Celebrity Offering of Excursion Discounts

[richsea]

I received an email form Celebrity offering discounts on shore excurion packages on our upcoming Equinox Med. cruise. They offer a Signature Package of 4 excursions at a $30.00 PP discount, & a Connoisseur Package of 5 excursions for a $60.00 discount. Each package is for specific excursions in selected ports on our sailing with no alternative choices.

We already have all of our ports planned in advance, so we won't be taking advantage of this offer. And honestly, it's still less expensive to book with private tour operators, but at least Celebrity is willing to consider incentives to book their excursions, which is good for those who are reluctant to book on their own.

This is the first time I've heard of this. Has anyone else received a similar offer?

[Phxazzcruisers]

I have not seen this. Our next European Cruise this year is a B to B on Azamara Quest and we get the 50% discount for booking in advance. Wel will be on Celebrity next year and see what they offer. I hate to be restricted to certain tours. We would rather pick and choose

[24butterfly]

I received an email form Celebrity offering discounts on shore excurion packages on our upcoming Equinox Med. cruise. They offer a Signature Package of 4 excursions at a $30.00 PP discount, & a Connoisseur Package of 5 excursions for a $60.00 discount. Each package is for specific excursions in selected ports on our sailing with no alternative choices.

We already have all of our ports planned in advance, so we won't be taking advantage of this offer. And honestly, it's still less expensive to book with private tour operators, but at least Celebrity is willing to consider incentives to book their excursions, which is good for those who are reluctant to book on their own.

This is the first time I've heard of this. Has anyone else received a similar offer?

 

When are you going on your Med cruise? Last year, about a month b4 ours, X e-mailed and changed our port from Naples to Salerno which is 30 mi or so from Naples....Just wondering if they are going to do that this year.....

[richsea]

When are you going on your Med cruise? Last year, about a month b4 ours, X e-mailed and changed our port from Naples to Salerno which is 30 mi or so from Naples....Just wondering if they are going to do that this year.....

 

We sail on the 21st of May. So far, there have been no changes.

[Sparkle 123]

On our Constellation Greece and Turkey cruise last year they offered shore excursion packages but they were only bookable onboard.

[Bruin Steve]

This is the model Oceania goes with...

They always offer two packages...

But, on our three Oceania cruises, they have never appealed to us...

There are usually at least a few ports where we prefer to arrange for private tours...and therefore usually have only a limited number of ports where we are looking to use the shore excursions...

 

Even if we were to go with all shore excursions, there are just some ports where we want something different or out of the ordinary...The chance of matching up with the package selections on every port...or even most of them...is highly unlikely for us...

 

But I do understand why the cruise lines like this idea...and I do see how it may be attractive to some cruisers...

 

The cruise line sells more excursions...It not only encourages people to book them, thinking they are getting a "deal", it also encourages them to use them exclusively...

 

For some cruisers, the choices offered work out just about right...especially for those visiting a region for the first time. Those of us who have traveled quite a bit tend to look for tours to places we haven't been...but first-time visitors are happy with the general city tours or tours to the most popuilar attractions...

 

It's good marketing...and works well with the folks most likely to book shore excursions...

[cdn.cruiser]

Hi, it's been a while since I asked you any questions. I was wondering if you have toured Cinque Terre and how you liked it. Last med cruise with celebrity solstice June, 2011 we did Florence, this year June, 2012 planning to do Cinque Terre . Have you ever toured with simply amalfi or simply Firenze ? I see you are sailing with Oceania now, do you like them a lot more, is it the food that made you switch? Regards, Freda, cdncruiser

[Bruin Steve]

Hi, it's been a while since I asked you any questions. I was wondering if you have toured Cinque Terre and how you liked it. Last med cruise with celebrity solstice June, 2011 we did Florence, this year June, 2012 planning to do Cinque Terre . Have you ever toured with simply amalfi or simply Firenze ? I see you are sailing with Oceania now, do you like them a lot more, is it the food that made you switch? Regards, Freda, cdncruiser

 

Sorry, Freda, I haven't toured the Cinque Terre or with the "simply" folks...

I've been through the area on a couple of land trips...and on cruise stops, we've done San Gimignano and Volterra and, this last cruise this past August, we visited Puccini, Lucca and Pisa. We had the opportunity to do Cinque Terra as one of the couples we toured with in some of the other ports had arranbged a Cinque Terre tour, but we opted to pass in order to go to Lucca and Pisa...

 

They used a guide named Luca Garrapa at "Hills and Roads"...Apparently he was highly recommended by a number of people on TripAdvisor.com

 

As to Oceania versus Celebrity, I haven't really "switched"...my next cruise is again on Celebrity...

I've cruised Oceania three times in Europe now...and, IMHO, they offer an excellent product...Food is the best, service very good, entertainment poor...Their itineraries are what really draws me to them...they have smaller ships and do some excellent routes...the trade off is that they are a bit pricier than Celebrity--usually. But, I don't choose my cruises based on price alone...

IMHO, BOTH cruise lines do an excellent job...

[tobymonster]

I received an email form Celebrity offering discounts on shore excurion packages on our upcoming Equinox Med. cruise. They offer a Signature Package of 4 excursions at a $30.00 PP discount, & a Connoisseur Package of 5 excursions for a $60.00 discount. Each package is for specific excursions in selected ports on our sailing with no alternative choices.

We already have all of our ports planned in advance, so we won't be taking advantage of this offer. And honestly, it's still less expensive to book with private tour operators, but at least Celebrity is willing to consider incentives to book their excursions, which is good for those who are reluctant to book on their own.

This is the first time I've heard of this. Has anyone else received a similar offer?

 

I got this same offer this morning for our upcoming Silhouette med cruise... leaves Saturday! We do book a lot of our excursions through the ship, but I wish they would offer something like "book 4 excursions and get X% discount" instead of this package deal. We research and select specific excursions based on what we want to see, so I wouldn't be likely to book a pre-packaged set of excursions b/c they likely wouldn't align with what I want in each location.

[Gonzo70]

They had these packages last year on Silhouette's Holy Land cruise. Even at the discounted price they are still a horrible deal. Still overpriced and you travel on a coach bus with 60 people, move at a snail's pace, receive little to no individual attention from the guide etc. etc. With a little research one can book an excursion independently, have a much smaller group, pay less, receive lots of individual attention from the guide, see more, be able to personalize the excursion some and have a better quality guide. I strongly encourage people to utilize the Ports of Call board here on Cruise Critic, their Roll Call here on Cruise Critic and Cruise Critic's sister site, Trip Advisor for planning excursions. Generally you can obtain a much, much better experience for less money.

[vancojo]

I got this same offer this morning for our upcoming Silhouette med cruise... leaves Saturday! We do book a lot of our excursions through the ship, but I wish they would offer something like "book 4 excursions and get X% discount" instead of this package deal. We research and select specific excursions based on what we want to see, so I wouldn't be likely to book a pre-packaged set of excursions b/c they likely wouldn't align with what I want in each location.

 

Echo this--was surprised to see this so late--and although we have prebooked three excursions from the ship the prepackaged grouping did nothing for us--

[4774Papa]

We have cruised NCL and X and found the X excursions to be generally less expensive than NCL's.