent fins? Any other excursion related tips are much aprreciated.

 

Thanks.:o;)

 

What ports?

[2new2cruzin]

St. Martin, St. Thomas and Turks and Caicos also Princess Cay.

I thinking the best snorkeling will be Turks and Caicos.:confused:

[Times Prince]

St. Martin, St. Thomas and Turks and Caicos also Princess Cay.

I thinking the best snorkeling will be Turks and Caicos.:confused:

Princess Cays rents full snorkel sets but not just fins. Any ship's excursions include snorkeling gear. We usually bring at least our mask and snorkel, saving much time on fit, plus our snorkels have splash guards. For the Caribbean we also bring fins as finding the right size fins can be a hassle.

[2new2cruzin]

Thanks for the advice. Think we will just bring our masks and snorkels as you did. Fins can be a pain to pack.

[PatriciaF]

Some of these Caribbean Islands are pretty small and have limited tour services. I am finding on our upcoming cruise that many of the vendors recommended on the island boards are not available as they are now signed up with Princess.

 

For a first cruise, first time in port, sticking with Princess may reduce any nervousness associated with the outings.

[jagoffee]

St. Martin, St. Thomas and Turks and Caicos also Princess Cay.

I thinking the best snorkeling will be Turks and Caicos.:confused:

 

I agree that the Grand Turks had the best snorkeling, but St. Martin is also very good IMO.

 

St. Martin is an easy island to drive if you want to considering renting a car and exploring on your own.

 

A trip to St. John is always nice when in St. Thomas.