How big are groups for excursions with RC?

[yellowsnow]

I've only taken a couple of cruises, and we take excursions at every port but never with the cruise line. Other than it being cheaper, we also want to avoid being thrown into buses with tons of people... The crowded feeling is just sort of a bummer for us. We are however, considering taking the all terrain xrail to Jade caverns in Cozumel with RC as it seems it is the same price and product as the independent counterpart.

 

So is it? Can anyone comment on their experience with this tour our tours like this? Are the groups big?

 

We took the dune boogie tour in cozumel last year with an independent and it was amazing, easily one of the best tours we've done. The group was maybe 4-5 dune boogies, it was basically just me and my gf and a family, and it was great, we enjoyed the company of the family but fear it being a lot more crowded than that.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments!

[wrp96]

It depends on the excursion and how many people sign up. Generally if it's a tour involving a bus (i.e. go see X sight, then Y sight, and Z sight) they will sell as many slots on the bus as possible. Some excursions even end up with multiple buses. On some Caribbean islands the buses may only hold 15-30 passengers, but elsewhere where motorcoaches are available expect to be seeing the sights with 50-75 of your fellow cruisers. I'm now firmly convinced to avoid these type of excursions through the cruiseline.

 

For things like snorkeling, they will try and fill up the boat. I've gotten lucky a few times with cruiseline snorkel excursions and only had 10-15 people onboard, other times it's been overly packed.

 

Especially in the Caribbean, if you are comfortable with independent excursions, then I recommend sticking with them, unless it is something only the cruiseline offers. Elsewhere, for me, it is a function of how long you have in port and how far the place you want to visit is. The shorter the port time and/or the longer the distance, the more likely I am to use a cruiseline excursion.

[cb at sea]

A guidebook will let you know if you even NEED an excursion...so many things are easy and cheap to do on your own, but you have to have information! Get a guidebook!

[MrsFixitCT]

Another determining factor would be how many people the specific excursion is capable of working with...although many excursion sights now seemed to be served by multiple ships/multiple "vendors".... we saw that in Grand Cayman...others came to the site after us on another bus, from another ship that was in port that day as part of their excursion...

[BroncosFan2010]

Mostly, it depends on the excursion. Some of the excursions list how many people are on it, others do not. When I book ship excursions (also wanting to avoid crowds), I make sure to book the early morning excursions, as those often have less people.

[yellowsnow]

I ended up booking with RC. I hope I don't regret it...

Our excursion is on these rail buggies so it's not something we can just do on our own because the vehicles belong to someone else. We figured there is only one dirt road to get to the caverns and it will just as busy no matter who we take it with. Maybe the bus that takes us to the meeting place could be crowded but it's free and only lasts a bit, otherwise we'd have to pay taxis.

 

I just hope our caravan is not very big. There was only one time available for this and it was at 11:30am. We dock at 8am.