New Excursion Policy at HAL

[TeamBozo]

My wife and I just returned from the 35 day Voyage of the Vikings (Maasdam) and had a great time. There were too many good things to list here, but we became aware of a new policy relating to excursions that seems to be causing problems. We noticed a change 2 months ago on our Baltic cruise (Rotterdam) but things seem to have gotten worse lately.

 

We cruise a lot on HAL-- we have 200 HAL cruise days in the last 2 years. We also take a lot of excursions. I generally book an excursion in advance in every port that offers them. On the Voyage of the Vikings, I prepaid 20 excursions. However, the size of the groups has gotten so large that the quality of the tours is really deteriorating.

 

For example, we had group sizes of 40, 42, 44, 45 and 65 on this last trip. There was always a single bus and generally one guide. Beyond a certain size, the tour becomes unworkable. Even the simplest task (like stopping the bus for a bathroom break) takes quite a long time, especially given the mobility issues for many HAL clients. The same is true for "short" photo or shopping stops. Unfortunately, the time comes out of the available time at the destination and leads to chronically running out of time and cutting the trip short. We had 3 hiking excursions that did only about half of the scheduled trip because it was impossible to keep the group moving along. In a museum or nature walk, the group is so large you can't hear the guide or see what he is talking about. You are left with the choice of either pushing to the front or lagging back and doing things without the benefit of the guide. By the way, the guides were generally great and I don't blame them at all.

 

I discussed this (very politely) with Joseph L'Episcopo (the Shore Excursion Manager ) and to my surprise he agreed that excursions had gotten much too large. Unfortunately, he said the size limits are now coming directly from Carnival. He has expressed his concerns about this issue, but believes that cost cutting/revenue enhancement is the priority. They've also cut the food and water provided on excursions to a minimum. This doesn't really bother me, as long as I know to bring my own supply.

 

I apologize if this issue has been beaten to death already, but the new policy was an unfortunate surprise to me. We canceled several tours and are planning to arrange more port visits on our own. I always appreciated the convenience of using HAL excursions, but the quality has dropped to a point where I feel compelled to do things on my own. We're leaving on a 55 day transPacific/circumnavigation of Australia next month and I think I'll avoid HAL trips unless there is no practical alternative. Have any of you experienced this problem in recent cruises?

[CtheW0rld]

i think you're the 1st one recently to mention this. i hate ship's excursions for this very reason. even when the groups are smaller, i don't like waiting for a whole busload of people to unload/load. i always do a private tour unless there is no viable alternative.

[sail7seas]

Sorry for your experience being disappointing but happy to hear Joe L'Episcopo is back on Maasdam. :) He's terrific and we always enjoy a chat with him.

Did he give his Titantic Talk? Wear his uniform?

 

Welcome back. Happy you enjoyed your VOV.

 

[SJSULIBRARIAN]

Sorry for my confusion, but is the new excursion policy the fact that the numbers per tour are increased? Thanks.

[vbmom87]

Sorry for my confusion, but is the new excursion policy the fact that the numbers per tour are increased? Thanks.

 

I think that this is what the OP meant, but his title is a bit misleading.

[AZNative2000]

Yes, "cost cutting and revenue enhancement" are the orders of the day. More people same single bus and guide means revenue enhancement.

 

Not just HAL ... we just returned from a Carnival cruise and the cost cutting onboard was very apparent from the overworked cabin stewards to the MDR food service and having half the Lido buffet areas closed. Made for some long lines.:(

 

The cruising public must adapt to cuts or pay more for their cruises. OR, pay for the individual items you want. Carnival is getting MANY takers for their new early boarding/express luggage delivery.

[Floridiana]

Just wanted to let you know that we picked up many tours spontaneously on shore on our last Princess cruises around Australia and New Zealand. Both countries do a wonderful job providing information and tours right in port, sometimes provide free or low cost shuttle buses as well as reasonably priced public transportation.

 

But your post is a good reminder for us to look for private tours on our upcoming South America cruise on the Veendam.

[TeamBozo]

Yes, for the policy change I was referring to the group size limits being set by Carnival Corp. and not by HAL. I don't know the background on this, but I got the impression from Joe that this is a recent change and that Carnival imposes much higher group sizes than HAL used to have. It seemed that this is a new policy that will apply to all ships, although I don't know if it has happened yet. It really is a shame, as the excursions are an integral part of the enjoyment of cruising.

 

By the way, don't let this stop you from going on the Voyage of the Vikings. It really is a great itinerary.

[CtheW0rld]

I think that this is what the OP meant, but his title is a bit misleading.

 

seemed pretty clear to me, after reading the post. the new policy is to cram as many as possible on a bus.

[PathfinderEss]

Sorry to hear this is happening. On our cruise last year we found the tours to be of reasonable size.

Thanks TeamBozo for bring this to the forefront. Something to look for on our next tours.

[Cruising-along]

I'm really sorry to hear this, but can't say I'm surprised. The ship tours have been heading in this direction for quite awhile.

 

When we can, we prefer to do things on our own, renting cars, public transportation, etc. It requires more advance research, but for us that's a large part of the fun.

 

When we were in Rome a few days pre-cruise last fall we took the Underground Colosseum tour and the guide had individual earpieces for each of us so we could hear her at all times. May be something HAL could do, it wouldn't help with all the other problems, but would help to hear the guide anyway.

[kazu]

with this change HAL will definitely lose their 'best shore excursions' title - no worries - we don't like 40 on a bus let alone 65 - so we will continue with private where we can.

 

To me the cruise lines are missing the boat - they could easily offer smaller tours with a slightly elevated tours - and a number of people would be happy to take them (no research). JMO:) though.

[Taxguy77]

I hate the big buses, hard to get on and take a long time for a full load to get on or off. From the isle you can't see much, and taller people can't see from the window seat without bending over.

We have had a great deal of sucess just meeting people and sharing rides or tours at the last minute, but all trips may not work well doing that..

[kcscrapper]

I'm sorry to hear this ... not only from the excursion point of view, but as an, apparent, general philosophy. I've wondered ever since we booked this HAL cruise (my 1st on HAL) whether or not the "Carnival" mentality would slop over into the other lines under the corporate umbrella. Unfortunately, all boats not only rise in the rising tide, but will also fall to the lowest corporate common denominator.

[CtheW0rld]

CCL became the biggest cruise operator in the world for one reason: they generate profits.

[aikensbest]

Our biggest complaint with tours booked thru HAL is having to pay for the tour in advance of the cruise. To us just an opportunity for them to spend my money before I ever cruise. When we travel Princess we never have to pay in advance

[sail7seas]

I could understand the complaint about paying for the excursions in advance if you actually could earn anything on your money in the interim but with interest rates the way they are, we aren't losing out on any significant amount of money. (Yes, I get it. Mulitply by how many excursions sold on how many ships to how many people...... but really, none of us are individually losing anything worthy of high complaint. ) IMO

 

[maxout]

Our biggest complaint with tours booked thru HAL is having to pay for the tour in advance of the cruise. To us just an opportunity for them to spend my money before I ever cruise. When we travel Princess we never have to pay in advance

 

One of the positives of HAL's system is that it tends to cut down on those who book multiple things "just in case" and then cancel later which prevents others from booking.

[sail7seas]

Yes, that. And some say it makes it easier on their budgeting to have their excursions paid for in advance of boarding. They like they don't have to pay for them at the end of the cruise.

[localady]

Our biggest complaint with tours booked thru HAL is having to pay for the tour in advance of the cruise. To us just an opportunity for them to spend my money before I ever cruise. When we travel Princess we never have to pay in advance

 

HAL doesn't require that you book your tours in advance, you can book the first day on the cruise. I have always found tours to be available by booking on the first day of the cruise, but wait a bit and it might be full. Booking on board the first day defers your payment until cruise end. :D

I prefer paying ahead as I then can walk on the ship knowing that my ship based tours are paid in full already. It makes the shock at the end of the cruise a little less! ;) :D

 

Agree 100% with what S7S typed as I was typing also..... ;)

[Hawaiidan]

Skip the Ship trips. They are 2 to 3 times the cost of doing it on your own with a local guide and having a group of less than 6!

 

We booked a private guide in Turkey for $75pp, for all day all entrys and lunch.. The ship wanted $165pp for something similiar.. We met the guide at the port and were at many of the sites before anyone arrived form the ship, we departed as they arrived. So it was all day. We saw the sights before the crowd, saw 30% more stuff and were back on board by the time the first bus returned....having a Martini

 

In another port the ship wanted $2000 pp for a flight seeing. We got the same for $660pp by going direct

 

Or

In Rome, ship wanted $520 pp for a group tour, We got a private guide for $200pp, and there were just the 2 of us !!!. We went where we wanted, stayed as long as we wanted, got to the head of the line ,.

[Krazy Kruizers]

My wife and I just returned from the 35 day Voyage of the Vikings (Maasdam) and had a great time. There were too many good things to list here, but we became aware of a new policy relating to excursions that seems to be causing problems. We noticed a change 2 months ago on our Baltic cruise (Rotterdam) but things seem to have gotten worse lately.

 

We cruise a lot on HAL-- we have 200 HAL cruise days in the last 2 years. We also take a lot of excursions. I generally book an excursion in advance in every port that offers them. On the Voyage of the Vikings, I prepaid 20 excursions. However, the size of the groups has gotten so large that the quality of the tours is really deteriorating.

 

For example, we had group sizes of 40, 42, 44, 45 and 65 on this last trip. There was always a single bus and generally one guide. Beyond a certain size, the tour becomes unworkable. Even the simplest task (like stopping the bus for a bathroom break) takes quite a long time, especially given the mobility issues for many HAL clients. The same is true for "short" photo or shopping stops. Unfortunately, the time comes out of the available time at the destination and leads to chronically running out of time and cutting the trip short. We had 3 hiking excursions that did only about half of the scheduled trip because it was impossible to keep the group moving along. In a museum or nature walk, the group is so large you can't hear the guide or see what he is talking about. You are left with the choice of either pushing to the front or lagging back and doing things without the benefit of the guide. By the way, the guides were generally great and I don't blame them at all.

 

I discussed this (very politely) with Joseph L'Episcopo (the Shore Excursion Manager ) and to my surprise he agreed that excursions had gotten much too large. Unfortunately, he said the size limits are now coming directly from Carnival. He has expressed his concerns about this issue, but believes that cost cutting/revenue enhancement is the priority. They've also cut the food and water provided on excursions to a minimum. This doesn't really bother me, as long as I know to bring my own supply.

 

I apologize if this issue has been beaten to death already, but the new policy was an unfortunate surprise to me. We canceled several tours and are planning to arrange more port visits on our own. I always appreciated the convenience of using HAL excursions, but the quality has dropped to a point where I feel compelled to do things on my own. We're leaving on a 55 day transPacific/circumnavigation of Australia next month and I think I'll avoid HAL trips unless there is no practical alternative. Have any of you experienced this problem in recent cruises?

 

This is not new.

In fact these restrictions and conditions have been on many of our excursions for the last several years.

We have experienced tours being shortened and less time touring.

The tour operators know that many HAL passengers are older and have mobility issues -- thus they do not tell anyone that the tour may be shortened to handle these issues.

[brifor]

Thanks for the heads up - the last few cruises we have done the research online and have booked private tours or made plans to rent a car or find a driver at the port and all have been successful. This was because a few years ago on a Carnival ship, we felt both ripped off (because the price was so high), and claustrophobic (because the bus was so packed) on one of our tours. We ended up just asking what time we needed to be back to the bus, and we explored on our own. I think the private companies are going to start making a lot more money if the cruise lines continue to increase their prices and numbers for excursions.

[RuthC]

Thank you for this info; it's the first post I have read about lessening the quality of the HAL shore excursions.

For many reasons that are valid for me, I prefer to take HAL shore excursions. But from what you have reported I may have to take a closer look at alternatives. More than 60 people in one bus is just too many. That's one heck of a big bus.

[CJcruzer]

One of the positives of HAL's system is that it tends to cut down on those who book multiple things "just in case" and then cancel later which prevents others from booking.

 

I agree, the shore excursion line up to return, change, etc on Princess is horrendous!