Celebrity Tours vs Personal tours

[MicCanberra]

My last cruise I traveled with friends who were uncomfortable with booking excursions that were not through the cruise line and so we booked all of our excursions with Celebrity.

 

I've convinced them to give me a shot and we only have one X excursion on our trip departing in 10 days.

 

For me, the advantages of booking on our own are mainly the following:

1. I enjoy planning and researching the excursions.

2. I prefer smaller groups, and I'm frequently able to arrange similar excursions with less people.

3. Control over the details. If I want to shop I can arrange for that, if I'd rather hike or spend the entire visit in a church or museum I can do that as well.

 

As others have said, if the timeline is very tight in a port I may choose an X excursion, I've also chosen X for excursions when they have what I'm looking for and I'm uncomfortable with the alternate vendors. Using OBC isn't a big motivator for me as I like to plan in advance so I'm paying for excursions in advance too.

 

I agree, also not always waiting for others all day is a winner.:D

[Keith1010]

I look at all of this as tools in my tool box.

 

In short, for each port I look at what the cruise line offers, what I could do on my own either through a private tour or without a tour.

 

As such, I pick from this tool box what I think is best for the job or in this case the visit.

 

Some will only book cruise tour. Some will only book private tours. Some will only do it on their own.

 

We find that sometime a cruise tour will take us to places we can't do any other way or sometimes we just want the reliability of knowing the ship will wait. Other times we want a private tour on our own with more one on one contact with the tour guide and not the distraction of others.

 

For me, I do a mix and this approach has served us very well.

 

Keith

[MicCanberra]

I look at all of this as tools in my tool box.

 

In short, for each port I look at what the cruise line offers, what I could do on my own either through a private tour or without a tour.

 

As such, I pick from this tool box what I think is best for the job or in this case the visit.

 

Some will only book cruise tour. Some will only book private tours. Some will only do it on their own.

 

We find that sometime a cruise tour will take us to places we can't do any other way or sometimes we just want the reliability of knowing the ship will wait. Other times we want a private tour on our own with more one on one contact with the tour guide and not the distraction of others.

 

For me, I do a mix and this approach has served us very well.

 

Keith

 

Definitely need to research each port and take it on it's merits and as to what method of touring is best.

[GUT2407]

Line = security

 

Private = $$$$$

[fleckle]

Definitely need to research each port and take it on it's merits and as to what method of touring is best.

Definitely agree, but sometimes if you book a last minute cruise on the spur of the moment where you are unfamiliar with the ports and don't have time to research them, then a ship's tour can be a kind of security blanket. ;)

 

 

Well then, I guess this makes reason number 7 to add to the previous list of 6 reasons to book with X.

 

 

Edited February 25, 2016 by fleckle

[gopro63]

For those who have done both Celebrity tours vs a personal tour that you have organized or been on ,please give your pros & cons :)

 

Shore vs private. vs shores private,. yet you hear them talk about the exclusive one's right?

[MicCanberra]

Definitely agree, but sometimes if you book a last minute cruise on the spur of the moment where you are unfamiliar with the ports and don't have time to research them, then a ship's tour can be a kind of security blanket. ;)

 

 

Well then, I guess this makes reason number 7 to add to the previous list of 6 reasons to book with X.

 

 

 

Sometimes the research points to a ship's tour anyway.:D

[MicCanberra]

Shore vs private. vs shores private,. yet you hear them talk about the exclusive one's right?

 

I am not sure what you mean.

[Jade13]

We had a panama tour where unknown to anyone they were doing road work and it took hours to get to our destination, then a woman fell off a platform and we had to wait two hours for another car to come get her, we had to skip a stop and then finally got to the panama canal to watch the ships go through. We received a full refund. We have had other issues, that if we had done a private tour, we would have had no QUOTE]

 

 

We don't agree with that as far as having no recourse or resolution unless you are on a cruise line sponsored tour. In Europe we pay cash at the end of the tour. In Asia we have pre- paid with credit card and would take it up with the tour operator if we missed hours of our tour and certain sites, and if no resolution can always contact our credit card company. We have had the tour operators agree beforehand on a refund if we paid for entrance to certain sites and did not get to those sites.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Jade13

[Jane2357]

I almost always go with a private tour and love the smaller size.

 

For some tours I do chose the Ship tour - such as our helicopter ride to the top of the glacier with a dog sled ride. I just felt more comfortable going with the Ship's tour - but I do have a question.

 

The helicopter/dog sled tour is often canceled due to weather conditions. We have already paid and my question is - if our time slot were to be canceled - do they credit back to our credit card? This tour is insanely expensive and I wouldn't want it back in OBC - there would be NO WAY we could spend it on a 7 night cruise. ???

[4774Papa]

Lots of great comments on this thread already.

I won't repeat what has already been posted.

 

 

I generally try to organize private tours on our cruises. Most of the time if you have a group of 12 or so people you can still save money compared to the ship's excursions, but still have a small enough group to it doesn't slow you down touring. Twelve people can fin into a mini bus comfortably.

 

I have organized tours or joined other tours where groups of this size were involved and paid half or even 1/3 if the ship's tours.

However, occasionally the ship's tours are about the same price and if the distance traveled on the tour is long and a tight fit coming back to the port, we take the ship's tour.

 

We have only been late arriving at the ship on one private tour and that was in Scotland were we had a long distance to travel, but we were only a minute late and didn't miss the ship.

 

TripAdvisor is a good source of information on good past performance on tour companies.

 

Another issue is remember what country you are in. If you are in Europe, missing the port may not be a huge problem. However, if you miss a port in Tunisia, India or Vietnam, I would not be keen on dealing with that.

[smtcan]

We rarely take cruise line excursions, for most of the reasons already mentioned. This was reinforced when we went to Monte Carlo. We took the train from Villefranche and found a spot to watch the changing of the guard. A few minutes before the ceremony, numerous tour buses arrived. Crowds of people headed to use the washrooms. The majority of them were still in line when the guardsmen marched away. We had a wonderful day exploring on our own.

 

Sheila

[pjs678]

I almost always go with a private tour and love the smaller size.

 

For some tours I do chose the Ship tour - such as our helicopter ride to the top of the glacier with a dog sled ride. I just felt more comfortable going with the Ship's tour - but I do have a question.

 

The helicopter/dog sled tour is often canceled due to weather conditions. We have already paid and my question is - if our time slot were to be canceled - do they credit back to our credit card? This tour is insanely expensive and I wouldn't want it back in OBC - there would be NO WAY we could spend it on a 7 night cruise. ???

 

We booked this with the vendor directly and were the only two on the tour at that time. It was about 2/3 the price of booking through the cruise line, who use the same tour vendor anyway.

[MicCanberra]

We had a panama tour where unknown to anyone they were doing road work and it took hours to get to our destination, then a woman fell off a platform and we had to wait two hours for another car to come get her, we had to skip a stop and then finally got to the panama canal to watch the ships go through. We received a full refund. We have had other issues, that if we had done a private tour, we would have had no QUOTE]

 

 

We don't agree with that as far as having no recourse or resolution unless you are on a cruise line sponsored tour. In Europe we pay cash at the end of the tour. In Asia we have pre- paid with credit card and would take it up with the tour operator if we missed hours of our tour and certain sites, and if no resolution can always contact our credit card company. We have had the tour operators agree beforehand on a refund if we paid for entrance to certain sites and did not get to those sites.

 

Agreed, you just need to make them aware and negotiate a suitable response.

[MicCanberra]

I almost always go with a private tour and love the smaller size.

 

For some tours I do chose the Ship tour - such as our helicopter ride to the top of the glacier with a dog sled ride. I just felt more comfortable going with the Ship's tour - but I do have a question.

 

The helicopter/dog sled tour is often canceled due to weather conditions. We have already paid and my question is - if our time slot were to be canceled - do they credit back to our credit card? This tour is insanely expensive and I wouldn't want it back in OBC - there would be NO WAY we could spend it on a 7 night cruise. ???

 

In my experience tour refunds would go back to the sea pass account but any unspent OBC is then put onto your CC attached to that account.

[MicCanberra]

Lots of great comments on this thread already.

I won't repeat what has already been posted.

 

 

I generally try to organize private tours on our cruises. Most of the time if you have a group of 12 or so people you can still save money compared to the ship's excursions, but still have a small enough group to it doesn't slow you down touring. Twelve people can fin into a mini bus comfortably.

 

I have organized tours or joined other tours where groups of this size were involved and paid half or even 1/3 if the ship's tours.

However, occasionally the ship's tours are about the same price and if the distance traveled on the tour is long and a tight fit coming back to the port, we take the ship's tour.

 

We have only been late arriving at the ship on one private tour and that was in Scotland were we had a long distance to travel, but we were only a minute late and didn't miss the ship.

 

TripAdvisor is a good source of information on good past performance on tour companies.

 

Another issue is remember what country you are in. If you are in Europe, missing the port may not be a huge problem. However, if you miss a port in Tunisia, India or Vietnam, I would not be keen on dealing with that.

 

Great point, not speaking the language can be a determinant in how we tour a port.

Another point is that some tours only provide a driver - they know a bit about places but they are not a tour guide. The tour guide will not only know about a place but also the various aspects like history, architecture, trivia, etc. We had a so called driver guide once and he was not being able to speak English very well and would pull up to a location and say be back in 1/2 hour or 1 hour.

[njaloha]

I've done 40-something cruises...and, therefore, visited a very large number of ports...

I do BOTH cruise line shore excursions AND private tours (as well as just "do-it-ourselves" in some ports)...I am often the one who organizes the tours.

............

Good luck...

 

Bruin Steve, A very well-said, informative, and detailed post. Impressive cruise resume.

 

Very good question by the OP and good job with the answers everyone!

[StreakedBlonde]

For those who have done both Celebrity tours vs a personal tour that you have organized or been on ,please give your pros & cons :)

 

Did you find it harder to get off of the ship when you booked your own tours, vs going on a ship tour? Thanks -StreakedBlonde

[Cindy]

Did you find it harder to get off of the ship when you booked your own tours, vs going on a ship tour? Thanks -StreakedBlonde

 

 

Most of the time it makes no difference. Where booking Celebrity's tours can be beneficial in getting off the ship faster is in a tender port or in a place like St. Petersburg with very controlled and lengthy immigration procedures. All cruise lines give priority to their own tours when a limited number of people can disembark at the same time.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[4774Papa]

Disagree that it's cheaper to do it yourself...we almost always set up our own tours with 4 to 6 people . Sometimes it's more expensive than celebrity but we see what we want to see, we eat where we want to eat and so on...for us the flexibility is worth the price especially in the food area. Celebrity stops at tourist restaurants...we eat at good local restaurants...big difference. I highly recommend setting up or joining smaller, non celebrity tours...use your roll call and the internet.

 

The exception is if you are trying to do a long tour at a tight port stop. We took a celebrity tour to Mayan ruins in belize...bus to speedboat..visit..speedboat and bus. There were 3 busses. 2 of them arrived back at the ship over an hour after the ship was supposed to sail...the ship waited.

 

I like organizing my own tours on the cc roll calls for the cruises. I usually have groups of around 8 or sometimes for a minibus a group of 16. My tours always run cheaper than the Celebrity tours. Sometimes the difference is my tour is 1/3 the cost of Celebrity, others the tour may be 15% lower than Celebrity.

 

We occasionally take the Celebrity tours, which are good, but usually have a bus full of people. If the sights that we are going to see are a long way from the port and the risk of being late is higher, and the prices of the X tour is close to the private tour, then we go with X.

[sippican]

There are 2 main issues, one Pro and one con....if you book with X and the tour is late or has problems the ship will wait for you, if you book on your own they won't

 

Only reason to book tour with X is guarantee that ship won't sail without you.

 

This is an oft repeated, yet not entirely true, reason to promote ship-sponsored tours. When we sailed the Med on Royal Caribbean, two separate RC tour groups were left behind following a day on the Amalfi coast.

In all of our sailings, we have not heard of a single private shore excursion that missed the ship (although I'm sure it must happen on rare occasions). True, the cruise line would make heroic efforts for passengers to rejoin that ship, but as others have said, the reputation of private tour companies would be destroyed if they make such a blunder.

 

We most often DIY or take private tours, but have participated in a few ship tours. We've had good and bad on both, but as a rule, the quality and experiences of the private tours has far out-weighed shore excursions.

[shipster60]

I do both, but I have found as time has passed and my number of cruises has increased, I do more and more private tours and limit my ship's tours to those ports where I feel it's the only viable option for what I want to do.

 

I love research, planning, and organizing, and I've found I'm good at doing it for travel now that I'm retired and have the time for it! The thing I like best about arranging a private tour is I control the variables...where we go, how much time we spend at each location, what we eat, and often who the guide is.

 

On my Equinox cruise in three weeks, I'm doing one Celebrity tour, I've organized small groups in other ports, and I'm taking two limited participation food/tasting tours I booked through Viator. The Celebrity tour is a L-O-N-G day on a ferry through the Panama Canal, and I just didn't feel comfortable trying to do that through a private vendor. On the other hand, in Cartagena I've booked tours I'm really excited about with a private guide who has rave reviews on Trip Advisor and here. Since I set up the tours, I was able to customize and make changes so the tour will be to my liking.:) I don't always want to see just the "most popular" sights, and arranging private tours allows me to skip some places and add others.

 

Is this a Panama Canal cruise on Infinity? If so, I would love to know about the private tours you organized. We're going in November and would love feedback after you go.

[NantahalaCruiser]

Line = security

 

Private = $$$$$

 

Agree with the security

 

But disagree with the relative price of independent tours. Our experience has generally been that the independent tours are at least slightly cheaper and less crowded. In the few cases where the price has been a little greater, it has always been that it was because the independent tour was providing much more value.

[NantahalaCruiser]

In my experience tour refunds would go back to the sea pass account but any unspent OBC is then put onto your CC attached to that account.

 

Only refundable OBC goes back to your credit card. If you originally purchased the shore excursion win non-refundable OBC, my guess is that the OBC returned to your account would also be non-refundable.

[Cindy]

Is this a Panama Canal cruise on Infinity? If so, I would love to know about the private tours you organized. We're going in November and would love feedback after you go.

 

 

Our cruise was on the Equinox last March. We had a stop in Panama, but it wasn't a true canal cruise.

 

We toured for 2 days with Marelvy Pena-Hall in Cartagena. It was one of the best port experiences we've ever had, and I highly recommend her. In Limon, Costa Rica we arranged a tour with Greenway Nature Tours. They were OK. I felt like we got what we paid for, but the tour wasn't really special. We did a ship's tour in Panama, because we wanted to go through some locks, and that was the only way to do it. Our other two ports were Cozumel and Grand Cayman...more Caribbean ports than Panama Canal ports.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums