Cruise Line Tours can be beneficial

[dockman]

To each his own as to do it yourself or buying ship's tours.

 

I do get very weary of the same old scare tactics used to push the tours....one would think that people on their own get left behind every day which is total nonsense. A touch of common sense comes in handy that if you take off on your own that you do not cut it so close on returning to the ship that you leave no time for the unexpected.

 

How many times have I stood and watched the shore excursion buses arrive back to a ship PAST the scheduled departure time and then watch hundreds of passengers stand in line waiting to reboard the ship?? Not my idea of a fun tour.

 

How many times have I seen people running to the ship because they for whatever reason did not allow adequate time ?

 

If you do it on your own then you really should NOT cut it so close that one little thing would get you all stressed out or even miss the ship. If you are that type person then by all means buy the ships tours.....I've been on 60+ cruises and have never ever even come close to missing a sailing time. Not everyone needs someone to hold their hand and frankly I have no desire to be herded about on the typical ships excursions....but as said, to each his own.....BUT...on behalf of those of us who do like to do it ourselves it would sure be nice if HAL would provide at least the most basic of information but I realize that is not going to happen as the shore excursion staff is out to SELL THEIR TOURS and heaven forbid that they should do anything to provide any worthwhile information to the Do it yourselfers. I mean would it kill them to tell you the approximate taxi fare to town, where you might find wifi and the local exchange rate? Every cruise is the same thing with the do it yourselfers left to fend for themselves....so you have to do your homework before the cruise and NEVER ever depend on one iota of help from the cruise line....and always remember if you do not buy the ships tours you will most likely be treated as a second class passenger who is allowed to disembark only after tour customers so plan accordingly.

[cruz chic]

Why does the cruiseline need to help? If I'm interested in how much a taxi costs or where wifi is I google it. I don't expect them to do it for me. After all the cruiseline is too busy pushing people to the ground and robbing people on their tours:D:rolleyes:.

[Cruzin Terri]

And this brings me to friends with whom we visited who cruised on another line. They were complaining about the cost of the ship tours they took. We told them that we hardly ever take ship tours, to which they responded that they were told it was not "safe" to go with private tour operators. When I asked them who told them that, they responded that they were told that by the ship personnel.

They were so surprised that we did not do ship excursions. All I said to them was, "look at us, we're still here, no one has killed us or robbed us."

 

I think they got a whole new perspective on only taking ships tours after that visit.

Terri

[RuthC]

...on behalf of those of us who do like to do it ourselves it would sure be nice if HAL would provide at least the most basic of information but I realize that is not going to happen as the shore excursion staff is out to SELL THEIR TOURS and heaven forbid that they should do anything to provide any worthwhile information to the Do it yourselfers. I mean would it kill them to tell you the approximate taxi fare to town, where you might find wifi and the local exchange rate? Every cruise is the same thing with the do it yourselfers left to fend for themselves....so you have to do your homework before the cruise and NEVER ever depend on one iota of help from the cruise line....

That is absolutely not true when it comes to the longer cruises on the more interesting itineraries. Those sailings have a port expert who gives lectures and holds desk hours to provide just that sort of information. Even my Alaska cruise last summer had a port expert on board.

Some of the people doing the job are fascinating.

Edited December 28, 2014 by RuthC

[Cruzin Terri]

That is absolutely not true when it comes to the longer cruises on the more interesting itineraries. Those sailings have a port expert who gives lectures and holds desk hours to provide just that sort of information. Even my Alaska cruise last summer had a port expert on board.

Some of the people doing the job are fascinating.

 

Yes Ruth. On both Mediterranean cruises I took, there was a port expert who gave lectures and had desk hours. In addition, he would be at the dock during disembarkation to help those who wanted to do their own thing.

Terri

[dockman]

That is absolutely not true when it comes to the longer cruises on the more interesting itineraries. Those sailings have a port expert who gives lectures and holds desk hours to provide just that sort of information. Even my Alaska cruise last summer had a port expert on board.

Some of the people doing the job are fascinating.

 

Well that hasn't been my experience and i have been on a lot of long cruises. But to be fair i rarely ever ask the shore excursion folks anything anymore as i have been so disappointed in the past with either people who knew nothing or who wanted to push their tours.I have heard lots of port cruise "experts" and in my experience they were experts at trying to sell tours. But it's ok. I'm a big boy and can figure it out myself.

 

But show me one HAL newsletter or printed port sheet that tells you ANYTHING worthwhile. the maps are an absolute joke. Never have i seen one printed word about how to get into town on your own, where to find internet, what the exchange rate might be etc. You're lucky if they even tell you that there is a shuttle service available. Recently in Indonesia the shore excursion people didn't even know which of several pier areas the ship was docked at. As for other information I have found that the local welcome tourism officials will be much more helpful to the independent traveler.

 

On a recent cruise through Thailand the port "expert" knew LESS than nothing....how do i know that? Because I live in Thailand half the year and it was pitiful to listen to him try and convince the passengers that he had any clue about anything significant.

 

But as I said. To each his own and IF you plan to do it yourself I would not recommend that you depend on the ships tour staff to provide you with much assistance.

[kazu]

Well that hasn't been my experience and i have been on a lot of long cruises. But to be fair i rarely ever ask the shore excursion folks anything anymore as i have been so disappointed in the past with either people who knew nothing or who wanted to push their tours.I have heard lots of port cruise "experts" and in my experience they were experts at trying to sell tours. But it's ok. I'm a big boy and can figure it out myself.

 

But show me one HAL newsletter or printed port sheet that tells you ANYTHING worthwhile. the maps are an absolute joke. Never have i seen one printed word about how to get into town on your own, where to find internet, what the exchange rate might be etc. You're lucky if they even tell you that there is a shuttle service available. Recently in Indonesia the shore excursion people didn't even know which of several pier areas the ship was docked at. As for other information I have found that the local welcome tourism officials will be much more helpful to the independent traveler.

 

On a recent cruise through Thailand the port "expert" knew LESS than nothing....how do i know that? Because I live in Thailand half the year and it was pitiful to listen to him try and convince the passengers that he had any clue about anything significant.

 

But as I said. To each his own and IF you plan to do it yourself I would not recommend that you depend on the ships tour staff to provide you with much assistance.

 

That's too bad. Like RuthC, we have had port guides on several of our cruises, primarily those were on the Prinsendam so I don't know if that makes a difference or not?

 

We got cards delivered to our rooms with the exchange rates on them for the different currencies before we arrived at the ports concerned.

 

Our port guides (the book) have a bit of info. I don't expect a book load of info on one page but there was pertinent info including where to find internet.

 

Our port guide usually had more detailed maps for us at the pier so the map in the guides wasn't a concern.

[RuthC]

Well that hasn't been my experience and i have been on a lot of long cruises. But to be fair i rarely ever ask the shore excursion folks anything anymore as i have been so disappointed in the past with either people who knew nothing or who wanted to push their tours.I have heard lots of port cruise "experts" and in my experience they were experts at trying to sell tours.

Then that's where you're making your mistake; the port expert isn't in the Shore Excursion Office.

You need to check the daily program for the times and locations of the lectures, and the desk hours.

 

I have been on many long cruises (I usually cruise in the 20-35 day range), on all the current HAL ships except one. I have met several port authorities who are well versed in the locales we are visiting, and can answer just about any question you could come up with.

I'm sorry you haven't been as fortunate. Maybe next time, but you have to check the program.

[summersigh]

on behalf of those of us who do like to do it ourselves it would sure be nice if HAL would provide at least the most basic of information but I realize that is not going to happen as the shore excursion staff is out to SELL THEIR TOURS and heaven forbid that they should do anything to provide any worthwhile information to the Do it yourselfers. I mean would it kill them to tell you the approximate taxi fare to town, where you might find wifi and the local exchange rate? Every cruise is the same thing with the do it yourselfers left to fend for themselves....so you have to do your homework before the cruise and NEVER ever depend on one iota of help from the cruise line....and always remember if you do not buy the ships tours you will most likely be treated as a second class passenger who is allowed to disembark only after tour customers so plan accordingly.

 

I'm not sure why you think that the cruise line is responsible for providing you detailed information for each port above and beyond a map. By the way, Carnival and RRC are pretty much the same as HAL on this issue. Google is a wonderful thing and in a very few moments you can find all the information you desire.

 

Also ... Most of the port information you require is readily available here on Cruise Critic for hundreds of ports of call. .... use the "Destinations" tab at the top of the page. It's the first thing we do when considering/booking a cruise.

 

You say the poor do it yourselfers are left to fend for themselves ... but one should remember that the folks who booked their excursions with the ship paid for the information etc. One of the most common reasons folks give for doing it yourself is the cost of ship's tours - but there do seem to be some benefits to doing so.

[CowPrincess]

That's too bad. Like RuthC, we have had port guides on several of our cruises, primarily those were on the Prinsendam so I don't know if that makes a difference or not?

 

>SNIP<

 

We don't do the longer, more exotic itineraries that you and RuthC and many others do, but we've had port guides on many of our cruises. Most of them have been pretty helpful, especially one on the S. Carib cruise we took. She took time for each port to discuss the DIY options and provided very helpful info IMHO.

[cruisemom42]

I'm not sure why you think that the cruise line is responsible for providing you detailed information for each port above and beyond a map. By the way, Carnival and RRC are pretty much the same as HAL on this issue. Google is a wonderful thing and in a very few moments you can find all the information you desire.

 

Also ... Most of the port information you require is readily available here on Cruise Critic for hundreds of ports of call. .... use the "Destinations" tab at the top of the page. It's the first thing we do when considering/booking a cruise.

 

You say the poor do it yourselfers are left to fend for themselves ... but one should remember that the folks who booked their excursions with the ship paid for the information etc. One of the most common reasons folks give for doing it yourself is the cost of ship's tours - but there do seem to be some benefits to doing so.

 

Perhaps it is because cruise staff used to be more helpful in this regard. Before port tours were so aggressively hawked (and apparently before they became such a valued revenue stream) it was not uncommon for DIY options to be presented along with port tours in lectures. Princess used to have a great cruise director on their Baltic itineraries, John Lawrence, who provided this kind of info in his port lectures regularly and even had a CD on the ports giving lots of DIY info.

 

Sure, us DIY'ers should do our own research (I always do) but it is also good to be able to check with someone who would have recent experience as to whether a particular bus is still running close to the port or if taxis are readily available, as information online can be dated and situations "on the ground" frequently change regarding hours of operation, cost, routes, etc.

 

I have not been on longer HAL cruises, but such information was not easy to come by on the 12-day Med cruise I took.