Carnivals 50% cut of shore excursions.

[golfadj]

I have never had a carnival excurion that didn't stink? from the OP

 

My son works for a tour operator in St.Thomas. All of these tours are private companies, some contract with Carnival, some Royal, some NCL, some deal specifically with the hotels. Basically they are all good reputable companies whose contract could be in jeopardy if the they all stunk(LOL). I can tell you my son's company charges $50 for land based or walk on tours. CCL charges $75 for the same tour, meaning CCL gets $25 a head. I am a diver and CCL charges $100 for a 2 tank dive, going rate in Cozumel is about $75. Do I worry about getting back to the ship on time , not at all. This is their job, a couple of bad reviews on the internet could put them out of business.

 

And we make sure the tour is scheduled to be back on the ship well before sail time. Not that hard.

[remharri]

It will be magical. LOL :)

 

 

 

Hilarious!

[lastinga]

It will be magical. LOL :)

 

 

 

You're cracking me up!

[Sargent_Schultz]

Should the independent operator go out of business, there goes any deposits you put down. With Carnival, at least you get your money back. :)

 

There are limits to how much OBC you can launder through the casino, and I suppose they could even ban you. :eek:

[SNJCruisers]

Thanks we are with an awesome roll call.

 

How was your EOS? Hope you had a great time.

Yea Stu...it was really nice not having to fly before the cruise and the 10 day length was the best part. Sometimes it takes a few days to get into the swing of things and before you know it, the cruise is over. The only disappointments I had was the lack of cooked to order options at lunch, with the exception of the tutti salad bar in the MDR on sea days, and the lack of comedians. Only 1 R rated show over 10 days and it wasn't even rated PG 13, LOL. I really missed the Punchliner Comedy Club that we had last year on the Spirit. It's OK though, it's just another reason why I'm looking forward to our 6 day journey on the Breeze in January.

Take care and enjoy the new 2.0 upgrades.

[cdreher]

I know I'm paying more, but for most ports, I prefer going with the cruiseline tours. I feel more in control of what I'm getting and I'm assured that I will get an English speaking tour guide who will enhance my tour by providing information and facts about the port that I will not get on my own unless I happen upon a gregarious cab driver. And I'm assured that if something happens, they will get me back to the ship because they are in contact with the ship in case of problems.

 

I know there are non-cruiseline guided tours where you get the same type of service, I'm just saying that I have had mostly excellent experiences with all the major cruiselines tours so I'd rather go with a sure thing.

 

However, the need for cruiseline sponsored tours really depends on where you are cruising and if you've ever been to that port before. I'd be more inclined to book on our own in the Caribbean because it's kinda like "been there, done that" and we aren't looking for the guide experience.

 

In Europe, we wouldn't go on our own ever again. Our recent "grab a cab" in Italy, resulted in stress - especially when we got caught in a traffic jam on the way back. We broke our own "golden rule" about not going off on our own in Europe but luckily, the cab driver knew his way around and was able to get off the freeway to get us back to port in time.

 

I think what you choose depends alot upon how adventurous you are.

[kathy884]

The larger the group you have the more money you can save on an idependent tour, as sometimes you have to pay for a private van tour and if for example you have six you save a ton over the Canival pp prices on the bus. When it has only been three of us, for some things we would pay more to do on our own. For most it's break even, so we just do whichever sounds best to us.

 

In Jamacia, we wanted to do the dolphin experience and I tried to book on my own, but couldn't. They had a deal with Carnival and we had to book through Carnival if we wanted to do this because we were on the cruise.

[CJinFLA00]

I mostly booked all our excursions through Carnival. No complaints.

[Shipbound]

How is it cheaper? I also cruise solo and always find the exact same excursions much cheaper going with an indie operator.

If its cheaper for 2 people, its cheaper for just one.

 

 

The only excursions I book with the Carnival is when they have exclusivity deals with the vendor.

 

I agree Carnival's excursions are expensive since I cruise solo too much $$ for me.

 

Gary

[ItsAllAboutTheSass]

We have taken 1 cruise line sponsored excursion. It was the worst excursion we have had. We do have a cruise line excursion booked for our Oasis cruise, but we are only using it for the transportation from St Thomas to St John and back. We aren't doing the other part of their tour.

[Earthworm Jim]

Keep in mind these expensive Carnival tours are entirely optional. You can choose to find your own way, for less, and in the meantime, the people paying for the Carnival excursion are in effect subsidizing the price of your cruise. So you are getting an indirect benefit for the pricey excursions. They allow Carnival to keep prices lower.