RC Excursion or Outside Company?

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

On St. Kitts, you can't go wrong with Grey's Tours. Thenford Grey is a wonderful tourguide!

 

The only port we experienced the situation you described is Halifax, Nova Scotia, where availability for private excursions was very limited and once we got ashore, we noticed that the cruiseline had contracted with most of the private tourguides.

 

We always just get a driver to take us to shipwreck on St. Kitts, but if you want to do the sugar train or zip line on St Kitts or almost anything but a taxi tour on Dominica you are out of luck.

[matj2000]

Just rent a car or jeep in St.Maarten.

 

We do it every time we visit.

 

The office are right at the dock area.

 

It cost like $55 for the day.

[rukkian]

I keep rethinking our decision to only book through the cruise line for our first cruise in February, we held off, but with the 20% of excursions over the weekend, there did not seem to be a big difference in the ones we picked had we done them privately, and it gives us a little peace of mind. Hopefully they will not be horrible trips.

[DisneyDatknee]

We used trip advisor for our cruises and found the best "private operators". inexpensive and less "touristy" as these private operators don't have the hoard of people that ship excursions do (are exceptions like one excursion we had only had 10 people). Just make sure you pick one that has great reviews. We only had a close call in Grand Cayman when we almost missed the ship, and I do blame the tour operator for that one. No one in our group was apart of a cruise so he didn't really get the memo that we had to go until I ran out to the street and stopped a public bus. We were 20 minutes late but the tender boat was still filling up. Otherwise, private operators offer such a better value and experience to us. Our family is always late to several things back on land, but on a cruise, we are back on board ASAP because that boat ain't leaving without us. Just watch and you TIME and don't fall asleep.

 

 

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[JaniceB]

Great tip don't fall asleep!

[knittinggirl]

Just got back from my first RCI cruise and I will never book a private company for a tender port again. It was a terrible experience and the staff apologized numerous times. The tour operators said it happens every time the ship comes in. That being said in St. Maarten you should be fine since it is not a tender port and very easy to get around.

Tender ports always use up at least an hour of your time ashore. And when you add in the time for waiting to board the boat, it's closer to an hour and a half.

 

The advantage of ship ours, is that you can cancel them easier (but you're still limited to 24 hours notice). Once you're on the ship, it's much harder to cancel private tours because of the high costs of phones.

[George C]

have heard great thing about Bernard tours but St Marten is so easy to do on your own, we just take a taxi to Orient beach have lunch spend some beach time then return when we want

[S.A.M.J.R.]

We were in a cab headed to Orient Beach (no big plans for the day) and the driver offered to be our private tour guide for the day. For six of us, it cost ~$200 IIRC (including tip). We stopped to feed iguanas, at Orient Beach, Grand Case (swimming and lunch), Marigot (pastries), Maho, and a little "straw market" before getting back to the ship 90 minutes before sail away.

 

It was great!

Edited November 2, 2016 by S.A.M.J.R.

[fridaythe13th]

We've also used Bernard's a couple of times and had great experiences.

 

St Thomas we have used Godfrey Tours a few times and he also has an excellent reputation.