Cruisingexcursions.com

[Skirt Boy]

Got off my ship in Barcelona with pre-paid voucher in hand. Where was my pick up person as Cruising Excursions promised? I waited and looked for the sign as instructed. And I waited. Luckily I had a cell phone and called the company in the UK. Sorry, no one to pick you up. But that's why I made a reservation with you and pre-paid for the transfer to catch my flight. Sorry, no one to pick you up. Just grab a taxi and we will reimburse you for the fare to the airport.

 

6 months later after providing copies of the taxi receipt (3 times) I still have not been paid back the taxi fare.

 

Do you like being stranded on your vacation at the whim of a company that does not back up their word? It's your choice but never again for me.

[Mparis184]

Sorry to hear about your problem with transportation to the airport. I only book transportation if the service received good reviews on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. Missing my flight is not a good way to end a vacation.

 

Marion

[Lol 1944]

Having used them in September I would say No, No. No. Do not use them

[Mparis184]

Skirt Boy. BTY, I never pay for any service or tour up front, I pay for excursions after the tour is finished or we don't book it. I have booked numerous tour for our cruise critic groups on the boards and have never had a problem. I would rather grab a cab than pre pay for transportation services.

 

Marion

[Robbydobs21]

Has any one used Cruising Excursions lately? In 2014?? Are the same doubts there or have they got their act together by now?? As you all say, I agree it is not worth taking any risks on such a short visit.

[CruiserBruce]

Has any one used Cruising Excursions lately? In 2014?? Are the same doubts there or have they got their act together by now?? As you all say, I agree it is not worth taking any risks on such a short visit.

 

Given that the Med cruising season is barely a couple weeks old, good luck getting feedback.

[cruisingblogger32]

I used them for three tours in January 2013 and we had an amazing time. Couldn't fault the at all. I think that the only thing to be aware of which we found out at our first port is that as they are "unofficial" in the eyes of the ship if there is a terminal of the port they have to wait for you at the other side of it in the car park. They are not allowed up to the ship like the "official" buses. They should state this on the vouchers to make it more clear. So walk through the terminal to find them.

I wrote a comprehensive blog post about it here if you would like more info

 

http://www.thedaniellediaries.com/2013/01/sail-away-royal-caribbean-serenade-of.html

[CruiserBruce]

I used them for three tours in January 2013 and we had an amazing time. Couldn't fault the at all. I think that the only thing to be aware of which we found out at our first port is that as they are "unofficial" in the eyes of the ship if there is a terminal of the port they have to wait for you at the other side of it in the car park. They are not allowed up to the ship like the "official" buses. They should state this on the vouchers to make it more clear. So walk through the terminal to find them.

I wrote a comprehensive blog post about it here if you would like more info

 

http://www.thedaniellediaries.com/2013/01/sail-away-royal-caribbean-serenade-of.html

 

This will vary widely by the port. We have not really seen a lot of "segregating" of the ship's excursions and private ones like you describe, and we use a lot of private tours.

[cruisingblogger32]

This will vary widely by the port. We have not really seen a lot of "segregating" of the ship's excursions and private ones like you describe, and we use a lot of private tours.

 

I know it doesn't happen at every port, but it happened to us on two out of three of our tours. It would have been nice to know in advance where we should actually go. It's just something for people to be aware of, if you book a private tour and the guide is not there chances are he's outside the terminal.

[gailjen]

We used them on a couple of tours last year in the Med, they were 30 minutes late picking us up for the Livorno trip which impacted on the time we spent in Livorno (not a big deal) as they needed to be back to make sure the afternoon trip was on time, we called cruise excursions when we returned and they refunded £25 of the £100 fee. All the other trips were great. We have pre booked again for this years excursions.

[rfkeith10]

We are thinking about booking excursions through these folks for a cruise next April. Does anyone have any recent experience with this Company?

 

Thanks so much

 

Ray

Edited August 5, 2014 by rfkeith10
Add comments

[Mparis184]

Hi Ray,

 

I love Cruise Critic especially when I am researching excursions. These boards are my favorite way to research excursions. I always use local guides and get some other cruise critic folks from our Roll Call to join us, you might get a better excursion with a smaller group and a better price.

 

Marion

[Robbydobs21]

Hi Ray,

 

Like you I was attracted to that company as their deals looked good, but there were just too many people who had had bad experiences. If I was to have only one day in Rome or Florence I decided I didn't want to take the risk of having it spoilt by a slack company or guide.

Like mentioned before I used Cruise Critic and found a tour with others on our cruise for our Florence day. It was fantastic. It had been organised through "Prestige Rent" and they looked after every detail even down to our tickets to see David. If you look on their site they have a "Shared Tours" link and that may help.

I organised our own tour guide for the Naples stop through a company called "World Tours". Our wonderful guise took the two of us to 3 gorgeous towns and then had a few hours on Pompeii in the afternoon.

 

Both these companies were flawless!! The communication was prompt and clear, they were reliable, and on the day, the guides we had, thought of our every need and were very knowledgeable, interesting and fun.

 

For another port, Kotor, I organised a trip and through Cruise Critic got others to join us. It was very easy to do. This forum will bring your fellow cruisers to you via your ships Roll Call and there you can offer any vacancies.

 

Good luck with it, we had a wonderful cruise and looking forward to the next,

Robyn

[rfkeith10]

Marion & Robyn-----Thank you both for your thoughts and suggestions. They are greatly appreciated.

 

We are conservative when it comes to shore excursions and pretty much stick to the excursions offered by the ship. The last few cruises we have ventured out and booked some tours from outside sources and have been pleased with the service and quality.

 

One of our Roll Call members mentioned that they had booked their excursions through cruisingexcursions.com and were happy with the customer service. That's when I started looking at them. Thus far, I can't find any real negative information. I did learn from other CC posters that the company does not actually sponsor/provide the tours. They contract that out to local venders in the different cities. Seems like to me it's just another layer to be concerned with if there happens to be any problems.

 

Lots to consider but I still have several months to decide. Once again, thank you both very much for the good information.

[Mensasu]

Cruising Excursions is a reseller of local tours, so as I found, the tour quality is completely dependent on the local tour company. We booked 12 tours on our round Africa cruise. Some we took were great, others terrible.

 

Getting refunds for tours that were cancelled took a long time. In one case, we were not told until we got to the meeting point that the tour had been cancelled, in the other we had to do a costly online chat from the ship to get details that they could have just emailed but didn't. They wanted us to phone, but not a ship rates!

 

Contacting local companies when tour guides didn't show up was near impossible and who has a phone plan to phone England as a backup? You are not informed until you book and pay that some tours require you take a cab to meet your guide outside of the port. And worse, after you pay to go to the meeting point they aren't there and you find out they were able to get in to the ship.

 

Bottom line, we don't plan to use them again. In some cities you can do just as good with the hop-on, hop-off buses.

 

PS. Others on our cruise have also waited for a long time for their refund, and in one case so far Cruising Excursions is refusing a refund.

Edited February 10, 2015 by Mensasu

[rfkeith10]

Cruising Excursions is a reseller of local tours, so as I found, the tour quality is completely dependent on the local tour company. We booked 12 tours on our round Africa cruise. Some we took were great, others terrible.

 

Getting refunds for tours that were cancelled took a long time. In one case, we were not told until we got to the meeting point that the tour had been cancelled, in the other we had to do a costly online chat from the ship to get details that they could have just emailed but didn't. They wanted us to phone, but not a ship rates!

 

Contacting local companies when tour guides didn't show up was near impossible and who has a phone plan to phone England as a backup? You are not informed until you book and pay that some tours require you take a cab to meet your guide outside of the port. And worse, after you pay to go to the meeting point they aren't there and you find out they were able to get in to the ship.

 

Bottom line, we don't plan to use them again. In some cities you can do just as good with the hop-on, hop-off buses.

 

PS. Others on our cruise have also waited for a long time for their refund, and in one case so far Cruising Excursions is refusing a refund.

 

Thanks so much for the information. Unfortunately, it's a bit late for me. I did a lot of research and found both pros and cons for using them. Over the weekend I booked two excursions (Mykonos and Istanbul) through Cruising Excursions. It might be a gamble but there are a lot of people who have good experiences with them. Wish me luck!!!!

[redridinghood]

We just had a very bad experience with this company and would urge others to think twice before using them. I understand the attraction as the tours are much cheaper than what the ships offer BUT if you end up with them cancelled at the last minute it could really ruin your holiday.

 

We booked 2 tours for our Costa cruise a few weeks ago, our ship cancelled the stop at Tunis and so I emailed cruising excursions the night before to notify them, asking for a reply to confirm, I never received a reply.

 

On our last day we had booked a transfer to Rome for a city tour and then a transfer to the airport for our flight home. Costa would not let us off the ship until 10am (don't ever book a Costa cruise either, I'll be reviewing them separately!) so I urgently called cruising excursions in the morning to let them know and to see what could be done about it, the operator said that both of my tours had been cancelled due to a payment issue and that I had been called numerous times, left voicemails and also sent emails to notify me. None of the communications stated had been made and I checked with my credit card company who said no payment had been put through from them, despite me having a confirmation of booking email.

 

I have since contacted cruising excursions asking them for clarification on all of this and I have had no reply.

 

My guess is that because Costa is an Italian ship then there was little demand for the tours and cruising excursions cancelled them as not being cost-effective, with no warning to us at all.

 

The stress of having to completely rearrange our travel to Rome and then to the airport at such short notice was not something I would ever wish to repeat or wish on other travelers.

[redridinghood]

update on this:

 

despite tweeting, emailing and sending facebook messages, this company has still not replied to me about my cancelled bookings.

 

Says it all really....

[Trevor Fountain]

No disrespect but they can't come on here to state their case, so it's a bit like sitting in a courthouse and only hearing the prosecution.

[redridinghood]

seems a bit of an odd thing to say, I am sharing information to hopefully be of help to other cruisers, just as most people are who post here. Whether you choose to take that information and act on it is of course up to you.

[Mensasu]

sue@cruisingexcursions.com

guestservice@cruisingexcursions.com

 

It took persistence to get our refunds, and I know of others that also had problems. Some got refunds but at least one couple were refused. So good luck.

[b_cruise]

seems a bit of an odd thing to say, I am sharing information to hopefully be of help to other cruisers, just as most people are who post here. Whether you choose to take that information and act on it is of course up to you.

 

Thank you.. I read these boards like crazy as I'm planning on traveling a lot so I thank you for information like this...! :)

[cosytoes]

We used them for a private tour in Rome in June 2014. Whilst the drivers English wasn't perfect we got by. He took us to all the sights, dropping us off right outside each place so hardly any walking in the hot sun.

 

The reason I used this company I formed a group of 8 people through our roll call for a private tour and then they let each couple ring them with the booking reference and pay individually. Most shared small group tours make you pay after the tour but I was worried if anyone didn't show up I would be left paying any extra due.

[samavarcruiser]

We just had a very bad experience with this company and would urge others to think twice before using them. I understand the attraction as the tours are much cheaper than what the ships offer BUT if you end up with them cancelled at the last minute it could really ruin your holiday.

 

We booked 2 tours for our Costa cruise a few weeks ago, our ship cancelled the stop at Tunis and so I emailed cruising excursions the night before to notify them, asking for a reply to confirm, I never received a reply.

 

On our last day we had booked a transfer to Rome for a city tour and then a transfer to the airport for our flight home. Costa would not let us off the ship until 10am (don't ever book a Costa cruise either, I'll be reviewing them separately!) so I urgently called cruising excursions in the morning to let them know and to see what could be done about it, the operator said that both of my tours had been cancelled due to a payment issue and that I had been called numerous times, left voicemails and also sent emails to notify me. None of the communications stated had been made and I checked with my credit card company who said no payment had been put through from them, despite me having a confirmation of booking email.

 

I have since contacted cruising excursions asking them for clarification on all of this and I have had no reply.

 

My guess is that because Costa is an Italian ship then there was little demand for the tours and cruising excursions cancelled them as not being cost-effective, with no warning to us at all.

 

The stress of having to completely rearrange our travel to Rome and then to the airport at such short notice was not something I would ever wish to repeat or wish on other travelers.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, unfortunately is not the only bad one I have read over the years on this boards :(

[Gatorman4434]

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, unfortunately is not the only bad one I have read over the years on this boards :(

What excursion companies are you referring to?