Help me decide...I'm so torn

[thehams]

I've read a few pro's and con's on booking excursions through the cruise ship or a private company and I'm still so torn.

 

I've read that booking with a private company is usually cheaper AND better, but I would be so worried about missing the ship. And booking with the cruise ship gives you peace of mind, but is more expensive and larger groups.

 

Please share your experiences!!

[travelguy2009]

I've read a few pro's and con's on booking excursions through the cruise ship or a private company and I'm still so torn.

 

I've read that booking with a private company is usually cheaper AND better, but I would be so worried about missing the ship. And booking with the cruise ship gives you peace of mind, but is more expensive and larger groups.

 

Please share your experiences!!

 

I have been cruising for 20 something years now. I used to book all excursions from the cruise ship. Like you, I wanted piece of mind. Once I finally booked with the locals, I haven't booked with the cruise line yet. Thanks to CC I have found lots of great local tour guides. You have to research the port and companies and keep your time in mind. I know things can go wrong, but the tour companies know when you have to be back to the ship and they depend on word of mouth or keyboard for others to use them. Try it. Trust me.....you will find that you have a better tour with a dozen or so people opposed to 40-50 the cruise line packs on a bus.

[OCruisers]

Belize is a place we would ONLY excursions through the cruise line.

It's a tender port and anything we would care to do would involve a rather long excursion. Like knowing, if there are delays, the ship will wait for us.

LuLu

[taillon]

Always book privately! This will be our second time in Belize and the first time was a wonderful! Small group of us cave tubing. Very personal experience and got back to the ship in plenty of time! You can get reviews of great companies and book with peace of mind!

[Gymrat64]

We booked the cavetubing-ziplining on our own before getting to Belize and had an excellent experience. I think you need to research these boards and Tripavisor to see the positive and negative reviews that other travelers have experienced. We have booked all of own excursions after researching other's reviews and haven't been dissapointed.

[Bilge Rats]

We have booked excursions both ways and have never missed our ship yet!

 

If the excursion is far from the cruise port, or if time is short in a tendered port, we are more likely to choose a trip offered through the cruise line.

 

We have done private tours in Cozumel, St. Thomas, St. Croix, Bahamas, Antigua, Skagway, Juneau, Halifax, Bar Harbor, St. John (Canada), Dominica, Mazatlan, San Juan, and Roatan. As others have said, do your research to find good private tour operators - we rely on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor. Most reputable operators will not charge you if you miss a tour because your ship does not port (due to weather, mechanical issues, etc.).

[BopRN]

We went cave-tubing in Belize using a private company that was highly recommended on these boards. When we arrived, the ship excursion folks...100 strong... had just arrived because their bus had a flat tire and they all had to wait for another bus. There were 25 in our group. Our guide put us before the ship group and said the ship will wait for the excursion folks but will not wait for our group. It was well-organized and they had us back in plenty of time. These guys know what they are doing and our experience with private groups is to go with someone with a great reputation on these boards.

[stewartluzon]

Even though Belize is a tender port the boat ride to port is only 10 minutes and going on a private tour is done on a timely manner. We have done so several times and enjoyed avoiding the crowds and being on our own timing. Go local and enjoy

Stu

[zqvol]

I've read a few pro's and con's on booking excursions through the cruise ship or a private company and I'm still so torn.

 

I've read that booking with a private company is usually cheaper AND better, but I would be so worried about missing the ship. And booking with the cruise ship gives you peace of mind, but is more expensive and larger groups.

 

Please share your experiences!!

 

 

Better is a relative term. Most of the excursions are identical, whether book through the cruise line or on your own, the difference is in the size of the group you are with.

 

There is a wonderful fallacy running around that people miss ships because of tours being late. It might happen but you will be hard pressed to find anyone on CC who admits that it has happened to them, so it is really not a consideration. The people who miss the ships are the ones who stagger back drunk.

[Loucat]

We have been to Belize at least 8 times and have done ship and private tours.

If you go private, be sure to get reactions and experiences from members who have used private tour agents.

We were almost left in Caye Caulker on a private tour and will not forget that.

Do your research; gather opinions and experiences and then make a decision.

This is a vast area of real estate (especially on the water) once you leave the port area and you need to know any private tour will get you back to your ship.

The other thing to consider is that on many days, there are ships that leave at different times; some ships change time to this zone; some do not.

Have fun whatever you do!

[mitsugirly]

If you do your homework, then you will be able to find a private excursion that many many others on here (and elsewhere) have taken with no problems. These people (private companies) depend on the cruisers to make a living. The last thing they want is for something to go wrong and especially their tourist missing the ship and the bad publicity that would come along with it. They know (probably better than most tourist) everything about the times and schedules of the ships and what they must do to accomplish getting their people back to the ship on time. Most reputable vendors have been doing this for YEARS and have it down to a T. As long as you research and make sure that others have used them and satisfied, missing the ship usually isn't something that's going to happen (they usually all have back up plans just in case something goes wrong...like a broken down vehicle). :)

[clackey]

If you are using a local company be sure to read every review that you can find. I booked a tour once without doing so and my DW is still mad. If I had researched it more I would have found that our guide was a blowhard that had a habit of combining several tours at the same time. This resulted in long waits for other tours to finish and a lot of windshield time picking up other people when you could have been touring.:mad:

 

Once in Belize I booked a snorkel tour on Cay Caulker. Transportation was up to us so we grabbed a water taxi and off we went. Everything was good until time to go back to the ship. To make a long story short, we almost missed the water taxi. If we had we would have missed the last tender.:eek: DW is still mad about that one too.;)