Why are some places not letting certain cruise line guests book excurions?

[ofccat]

I am noticing a pattern with trying to look at booking private excurisions-- it seems carnival guests are not allowed to book with half the places. Anyone know why?

[Northerncheapo]

Likely because these places have contracts with the cruise line. This way, the cruise line can charge more and you have to pay it because you can't book it anyway else.

 

I've been caught on that too :(

[KNITWITS]

I would like to know which places you've contacted that won't let you book as I'm getting ready to start booking excursions for our August trip.

[green eyed lady]

I tried to book dolphin swim with dolphin discovery and they wouldn't take the booking :mad: How would they know for sure if you're on carnival though? couldn't you just say you're staying at a hotel? I have no intentions of paying Carnival's ridiculous rate for my son and his fiance to swim with the dolphins :eek: We did the swim in Cozumel on a RCCL cruise and we booked direct with DD.

[green eyed lady]

I am cruising Carnival in December...wanted to go back to Dolphin Cove so I called them. But, they're contracted and I couldn't book directly. So, they sent me to a company called Stingray City Quest. They are not contracted with anyone and it doesn't matter which ship you are on or what, they will take your booking at really great prices! Just email them!!! I highly recommend Dolphin Cove and if Stingray City Quest will get me there all the better!

 

so their website just has stingray tours -we want to do a dolphin swim. Are you saying we can book that thru them?

[Northerncheapo]

I was trying to book a segway tour in Malta last month to no avail. I had to do it thru my cruise line.

[Sonnydjoe]

Likely because these places have contracts with the cruise line. This way, the cruise line can charge more and you have to pay it because you can't book it anyway else.

 

I've been caught on that too :(

 

 

Sooo true !! and the really bad part is the business's get hurt to cause they make less

 

 

We had the same issues with dolphins and discover scuba diving. We got around it by telling the dolphin discovery place that we were staying at the ritz and they let us book. we just took a bus to the dolphins and it was $2 each way

 

For the diving it was hard cause it seemed everyone was booked besides the huge companies, and we didnt want to be out with 25 other divers,we were lucky to find JJ Divers for our scuba diving. It was great !! They are kind of new and dont have nor want a big cruise ship contract. they are only an operation and dont have a shop so they keep there prices way cheaper due to no real overhead. We enjoyed it so much ! it was like being on a private dive trip... after our day of diving and an island tour they even dropped us off at seven mile beach introduced us and got us a free drink! they said they also do cool things like stop at the local brewery for a free tour and beer tasting or stop by Hell or rum cake place.

 

Give them a shout ... jjdivers.com