Shore Excursions - Ship vs other

[lizzylee]

Hi, I'm a first time cruiser, going to Mexico. Can anyone share their experiences between booking their excursions through the cruise line (I'm going on Celebrity Dec. 2--gift from & trip with the in-laws--GULP!). I was leaning toward going independent (leaning toward Dolly Varden Mexico--anyone have experience w/them?), but the inlaws think we should only book thru cruise line. Any advice would be appreciated!

[mii]

It might be helpful if you go to the Ports of Call board and look under Mex. Rivera. There is a wealth of info there. In Matzalan look up the thread by Matzaland Frank. He lives there and many people ask him questions. In Acapulco there is Acapulco Authority. Alot of people ask the same quesitons as you. As for me, we usually take the ships excursions but if after reading and searching the ports of call board and if the same indepentant excursions comes up with alot of good comments then we would book them. Maybe you need to ask that question over there. Tell them what stops you will be making. Hope this helps.

 

Marilyn

[vavip]

Hi, I'm a first time cruiser, going to Mexico. Can anyone share their experiences between booking their excursions through the cruise line (I'm going on Celebrity Dec. 2--gift from & trip with the in-laws--GULP!). I was leaning toward going independent (leaning toward Dolly Varden Mexico--anyone have experience w/them?), but the inlaws think we should only book thru cruise line. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

It looks like most people do excursions on their own. You'll find websites off the message board for these or just ask and someone will tell you where to look. :-)

[chasetf]

Hi, I'm a first time cruiser, going to Mexico. Can anyone share their experiences between booking their excursions through the cruise line (I'm going on Celebrity Dec. 2--gift from & trip with the in-laws--GULP!). I was leaning toward going independent (leaning toward Dolly Varden Mexico--anyone have experience w/them?), but the inlaws think we should only book thru cruise line. Any advice would be appreciated!

As a general rule, the tour company gets about half of the amount you pay the cruise line for a tour. In many ports there are taxi drivers / tour companys giving the same tour as the ship. Sometimes they are better. The risk in not being with the cruise line, you are on your own getting back to the ship in time. Usually that is no problem.

 

For example, going to Mexico / Cabo, if you book the glass bottom boat with the ship it will probably be $30-40 ea. Taking the tender in, there will be at least 10-15 guys trying to get you to go for $10 and you can maybe bargain them down depending how many ships are in.

 

In Tahiti, our best tours were those we picked up on the dock. For $50 ea we got a 4-5 hr boat tour circumnavigating the island (on both Bora Bora and Moorea) that gave us a snorkel dive / swim with the stingrays / chum for sharks / stop at a Motu. We were on a 25 ft boat, with our own tour guide with 10-12 people. On the ship we would have had a 3 hr tour with 50 people at twice the price and not done it all.

[vavip]

We just did the Los Veranos Canopy tour in PV, Las Gatas beach in Zihuatanejo, Land's End tour in Cabo and Oceanrider's in Acapulco all on our own and much cheaper than the ship excursions.

[pdxmichelle]

Have been to the Mexican Riviera twice and have never done a cruise excursion. They are just way too expensive for what you get. We always catch a cab at the port terminal and ask them to take us either to a beach or to town or wherever. There are usually quite a bit of tour operators/taxi drivers who will give you a tour of the city or take you to various destinations for an agreeded up on price. Which is much, much less than going through the cruise line. Plus that way we are on our own schedule.

[MsBlue]

Lizzy - Lucky you with the free cruise!

 

Many years ago, I took a couple of the ship's excursions. THEN I got smart. I never book an excursion anymore. You can save SO much money by going places on your own.

 

What I do is a lot of homework prior to each cruise. Before docking at any port, I know exactly what I want to do and where. I grab a cab, go to my destination, and make sure I have plenty of time to get back to the ship. I figure I have saved literally thousands of dollars over the years by doing it 'my way'.

[Below Deck]

Chasetf: Do you have any names for the Tahiti tours?

[famoussd]

Book the excursions on your own.. you'll save alot of $$$. And plus, if you go thru your cruise line, chances are that you'll be put in a very large group and the excursion won't be so intimate and exciting..

[iancal]

We usually take private excursions. We found that they are much better, often cheaper, AND our money stays with the locals.

[JoanieBlon]

Depending on your destination and your degree of comfort with the local area, you may or may not want to book a shore excursion through your cruise line. We tend to be highly adventuresome and do things on our own MOST of the time ~ but not always. One VERY BIG plus for booking long or highly adventuresome "out in the boondocks" kind of tours through your cruise line, is that if you are delayed in any way, the ship WILL NOT sail without you.

 

A friend of ours learned the hard way. Got off the ship without his Passport on a Mediterranian cruise and didn't make it BACK before the ship sailed without him. His experience was not one I would want! :eek: Took him several days to get things straightened out and to get back on the ship and on with his cruise.