Carnival sponsored shore excursions vs. booking online elsewhere?

[rlindholm]

I'm sure this discussion has happened many times, but I'm having a hard time finding threads about it.  Is it worth booking outside of carnival?  And if so where do I start?

[teknoge3k]

You can start by asking tips on the ports of call board. Ask what other people do in each respective port. 

 

Personally I just check on TripAdvisor and see what the top things to do in each port are. We always book through someone local with great reviews. We learned long ago not to do Carnival excursions. Independent excursions fit us much, much better. 

 

 

[Theosprey247]

Google Things to do on...(what ever island).

[shof515]

it is cheaper to booking elsewhere depending on the port and what you want to do. If you do book carnival shore excursions, expect a large group whereas a private tour will be limited to say a group of 10 or 20 people

[firefly333]

We did only a couple of things with our roll call and my roomie on my cruise said she will only do Carnival excursions from now on. flat out no to others. I usually cruise solo and even with two its hard to save much money if you dont team up with more than the two of you from what Ive found.

 

We did a slot pull and my roomie had difficulty getting her share of the money left back maybe was a -1 for her. (I know this isnt a excursion, just mentioning it as one of the reasons I think the lady I cruised with said no more to roll call grous)

 

We did one excursion. We stopped at a grocery store and people bought booze and snacks which I thought was great, my roomie I guess not so much. Im the one that posted we had a girl maybe 30, younger who got out of sight of our group on the private beach in Roatan and someone came on to her physically and she freaked.

 

Then on the way back to the port the lady who organized the slot pull who was sitting in the back of the bus and a guy in the front got into a argument about when prince came out. It went on and on for too long. I think no one wanted to stop it because she was one of the organizers. Id say for sure too much alchohol was involved. On a Carnival excursion, i dont think they are passing shots in the bus, which i thought was fun. I thought we got to see a lot more than if we had stayed with carnival and it was a very good excursion overall. My roomie felt otherwise. So, Im a plus, but saying try to team up with people to share the cost on your roll call, solo i dont save any money so i just go with carnival. Im running out of Carnival excursions however. 

 

I may try to work on her and do another cruise, but she was iffy, maybe in a year she said. 

 

Also of note, i noticed that thru Carnival, the belize river and zoo was 79.99 if you booked ahead and was 94.99 if you waited to book onboard. to me thats more than the 15% extra. ... i refused to pay that much extra for not booking ahead of time.

Edited November 25, 2018 by firefly333

[dcgrumpy]

I almost always book private excursions. I start by searching the port of call forums. 

[airlink diva]

Hi!

Like someone else stated, head to the "Port of Call" section and go to what ports your cruise is visiting.

As a rule, the majority of my tours are non cruise tours. While many cite price,  I also prefer them because of the size.  Often there are fewer people and in some cases been the only person.  Often a more in depth tour and extra touches you won't get with a ship tour.  Prime examples being invited to a tour guide's home for lunch and his mother cooking, going to a beach in which local families enjoy without the vendors in your face.

So far with the exception of one tour in Barbados and one in Belize (wasn't the vendor fault, it was another family on the tour with us that soured it) all have been great to excellent.

Check out also Trip Advisor on reviews about local vendors.  Also websites like Cruise Critic and others are the local vendors bread and butter so they will ensure to their best a good time and you back on board on time because a bad review or posting of missing the ship will ruin their business.

Now, I do also take ship tours.  There are going to be some cases where a local vendor don't have access, great example is Half Moon Cay and ship tours are the only option.  Others because of the distance, logicstics and port time.  On my cruise next week two of the ports are non ship tours, but one is a ship tour due to the port is a tender port and the distance of the ruins from port.  I didn't want to take a chance and went with a ship tour.

In the end it's your comfort level, my parents won't do nothing but ship tours because of the fear of the ship leaving.  Regardless have fun!

 

[xeroxme]

I book excursions from carnival routinely. Every now and then I book outside or walk off ship and do an excursion. Carnival shore excursions are a fair price and if you like what they have book it because you are not going to find a big difference.  Plus if the weather cancels the excursion, delays etc carnival handles all of that too. If your booking on other cruise Lines yes I book outside of cruise line as many lines way overcharge for their excursion.  I typically have decided my excursions before I board as I do not want to spend time on board standing in line at the shore excursion desk. 

[Cushing985]

We used to use private only but now use Carnival for the most part.  A couple of cruises ago my wife got a stomach bug the night before out first port and the ship's doctor put her in cabin jail for 24 hours.  When we pulled in I went ashore and told the leader of the excursion we would have to cancel (I didn't want to go without her).  And then the night of our second port I got sick (same symptoms) and ended up in jail for 24 hours.  We cancelled that excursion.  When we got home I called the excursion company looking for a refund and they refused.  So, I sent in a claim to insurance and they took care of it.  If these had been Carnival excursions we would have just had to call Guest Services to cancel.  So, yes, you do save a few bucks going private but I've found it isn't worth the hassle.  Although we never had any problems on any of our trips ashore I always worried about accidents or breaking down somewhere and the ship leaving without us.

[dcgrumpy]

31 minutes ago, airlink diva said:

Hi!

Like someone else stated, head to the "Port of Call" section and go to what ports your cruise is visiting.

As a rule, the majority of my tours are non cruise tours. While many cite price,  I also prefer them because of the size.  Often there are fewer people and in some cases been the only person.  Often a more in depth tour and extra touches you won't get with a ship tour.  Prime examples being invited to a tour guide's home for lunch and his mother cooking, going to a beach in which local families enjoy without the vendors in your face.

So far with the exception of one tour in Barbados and one in Belize (wasn't the vendor fault, it was another family on the tour with us that soured it) all have been great to excellent.

Check out also Trip Advisor on reviews about local vendors.  Also websites like Cruise Critic and others are the local vendors bread and butter so they will ensure to their best a good time and you back on board on time because a bad review or posting of missing the ship will ruin their business.

Now, I do also take ship tours.  There are going to be some cases where a local vendor don't have access, great example is Half Moon Cay and ship tours are the only option.  Others because of the distance, logicstics and port time.  On my cruise next week two of the ports are non ship tours, but one is a ship tour due to the port is a tender port and the distance of the ruins from port.  I didn't want to take a chance and went with a ship tour.

In the end it's your comfort level, my parents won't do nothing but ship tours because of the fear of the ship leaving.  Regardless have fun!

 

I agree. Most of the tours I've done privately are small groups and much more personal attention.  

 

 

Like you, I'll do ship excursions if it's something only offered through the ship or I'm tight on time or the excursion is a great distance away. 

 

 

[rlindholm]

Thank you for the replies.  Off to search the port of call section!

[Micahs Grandad]

Unless the tour is far away from the ship we always do private tours.

 

Find them to be cheaper, better and not so crowded.

[Purvis1231]

We have done both Carnival tours and private tours. The private tours generally have a back to ship guarantee and we have trip insurance so we are not overly concerned about missing the ship. When we book a Carnival tour if have successfully used their best price match program many times.  

Edited November 25, 2018 by Purvis1231
typo

[firefly333]

Heres another viewpt. Cave tubing in Belize. Someone said that it had rained and they felt like all that was above water at a close pt was your face, not your whole head who had done it recently. 

 

Carnival cancelled it in Belize, but there were tons of private vendors selling it. If I hadnt heard that Carnival cancelled it, and why, I might have gone, but not this time.

 

I also book Carnival if you have to get off the island, for instance, take the ferry off Cozumel or go to ruins which are always far away.

 

There are good reasons for both and I like both. I like going with my roll call personally and enjoyed it last cruise, and there are reasons to do Carnival.

 

I love Victor Boddens monkeyland or whatever the new name is. And Carnival doesnt offer it. Its in Roatan and I am very glad I got to go. Its something you only can do privately. 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2018 by firefly333

[bakersdozen12]

I personally prefer booking with tour companies outside of Carnival. You tend to be in smaller groups and get a more personalized tour because of it. There are a few occasions where I won’t book outside of Carnival, however. For example, when visiting Mayan ruins via Cozumel. There’s a 45 ferry and 1.5-2 hour bus ride on mainland Mexico involved, so I prefer to have the guarantee that the ship won’t leave without us if there’s a delay getting back. But, generally I just do my research in any given port to find reputable tour companies, and I have never had a problem with any. They wouldn’t be in business if they were always late getting people back to their ships. 

[grillinchillin]

If you're a total newbie to travel, then book through Carnival so you learn the process of where and how to meet your tour, how to navigate around the port and make sure you understand "ships time" vs local time. If you book your own, make sure you book a "low risk" tour that has plenty of time after the tour to get back to the ship.

 

The advantage of a Carnival booked tour is they will wait for you if the tour is late.

[Banditswife]

We, like many others have said, do both ship's tours & private tours.  It all depends on the circumstances.  When we 1st started cruising, we did only ship sponsored tours until we kind of learned our way around.  Biggest positive for ship tours is that they will get you back to ship on time.  Biggest negative is the larger, less personal group.  For non ship sponsored tours the biggest positive is smaller, more personalized experience.  Biggest negative is watching the clock. 

[nybumpkin]

We do both. There are times when the cruise line has an exclusive deal with a tour operator; when we were in Skagway you had to book through the cruise line to take the White Pass steam train excursion (the other White Pass tours were available on your own). We also go by port time; if the port time is short, we're more likely to do a ship tour.

[firefly333]

I think I saw where Carnival will match other excursion prices.

 

The pro to using private is you can do other things and pick your group and smaller groups. I saw things I wouldnt have seen thru Carnival.

 

The cons/downside ... some people last Dec booked water activities ahead of time and we had record cold temps, 45 in Miami and was only 69 degrees the morning we took the tender into Belize port.

 

just a fyi, i also wouldnt book something you pay in advance for. Ive missed plenty of ports and I heard a week ago that Magic was a day behind us and missed a port. As someone said might be incorrect, but someone said Magic didnt make it into either one or the other Belize or Roatan, Im not sure which, lol that was a week ago. We had rough water all week. So dont book with some site where you have to prepay, or you are taking a chance. 

[coevan]

5 hours ago, grillinchillin said:

If you're a total newbie to travel, then book through Carnival so you learn the process of where and how to meet your tour, how to navigate around the port and make sure you understand "ships time" vs local time. If you book your own, make sure you book a "low risk" tour that has plenty of time after the tour to get back to the ship.

 

The advantage of a Carnival booked tour is they will wait for you if the tour is late.

 

 

 

It's not that difficult to take a private tour. You will get very specific instructions on where to meet, there will be someone at or near the port entrance with a sign with the name of your tour. All reputable companies guarantee you back to the ship, do not pay in advance, have full refund policies, and they know local and ships time better than you. They do this everyday several 100 days a year. Private tours are so much better and usually less expensive.