Newbie Cruiser excursions

[wolfcallbritt]

Ok so I am totally new to this whole thing, thought I might get some answers here. I mean I've never even been on a cruise before but I've been researching and decided that Disney is the best way to go for cruising (at least I hope). What does everyone do to pick their excursions and stuff? I've been reading and some people swear by only booking with the ship. But others who love deals (like me), book off the boat. Has anyone done this before is it safe? Also where would you even go to find the deals on the excursions do you go on trip advisor or are the best deals on the threads. Are there any type of group deals that you can get in on for people already signed up for stuff, it's just me and my boyfriend and would love to meet other cruisers, I love to mingle. Any help would be great.

[GTO-Girl]

Ok so I am totally new to this whole thing, thought I might get some answers here. I mean I've never even been on a cruise before but I've been researching and decided that Disney is the best way to go for cruising (at least I hope). What does everyone do to pick their excursions and stuff? I've been reading and some people swear by only booking with the ship. But others who love deals (like me), book off the boat. Has anyone done this before is it safe? Also where would you even go to find the deals on the excursions do you go on trip advisor or are the best deals on the threads. Are there any type of group deals that you can get in on for people already signed up for stuff, it's just me and my boyfriend and would love to meet other cruisers, I love to mingle. Any help would be great.

 

My suggestion would be to go the Ports Of Calls section on these boards and select the port you will be going to. Always lots of helpful hints from those who book non-ship excursions.

 

We do it all the time.......love those deals.......:D

[wolfcallbritt]

Thanks Dianne :) also I see you have cruised quite a bit, and I see you went on some Disney Cruises. What did you think of them, which cruise line did you like the most?

[noobcruiser]

I've only been on a few cruises (as my forum handle suggests), but I can give you MY perspective on your question.

 

The question comes down to how willing are you to do your own research and deal with multiple tour operators individually?

 

Example:

If you purchase all excursions through your cruise line, then you will be paying them (and in turn they will pay the tour operators). You pay a premium for this ease of service. They did all of the "thinking" for you.

 

On the other hand, if you are a planner (like me and many other folks) and are willing to do the research yourself, you can save HUNDREDS of $$ by spending your time to research the available tours and create your own itinerary.

 

In the end it's up to you.

 

On our first cruise (our honeymoon in 2001), we did all planning through Disney Cruise line (specifically through a Travel Agent). We were happy with the tours but did not like the regimentation of everything.

 

After that first cruise, we decided we could use the cruise itinerary and the excursion offerings as a guide to create our own "to do" list and do all of our own planning.

[LA_CA_GAL]

Join your roll call, meet those cruising with you, and you will get some ideas of what excursions they are doing.

[aohkay]

There's some ports that lend themselves to DIY (do it on your own), where you don't necessarily even have to book an excursion. Could simply be a beach day/ shopping day.

[Sixtytwo]

For sure go to the ports thread on CC! There is tons of information about almost every port you might travel to and you can easily find DIY information. We have done mostly DIY on all of our cruises and never had a bad experience. You can also check out Trip Advisor and get information there about places to eat if you are inclined to want to eat in port.

 

Because you sound savvy in doing research, I don't expect you will have any problems figuring out what to do! Relax and enjoy your cruise!

[Cuizer2]

Ok so I am totally new to this whole thing, thought I might get some answers here. I mean I've never even been on a cruise before but I've been researching and decided that Disney is the best way to go for cruising (at least I hope). What does everyone do to pick their excursions and stuff? I've been reading and some people swear by only booking with the ship. But others who love deals (like me), book off the boat. Has anyone done this before is it safe? Also where would you even go to find the deals on the excursions do you go on trip advisor or are the best deals on the threads. Are there any type of group deals that you can get in on for people already signed up for stuff, it's just me and my boyfriend and would love to meet other cruisers, I love to mingle. Any help would be great.

 

If you have never been on a cruise before than I highly recommend that you don't book independent excursions until you've got some cruising experience under your belt. There are things that you pick up from experience that a new cruiser would not have.

 

For example, does the ship change time to the local time? This could impact whether or not you make it to your tour on time, or worse, get back to the ship late.

[cb at sea]

The 1st thing we do is to research each port....guidebooks are great for that! Then, we decide what it is that we want to do....and THEN we decide if we need a guide or not. many things are easy to do with NO excursion at all. If we find we do need a guide, then we decide whether to do the hassle-free ship's excursion, or something private.

 

If you wish to meet fellow ship-mates, go to your "Roll Call" on these boards....look up your ship and sail date, and you can meet others who will be cruising with you in advance!

[chipq]

If you enjoy mingling, then certainly check out the roll call for your cruise. It gives an opportunity to mingle before you get on board.

 

I agree with the advice that a first timer would be safest to book excursions through the cruise line. Get a feel for how the port calls work. DIY in many cases can save quite a bit of cash but they come with some risk. First and most important is if you are DIY the ship doed not have any idea where you are or when you will return. If you arrive back to the pier late, they will leave without you. If you are on a ship excursion, they will wait if the tour is running late. It can be very stressful rushing to get back to the ship.

 

Enjoy your cruise.

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[maryred]

First go to the ports of call section here for some ideas. The posters there will also help you to weed out the hyped-up places from the just can't miss.

Then go to your roll call here and join that discussion. There should be experienced cruiser there that can answer some question like shop's time vs. port time.

Next research on your own. We have always heard good things about certain tour companies only to find out with very little poking around the internet even better deals where we book directly with the attraction itself and find our own transport there. Some ports even have attractions, beaches, & things that are free to very inexpensive to do. Alternatively we have also found out that there are some protections granted under booking through the cruise line. Like one last minute snorkel package we purchased on board that ran in to a jelly fish bloom and was less than satisfactory. We were refunded immediately the excursion price to our on board account while others that booked privately w/ the same company had to wait (in at least 1 case I know of weeks) on refunds to be credited back to their credit cards.

Again go to your roll call here and ask for additional opinions. Like what their experience has been with ABC tour company vs. XYZ tour company. Or how to difficult it is to get to such and such a beach.

Finally before handing over a deposit much less a full payment to a even the cruise line for advance purchases of tours and excursions read and reread their cancellation/refund policies. I recently came across on website that had fantastic tours and prices w/ guarantees of making your ship or they arrange transport to the next port for you, but their change/cancellation policy needed 14 days notice. Well all great if you get that much advance notice of a port being cancelled, but that's not the norm if there is a weather, medical, or political reason behind the change.

[trish1c]

There are pros & cons to booking though the cruiseline or through private vendors. As others have said some ports are easy DIY. It depends on a lot of factors. My 1st Q -- which you don't have to answer here -- is how well traveled are you? If you have never left the country before, for your very 1st trip, I'd go with the more expensive but tried & true cruise line's tours. There is no guarentee but at least you have a resource if things go wrong. Also the ship will wait for it's own tours to returns. If you book independently you better be back on time; the ship will leave without you. Also the longer the excursion, the better off you are booking through the ship; if your return time is cutting it close, you really want them to wait if there's a problem.

If you are going to book independently, do your research. The ports of call boards are good resources. Your Roll Call thread may already have something going & you can tag along. DH isn't big on excursions so I have added myself to Roll Call groups. As a woman I would never do an excuriosn all alone but I will go with people from the ship either independently through the Roll Call or on a ship's sponsered excursion.

Tripadvisor can be great. I also like the websites for the tourism boards for the particular country.

Many independent vendors who cater to cruise passangers know the time constraints & they are fully familar with cruise critic. In fact I had a bad experience with a vendor who people on the ports of call boards love. I came home & posted about how terrible my trip was. Using only my screen name, that vendor figured out who I was, contacted me & gave me & all the people who were on that trip with me a full refund. So while I still didn't enjoy my time at that port, I would endorse that vendor wholeheartedly for having so much integrity. The vendor said I should have come to them that day & they woudl have refunded our money right on the spot. I honestly hadn't known there was sombody I could talk to that day. When I got my refund I came back on the boards, resurrected my thread & talked about the vendor's efforts to make things right.