Excursions - Princess vs Private

[mojomorris]

While private tours may be cheaper than ship tours, we usually "burn through" our

OBC by booking ship tours. We aren't interested in drink, spa or dining packages

so we take OBC instead and use it for "gratuities" (if possible) and excursions.

Without the OBC we do a mix/match of ship and private.

Just my take on it.

[madmacs]

Sometimes private tours are a no brainer - let me give one example. Last year we were on a Princess cruise which visited Flaam in Norway. The top tour is the train trip up the valley. The ship moored 400 metres from the train station. We bought two tickets privately for the train trip for around $80 less than booking through the ship. There was no risk of missing the ship as hundreds of people were on the same train having booked through Princess. We had to book months in advance as Princess block book. We had to pay in advance but my travel insurance pays out for missed ports.

[caribill]

The choice is taking a cruise company's tour or a private tour organized by either fellow roll call members or yourselves. The benefits of a private tour are several:

o A smaller group than a ship's tour which means you will ride in a smaller vehicle.

o A smaller vehicle often means you can be dropped off/picked up closer to sites than the big buses can go.

o A smaller vehicle often means you can go to sites the bigger buses cannot

o A smaller group than a ship's tour which means people get back to the vehicle quicker. Less chance of having to wait for someone who lost track of time. Certainly quicker at a rest room stop to wait for ten people than 30.

o A smaller group means you can often see more sites in the same amount of time that a ship's excursion takes.

o A private tour does not have to spend time at a souvenir stop unless your group wants to. Almost every cruise line's tour involves a shopping experience that could be a waste of time at a shop the tour company gets a kickback from.

o A private tour usually costs significantly less than a cruise company's tour. Sometimes it costs about the same or a little more, but the benefits of the smaller group make it worth it.

 

The main advantage of a cruise company tour is that you do not have to do any planning or research. A number of people say "take the ship's tour" because the ship will wait for you if necessary. However, it is very rare that someone on an independent tour misses the ship departure. Yes, there are often people left behind, but they usually are off on their own and have lost track of time (often while eating, drinking or shopping), do not remember when they need to be back, or have had too many drinks to function properly.

 

Having said all that, as others have suggested your roll call will be a good place to find private tours that have likely been researched to be sure they are with reputable providers. If you need to do research on your own, your roll call, the Cruise Critic ports of call threads and Trip Advisor on the Internet are good places to look.

 

One important thing about private tours: If they want part or full payment in advance, be sure to know what the cancellation policy is, especially if the ship cannot make the port. I always avoid tour providers who will not refund any advance payment if the ship cannot get to the port.

 

What I do not recommend is getting of the ship and looking for a tour vendor or what is a random taxi driver to give you a tour. Some people do this and post they had the best tour ever. But some also post it was the worst tour ever. This is because you have no way to know how good a guide you are hiring or even how well he/she speaks English.

 

If you have been to a port before and are familiar with it, then going off on your own may be practical. For example, we have been to Barcelona several times and can use their subway system to get where we want to go. Having seen the major attractions that cruise line tour and private tours go to, we now go to different sights that we want to see at our own pace, for example the chocolate museum in Barcelona.

 

Whatever you choose to do, have a great cruise.

[Tatka]

Also if ship docks in well known city with a lot of information about it and good hop on/hop off bus system we do them. For example Copenhagen, Napels.

 

In some places cruise lines simply don't offer all choices. For example in St John, NB cruise lines don't offer tours to the most amazing place Hopewell Rocks tidal park. In such cases we rent a car beforehand.

[stag]

Here are a few more pros:

1. If you find the same Princess shore excursion elsewhere for a lower price, you will receive 110% of the difference in price.

 

2. Cruise line excursions are insured for accident and liability. Private excursions may or may not be insured. But how to claim is another story.

 

3. If you find the ship's excursion is not delivered, you can talk to the Excursion Desk later. For private Excursion, too bad.

 

4. If the ship found that they have to cancel the excursion due to situation, such as weather related problem, they will refund your money. It happened to us on Great Barrier. If it was on a private tour, we would be sent out regardless of water condition at Great Barrier. Then $600 would have down the drain.

[madmacs]

don't necessarily agree. Someone took the Flaam train tour through Princess and asked for their money back because booking the train direct was cheaper. Princess said they took folks the 400 meters by coach, and anyway you could not book the train that day. Both true does not give confidence about the guarantees given by Princess.

 

 

 

Here are a few more pros:

1. If you find the same Princess shore excursion elsewhere for a lower price, you will receive 110% of the difference in price.

 

2. Cruise line excursions are insured for accident and liability. Private excursions may or may not be insured. But how to claim is another story.

 

3. If you find the ship's excursion is not delivered, you can talk to the Excursion Desk later. For private Excursion, too bad.

 

4. If the ship found that they have to cancel the excursion due to situation, such as weather related problem, they will refund your money. It happened to us on Great Barrier. If it was on a private tour, we would be sent out regardless of water condition at Great Barrier. Then $600 would have down the drain.

[stag]

Ah, I remember the Flåm train. By the time when we got on the train, the window seats were occupied by the Princess Excursion passengers. We only sat on the aisle seats. When the train passed through the scenic areas, all window passengers rose and took pictures. The aisle passengers could only peek through their armpits. This is another pro for joining Princess excursion.

[madmacs]

You were obviously unlucky - we got there early and got window seats in a non Princess reserved carriage.

 

Ah, I remember the Flåm train. By the time when we got on the train, the window seats were occupied by the Princess Excursion passengers. We only sat on the aisle seats. When the train passed through the scenic areas, all window passengers rose and took pictures. The aisle passengers could only peek through their armpits. This is another pro for joining Princess excursion.

[Tatka]

Here are a few more pros:

1. If you find the same Princess shore excursion elsewhere for a lower price, you will receive 110% of the difference in price.

 

2. Cruise line excursions are insured for accident and liability. Private excursions may or may not be insured. But how to claim is another story.

 

3. If you find the ship's excursion is not delivered, you can talk to the Excursion Desk later. For private Excursion, too bad.

 

4. If the ship found that they have to cancel the excursion due to situation, such as weather related problem, they will refund your money. It happened to us on Great Barrier. If it was on a private tour, we would be sent out regardless of water condition at Great Barrier. Then $600 would have down the drain.

That's why we never book private excursions which require even a small deposit. We pay only after everything is delivered.

[caribill]

Ah, I remember the Flåm train. By the time when we got on the train, the window seats were occupied by the Princess Excursion passengers. We only sat on the aisle seats. When the train passed through the scenic areas, all window passengers rose and took pictures. The aisle passengers could only peek through their armpits. This is another pro for joining Princess excursion.

 

No, it is a pro for getting to the train before the Princess tour gets there.

[caribill]

don't necessarily agree. Someone took the Flaam train tour through Princess and asked for their money back because booking the train direct was cheaper. Princess said they took folks the 400 meters by coach, and anyway you could not book the train that day. Both true does not give confidence about the guarantees given by Princess.

 

a) The guarantee is for the exact tour. Riding in a coach with Princess does mean it is not exact.

 

b) People who have reported getting the guarantee for excursions honored have done so before the cruise, when independent booking space was available.

[Thrak]

A Princess excursion story. The first time we went to Hawaii we took along our (at that time) mid-30's son who, due to an accident when he was in the Army, is permanently in a wheelchair. We thought we had better stick to Princess excursions. However, when we looked into the cost it was appalling. Visiting the Arizona, the museum, etc. is free. If you pay online for a "set time ticket" it's $1 each and you get a set time to do the tour. Princess wanted $98 each. So.... $294 for the three of us to visit the free exhibit. For $98 (the cost of one person with Princess) I rented a car and we not only did the Arizona thing but then had the car to tool around the island for the rest of the day.

 

I'm not saying we never take a Princess excursion (we had a ton of OBC on our last cruise and took 2 Princess excursions) but I definitely look elsewhere as well. Roll call threads can be amazing places to hook up for private excursions. Quite often someone is in contact with a tour company and needs a certain number of people in order to get a better rate (and I think they sometimes get their own ticket paid for).

[JWUC]

We have done both. Initially, we booked all our tours via the cruise line. As we became older and wiser - we would either join private tours our fellow CC members booked and invited others on the roll call, or did our research about tour operators/companies.

 

When we were in St. Petersburg, we booked the Princess excursion. It costs a lot more. However, we had less issues getting off the ship and through Russian immigration, lunches were provided and also - we got to tour the Hermitage on a day it was closed.

 

Another Princess excursion in Turkey allowed us to visit the Hagia Sophia when it was closed.

 

Yes. Tradeoffs. Do your research and pick what best works for you.

[leck57]

We generally try and do private excursions but if a tour I want to do involves a long distance from the ship, then I do a ships excursion. Recently we have done a couple of private tours where we were caught in traffic and might have been concerned about getting back, however our guide said (correctly) that we follow much the same route and the ship tour buses were stuck behind us. So if we were to be late then so would have hundreds of others on the ship bus tours.

For me it's a no brainer and I have rarely if ever found a ship excursion that is cheaper. I'd suggest where people might think they have found a cheaper ship tour they are not comparing apples with apples. If you are the nervous and "what if this" or "what if that" happens type, then take a ship tour.

Even when ship tours get priority disembarking I have had many instances where we have loaded into our tour van and still been gone while the ship buses are still getting organised.

[donaldsc]

That's why we never book private excursions which require even a small deposit. We pay only after everything is delivered.

 

I have done a whole lot of private tours and I would estimate that a majority of them have required advance payment. We have never had any problems w any of them. The private tours require advance payment because they know that if they don't, some people would either decide not to go on the tour at the last moment, people would book several tours at a stop and not bother to cancel the ones that they do not want to go on or they just forget that they have booked a tour. The people who do the private tours depend upon them for a living and if this happens, they make no money that day.

 

I do always check the cancellation policies on any private tours that we book to make sure that I get all of my money back if I cancel within a reasonable time before the tour.

 

In my opinion and this is a generalization, private tours are almost always better than ship tours.

 

DON

[ORB]

When we first started cruising, we always took ship tours. There is a peace of mind that comes with it, but it also has a cost. The same excursions are almost always available--sometimes from the same tour companies--at a significantly reduced price. (We find that ship excursions tend to cost 10-40 percent more, depending on the excursion and its price point).

 

We do a mix now--I realized how relaxed I had become about the whole thing when we went to Cuba for the first time a short while ago and did a private tour. We had our tour guide to ourselves, and had a six hour walking/driving tour (in a vintage automobile) for less than half the price the cruise line was asking. We were also able to tailor it to our interests and stamina. On the other hand, we went to Alaska a year ago and booked most of the tours through the line because there weren’t really any significant savings to be had.

 

The Cruise Critic port boards are a great resource. You’ll find out who is dependable and offers something out of the ordinary. The ship excursions simply can’t offer the same level of personalization. That’s not to say that every port is going to have something wonderful that can only be seen in a private excursion, but the best excursions we’ve had over the last decade were all private. I’m glad we became a little more adventurous.

[Tatka]

I have done a whole lot of private tours and I would estimate that a majority of them have required advance payment. We have never had any problems w any of them. The private tours require advance payment because they know that if they don't, some people would either decide not to go on the tour at the last moment, people would book several tours at a stop and not bother to cancel the ones that they do not want to go on or they just forget that they have booked a tour. The people who do the private tours depend upon them for a living and if this happens, they make no money that day.

 

I do always check the cancellation policies on any private tours that we book to make sure that I get all of my money back if I cancel within a reasonable time before the tour.

 

In my opinion and this is a generalization, private tours are almost always better than ship tours.

 

DON

I agree completely about better value.

 

As for prepayments my husband is very opposed to this for various reasons.

[DrivesLikeMario]

Another option is to book tours through Viator. In some ports, they are a good, viable option. In the Caribbean, they often use the same tour operators that the cruise lines do but for much less. We did a fantastic ATV tour in St. Kitts through them and there were only 4 of us on the tour.

 

They give you a lot of options and are good to use if you don't have a private tour with fellow CCers already booked. You can choose your size of tour, private entrance into venues, skip-the-line entrance, etc.

[lois1112]

I will second what everybody has said here

if you do private tours you have to plan carefully and fully check out the vender. I have found that cruise critic is great for finding good venders, and believe me people will post when it doesn't go right

I prefer the private tours for the size of the group (mostly much smaller)

I just did a tour with Princess in Cartenega (Columbia) that I was very disappointed in......very large group (I think 50 people) with one guide who was horrible (not one person on the tour was happy) we complained to Princess and it was basically sorry but it did take you where it said (it was a walking tour of old town) No refund, so satisfaction is not guaranteed with cruise line either.

I you go private, just be careful

[caribill]

A Princess excursion story. The first time we went to Hawaii we took along our (at that time) mid-30's son who, due to an accident when he was in the Army, is permanently in a wheelchair. We thought we had better stick to Princess excursions. However, when we looked into the cost it was appalling. Visiting the Arizona, the museum, etc. is free. If you pay online for a "set time ticket" it's $1 each and you get a set time to do the tour. Princess wanted $98 each. So.... $294 for the three of us to visit the free exhibit. For $98 (the cost of one person with Princess) I rented a car and we not only did the Arizona thing but then had the car to tool around the island for the rest of the day.

 

The Princess tour does not even include the ticket for the visit to the Arizona. The Princess tour description warns that you may not have enough time on their tour to wait for a ticket and the time it would allow the visit. So you would still want to book the timed ticket in advance even if you are paying Princess $98 for the transportation.

[Kiwi Bev]

We are looking at private tours from ship leaving Copenhagen 4th July any suggestions or anyone wanting to join us?

[Micahs Grandad]

We are looking at private tours from ship leaving Copenhagen 4th July any suggestions or anyone wanting to join us?

 

I would look at roll call.

 

Last 2x we did a walking tour of the old city leaving at 10am from city hall. It is a 3 hour tour and you do not pay for the tour just a tip to the provider.

[donaldsc]

On our last cruise to New Zealand, all but one tour was a private tour. We had planned to walk around Wellington as we did not have enough time in port to do a good tour. Instead we took an Azamara ship tour as we won it on a ship drawing so the price seemed right.

 

Boy were we wrong. Even at free, the tour was not worth it. It was the worse tour we have ever taken on any cruise we have ever been on. Totally awful. The the private tours that we set up on that trip were wonderful.

 

We are leaving on a Norwegian coastal cruise in a few days. All our tours on this trip are private.

 

We usually shoot for ToursbyLocals whenever possible. Haven't had a bad one from them yet. The nice thing about ToursbyLocals is that the tour guides are usually very flexible w tour arrangements. You do have to pay in advance but they do have very reasonable cancellation policies.

 

One note on Viator tours which have been suggested by several people on this thread. Viator is a tour booking agency. Nothing wrong with that and they are convenient except that if there is a problem w the tour, you are not dealing w the tour company but the agency that booked the tour.

 

DON

[rockdoctor]

As an Elite, I would always do Princess Excursions. I cannot tell you how many times the ship has waited for our return and how many times our ship has waited for Princess Excursion. When comparing the price of the Princess Excursion with the private excursion plus catch up air - no comparison.

[Cindy]

When we first started cruising we used ship’s tours exclusively, but now we use independent tour providers almost exclusively. As long as a person is willing to put in the time researching vendors, there are some wonderful tour companies out there!

 

Everyone has done a good job of explaining the advantages of a ship’s excursion, so I won’t repeat that. For us, private excursions are a much better choice because we like small groups and like to get off the beaten path. I enjoy doing the research, and like being able to tell a guide we want lunch in an authentic local restaurant, don’t want a long shopping stop, etc. I like having a group that’s small enough we can communicate and come to agreement in advance what our day will look like. I frequently book tours then open them up to my roll call, and I’ve learned through experience to be as specific as possible about itinerary, hours, meals, etc.

 

An excursion is only as good as the person providing it, and I like trying to have some control over who my guide will be and who I will be touring with. I tend to book early to get the tours I want, and frequently tour with the owners of small companies. I can’t personalize my experience like that if I book through a cruise line. I could get a small group experience, but it would cost hundreds of dollars more than it would to book with an independent vendor.

 

 

 

 

 

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