Non PG excursions

[travllerstwo]

Are non-ship excursions available in these islands. We just returned from the mediterranean and we save about 60-75% on our excursions by going off ship private excursions. And they were small group excursions as opposed to the ships busload tours.

[FlightMedic555]

Tons of private excursions are available. I have found that they are only about 10-20% less expensive than the PG excursions but many of them are either longer in duration, have smaller groups, or visit more locations.

[azlew]

There are several non PG excursions available and discussed here.

My question is what liability is there by the non excursion companies if they run late and the PG leaves? Or is the PG obligated to wait til all passengers are onboard (even if they are on non PG offered excursions) before leaving?

We have experienced numerous delays on other trips where everyone had to wait til all were onboard on other carriers even if people used other cheaper excursions not sold by our carrier.

Being that this is our first time on the PG we opted to use our fantastic generous amount of on board credit given to us by our travel agent for only PG excursions. Maybe in the future we will consider private company excursions as well.

[FlightMedic555]

If PG is like every other cruise line they have no obligation to wait if you are late getting back. The excursion companies know this and they also know that they will probably go out of business if they ever were late. Most excursions in the region are anywhere from 2-6 hours in length. At many stops the PG is there until very late at night, or even overnight, which makes betting back late almost impossible.

 

Everything in life is a risk. I personally would not have a concern with a private excursion as I have used them many, many times. Using OBC for the excursions makes total sense. My TA allows for a rebate after the cruise which I find a better value than having to use it for an excursion I may not really want.

[Cruisedreamer1]

We have enjoyed both non PG and PG excursions on our 9 cruises on the PG.

 

Does anyone ever ask the non PG operators if they have liability insurance in case there is an accident where one is injured?

 

I always remember the horrible accident in Chile where a non cruise Bus turned over injuring and killing many cruise passengers.

 

With the cruise line at least you are assured of a certain level of safety and insurance in case of an accident.

[Wendy The Wanderer]

We have enjoyed both non PG and PG excursions on our 9 cruises on the PG.

 

Does anyone ever ask the non PG operators if they have liability insurance in case there is an accident where one is injured?

 

I always remember the horrible accident in Chile where a non cruise Bus turned over injuring and killing many cruise passengers.

 

With the cruise line at least you are assured of a certain level of safety and insurance in case of an accident.

 

Liability perhaps, but I'm not sure about the safety. We were in a small snorkel boat in BB, and had a guy slip on the ladder coming into the boat, falling and breaking his collar-bone. Perhaps PG had some liability there (it was a PG excursion), but the actual tour operators were quite negligent--the ladder was slippery and many of the passengers seniors, but they didn't warn anyone nor did they help anyone getting in or out. The poor guy had to be airlifted out.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Wendy The Wanderer

[Emdee]

I would be very surprised if they carry any insurance.

[azlew]

We have been on several excursions where not only were the private tour people not concerned on being timely to get back to our ship but also not vigilant as to time spent at certain spots that were part of the excursion.

One example of this was already mentioned somewhere here of a person's husband not being found for hours as he just took off on his own and basically made everyones excursion come to a quick end as they spent their time trying to help find the husband.

For us the worst example of this was an tour we took that included going and stopping at Diamond Head to look around for 30 minutes. Everyone was back on the bus but one couple decided to hike to the top (we were all told that there was not enough time to do it) and they came back an hour after we all we sitting on the bus waiting for them to return. They had big smiles and said it was a great experience. Unfortunately they cut us short the rest of the tour and we missed two other stops. The tour company refused to partial refund and they said they do not leave til everyone is accounted for . Of course we put in claims (that were denied)but as far as we know there was no apology from anyone. But at least the couple that did this to the rest of us was elated.

We had to get back to our ship of course and instead of missing the ship we were cut short of what we paid for.

We have had other things happen like this but mostly because other people delaying our tour or excursions because of their wanting to stay longer.

Hopefully we won't experience this next week or so.

[Cruisedreamer1]

Any one in the line of purchase can be held responsible. Of course, proving liability is something else. The point is, cruise lines usually check out the operator for safety and liability insurance (or they should).

 

On our Austral cruise, apparently the line did not check the boats to be used for whale sight seeing and the captain refused to let the passengers off advising that the boats did not meet industry standards and the licenses had been faked. There was almost a rebellion among the booked passengers in the Grand Salon but I understood his concern. He later let those booked passengers go on the tender boats to watch the whales

 

While on a Caribbean cruise in Dominica we took an independent tour (actually the operator and his tour was the BEST ever taken) who advised me that she didn't work with the cruise line because he couldn't afford the liability insurance. (I took gulp since we were all riding in the back of a small pick up).