Cost of Excursions Azamarra vs Oceania

[Tookie]

We are trying to decide between an Azamarra cruise versus the same trip on Oceania. Can anyone give me a sense between the difference in costs for excursions on these two lines? Thanks.

[roaming_kiwi58]

We have cruised with Azamara and Oceania. Without getting into the argument over ship shore excursions versus private shore excursions, which no doubt some CCers will raise, IMO Oceania's shore excursion prices are truly ridiculous. I can cope with Azamara's prices and we have had many excellent shore excursions with Azamara. We only used Oceania for shore excursions once on our two week port intensive cruise this last September, and that was because we had onboard credit to use up. It was a rip-off, but served a purpose. The price of their shore excursions is one of several things that puts us off using Oceania again.

[nordski]

We have cruised with Azamara and Oceania. Without getting into the argument over ship shore excursions versus private shore excursions, which no doubt some CCers will raise, IMO Oceania's shore excursion prices are truly ridiculous. I can cope with Azamara's prices and we have had many excellent shore excursions with Azamara. We only used Oceania for shore excursions once on our two week port intensive cruise this last September, and that was because we had onboard credit to use up. It was a rip-off, but served a purpose. The price of their shore excursions is one of several things that puts us off using Oceania again.

 

For those of us who are glancing at Oceania it would be appreciated if, on another thread, you would expand on the "other things" that put you off.

 

Thanks for considering it.

[NC&KY]

IMO Oceania's shore excursion prices are truly ridiculous.

100% agree!

[TERRIER1]

100% agree!

 

Ditto.

[no fuss travel]

If you look at the Oceania board, you will see that most everyone talks about how expensive their tours are. Most passengers arrange private tours, which they are much happier with. The chief advantage of private tours is that you can work with a smaller group rather than having to wait for an entire bus. When there is a need for a WC break, this is a definite advantage.:D

Edited January 11, 2015 by no fuss travel

[sandyss]

As a point of interest, I compared the cost of one of Azamara's shore excursions with Oceania, Celebrity, and Princess. On Komodo Island, for a 2.5 hour walking tour with a guide and park ranger, Azamara charges $159 per person. For the same tour, Oceania charges $112 per person, Celebrity charges $80 per person, and Princess charges $99 per person. A private tour costs $60 per person. Groups are small out of necessity for all of these tours.

[roaming_kiwi58]

nordski -

I have already explained the "other things" in post #26 of this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2135923&page=2

[roaming_kiwi58]

I see that the $112 quoted by Sandyss above for Oceania's Komodo excursion is the discounted price as part of a "Your World Collection" package. The "normal" Oceania price is stated as $149 for 2 hours.

[RonaldMN]

As a point of interest, I compared the cost of one of Azamara's shore excursions with Oceania, Celebrity, and Princess. On Komodo Island, for a 2.5 hour walking tour with a guide and park ranger, Azamara charges $159 per person. For the same tour, Oceania charges $112 per person, Celebrity charges $80 per person, and Princess charges $99 per person. A private tour costs $60 per person. Groups are small out of necessity for all of these tours.

 

Hi Sandyss! Thanks for you comparison, very interesting! We are on the Feb 17 cruise from Bali, and wonder if you could recommend a private tour agency on Komodo for two happy travellers! Thanks

[sandyss]

Hi Sandyss! Thanks for you comparison, very interesting! We are on the Feb 17 cruise from Bali, and wonder if you could recommend a private tour agency on Komodo for two happy travellers! Thanks

 

Hi Ronald. We're on the same cruise. The tour that we have is full. You might check with Hendrik from GoToKomodoTours to see if they can arrange another tour.

[Derby Street]

As a point of interest, I compared the cost of one of Azamara's shore excursions with Oceania, Celebrity, and Princess. On Komodo Island, for a 2.5 hour walking tour with a guide and park ranger, Azamara charges $159 per person. For the same tour, Oceania charges $112 per person, Celebrity charges $80 per person, and Princess charges $99 per person. A private tour costs $60 per person. Groups are small out of necessity for all of these tours.

 

Can you do a comparison based on single excursion from Oceania - I think Kiwi's point is relevant. You aren't comparing apples for apples.

[Bowie MeMe]

There is also the factor that especially with the big ships with many passengers (thousands over hundreds), facilities for touring can be absolutely overwhelmed -- because of limited numbers that can visit a "public site" the powers that be in the ports visited have been know to shut down access to the main sights. -- closed for the day or the ship's tours are given priority and other tours let in as space available. Purely economics! If big ship comes back week after week or several big ships -- they are treated well because they make or break the tourist economy. Same with guides -- make a little on ship's tours and hope for great tips week after week or hope and pray that you can sell your services each week and make some money -- always with the thought that if an arranged tour does not show up you (the guide) get nothing for your effort of arranging and showing up--DIY people are usually very "thrifty" and do not want to make or loose a deposit but don't worry too much about the guide who is available but the ship does not land or people do not appear. I also like the little security blanket that the ship will wait for 45 people on a ship's bus a bit longer than 8 DIY persons. I think most cruise lines or their agents also try to weed out lesser qualified guides like the wonder tour guide's 3rd cousin that he hires (and you think you are getting super tour guide) when business is good.

 

Good thing we all get to choose how we spend our vacation dollars. I just wish that DIY's would not be so condescending to those of us who make other choices. Good arguments and reasoning can be had on both sides of the question. I also think that where you are traveling and what you are going to do are huge factors. Caribbean --almost never a tour Asia on big ship at container ports way out of town -- always a ship tour 3-10 day before cruise adventure in embarkation town --always privately arranged for just our group. Yeah don't try to make it make sense -- it works for us and that is what you must find for yourselves and each trip is different.

[marinaro44]

Good thing we all get to choose how we spend our vacation dollars. I just wish that DIY's would not be so condescending to those of us who make other choices. Good arguments and reasoning can be had on both sides of the question.

Thank you for writing this. That condescending attitude has always bugged me. Your second sentence is spot on.

 

We do a mixture of ship's excursions and private ones, depending on the port itself, time in port, other options available (e.g., hop-on, hop-off bus), our familiarity with the port, interest level on the roll call, and other factors.

[roaming_kiwi58]

Totally agree with the comments from marinaro44 & Bowie MeMe!

[nordski]

Totally agree with the comments from marinaro44 & Bowie MeMe!

 

We concur.

 

Thanks as well, for the earlier posting of the link to your review .

[Dididi]

Bowie and Marinaro, I wonder if the "we only do private tours" folks ever have a bad tour.

 

On our most recent vacation, we had a dud: a guide who sent a last minute replacement without explanation about her absence and who had not briefed the replacement about our agreed upon itinerary. The replacement took us to the places listed on the email list, but did not engage us. It was as if we had hired an uninterested driver. We ended up getting half of our money back.

 

Two other private excursions, one of the forests in Borneo and a food tour in Manila were fantastic. We were glad to have found the local agencies that offered these tours, one recommended in CC, the other found on the internet and vetted by Tripadvisor reviewers.

 

In selecting what to do in a port, we use the ship's excursions as the baseline in terms of activities offered and price:

 

-- A private walking tour we joined in Odessa a couple of years ago was much cheaper than the ship's tour, but we had to climb the Potemkin Steps to get to the meeting point -- no bus transfer up the hill like for the people on the ship's tour, and it was too early in the morning to take the cable car. Excellent tour, but we had to climb all of those steps Rocky-style.

 

-- In Hong Kong we chose to take the half-day "standard" tour with the ship instead of doing the equivalent, cheaper version offered on Viator because we had a bit of OBC to use and by joining the ship's tour, we did not have to get up very early to take a taxi to the tour meeting place. The ship's tour brought us back to the ship, so we could have a quick lunch and further explore HK. The price of convenience should be taken into account.

 

-- A tour of Bucharest from the port of Constanta was only feasible as a ship's tour. It was a very long day. We were the last bus. The ship waited for us.

 

I might not be able to compare the prices of Azamara versus Oceania ship tours, but even when tours seem to be almost the same, it might not be an "apples to apples" kind of comparison, whether between cruise lines or between ship and private tours. In addition to price, the number of hours in port, the convenience, the "ship will wait for us" security, the possibility of a refund if something goes terribly wrong (had this happen with a ship's tour in Brazil, in addition to the recent experience in Asia), the total number of passengers on the ship who might be taking the same excursion, and the local tour company's reputation are all factors to consider.

[marinaro44]

Bowie and Marinaro, I wonder if the "we only do private tours" folks ever have a bad tour.

Our private tours have generally been fine, but our first, years ago, developed one problem. It was a tour for four couples of the Normandy beaches, Caen museum, American cemetery, etc., with a stop on the way to see the Bayeux tapestry, which one person insisted on adding to the itinerary. While the beaches, etc., were intended to be the main attraction, this person in our group insisted on examining every square inch of the tapestry, thereby causing us to have to rush through all of the Normandy landing stops in order to get back to the ship in time.

 

Another potential issue with private tours is all of the arrangements that have to be canceled if a port is missed or, worse, your second cruise of a back-to-back is canceled before you finish the first cruise--as happened on a cruise we did a year ago when Journey snagged a cable in Tokyo Bay.

 

When Captain Jason announced the follow-on cruise cancellation, someone sitting next to us in Cabaret groaned mightily and we learned he had arranged private tours in most of that cruise's ports, some of which had to be paid for in advance by himself and also those who elected to join him via the roll call--most of whom were not with him on the first cruise and had to be contacted by email in order to finalize the refunds, etc. Between this and notifying all of his private tour guides, he was not a happy camper.

 

One nice thing about ship's excursions is that you get to interact with many fellow passengers in a situation where there is a common topic--the excursion--to engage in conversation. It's an easy way to find people with whom you are compatible, share common interests or background or whatever, and, bottom line, to become friends. We find that we often are on the same excursions with many of the same fellow passengers, probably because of common interests, and this makes it comfortable to share tables at meals, meet in lounges, chat at the pool, and so on.

[sandyss]

Can you do a comparison based on single excursion from Oceania - I think Kiwi's point is relevant. You aren't comparing apples for apples.

 

Derby Street - Please feel free to do a comparison of another tour, and post your results.

 

I just had information about the Komodo Island tour, since I had recently researched this specific shore excursion. The costs that I shared were from my notes. I didn't realize that the cost that I found and listed for Oceania was for booking a specific package. But, even at the $149 that Kiwi quotes, Azamara is still more expensive for this specific tour.

 

We were originally booked on the Azamara shorex for the 2.5 hour tour on Komodo Island at $159 per person. Since that excursion is more expensive than a full day excursion at another port that we have also booked with Azamara, I was curious, and checked the cost for prebooking the same tour with other cruise lines.

 

This Komodo Island tour is a walking tour without any transportation. For the walk through Komodo National Park, small groups - each accompanied by a ranger and your guide - are the rule, whether on a ship tour or private tour.

 

The comparison showed that at least for this specific tour, Azamara's cost was excessive. That is when we cancelled the Komodo shorex with Azamara, and booked with a local travel agency.

[Emperor Norton]

For those of us who are glancing at Oceania it would be appreciated if, on another thread, you would expand on the "other things" that put you off.

 

Thanks for considering it.

 

The food. Seriously. Chefs that couldn't poach eggs, prime rib that had been reduced to mush through thaw/freeze cycles and was freezer burned. Food in Jacques came out both the wrong doneness and room temp. Further in Jacques it seems like the food was swimming in grease. When dining with others there were 10-15 minute lapses between one diner got a course and another got the same course. The Italian restaurant had some of the strangest Italian food I've experienced. Red Ginger for the most part seemed to lack most of the flavor/spice Id except from the fare they were serving. Waves grill couldn't cook a burger to the requested doneness even once over a three week span. Further they wouldn't make items with the ingredients listed on the menu. When this was brought to managements attention they essentially said 'so what'.

 

The Grand Dining room had over the course of three weeks about three dishes that I thought were at a level a 'foodie' cruise line would serve. Jacques signature chicken was not among them (according to a former O employee they routinely hold food for re-use long after it should have been 86ed).

 

The Wine Spectator restaurant: Wow. Ok, this is where the real foodie food on the ship is. Pity they only have three different menus.

 

Drink service in the various restaurants (save the Wine Spectator one) was glacial to three toed sloth. One night I waited about 30 minutes before chasing down a beverage server to close my tab.

 

Tendering was a mess with people 'saving' seats on the tenders and people who weren't supposed to be going sneaking in and causing those with the correct card to have to wait.

 

Their bartenders were for the most part very good to excellent. There was a problem with some passengers on our first cruise where the passengers were passing 1.75s of Bacardi around.

 

I realize our experience isn't typical (and the above is of course IMO). I wont be running back to O any time soon. And yes I felt the tours even in packages were fairly outrageous.

[Bowie MeMe]

Some very good points made by commentators on this thread. You do your best to research and think it out and then basically pay your money and take your chances. If you take enough excursions, you will have a personal list of those great beyond expectations and those you wish you had just stood in bed!😓 Thankfully most of the guides i have met were personable, proud of their city or country and really tried to please. The others well maybe they will find a better job soon😊

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[NC&KY]

The food. Seriously.

Full agreement here. I wrote a review. For some of the dishes, like the Caesar salad "prepared tableside," they should be embarrassed.

[Redtravel]

It seems that the more expensive the cruise, the prices of the excursions increase. If you look at the mass market cruises that offer the same excursions, the prices will be less. I know a tour operator who sells excursions to many cruise lines. They charge the cruise lines the same prices. The cruise lines set the prices when they sell their excursions. On my last Azamara cruise, I booked with the promotion of 25% off the excursions if booked up until 4 days prior to the cruise. That made the price of excursions similar to mass market excursions. Unfortunately, the promotion was withdrawn without notice before my cruise. I was furious. I arranged private excursions with other cruise critic members at a fraction of the cost. I saved a lot of money compared to taking Azamara's excursions. On the ship I met a lots of people from Australia who had booked with a promo of 50% off excursion prices. That promo also was not honored. There were a lot of Aussies complaining. If you have lots of OBC to use, taking excursions may be okay. If you are paying. the excursion cost are excessive. Do some research before you sail. There are many ports that are easy to navigate yourself. The ship has shuttles that leave you in good locations. The ports often have reps that provide information on local attractions. For example, in Bilbao, the ship excursion to the Guggenheim was $100pp. The shuttle took us within a block of the museum. Entry fee for both of us to the Guggenheim including the audio tour was 15euros. We also walked a block to the Fine Arts Museum which was free.

[Emperor Norton]

¶:D

 

 

 

While the ships tours are more expensive than just walking up yourself there are a few reasons you may want to pay the higher ships price:

 

1. In some ports it seems the lines may have bought off most of the guides/tour operators (or the guides may have found it easier to just deal with the ship rather than the individual) to the point of if the guides think you're there with a ship you're persona non grata (eg: someone calling ahead to a port, requesting a guide then letting slip they're on a ship - they were told to book it through the line).

 

2. Some of the tours from the ship can get exclusive or early/less-fettered access to the site (or places the average person wont have much luck getting into like a private home for a slice of life tour)

 

3. The ship will wait for its tours

Edited January 17, 2015 by Emperor Norton

[Bowie MeMe]

¶:D

 

 

 

While the ships tours are more expensive than just walking up yourself there are a few reasons you may want to pay the higher ships price:

 

1. In some ports it seems the lines may have bought off most of the guides/tour operators (or the guides may have found it easier to just deal with the ship rather than the individual) to the point of if the guides think you're there with a ship you're persona non grata (eg: someone calling ahead to a port, requesting a guide then letting slip they're on a ship - they were told to book it through the line).

 

2. Some of the tours from the ship can get exclusive or early/less-fettered access to the site (or places the average person wont have much luck getting into like a private home for a slice of life tour)

 

3. The ship will wait for its tours

 

My experience exactly. I have made this point many times but it seems it does not count that this is often the case. Also many popular guides on these boards have become agents for others and you do not get the person who earned the reviews. You may get as good maybe not. Yes on ship's tours the guides vary also so "You pay your money and you take your chances".