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Truth or rumor: private tours will not run while RC ship is in port at St Kitts?

jakenashleysmom
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jakenashleysmom

jakenashleysmom

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Several people have contacted private tour companies (the ones who would be at the docks) for St Kitts and the response was that they are not allowed to book tours when there is a cruiseship in port. Now, possibly this is limited to booking before arrival...trying to get the low down. I would rather pre book than take my chances on the dock with 11 people in our group.

 

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Gopher1934

Gopher1934

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Several people have contacted private tour companies (the ones who would be at the docks) for St Kitts and the response was that they are not allowed to book tours when there is a cruiseship in port. Now, possibly this is limited to booking before arrival...trying to get the low down. I would rather pre book than take my chances on the dock with 11 people in our group.

 

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We booked our own tour this past February With Thenford tour

worked out very well.

 

http://www.thenfordgreytours.com/

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Ourusualbeach

Ourusualbeach

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Several people have contacted private tour companies (the ones who would be at the docks) for St Kitts and the response was that they are not allowed to book tours when there is a cruiseship in port. Now, possibly this is limited to booking before arrival...trying to get the low down. I would rather pre book than take my chances on the dock with 11 people in our group.

 

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I have to found that this is limited to those companies that are providing tours for the ship. No issue in booking tours with companies that are not providing tours for the ship.

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TwizzlersAddict

TwizzlersAddict

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Not sure about St Kitts specifically, but many indie tour operators are signing exclusivity contracts with the cruise lines. Many will even have it listed on their website that you have to book the tour via the respective cruise line.

 

Many have gotten around this on some tours by just booking as if they were staying at a resort.

 

 

With a catamaran, you can expect they will pack them to full capacity and it's probably not possible to book certain ones without going through the ship.

 

 

I'm sure if you do a search, you can find multiple catamaran indie tours that will be both cheaper and have a smaller numbers of passengers onboard.

 

With 11 people you might be able to get a private tour at a reasonable rate.

Edited by TwizzlersAddict
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jakesnana

jakesnana

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Bonnie and I are on the same sailing and we are bringing our adult children. I think what we are looking for is a catamaran trip or a zip lining trip that we can book in advance with a third party company.

 

I have checked my go to vendor for 3rd party excursions and they do not offer either of these options. I contacted a company that does catamaran trips, but they will not contract privately with me while the ship is in port.

 

I REALLY do not want to wait until I get to the port to make plans, as I will not know these operators from Adam and am worried about getting someone who may not be very reputable and there being problems.

 

Has anyone used a private vendor in St. Kitts who offers something like we are looking for?

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LeesSummitCruiser1

LeesSummitCruiser1

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Bonnie and I are on the same sailing and we are bringing our adult children. I think what we are looking for is a catamaran trip or a zip lining trip that we can book in advance with a third party company.

 

I have checked my go to vendor for 3rd party excursions and they do not offer either of these options. I contacted a company that does catamaran trips, but they will not contract privately with me while the ship is in port.

 

I REALLY do not want to wait until I get to the port to make plans, as I will not know these operators from Adam and am worried about getting someone who may not be very reputable and there being problems.

 

Has anyone used a private vendor in St. Kitts who offers something like we are looking for?

 

My understanding is the only Zip Line on St Kitts has contracted with the cruise lines and does not do private tours for passengers. When at St Kitts the last 2 years there were no private Zip line tours available. We did do a sailing with Myles at Nevis Yacht Charter. He was wonderful. Just search Trip advisor for him.

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laura Bra

laura Bra

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I have also posted on St Kitts/Nevis board. Also if truth, how crowded is the ship sponsored catamaran beach excursion?

 

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I find it hard to believe big sis.

Others have posted here, seems to suggest that lots of private tours are available.

I am always unsure of private tours in these small private islands.

We always opt for the ships tours, more expensive but piece of mind.

 

Having chatted about this, we all agree.

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Paul65

Paul65

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It probably means, as others have suggested, that companies that have contracted with Royal Caribbean to operate tours for the ship will not be offering them booked independently at the same time. There will likely be other tour operators who are not contracted to RC, though.

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JTBCruiser

JTBCruiser

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We were in St Kitts last Feb and had no issues booking a tour. In fact I booked a private tour several months before the cruise. We were picked up on the pier and taken to a catamaran. We only had 8 people on board. Two snorkeling stops. :cool:

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laura Bra

laura Bra

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We were in St Kitts last Feb and had no issues booking a tour. In fact I booked a private tour several months before the cruise. We were picked up on the pier and taken to a catamaran. We only had 8 people on board. Two snorkeling stops. :cool:

 

hey sis, was that the one with all the free booze ?

did you have a good time ? Yeah ? great stuff.

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serene56

serene56

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Several people have contacted private tour companies (the ones who would be at the docks) for St Kitts and the response was that they are not allowed to book tours when there is a cruiseship in port. Now, possibly this is limited to booking before arrival...trying to get the low down. I would rather pre book than take my chances on the dock with 11 people in our group.

 

Sent from my KFTHWI using Forums mobile app

 

 

the people looking to book the same excursion that the cruise lines offer?

the vendor has a contract with the cruiselines so they can not take cruise passengers for less money- There will be other vendors out there doing excursions though

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Hoopster95

Hoopster95

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I have also posted on St Kitts/Nevis board. Also if truth, how crowded is the ship sponsored catamaran beach excursion?

 

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Blue Water Safari, privately booked March 24 2015:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=46206348&highlight=blue#post46206348

 

I was told on board by a fellow traveler very experienced with St Kitts, that Leeward Island Charters provided a better lunch right on the beach rather than on the catamaran as we did here. I didn't know any better... this was an awesome day!

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chadbeck

chadbeck

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The others are correct. If the company supplies a ship excursion they can't allow people to book independent. All other operators will take bookings. I get the same thing every cruise when booking excursions. Whatever tour you wanted to book but couldn't you will find something extremely close with another operator. The operator is exclusive to the ship but the tour rarely would be.

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luvscruising2007

luvscruising2007

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I guess I will do a bit more research. The cruiseline only offers 9 excursions, I doubt they could monopolize the entire islands tours. Thanks for all your responses.

 

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I noticed the same thing. Our cruise isn't until next year but there only a few excursions offered right now. I decided to go to the excursion brochure on the RC website instead of by specific cruise and couldn't find any St.Kitts excursions. I wonder if RC is in contract negotiations with St.Kitts tour operators?!

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TwizzlersAddict

TwizzlersAddict

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I noticed the same thing. Our cruise isn't until next year but there only a few excursions offered right now. I decided to go to the excursion brochure on the RC website instead of by specific cruise and couldn't find any St.Kitts excursions. I wonder if RC is in contract negotiations with St.Kitts tour operators?!

 

I'm seeing 26

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/destinations/shoreExcursions/subGateWayByPort/search.do?LocationCode=SKB

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