Booking Excursions

[Jaclynroseg]

How does everyone book their excursions? Do you book through Carnival or through private vendors on the island to save money? If you book privately do you wait until you get there, is there a way to do it before hand?

 

~Jackie

[teknoge3k]

We always book private excursions. I'll never book an excursion through Carnival unless it's a cabana at Half Moon Cay. Just do your research on your ports on here and TripAdvisor. All of our excursions for our May and July trips are already booked in the places we're going. You can also ask on your roll calls to see what everyone else is doing.

[firemanbobswife]

The only way I book a Carnival excursion is HMC because the cabanas and villas are owned by them so there’s no choice.

 

For other places I check out reviews like TripAdvisor and get recommendations then book ahead of time through the places directly. You have a way better experience 99.9% of the time at a cheaper price.

 

I’m not worried about missing the ship as I normally have plenty of cushion built into my return trip just in case.

[chrislo]

I mostly book private unless I am concerned about getting back to the ship on time like when we climbed the waterfall in Dunns River Fall.

[joepeka]

We do it both ways. If we're going to a new port or one that we feel may represent any issues while venturing out, we go with the cruise line tours. Otherwise, it's private and we do the research ahead (as others have mentioned) and book ahead (if possible) with vendors with good reviews and reputations.

[Computer Nerd]

I do mostly private excursions unless it's a port I haven't been to before and therefore unfamiliar with the area.

[RWolver672]

If you book a private excursion, make sure that if the ship doesn't make it to that port that you won't be charged for it. Some will want you to pay in advance. Others will just take your credit card number to put a hold on your excursion, then make the actual charge when you show up.

[Jaclynroseg]

Thank you so much! This helps a ton.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Gari]

I always book with Carnival that way I know I will get what is advertised and also if something happen and we are delayed they will wait for us. It might be a slightly more experience but its worth it to me for the peace of mind

[pacruise804]

We have only booked through the cruise line. At first we didn't know any better and if we didn't find something we liked through the ship we just walked around the port area for some shopping or stayed on the ship.

 

On our recent Canada cruise we did a ship excursion that was wonderful (and couldn't find the same offered privately) at the first port and walked to some local attractions at our second port with our only cost being food/souvenirs.

 

For our upcoming Pride Bahamas cruise we are again using ship tours. We really wanted to try Snuba and it is roughly the same price as booking privately through Stuart Cove. We also really liked the look of the Kayak excursion at Freeport and our time in port is odd hours to try something else.

 

We have started looking at outside vendors, and are willing to try one if it is the right excursion. So far we have been pleased with ship excursions though.

[summersigh]

Since we've been retired and DH doesn't get around very quickly or endure long walks we have a personal "rule" :)

If a tour goes where we could grab a cab or public bus to return to the ship if our tour breaks down we book independent tours. We check sources like the port of call boards here to get names of possible companies. We then go to their web pages to narrow the list down based on them meeting our needs. Finally we check them out on sites travel sites and local tourist/chamber of commerce pages.

 

If we want to see something out in the "wilderness" we book with the cruise line because of guarantees they offer.

We went to Mayan ruins in Belize once and although the ship was set to sail at 5pm our tour bus was stuck in stand-still traffic in the middle of town. Our tour guide and the Carnival rep were in phone contact and waiting for us with a tender to take us out to the ship. It was comforting we'd be sleeping that night in our cabins on our ship:D:D