Excursion... Book thru Princess or not?

[Dreamer333]

The only excursions I have ever booked have been directly thru Princess... But I've been hearing that you can get better deals if you book directly thru different tour companies on the islands.

I'm curious to know who books on thier own, and how do you find good reliable tours?

(I will be on a Western Caribbean cruise in Sept, and definitely want to go on some excursions)

[spongerob]

We do both. When port times are short, or the port is unfamiliar and perhaps even a little rough, a ship's excursion is the easier choice. We often just get off the ship and wander around or visit sites we want to see on our own if we think it is easily possible to do so. It all depends on the situation, and the availability of non-ship sponsored activities.

[mii]

We also do both although more often than not we will choose ship excursions. It just depends on the port and like Spongerob the situation.

 

Marilyn

[Toto2Kansas]

Same with us. It will depend on the country we are visiting, and the ports. When we visited Australia we booked nothing from the cruise line but booked everything independently, saved lots of $$$ and had much better tours. Same with Tahiti.

 

Some of the Caribbean Ports there are tours we like to take that are locked in by the cruise lines and on port days it is impossible to book them independently so we book through the ship.

[rundent]

I am new to this site and really find it addicting. Will be on the Sapphire July 24 and am interested in the helicopter tour to the glacier. I've heard that it's best to book early. Should I book through Princess? What about the other tours in the other ports? It's an inside passage Seattle to Seattle cruise. Maybe I should have started my own thread.

[Landlubber54]

From what I have been reading, those who book excursions through the cruise line tend to get preferential treatment in being able to disembark sooner at the ports-of-call, and if a tour runs late, the ship will either wait for the tour to return, or find a way to get you back to the ship. I have no personal experience with this, so hopefully some veterans will fill in my gaps. :o

[Dreamer333]

Does anyone have any recommendation of who to book thru for the Western Caribbean cruise?

 

Thanks!

[geoherb]

Be sure to look at the Ports of Call board for each port you're going to. In Grand Cayman, we went with Captain Marvin to Stingray City--the three-stop excursion. It was great. In Cozumel, we caught a cab to Chankanaab. It's a beautiful spot with nice facilities. We did not do anything in Costa Maya except look in a few of the shop and walk along the sea-side path. We did not make it all the way to Majahual.

 

I chose "only thru outside agents" in the poll since that is what we did on our two most recent cruises. We did excursions through the cruise line in two ports on the two cruises before them and things on our own in six other ports. On our first cruises, we did things mainly through the cruise lines.

[bluehorizonlover123]

I only book thru Princess if the price is very similiar to what it would be if I booked with an outside person. It is very easy to find others to book with if you use the boards and all the information which is found on here.

[relevart]

I use princess as a last resort. Last year I used them when I was a bit leary of the ports in Jordan, Oman, Egypt and India. This year I had one planned for Port Stanley in the Falklands because I couldn't find a tour company but we couldn't go ashore. All the other South America stops we got private tours. They are usually cheaper and it is much nicer to go in a car (even though it may be small) rather than a bus of 50 people. Usually you get to visit the sites before the busses get there and have the site to yourselves.

[calikak]

For our upcoming British Isles cruise, we're booking most of our excursions independently, which is a first for me. At first I was nervous about it (what if your tour is late and you miss the ship?) but each of the tour companies we're working with are familiar with cruise situations and have worked well for other cruisers in the past. And with the money we're saving over the Princess prices (we're paying less than half what Princess charges for similar tours in Belfast and Holyhead), if something did go wrong we could afford to buy a plane ticket to our next port. So I feel pretty comfortable about it.

[Tess2mommies]

If you only had a few hours in port I would book through princess. Otherwise book your own excursions, you have a lot more flexability and you will spend a lot less money.

 

My SO and I went on a cruise in December and we spent $800 per person on Princess Excursions. Don't make the same mistake we did. Unless you have money to burn and you don't care.

[shipcruise]

Personnally, I do not like having to be on someone else's schedule and find that doing things on my own and not waiting for 50 people to walk, go to the bathroom, etc. is better for me. Call me impatient! Also, I don't want to have to be "the first" to get off the ship. I would rather get up at my leisure, have breakfast without the crowd and enjoy getting off on my own time. We have found that we enjoy doing things on our own much, much better. The first couple of times when we went to the Mediterranean we did the shore excursions, and they were quite good, now that we have gotten our feet wet on foreign soil, we do most on our own. The Carribbean is particularly easy to do on your own. Most people speak English! If it is your first cruise, go ahead and book the excursion, otherwise try doing it on your own!

[Jaxsonbrownie]

We used both on our Western Cruise this past April on The Grand.We used Nativeway in Grand Cayman.They keep groups small and it was very one on one attention.THey would bring the stingrays right to you to pet and teach you things about them, it was a great time, even had refreshments on the boat.It is run by a native Camaynian and his wife,Eldon and Sharon Banks,didn't require a deposit either.Their website is www.nativewaywatersports.com In Cozumel,we did the dolphin swim and Princess price was just as much as doing on your own,so we stuck with Princess.Went to Chaankanaab Park and had a great day on the beach after dolphin swim.Costa Maya, didin't do much, took taxi to Mahajual, hung out on beach,then went back to port.Check out the roll call board for more info on where your ship stops,plenty of info on private tours at each location.Have a great trip!:)

[Dreamer333]

Thanks, Jaxonbrownie... I'll definitely look them up!

[Jaxsonbrownie]

You are most welcome! By the way, What are your ports of call? And what ship are you sailing on?:)

[Dreamer333]

You are most welcome! By the way, What are your ports of call? And what ship are you sailing on?:)

 

I will be sailing aboard the Caribbean Princess, and will be stopping at Grand Cayman, Cozumel, and Ocho Rios (although I don't think I will have time to do any excursions in Ocho Rios, because my sister is getting married at that port!)

Any help/tips you can give me about which tour groups to use would be GREATLY appreciated!

[Cruisin' Chick]

Last summer on the Sapphire, we booked one excursion thru Princess ahead of time for Skagway and one on the fly in Ketchikan at the visitor's center. It was a good thing for the first one we went through Princess as the schedule (as to when the ship was departing) had changed and the weather was a bit iffy and made things take longer. We were late getting back to the ship but because we had booked through Princ., they had to wait for our group. So if you want to do something closer to the ship's departure time, you may want to take that into consideration.

[Jaxsonbrownie]

Hey Dreamer333, if Stingray city is what you have in mind for Grand Cayman,I highly reccommend Nativeway.You can e-mail them and they will know what time your ship is in port and set you up with a great time to go.You also get to snorkle at the Barrier Reef,really was a great time! In Cozumel, I guess it would be what you want to do there.We really wanted to swim with the dolphins and had a great time doing the Royal swim there.Like I said, The ship excursion price is about the same as doing it on your own,so we just booked with the ship to be on the safe side.If hanging on the beach is what you want, here is a couple of web sites that may help. www.cozumelinsider.com/beaches or www.cozumelmycozumel.com/pag...eBeachClubs.htm .Hope this helps.And it looks as if you will be plenty busy with a wedding in Ocho Rios!Congratulations to the Happy couple and have a wonderful trip!:)

[iancal]

We tend to do our own excursions and do so because of value, for us the combination of price and quality. Just came back from 10 day E. Carib. Arranged our own excursions. via web, in Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Thomas. All were excellent. Joined another group for their tour in St VIncent. Web has lots of data. We only use 3rd party excursions that are recommended by people on boards like this and that can be booked on the web. 100 percent satisfaction to date. We have had one or two great tours from folks stationed at the end of the gangway as we disembarked at port. We always watch the time. As an example, we snorkle in Grand Caymen first thing in the morning and then shop in town for our last hour or two on the island to ensure that we do not miss the boat. We have found that we we travel with our 2 children, the saving really increases.

[BCHappyGal]

I would say that 90% of the time I book my own private shore excursions. i always check out what the ship is offering for tours and use their pricing as my yardstick. I have to do a lot of homework on each port so that I know what attractions are available and then decide what i want my private tour to show me.

Then I surf the net looking for tour companies in each port - I send out many e-mails to lots of tour companies (all that I find) asking them if they offer day tours to cruise passengers, what their tour would show me, how much it would cost.

After having done this on many crusies for many years I can only say that we (my group) are really disappointed when I cannot find a private tour operator to offer us a tour & we have to use the ships.

Yes we save money but the biggest reason I do it as the tours are then tailored to meet our needs and preferences.

 

AS to getting off the ship first - I disagree - When we are off on one of our private tours we are always off the ship and gone before the ships tour passengers disembark for their buses - unless we are in a tender port.

 

Ann

[cjh]

Well, since there is only 1 wheelchair accessible excursion that Princess offers I was very excited about booking it in St. Thomas so my 2 daughters ages 7 and 15 both wheelchair users could see the island. So I took them out of school a week before their mid winter break to do the Eastern Carribean instead of the next week that would be the western. I booked the excursion on the ship and at the time I booked it there was already one other wheelchair booked. Two days before the excursion Princess cancelled it because it didn't meet their minimum number of people. I called Accessible Adventures myself when I got back home and they informed me that they had not cancelled but Princess had. In fact they were running excursions from other ships that day.

 

If I had to do it all over again I would have booked myself direct. However, I am sending Princess a letter to let them know that I see it as nothing more then discrimination since it is the only tour they offer and then had the nerve to cancel it.

[Dreamer333]

www.cozumelinsider.com/beaches or www.cozumelmycozumel.com/pag...eBeachClubs.htm .Hope this helps.And it looks as if you will be plenty busy with a wedding in Ocho Rios!Congratulations to the Happy couple and have a wonderful trip!:)

 

Thanks, Jaxsonbrownie!!

[prarie cruiser]

When I first began cruising I stuck entirely with Princess planned excursions. Depending upon the port, I have more recently used a mixture of Princess excursions and shore based excursions. However, I had an incident which made me reconsider whether or not I will choose shore based excursions in the future.

 

The incident was actually on a Princess tour. Basically, we had a wonderful tour and went back to the bus. We were already running late to get back to the ship. Everyone piled onto the bus and it would not start. Since we were the last bus to depart to begin with, there were no other buses handy to cram other passengers on to get back to the ship.

 

To make a long story short, it was well past the sailing time when our bus was repaired and we arrived at the ship. The Princess people were aware of our situation and were very nice to us. I cannot help but believe that if we had been on a tour not purchased through the ship we might have been left to fend for ourselves. A recent posting to the cruise critic board told the story of one couple who were put in a very bad situation because they missed the ship while on an independent tour.

 

My current thoughts are that Princess does high quality tours that I may have to pay a couple of bucks more to take than another excursion. However, that couple of bucks may end up saving me from a bad experience with cruising. So, unless I know I can get easily home on my own from whatever port I am visiting, I am going to take the Princess cruise tours exclusively.

[hstrybuf]

We do both. If we are unfamiliar with a port, we lean toward booking with the ship although good recommendations from this board on independent tours are also a possibility.