Cruisingexcursions.com

[Mparis184]

Thanks everyone this is an excellent board. It has convinced me I should keep doing my private tour bookings the way I have been booking for years. I like the direct contact with my guide not working through a third party. If there are problems I can immediately contact my guide to get things worked out. We only had to cancel a tour once because the ship could not dock because of bad weather. I immediately sent our guide an email and our deposits were returned within two weeks. Coincidentally this was also the first time we ever put a deposit on a tour.

 

Lots of you have had both good and bad experiences with Cruise Excursions but I will continue to book directly with private guides who I can have personal contact with after doing exrensive research on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor.

 

Marion

[Gatorman4434]

When we took our Mediterranean cruise in 2011, I planned several independent excursions, or was included on someone else’s excursions. These were great!! We were with a small group, individual attention, modified our tour to our wishes, less expensive, and the tour guides spoke pretty good English.

 

If you have questions about this, look at the article on CC Board ‘Ship-Sponsored or Independent Shore Excursions: Which Is Right for You?’ This is from this article: We arranged for a private guide and driver. The difference was immeasurable. We saw so much more with the independent excursion, the experience was superb, and we never were rushed. Plus we made a connection with our guide and driver that we'll always remember. So in places that are particularly significant in an historic or cultural sense, a private guide can make the experience. This approach, however, requires you to do serious homework; visit Cruise Critic's destination forums for recommendations of which ports are best suited to independent touring, and make sure guides are properly accredited.

 

Also there is other information on CC from others that have used independent excursions and their reviews. Just put in a search for the ports that you will be visiting and then you just have to email the companies to set something up. But like Mparis184 said, do your research. Try to find information on the company on Cruise Critic and/or Trip Advisor.

[alyrubio]

Thanks everyone this is an excellent board. It has convinced me I should keep doing my private tour bookings the way I have been booking for years. I like the direct contact with my guide not working through a third party. If there are problems I can immediately contact my guide to get things worked out. We only had to cancel a tour once because the ship could not dock because of bad weather. I immediately sent our guide an email and our deposits were returned within two weeks. Coincidentally this was also the first time we ever put a deposit on a tour.

 

Lots of you have had both good and bad experiences with Cruise Excursions but I will continue to book directly with private guides who I can have personal contact with after doing exrensive research on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor.

 

Marion

 

Hi Marion, would you mind sharing what company you have used in Italy/France? Going to Naples, Rome, Florence, Cannes next week and can''t find a good company to deal with! Im getting nervous Thanks for your help

[jefred]

Can anyone suggest a tour company or private cab with guide for a half day tour of Lucca.We will be there in May.

[gary222]

We took an excursion (Essential Pisa & Florence).

 

Few comments;

We didnt get an intro to Pisa at all, when we asked about Pisa - tourguide said he was unable to answer any questions as he was only an expert about Florence eventhough pisa was part of the tour. We found this quite puzzling!

 

No clear instructions about pick up location. Part of tour waited right at cruise exit vs taking the shuttle to the main entrance, which resulted in almost a 90minute delay.

 

Could definitely use some improvement!

Er...re: Pisa "...we didn't get an Intro"

Do you mean the guide that took you on the coach did not give or was not able to give any commentary (on the coach) on Pisa ?!? That is most bizarre. If you mean instead that the guide who was walking with you into Pisa was not able to give you commentary as he was walking with you IN Pisa because he was a guide for Florence, then this is correct. They are not permitted to act as guide for cities they are not licenced to guide in. If they are seen to be doing this either by other Pisan guides OR the police they can and will be arrested and fined very heavily. However I fail to see why the guide could not have guided or given lots of information on the coach which obviously is not illegal.

 

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[gary222]

I think pple have to understand a few things about Cruising Excursions before whining about them. Firstly if it's an excursion on a coach - which is a type of excursion that CE do alot of - then the chances are you may have to wait for while for the coach to become filled especially if it's waiting for pax from different Cruise Lines etc. It takes a while for those shuttles to bring everyone to the main area. Secondly it shouldnt be compared - if it's a coach tour to something like Rome in Limo - you're paying much less sometimes . If people are getting left behind and complaining about this, well they should stop crying and in future join their own ships excursion and pay 3 times more.

 

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[brenda2]

While on a Celebrity cruise in October 2016 we had a white water rafting tour on Bali booked through cruisingexcursions.com. Our ship was an hour late with tendering but as we are Elite Plus we were on the first tender out. When we arrived on shore our tour operator was nowhere to be found and we were told by another agent that he had already left. When I sent an e-mail to the company asking why he had not waited for us, I was told the tour operator had waited 4 hours for us (NOT the case) and we would not receive a refund. After sending a second e-mail, again stating that we had done everything we could to be on time, we did not receive a reply.

 

We have used many private tours on cruises in the past and this is the first time we have run into this issue, but I will never be using this company again.

[b_cruise]

Thanks for the post. It's good to know about the bad ones and the good ones!!!

 

In Barcelona I booked suntransfers just for transfers but they did not show nor did they give me a refund. So do not book suntransfers!! It happened to a couple people in Barcelona with them as well besides just me.

 

In Italy, my go to tour company is italytoursharing.com they have always been excellent.

 

I actually have not had any problems except with suntransfers but I do a lot of research to try to find good tours.

[samavarcruiser]

While on a Celebrity cruise in October 2016 we had a white water rafting tour on Bali booked through cruisingexcursions.com. Our ship was an hour late with tendering but as we are Elite Plus we were on the first tender out. When we arrived on shore our tour operator was nowhere to be found and we were told by another agent that he had already left. When I sent an e-mail to the company asking why he had not waited for us, I was told the tour operator had waited 4 hours for us (NOT the case) and we would not receive a refund. After sending a second e-mail, again stating that we had done everything we could to be on time, we did not receive a reply.

 

We have used many private tours on cruises in the past and this is the first time we have run into this issue, but I will never be using this company again.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with us, unfortunately yours is not the only negative experience of this company I have seen on massage boards :(