Princess excursion price guarantee is useless!

[frugaltravel]

Although price may or may not be part of the reason for choosing a private excursion, many are on private excursions for other reasons:

 

o Many such excursions are with just a few people. The experience of being on an excursion with just 8 people is quite different than being on a bus with 40 other people. Much less time wasted at bathroom breaks or at restaurants.

 

o Almost every ship excursion has time spent at a souvenir shop or other shopping opportunity. Unless the people on a private excursion want it, a private excursion does not have to have a shopping stop.

 

o The smaller vehicle used on many private excursions can go to many places that the large tour bus cannot. Thus those on a private excursion can have the opportunity to visit sites that those on a ship's excursion cannot. The smaller vehicle can often let people out at a site much closer to the site than a big bus can go.

 

o From threads on Cruise Critic as well as other sites such as Trip Advisor, you can select private excursions that have been highly recommended and are thus likely to have an excellent time. Princess has no control over the quality of the guides on the ship's excursions, even if from a reputable company. I have had a number of ship's excursions which were poor experiences because of a lack of knowledge, experience or performance of the guide.

 

o Most ship's excursions do not involve the use of a microphone by the guide and headphones by the participants. It is hard for 40 people to gather around a guide and hear what he/she is saying without that microphone and headphones. However, on a private tour with eight participants it is easy for all to hear what the guide is saying.

 

o A private excursion will often go to a site visited by the ship's excursion, but before or after the ship's buses are there. There is a big difference, for example, of being about the only people at a museum exhibit or being part of five ship excursion buses that are there at the same time.

 

 

Wow that sums up my views almost to a T. If an excursion is the same price through Princess or independent, I will choose independent almost every time. Most Princess excursions are "hurry up and wait." They are larger groups, they move slower, etc. My only cruise ship excursion was recently with Princess. Line up in the Wheelhouse for your sticker, sit in the theater to wait until you are called, then exit the ship to the waiting coaches. By that time I would have been off the ship and literally half way to my destination on the independent excursion. Can you imagine trying to do a hike with 100+ people? The only reason I did it through the ship is that I couldn't find 2 others to do it independently (for right about the same price). Glad I did the hike, but it was not pleasant for the first half until we all started to spread out a bit.

 

 

Independents know the constraints of the cruise ship, departure time, etc. I have been on dozens of independent excursions on my cruises. Never had an issue with returning in time. In fact, since independent excursions usually gather quickly and move quickly, they are a step ahead of the larger tour buses with the cruise line. They often are longer too and/or spend more time at the destination or whatever the attraction is. No comparison.

[just hooked]

WE tried a price guarantee with an Alaskan tour but they rejected it due to a time issue of 15 mins but booked it as they had a 10% off sale the day after it was rejected !

We ended up getting all our money back when the princess tour operator put us on a plane to a completely different destination due to not having permits for the advertised destination without tell us until after we took off .

[RJAM3]

The last time I was shopping for a new mattress (yes, I know it's not a tour on a cruise but bear with me...) I visited Sleep Train Mattresses. They offer the same type of guarantee. I found a mattress I liked and asked about the model, etc. so I could compare elsewhere. They told me there was no such thing as a "model" or "serial number" or any other type of identifier. What??? I asked them how they could order stock without an identifier of any kind. Did they just call up and say, "Send us some stuff to sell"? They could never give me any kind of answer regarding how in the world one could actually compare their offerings and price with another vendor.

 

I think it's the case that pretty much any "find a better price and we'll match it or refund the difference" type of offer is actually worth squat no matter what type of service or product is associated with the offer.

 

Just for fyi I was a buyer and retailer of mattresses forcmany years The manufacturer gives every retailer thier own model number and usually a different ticking thus you cannot shop the identical unit thus the wonderful price match that means nothing

[addie19]

I can't find any current threads about this so I'm resurrecting this one.

 

Trying to currently match excursions on the star princess sailing 12/19/19. 

 

Working on the deluxe whale watching offered in maui(lahaina) on dec 26. (Looking for prices on 2 adults, 1 infant (2 years old), but we have 3 different bookings for a total of 6 adults, 3 kids aged 2, 4, & 11)

 

The exact match (trilogy) was denied because it is sold out (well, duh, princess probably bought them all). 

 

2nd attempt denied because boat is smaller and no snack is given. (Makai adventures)

 

Waiting on response of 3rd attempt. (Pac-whale)

 

Anybody have any luck on any princess excursions?

 

I'm going to try it for the Atlantis submarine in maui too, but haven't bought those tix yet.

 

Here's the response from attempt 2:

*****
Thank you for submitting another request for possible lower rate tour match. Unfortunately, lower rate tour doesn’t include snacks. Lower rate tour is for small group under 20 guests only. Smaller boat used. The Princess Deluxe Whale Watching tour is  onboard the beautiful  Trilogy catamaran for 49 guests. The Princess tour includes snacks and refreshments for their guests. Also offer $5 adult beverages. Best Price Guarantee is available only for exact tour matches. Request has been denied. Copy of Terms and Conditions have been provided below.
 
There’s still plenty of time to keep searching for another possible lower rate tour match. Please note – lower rate submitted needs to include all taxes/fees.
 
 
The Best Price Guarantee Team

 

*****
 

 

 

[denmarks]

On 2/23/2017 at 9:57 PM, justafem said:

It's exactly the same luau. Germaine's Luau through Princess is $99.95 per person, https://www.hawaiidiscount.com/oahu/luaus/germaines.htm is $78.58, same date, same Luau, .....

The website indicates that the bus only leaves from selected hotels. The other problem is that the return to the ship is very late. With all the drop off points and getting back to the ship you can be late.

[cr8tiv1]

I did not read all of the posts.  This is a cautionary tale. Germaine's Luau is "FAR" away (in local talk).  I know the ship leaves at 11 PM.  All aboard is 10-10:30.  Traffic at that time of the night "should" be okay; unless there is an accident or something happening at the Stadium.  Any accident or delay may make you cause you to miss the ship. Germaine's is one of the best luaus in Hawaii....but I'm not sure I would risk missing the ship for $25.00.

[MusicalBear]

First let me say that I really like to book private tours but some locations I just feel safer with a ship's tour.  We're going to Belize and I wanted to go to Lamanai Mayan Ruins.  It is a little bit of a ride from port and I have never been to Belize before so I booked the ship's tour.  Because I like to research everything I started to look for a private excursion to Lamanai.  I found one at half the price of the ship's tour.  I submitted the Best Price Guarantee paper work to Princess and it was approved.  I ended up with $81 extra OBC pp for our cruise.  That will buy a few extra drinks!!  After having success with this excursion I booked one in Grand Cayman also at half the price and now I won't have to wait for a tender.  This is the first time I have tried the Best Price Guarantee.  I may do it again but I do like the personal attention and the better itineraries on private excursions.

[Steelers36]

1 hour ago, MusicalBear said:

I do like the personal attention and the better itineraries on private excursions.

This is why we book 99% private tours, especially when we can share with friends.  The larger Princess groups also end up wasting a lot of time with waiting for people, washroom stops, etc.