First time cruiser:) NCL excursion vs booked on our own

[Peachypooh]

My answer is "it depends". Here is what we do. If we are in a country that we speak the language, are

relatively familiar with the area (either having visited or done research) and the tour is relatively close

to the ship/ends in lots of time I will do my own.

If we are in a country that we don't speak the language and it would be a big hassle if we missed the ship,

we only go on our own if we can walk to it or take a short cab ride. Anything else we go with the ship.

Examples of things we have done are renting a car in Juneau and driving to the Mendenhall glacier. Going on a ships tour to the Skagway Grizzly zipline. We always do our own thing in Cozumel but when we visited Caragena we took a ship's tour. I will agree that some ship's tours are not all that great (thinking of the one in Cartagena).

[FredZiffle]

We always do ports on our own or with an independent tour. Love to rent a car and replicate the itinerary of a tour that costs three, four times as much, especially when the "tour" is basically transportation to sights and little else. As an example, the cruise line wanted $175 pp to drive us on a bus for 2 1/2 hours (each way) to see a penguin colony. There was absolutely nothing to look at on the route and the penguin colony was self-guided, so you were paying solely for the transportation. We rented a large car with another couple and ended up paying less than $25 pp. That $300 we saved was nice.

 

While first-time cruisers may not feel comfortable going out totally on their own, I would not hesitate to book an independent tour. In all my years of cruising (and reading Cruise Critic) , I've never heard of a single incident where passengers on an independent tour missed the ship. I guarantee you that if it ever happened, it would be plastered across these boards and referenced time and time again.

 

Book an independent tour with a group that has good reviews and never look back.

[roger001]

It's all been answered nicely. But I'll still toss in my two cents. If tour stays within a taxi ride back to port if a break down or accident occurs, I'll go independent. If outside that range, NCL only for piece of mind....no worry. In Alaska, no issue. You're not stuck in a foreign port (assuming you are US), no language issue, no passport issue, no sweat. My opinion.

[Diver2014]

We always book excursions thru the cruise line. That way, if the ship misses a port or there is some other delay, we get a refund from the cruise line. I just like the convenience of showing up at the designated meeting place and being taken by the hand. I'm not interested in saving a few dollars on an independent excursion when we've spend thousands on the cruise. We always learn something new on the ships shore excursions even though we've already been to most of the ports we visit.