Excursions - Princess vs Private

[satxdiver]

We visited Flam in 2016 and booked the train ticket ourselves. Had we missed the port or was unable to use the ticket due to late arrival/early departure, the money would have been lost. Luckily all went according to plan. We were put on separate cars than the ship tour pax so did not have the problem with overfull train car. The individual train tickets booked up very early months before we even boarded the ship in Southampton.

[satxdiver]

We book a combination of ship tours and private tours as both have their good and bad points. We booked ship tours on two different cruises in Cozumel to Playa del Carmen. Good thing because the ferry who picked us up and left us at the ship returned to the ship that night almost an hour after the ship was suppose to sail. It waited of course for the 150 or so pax on the ferry. We like to stand on our balcony when it faces the pier and watch the late comers. Many times we have seen ship tours arrive late sometimes after when we were suppose to sail so the "we will wait for you" promise is not all that unusual. Traffic is usually the problem like in St Martin or St Thomas.

 

I refuse to prepay private excursions and will at the most pay $5 or $10 as a reservation fee in case the ship does not call at the port. Those who prepay are risking their money. At some ports that means taking a ship tour since the private vendors all want the money upfront.

 

There is the issue of burning OBC which causes us to book a ship tour. Next cruise we have $900 OBC to burn.

 

One cruise we called on Costa Rica and had a private tour. The tour guide and driver who picked us up had no idea what we had been promised. I had a printout of the email with the agenda promised and gave it to them. They hit most of the points. Moral: always take a printed copy of the promised sights.

 

We have had crew aboard our ship excursion to rate the tour which in one case that was a definite benefit as the tour operator really dropped the ball.

 

Ship tours are crowded (usually a 40 pax bus) which eats up a lot of time unloading and reloading the pax. They are more expensive than a private tour. Your are not able to change anything on the tour. If a tender is involved you will be put on the tender at the correct time after waiting in the theater. Everything is done for you so no worries on your part. Simply go and have fun.

[Tucker in Texas]

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.

 

I THINK I read somewhere that the Arizona is closed for awhile due to repairs.

[Cindy]

I THINK I read somewhere that the Arizona is closed for awhile due to repairs.

 

 

 

You remembered correctly! The memorial is closed until further notice because of a structural problem with the visitor loading ramp.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[TheRabbit]

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.

In the past, tour companies were able to pre purchase time slotted tickets to the detriment of those going there on their own. A private person could get to the visitor's center early and not even be able to get a ticket for anytime that day. This caused a major up roar after a while as very few tickets were available for the public, so it is all first come first served now. (Once they reopen again that is.) Thus, no guarantee, wait could be longer than the total time allotted for your tour.

[TheRabbit]

lastly - you get the ships guarantee that you get back to the ship and they won't leave you behind.

Yes and NO. I have seen the ship wait over an hour for a bus that was very late from a Princess tour and I have been on a ship that had to leave and add a stop in another country to pick up a large group for a Princess tour that was delayed in a remote location for almost a whole day. At least the Princess Tour participants were compensated. Those doing it on their own had to pay for all the additional cost getting back to the ship, though Princess reps did an excellent job helping everyone of them make arrangements.

[donaldsc]

I am going to make a comment that may seem to be politically incorrect but it is not meant in that way. One advantage of private tours is that you can set requirements on whom you take. I have booked many private tours. I always indicate on my private tours that the people who come with me must be mobile.

 

Ship tours always move at the speed of the slowest person on the tour. How many people have been on a ship tour where one or more people on the tour are sort of mobile, barely mobile, or not at all mobile. They hold up everyone else on the tour.

 

I know that the ship tours try to indicate how physically difficult the tour will be but they ships do not stop someone who obviously incapable of handling the difficulty level from taking the tour.

 

Another problem with ship tours is what I will call bathroom delays. If you have 40 people on a bus, it will take forever to get all of them in and out of the bathroom which has only as a limited number of facilities. With my private tours where I never take more than 8 people, the bathroom delays are really short.

 

One last advantage of private tours is that you can stop at small local restaurants. Any ship tour that involves a meal with necessarily stop at a tourist oriented restaurant where they can accommodate large numbers of people at large tables with a limited choice of menu items. I always tell my private tour guides to stop at a locals restaurant that could never handle 40 people. Everyone gets to order off the menu so we eat what we want instead of what the ship has arranged for us. On our recent New Zealand tour, one of the towns we visited was our guide's home town. The place that we ate at was really neat and the guide know half of the people in the restaurant.

 

Three more advantages of private tours.

 

DON

[Cindy]

I am going to make a comment that may seem to be politically incorrect but it is not meant in that way. One advantage of private tours is that you can set requirements on whom you take. I have booked many private tours. I always indicate on my private tours that the people who come with me must be mobile.

 

 

 

Ship tours always move at the speed of the slowest person on the tour. How many people have been on a ship tour where one or more people on the tour are sort of mobile, barely mobile, or not at all mobile. They hold up everyone else on the tour.

 

 

 

I know that the ship tours try to indicate how physically difficult the tour will be but they ships do not stop someone who obviously incapable of handling the difficulty level from taking the tour.

 

 

 

Another problem with ship tours is what I will call bathroom delays. If you have 40 people on a bus, it will take forever to get all of them in and out of the bathroom which has only as a limited number of facilities. With my private tours where I never take more than 8 people, the bathroom delays are really short.

 

 

 

One last advantage of private tours is that you can stop at small local restaurants. Any ship tour that involves a meal with necessarily stop at a tourist oriented restaurant where they can accommodate large numbers of people at large tables with a limited choice of menu items. I always tell my private tour guides to stop at a locals restaurant that could never handle 40 people. Everyone gets to order off the menu so we eat what we want instead of what the ship has arranged for us. On our recent New Zealand tour, one of the towns we visited was our guide's home town. The place that we ate at was really neat and the guide know half of the people in the restaurant.

 

 

 

Three more advantages of private tours.

 

 

 

DON

 

 

 

Well said, and I agree with all your points. I’ve found that the more specific I am when I open tours to my roll calls, the better things go the day of.

 

After a couple rough moments (people thinking we should cut a tour short in Sicily so we could get back to the ship in time for dinner[emoji15], or insisting we spend an hour + shopping in the Caribbean[emoji849]) I learned to put as much information out there as possible. I’m certainly open to suggestions, but in advance. If people don’t like what I have planned then my tour is probably not right for them. My tours aren’t for everybody, but they’re what we like...the further away we are from long lines and chain restaurants the happier we are!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[land lover]

Well said, and I agree with all your points. I’ve found that the more specific I am when I open tours to my roll calls, the better things go the day of.

 

After a couple rough moments (people thinking we should cut a tour short in Sicily so we could get back to the ship in time for dinner[emoji15], or insisting we spend an hour + shopping in the Caribbean[emoji849]) I learned to put as much information out there as possible. I’m certainly open to suggestions, but in advance. If people don’t like what I have planned then my tour is probably not right for them. My tours aren’t for everybody, but they’re what we like...the further away we are from long lines and chain restaurants the happier we are!Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

I swore I would not post on this thread, but here I am.:D In fact I have only read this last post by Cindy as it has made me want to respond.

 

 

 

There are several reasons, I have began to go back to more ship board excursions...still am opened to both though....

 

1. the participant's "demands" when you are organizing a tour.

 

2. organizers take kick backs without informing the group.

 

3. often in small groups you are not notified by participants of limited mobility or they choose to participate when sick, coughing and hacking away in a small van of 12 people. Yes, this happened to us, pax informed us they were in quarantine the last 3 days. At least on a larger bus you can find a new seat far away.

 

4. One post wonders(or a few more) who come into roll calls and either say I m planning private tours, here is my e-mail or we want to go on Private tours contact me here is my email me.

 

5.Vendor changing time to late afternoon and then having to cancel excursion due to weather....this was a deposited $100. pp. Same ship excursion did first run. I had booked 2 other Penguin excursions at other ports, others were not so lucky.

 

6. Ship booked excursion vendors often know you will be the last bus/ferry returning...but vendors on the "same" excursion will cut you an hour or 2 short to get back to the ship well before sailing. I like having that extra hour or 2.

 

7.Vendors will often add additional people that booked independently, to your group, even though u have been promised it will only be people from your sailing.

 

8. Vendors vehicles....Car accident, stuck in mud, keys locked in car, wrong keys brought from office for vehicle that was parked in lot over night...yes, all these things have happened to us not the end of the world, but caused delays.So does the independent you are dealing with have an extra vehicle or plan. This did happened once on a Princess excursion in Norway, guide was delayed so tour was cut short, asked and received a particle refund. Hard to short a private vendor.

 

 

9. Participant needing emergency help, or forgot something, on a ship excursion guide can call for help or sent pax in a taxi, independently you wait or go with the vendor to drive the person back.

 

 

10. often no insurance with private vendors....on a recent south East Asian cruise...almost all independent vendors denoted in their tour description...no insurance. At least I feel with a ship excursion I or my family, if I die or am injured would have some recourse.

 

11. I have met some of the nicest, relaxed people when on a ship excursions, on independents often participants and organizers(and this can be me) are antsy and demanding of the guide:D;)

 

 

12. How would you feel about having a 14 year old lead your tour group....it can happen in South American:D;p

 

 

 

I could go on.

 

Yes, if you are gng to the Caribbean, Mexican Rivera or Continental Europe,SA, today, many vendors can be had, for a more intimate experience and sometimes a break-on the cost.

 

But, never let cost stop you from booking a ship excursion.

 

3 weeks ago was in Alaska on Princess. Booked excursions thru the cruise line....as many have mentioned independent excursions cost there are pretty much the same as the ship. Also group size is small on many ship and vendor excursions..we had 10,10 and 7 thru the ship.

 

 

Never had used the Princess guarantee before but decided to give it a try. As it was so easy to high-lite the ship excursion and search.

 

 

One of my excursions was actually 5 dollars cheaper with princess, 315 vs 320, I noted with other cruise lines the same excursion was 349,379 etc. This was very easy to do with just a few clicks on the vendors site.

 

 

Another excursion...I actually found less expensive...so sent in the G paper work and received $100. non refundable OBC when on the ship.

 

 

Again this was very easy to match apples with apples.

 

Well, i have written to much...but now I have stated my experiences and thoughts...tak'em or leav'em.

 

Simply enjoy a cruise and the excursions,

 

it is so nice today with the internet, some of us began cruising when the only game in town was the ship and a few vendors at the port.

 

So I hate to hear all the complaints about Princess.....opportunities abound today on all cruise lines, don't limit yourselves...don't let trivial things take away from the adventure.

 

Enj:Dy!

Edited June 9, 2018 by land lover

[Micahs Grandad]

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.

 

In comparing cost and including catch up air rather a fallacy. If I add up all the private tours we take and than add in one catch up air, savings probably pay for a cruise.

 

Cruise lines prey on peoples fear of missing the ship. Do as you wish but we find private tours better, cheaper and much less crowded.

[voljeep]

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.

 

do you have to be 'elite' for the ship to wait on you? or is that policy even for the blue cards?...;p

[TheRabbit]

do you have to be 'elite' for the ship to wait on you? or is that policy even for the blue cards?...;p

No

Except as I noted above, ship will wait for a ship's bus or tour.

[land lover]

do you have to be 'elite' for the ship to wait on you? or is that policy even for the blue cards?...;p

 

 

Oh course you must be elite..L:DL

 

you are in a bus of 40 arrives to port late, guide says..all elites, you get off first and run...all blue cards you wait your turn.....

[TheRabbit]

Oh course you must be elite..L:DL

 

you are in a bus of 40 arrives to port late, guide says..all elites, you get off first and run...all blue cards you wait your turn.....

Your BAD!:eek:

 

However, if it works....

[donaldsc]

I swore I would not post on this thread, but here I am.:D In fact I have only read this last post by Cindy as it has made me want to respond.

 

There are several reasons, I have began to go back to more ship board excursions...still am opened to both though....

 

1. the participant's "demands" when you are organizing a tour. It's my tour. I set the itinerary. A few times a person has made a reasonable suggestion which I accepted. Nobody has ever "demanded" a change,

 

2. organizers take kick backs without informing the group. To my knowledge this has never happened on any tour I have taken. I have never done it.

 

3. often in small groups you are not notified by participants of limited mobility or they choose to participate when sick, coughing and hacking away in a small van of 12 people. Yes, this happened to us, pax informed us they were in quarantine the last 3 days. At least on a larger bus you can find a new seat far away. I have never had either of these problems on any private tours that I have taken. BTW - I almost never let my group size get to 12 people. Most of the time I limit the group size to 8. Even if we are in a 12 passenger van, I still take 8 most of the time to give us room to move around and to make sure that everyone has a window seat. What are your odds of getting a window seat on a tour bus - 1 in 2?

 

4. One post wonders(or a few more) who come into roll calls and either say I m planning private tours, here is my e-mail or we want to go on Private tours contact me here is my email me. If I am not comfortable with a person's tour, I tell them that that I am not interested. If someone is interested in one of my tours and I am not comfortable w them, I tell them that the tour is full. If someone asks about one of my tours and is not responsive to my first e-mail, I ignore their later e-mails.

 

5.Vendor changing time to late afternoon and then having to cancel excursion due to weather....this was a deposited $100. pp. Same ship excursion did first run. I had booked 2 other Penguin excursions at other ports, others were not so lucky. Weather cancellations can happen. I have never had anyone change the times of any tours that I have taken or set up. I have sometimes asked the tour guide if they can modify the start time or tour length to fit my needs and they are usually very cooperative.

 

6. Ship booked excursion vendors often know you will be the last bus/ferry returning...but vendors on the "same" excursion will cut you an hour or 2 short to get back to the ship well before sailing. I like having that extra hour or 2.

 

7.Vendors will often add additional people that booked independently, to your group, even though u have been promised it will only be people from your sailing. This has never happened to me.

 

8. Vendors vehicles....Car accident, stuck in mud, keys locked in car, wrong keys brought from office for vehicle that was parked in lot over night...yes, all these things have happened to us not the end of the world, but caused delays.So does the independent you are dealing with have an extra vehicle or plan. This did happened once on a Princess excursion in Norway, guide was delayed so tour was cut short, asked and received a particle refund. Hard to short a private vendor. This has happened to me once. The owner's son was supposed to be our driver. He was late. We called the owner and found out that their son was in an accident and was in the hospital in critical condition. Should we have complained about that? How often have the buses used by cruise company tours broken down. Stuff happens.

 

9. Participant needing emergency help, or forgot something, on a ship excursion guide can call for help or sent pax in a taxi, independently you wait or go with the vendor to drive the person back. This has never happened to me. How often on a cruise company tour does a person get on the bus and then run back to the ship to get something that they forget?

 

 

10. often no insurance with private vendors....on a recent south East Asian cruise...almost all independent vendors denoted in their tour description...no insurance. At least I feel with a ship excursion I or my family, if I die or am injured would have some recourse. I assume that you carry personal medical and evacuation insurance. If you are in say Thailand and the driver has an accident, are you planning to sue him in a Thai court?

 

11. I have met some of the nicest, relaxed people when on a ship excursions, on independents often participants and organizers(and this can be me) are antsy and demanding of the guide:D;) The people that I have shared private tours are generally nice and relaxed. The people that I have shared a ship tour on the few ship tours that I have taken have also been nice and relaxed. The are always a few exceptions in both groups. However, the cruise ship tours have more people so there is a greater chance that there is one person on the tour whom you would like to kill.

 

12. How would you feel about having a 14 year old lead your tour group....it can happen in South American:D;p

 

:Dy!

 

I will add that I have set up and/or taken maybe 50 private tours in my travels so I do have some experience in setting them up.

 

Obviously a lot of people prefer ship tours because they require no work to set up or find. I will also agree that a ship tour might be a good choice in a 3d or 4th world country were you are going a good distance from the ship.

 

I guess each to his/her own.

 

DON

[Cairn Mom]

In comparing cost and including catch up air rather a fallacy. If I add up all the private tours we take and than add in one catch up air' date=' savings probably pay for a cruise.

 

 

 

Cruise lines prey on peoples fear of missing the ship. Do as you wish but we find private tours better, cheaper and much less crowded.[/quote']

 

 

 

There are benefits to both. It depends on where you’re going and what you want to do. Also, if you have OBC, ship tours are a good way to spend it. When we plan to do something far from port, like going to Florence from Livorno, we always take a ship transfer. If there’s a problem.Princess will wait for their excursion, but they’ll leave if your private tour is late.

On our cruise to NZ we did all private tours with other CC members on our roll call. All our tours had a refund guarantee if the ship could not dock. All our tour companies were well rated on trip advisor. I always checked. They were much smaller and cheaper than the Princess excursions. We were very,very pleased!

For Alaska, we did ship tours. The private tours weren’t much cheaper and it’s more convenient to book directly with the cruise line.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[caribill]

5.Vendor changing time to late afternoon and then having to cancel excursion due to weather....this was a deposited $100. pp. Same ship excursion did first run. I had booked 2 other Penguin excursions at other ports, others were not so lucky.

How did you select the vendor that had to cancel? I have never had a problem with a vendor that has had only positive reviews on the Cruise Critic ports of calls section.

[Tucker in Texas]

Viator guarantees you will be back to port in time for departure and, if not, THEY WILL PAY to get you to the next port.

[land lover]

How did you select the vendor that had to cancel? I have never had a problem with a vendor that has had only positive reviews on the Cruise Critic ports of calls section.

 

 

First of all I must say I have probably done 80 or 90 excursions with ships(not only Princes) and vendors in the last 2.5 years.

I like port intensive itineraries and always get off the ship. I seldom stay in the port town. So odds of having problems do increase.

 

 

The vendor was GV tours ...for a fast boat excursion in Punta Arenas...Jan. 2017,20 pax scheduled time was 9:15 vendor..decided to take out another group earlier than our time. Found out about reschedule at pier, scheduled us to 11am, but wind came up and no go.....Glowing reviews, until probably our group....;)

 

Co. owned by Xpat and wife from Chile, each of us had put in a $150. deposit.

 

More and more vendors are requesting deposits these days, especially when going on boats, also in many countries want passport info, age etc.

 

 

 

Planning for OZ right now, many vendors if you are using boats still will keep 10% even if the ship does not port.

 

 

Many CCers have told me they have never had a problem with vendors...well, count your blessings...:D

and weather always been great, again...lucky dogs....I mostly pick prime time and often get jinx.

 

 

I guess is what I am saying, is u don't want to sail with me....:D;)

 

 

I do have a amusing story..it goes back 10 years when the 2nd Royal (690pax) ship came out and restarted Egypt /Israel cruises, the cruise was sold out quickly so we had a year and 1/2 to chat on the RC.

 

 

 

We had a great group of CCers that just by chance, booked many of the aft/stern cabins and on that ship you can talk to everyone that's on the stern, so many laughs on that sailing....

 

 

 

Anyway, on our Roll Call, we are talking about vendors.... at that time most vendors were referred by other cruisers, TAs, etc..interactive web sites were far and few between for most countries..often the vendors were contacted by phone and email.....for details.

 

Well, one person on our roll call was working on Israel and after much searching mentioned the name of a highly regarded guide that they had already spoken to on the phone.....a few days later when this person went to secure our day...it was booked?????? Any ideas on who booked it....?

 

 

L:Dri

Edited June 10, 2018 by land lover

[land lover]

Viator guarantees you will be back to port in time for departure and, if not, THEY WILL PAY to get you to the next port.

 

But they can do this because they will bring you back to the port in plenty of time.

 

 

Which many feel very comfortable with...I always want to stay out until the last minute if at all possible...and often ship booked excursions allow me to do this...

 

For example...person went missing in Croatia...finally located 45 minutes after meeting time, bus still had one more stop to make....call made to ship they knew we would be back late, time was extended on our next stop....

 

 

So what excursions have you booked with Viator?

Edited June 10, 2018 by land lover

[land lover]

I will add that I have set up and/or taken maybe 50 private tours in my travels so I do have some experience in setting them up.

 

Obviously a lot of people prefer ship tours because they require no work to set up or find. I will also agree that a ship tour might be a good choice in a 3d or 4th world country were you are going a good distance from the ship.

 

I guess each to his/her own.

 

DON

 

Don..I am glad your luck has been better than mine.

BTW recently, a lot of my travel has been in less developed countries.

Maybe someday we can cruise together and I can be one of your lucky 12.

 

L:DRi

[amandaepperson21]

We might be going on the same cruise as you! Sailing July 28 on Caribbean Princess.

 

This will be my 5th cruise and I have never taken an excursion through a cruise line. I refuse to pay way more $ just for the guarantee that I won’t get left. Plus you’re potentially missing out on a lot of options if you only browse ship excursions. If you’re responsible and have a fully functional watch and do your research on how long it takes to get from A to B, you’ll be fine. We have done everything from reserving through third party excursion operators to just renting a car and driving out to where we want to go. Like last year in PR we wanted to go to El Yunque rainforest but there are 6 of us (big family) and it would’ve cost a fortune. So I just rented a minivan via Enterprise for like $50 and drove. Cheapest excursion we took on that cruise!

 

This will be my third time going to Grand Cayman. It’s not my thing. Almost everyone either does the sting rays or gets dumped off at calico jacks/public beach. We will be venturing over to cemetery beach for a change.

 

Roatan we are doing a resort and bringing our own snorkel gear in a backpack. There is amaaaaazing snorkeling you can swim right out to in West bay. We went to Mayan princess several years ago. There’s another one, infinity something I think, but I really liked the pool at Mayan princess. We will probably get there via taxi.

 

Belize - we are cave tubing. I will be reserving with a third party excursion operator soon.

 

Cozumel - we are going to Playa Mia because we have kids. It’s a water park type place with water toys. We will take a taxi there.

 

 

Research wherever you’re going and know how long it takes to get back. Then add at least 30 minutes if not 60 minutes.

 

 

Good news- there aren’t a ton of other ships in port when we are. Only 2 on most days. Don’t remember which.

 

 

Go to the forum for each port to research.

Edited June 10, 2018 by amandaepperson21
Adding info

[Globehoppers]

Lots of great information comparing private to ship's tours.

 

There is an increasing trend of private tours arranged by passengers who do take a cut/kickback of the price mostly through a "deal" with the tour operator. This is against the policies of most if not all cruise lines. Many of the privately arranged larger group sizes do this. Plus, they cannot offer any insurance for accidents while on tour. Recommend always arrange private tours directly with the local vendor. Stay away from the mega groups.

 

Have started to see cancellation insurance added by private vendors, most recently in April for D-Day tour in Normandy. About 3 percent additional. Cancellation for any reason. Worth it when paying up front as many are now requiring.

 

Have had some "strange" tour mates for private tours. People who stiff the guide/driver by not tipping. Also in a small group have had people who are vehemently anti-American and those who have been "ghosts" by not saying anything. Stuff happens.

 

With the price of ships tours going through the roof we are also experiencing increased pricing of private tours. Upcoming tour/cruise in OZ just once example where prices for a 5 hour tour of the port/area exceed $200 on board and private tours are within 10 percent. Private tour operators know the prices of ship's tours.

 

Viator can be hit or miss. They are a broker and not a tour operator. They are also owned by TripAdv and thus recommendations/reviews are skewed to benefit those tours they push.

 

Several great tour companies out there, especially in Europe. SPB for the Baltic being one. Delhi Magic in India. Other small companies have exceeded expectations across the Med.

 

May the odds be ever in your favor.

[tip]

Please don't walk, but run by the excursions desk. As far as I am concerned, ship sponsored excursions are nothing more than over priced cattle herds where you spend a great deal of money and time to hurry up and wait and of course visit a tourist trap gift shop whether you want to or not.

 

It takes little or no effort to visit the "Ports of Call" threads on these boards to find a reputable private excursion. Instead of a bus with over forty passengers, you will be on a van and won't have the "hurry up and wait" for that passenger who is always late. The private operators will often tailor your tour to your liking and will add or skip a stop if you wish. Their reputation is on the line and we have never had a problem not getting back to the ship on time. If you are concerned with that, book a tour that is scheduled to return at least ninety minutes before all aboard.

 

Then take that money you have saved and put it in the bank or treat yourself!

[TonyM99]

WE nearly always do our own tours - Few exceptions when their is a long journey to the destination town 2/3 hours like our last trip at Kuala Lumpur - Bangkok and Ho Ch Min - Here we just took the ships shuttle / Own your own tour purely to get us there and back and then planned and did everything for ourselves - It also depends on where you are cruising and what ports - There is so much information available on various websites which give you a really good handle on ships docking / tendering - whats to see - ease of local transport etc. Lots of pets in Med for example you can just walk off ship and do your own thing.

Other reasons why we don't like Ships tours 1) Very expensive and getting more so for example we used a great tour operator in St Petersburg a couple of years ago 2 Full days Great guide, virtually brand new Mercedes mini bus , saw everything and more compared to ship and big coaches and cost Less than Half !! 2) when we are in a port / new country we want to see as much as possible in our limited time there - So we don't want to spend hours in a very average restaurant or taken to a shopping location rather maximise out sight seeing experience.

So I would say in conclusion its research research research - Don't take unnecessary risks - And enjoy doing things how you want to - Although often enough we team up with another couple on the cruise and share a taxi

At the end of the day is down to the individual but as long as you enjoy thats of course the main thing