Passengers taking other passengers on private tours and charging

[Host CJSKIDS]

If anyone sees a tour that you believe is being operated for a profit or is fishy and not part of your roll call just putting something casually together, please hit the report button so an email in generated.  Especially if the person touting the tour is not actually going on your cruise!  

[memoak]

I will only share a private tour with people I actually have met and know - not unknowns from  a roll call

[chamima]

4 hours ago, back2tampa said:

I have noticed on my past few cruises people running there own excursions and charging less than the cruise lines and they advertise on roll call . I don't know how I feel about this? I was going to do one with a couple on one of my cruises but it seemed off and come to find out, the people that went didn't have a good time. ( it always starts off on  roll call like - we have a great friends in .....or we used to live in...…... or my best friend runs a tour in ....)Is this a new thing or is this just a few people that do this all the time and make $$ while cruising ? I looked up the people and they always have lots of past post from way to many cruises taken and all of them are from different cruises about excursions that they are running.

 

3 hours ago, suec12 said:

Fellow cruisers can also profit in this way by arranging the tour for a number of people and then their tour is "free".

 

2 hours ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

If anyone sees a tour that you believe is being operated for a profit or is fishy and not part of your roll call just putting something casually together, please hit the report button so an email in generated.  Especially if the person touting the tour is not actually going on your cruise!  

 

 

We used to cruise with our kids and so were our own "group" for tours.

When we started cruising alone I discovered Cruise Critic and Roll Calls and found out I could find other people who wanted to do non-ship sponsored excursions with us. They were not only less expensive but also smaller and more personal.

I never even thought about anyone making a profit or getting a free tour until we ran into this one woman about five years ago. She was posting all over the Roll Call about her fabulous tours everywhere we were going. She said she even had island hints she would give us if we emailed her so I did. The response really woke me up to what was going on. Not only did she have tours (and of course she was collecting all the money) but she had store recommendations and said we should tell the owners she had sent us (so I assume she was getting kickbacks there also).

A friend on the Roll Call came to the same realization as I did and we both did as Host CJKids suggested and reported her. She stopped posting on the Roll Call but did come to the Meet and Greet and started to solicit again until my friend and I confronted her.

The same woman seems to pop up on a lot of my winter cruises but she has stopped soliciting on the Roll Calls.

I think what upsets me the most is that she ruins it for the vast majority of us who just want to find other people to do private tours with .

[Cruise Raider]

4 hours ago, back2tampa said:

The one that got me was on Royal Princess and the couple had a excursion for every port and wanted the money mailed to them up front...we had some words and I decided I didn't want to do it. 

 

Good idea ... I wouldn't go for this either.  I have gone on excursions set up by others on our roll calls but they have always sent you to another site so you had some references to check out beforehand.  Namely, one where we saved a boatload of $$ was on a Mardi Gras cruise on Celebrity.  One person set us up with a site to purchase our parade route grandstand tickets.  These were $30 each and the cruiseline sold them for $250 pp.  Whoa!  Now, they did receive a ride from the ship to the grandstands (a 15 minute walk), a thin seat pad, a travel size bottle of Purell and a Tootsie Roll .... I kid you not ... a Tootsie roll.  hahaha!  Well, they got there late so those of us that got the $30 tickets got the good seats and then, they missed the entire second parade if they went for the ride back.  One of these passengers asked me how much we paid for our seats and I told them they should just enjoy the parade and not worry about it.  Why ruin their trip and the fantastic parades??  Well, someone told them and then there was an very angry crowd in the stands.  I think they got some money back as they nearly protested when back at the ship.  But, the ship was clearly ripping them off.  We were grateful for that person that told us about the official site where they were selling the tickets for soooo much less $.  But, this person had no financial gain in passing this info along to us.  

Another one on that same roll call set up a balcony along with all the food and drink (and beads) on Bourbon Street for Fat Tuesday....all day!!  Wow ... what a deal she got for us!!  Again, she had no financial gain and it was superb ... a memory of a lifetime!!  It was a bucket list trip and these privately arranged excursions were phenomenal.  We'd have never gone if paying the prices the cruiseline charged while in NOLA. 

We did another privately arranged excursion while in Costa Maya on that same trip ... another winner.  I do oftentimes book cruiseline excursions and all but 2 of them in my many years of cruising have been a bust ... most of them have been excellent.  But, I do research those that others make arrangements for on the roll calls and go from there.  If they ask for money for themselves right up front, I just back off.  It may be cynical but, too many people may have some ulterior motives.  

Edited April 4, 2019 by Cruise Raider

[southerngoose]

When you're booking private tours with people you don't know, you take a risk.   

1. Risk that the tour won't happen and you "lose" the day because you can't make alternate plans and you are walking around the port
2. Risk that the person will take your money
3. Risk that you aren't taken to the places promised
4. Don't even want to discuss other possible risks (not returning to the ship on time, being robbed etc)

Having said that, I think there are legit folks who pay $x for a van and the van holds 12 and you only have 4 folks in your family, why not split?  I also can imagine "entrepreneurs" who book their own buses!

 

The last time I did this was actually a pre-cruise hotel and bus ride.   Everyone made their own arrangement at the hotel, but one lady booked 2 buses to take us to the port.     Well...I get to the hotel, they are "overbooked" (tiny hotel...probably filled with us cruisers) but it's no problem, they will let me stay at the sister property up the street.  (yeah, like a 20 min walk!)    I resisted...I said "but my cruisemates are HERE!"   I was unable to communicate with the group (this was years ago).   The hotel finally agreed to pay for the taxi ride to the other hotel and return taxi to their hotel so that I could meet the bus.  Well, luckily, I came early because in the meanwhile, everyone decided to leave early!   I got there in time to gather up to load on the bus.   The organizer paid for both buses, wouldn't accept money upfront (it was 8 euros per person so I had no problem sending her $10 or whatever).   Had they left without me, I could have gotten a taxi or whatever and found my way.   In retrospect, this might have been a good risk.   But I'm not sure I'd do it again.

[land lover]

 

Yes, people are doing this and as Host CJSkids posted use the report button.

 

CC has changed a lot thru the years and unfortunately now we have people taking kickbacks and people not even on the cruise organizing tours. Have you ever been on a roll call when people just come in and post they want to do Private tours and to contact them at an email they include.

 

I experienced an individual taking kickbacks on a SA cruise in 2017. I won't go into details...but since then I certainly make sure I know something about the poster "organizing" tours before I commit and I will not add anyone to a tour I am organizing that is not an active participant on the roll call. I want to know a little something about people before finding out they will be demanding and controlling on the excursion, I have organized.😮

 

Yep..as time is going on and cruisers are becoming more creative of how to make a buck, I am far more inquisitive.

 

 

 

 

Edited April 4, 2019 by land lover

[4cats4me]

We’ve participated in lots of organized tours and have also organized groups of CC roll callers as well as larger groups consisting of just our immediate friends and family.  We have never paid up front or demanded payment up front and everyone has always been very respectful, and we’ve had itineraries modified several times, but we always take a vote first, to see what everyone wants to do.  

The only slight issues we’ve noticed with private tours is sometimes you get these last-minute folks that join a roll call for the explicit purpose of cutting costs, they’re not there to be friendly and they haven’t gotten to know anybody, and in the case of one European tour  on our last cruise, this one person always helped herself to the best seat, the front seat, and the guy who organized it and his wife had to sit in the back.  Because it was his tour, I didn’t say anything, but had I organized it I would have told her that I wanted that seat since I had gone to the trouble to organize. We had several stops and she kept racing to that front seat. At least take turns.   Live and learn. 

Edited April 4, 2019 by 4cats4me

[land lover]

1 hour ago, Cruise Raider said:

 

Good idea ... I wouldn't go for this either.  I have gone on excursions set up by others on our roll calls but they have always sent you to another site so you had some references to check out beforehand.  Namely, one where we saved a boatload of $$ was on a Mardi Gras cruise on Celebrity.  One person set us up with a site to purchase our parade route grandstand tickets.  These were $30 each and the cruiseline sold them for $250 pp.  Whoa!  Now, they did receive a ride from the ship to the grandstands (a 15 minute walk), a thin seat pad, a travel size bottle of Purell and a Tootsie Roll .... I kid you not ... a Tootsie roll.  hahaha!  Well, they got there late so those of us that got the $30 tickets got the good seats and then, they missed the entire second parade if they went for the ride back.  One of these passengers asked me how much we paid for our seats and I told them they should just enjoy the parade and not worry about it.  Why ruin their trip and the fantastic parades??  Well, someone told them and then there was an very angry crowd in the stands.  I think they got some money back as they nearly protested when back at the ship.  But, the ship was clearly ripping them off.  We were grateful for that person that told us about the official site where they were selling the tickets for soooo much less $.  But, this person had no financial gain in passing this info along to us.  

Another one on that same roll call set up a balcony along with all the food and drink (and beads) on Bourbon Street for Fat Tuesday....all day!!  Wow ... what a deal she got for us!!  Again, she had no financial gain and it was superb ... a memory of a lifetime!!  It was a bucket list trip and these privately arranged excursions were phenomenal.  We'd have never gone if paying the prices the cruiseline charged while in NOLA. 

We did another privately arranged excursion while in Costa Maya on that same trip ... another winner.  I do oftentimes book cruiseline excursions and all but 2 of them in my many years of cruising have been a bust ... most of them have been excellent.  But, I do research those that others make arrangements for on the roll calls and go from there.  If they ask for money for themselves right up front, I just back off.  It may be cynical but, too many people may have some ulterior motives.  

 I want to cruise with you, someone who has the courtesy not to talk about "the deal" you got. Every experience is Priceless....

 

[Ombud]

We set it up before and pay the tour operator directly NOT ME

 

Also, I have had 3 very VERY different experiences. (1) I paid more for a private tour than the organizer -- not fair! (2) on SA Trip it was a dream! He paid for everyone/ trusted us to pony up in Santiago & we did. (3) private tour had us pay the tour guides when picked us up, only problem is if they didn't show up we would have been scrambling for taxis.

[leck57]

4 hours ago, Scottygirl1 said:

The best tours we have done have been privately organised on the roll calls.  We have always met the other travellers on board prior to the tour and already chatted on the roll call page as well.  No money has ever changed hands except directly to the tour drivers.  This next cruise we are only doing one private tour with two other couples again via the roll call.  Clearly there are two separate issues here - one is the getting together of a small group to all pitch in for a private tour and the other is some sort of organised rip off.  

 

I think as long as you are careful, then a private tour organised on a roll call can be the experience of a lifetime!!

 

This is exactly my experience. In fact on a recent cruise, the Roll Call organiser was so good she filled up three 12 person vans. We always pay the drivers direct and the organiser gets nothing out of it, except the risk of being mucked about as people go and change their minds.

[EllieinNJ]

I usually don't organize tours so as I was inquiring about a tour in South America last year, the tour operator told me that if I could get 18 people together and each to send him a $25 deposit, we wouldn't have to pay this deposit as the organizer.  Now I don't know if this $50 would have been subtracted from the total, but I never bothered to write to him again.  This was a well known tour operator.

[land lover]

11 minutes ago, 4cats4me said:

 

The only slight issues we’ve noticed with private tours is sometimes you get these last-minute folks that join a roll call for the explicit purpose of cutting costs, they’re not there to be friendly and they haven’t gotten to know anybody, and in the case of one

 For us long timers , it's hard to understand this,  CC originally  to us was to get to know who we were cruising with and then speak about possible excursions......However, I will say about ten years ago, we did loose a guide who was booked right from under our nose by another poster, after speaking about him on line. 

 

On a  Majestic maiden voyage...I "organized" an M&G, at the meeting a CC "poster" interrupted a conversation I was having with the CD...asking me where the table was for tours? What? There wasn't one. She continued with her friend told her to join CC so she wouldn't get ripped off by the cruise line by using their tours. Yep...takes all types.

 

 

[land lover]

32 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

I usually don't organize tours so as I was inquiring about a tour in South America last year, the tour operator told me that if I could get 18 people together and each to send him a $25 deposit, we wouldn't have to pay this deposit as the organizer.  Now I don't know if this $50 would have been subtracted from the total, but I never bothered to write to him again.  This was a well known tour operator.

This is what happened to us but "organizer" was getting a full free fare....our excursion was $300USD. Each person was to send in 150. deposit to the vendor and mention we wanted to be in the organizers group. Well...the Vendor at first changed our time and then after  all 16 of us waited cancelled out on us due to weather.....They took another group in the morning instead of us...my feeling, they knew they were making more from the first group and screwed Ms. Bogo and her friends LOL.....Whatever....we had a great time at that port anyway....but only found out about the Bogo when we hired the companies guide and wanted him to use our deposit as payment. Never a dull moment in cruising.....

Edited April 5, 2019 by land lover

[Coral]

28 minutes ago, EllieinNJ said:

I usually don't organize tours so as I was inquiring about a tour in South America last year, the tour operator told me that if I could get 18 people together and each to send him a $25 deposit, we wouldn't have to pay this deposit as the organizer.  Now I don't know if this $50 would have been subtracted from the total, but I never bothered to write to him again.  This was a well known tour operator.

I guess I did have this happen last year. One tour operator offered 200 NOK (approx $23 US) off if I got 4 others or 50 NOK ($6 US) off each person. I just advertised it as 50 NOK off per person when I organized the group as I didn't want to profit from the tour. Everyone paid the tour person directly. She didn't want any money up front.

[land lover]

23 minutes ago, Coral said:

I guess I did have this happen last year. One tour operator offered 200 NOK (approx $23 US) off if I got 4 others or 50 NOK ($6 US) off each person. I just advertised it as 50 NOK off per person when I organized the group as I didn't want to profit from the tour. Everyone paid the tour person directly. She didn't want any money up front.

 Smart woman, but we already knew that....🙂

Edited April 5, 2019 by land lover

[Coral]

3 minutes ago, land lover said:

 Smart woman, but we already knew that....🙂

Or ignorant. I didn't even think of doing it any other way. Though I am one of those people who couldn't sleep at night if I did it differently.

 

I was part of a roll call recently and had to cancel the cruise. I offered the 3 private tours I had joined to pay my portion since I had committed and didn't want them to have to pay more. They all declined as they had a waitlist. Again, I have to sleep at night.

Edited April 5, 2019 by Coral

[land lover]

40 minutes ago, Coral said:

Or ignorant. I didn't even think of doing it any other way. Though I am one of those people who couldn't sleep at night if I did it differently.

 

I was part of a roll call recently and had to cancel the cruise. I offered the 3 private tours I had joined to pay my portion since I had committed and didn't want them to have to pay more. They all declined as they had a waitlist. Again, I have to sleep at night.

 

On an escorted land trip in India, 2011 we were at the Taj and one of the women who we became well acquainted with  insisted she take a photo of us and she grabbed my camera and dropped it. I always bring a spare, so it was not the end of the world. She was a "Photograher" herself so just felt terrible.  At first she wanted to order a new one on line for me while on our trip, so I would have it when I returned. I said no. It was an expensive camera so her offer was so nice.....finally at the end of our trip she insisted on paying me in USD as she had enough remaining, I gave her my camera. We spoke later she had gotten it repaired.

 

But really, how many people would offer to do that, not many just like you offering to pay for the excursions.  IMHO and as you say being able to sleep at night. BTW I replaced the camera immediately with the money she gave me.

Edited April 5, 2019 by land lover

[hillslife]

We have done many private tours and organized many private tours With our rollcall. Nothing wrong with this and they’re always much better and cheaper than the cruise lines, as has been said many times before.  BUT people making money off of arranging private tours is just WRONG in my opinion 😡

[jagsfan]

I guess we’ve been lucky. I’ve been signing up for and setting up private excursions since I joined CC in 2000. 

For our upcoming cruise I  have arranged for a taxi for 8, arranged a tour with everyone paying at the end of the tour, joined quite a few other tours where we will pay at the end, and prepaid a couple of tours directly with the operators. 

Everyone has been super friendly and enthusiastic about our tours, and I’m looking forward to meeting them. 

Roll Calls have a lot of uses, and to me, the best use is giving us all friends to cruise with. 

 

[Thrak]

We've done tours organized from within our roll calls and are signed up for a few during cruises coming up in October and November. The people organizing the excursions make it clear that you have to book through the tour company and pay the tour company. We are just sharing the vans and the excursions. I've heard of folks who "organize tours" as a scam but haven't dealt with that. I don't think most folks would want to send their money to someone on the roll call whom they don't know.

[leck57]

33 minutes ago, Thrak said:

I've heard of folks who "organize tours" as a scam but haven't dealt with that. I don't think most folks would want to send their money to someone on the roll call whom they don't know.

 

I think it depends where you are touring Thrak when it comes to payment. For example in Europe I have never had to prepay any money for any tour arranged through Roll Call. We all just pay the driver at the end of the tour.

[caribill]

2 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

I think it depends where you are touring Thrak when it comes to payment. For example in Europe I have never had to prepay any money for any tour arranged through Roll Call. We all just pay the driver at the end of the tour.

 

In some parts of Europe (and also some places elsewhere), the tour operators do require either a deposit or full payment from each person before the cruise. I mainly have experienced this on British Isles cruises, but also on some Med ports.

 

Payment is made directly to the to the vendor pre-cruise by each participant.

 

When pre-payment is required, I always want in writing from the vendor that any $$$ will be returned if the ship does not make port.

 

Some vendors (again mainly in the British Isles) say no refunds if the ship does not make it because they still had set up the transportation and drivers and had to pay for these even if the ship did not make port. I just do not sign up for or organize those excursions that do this.

 

When I organize excursions, I always prefer not to have to handle other people's money. When payment is due in advance, the others deal directly with the vendor. When payment is due the day of the tour, the participants pay the vendor. There have been a couple of exceptions to this practice:

a) Some vendors want only one person to give them all the money on the day of the tour. In that case, I do collect the money (preferably not before the day of the tour) and hand it over to the vendor.

b) I have had one vendor that required a 50% deposit for the entire tour before I had any other participants. In that case, I advanced the payment and let the others repay me for their share of what I had to pay in advance.

[sailco]

We had an uncomfortable experience a few years ago where someone arrived on the roll call claiming to be the onboard guest speaker. He was not sure if he was on our cruise or not but he was insistent there was only one tour company to use for three ports because the other companies were unreliable and culturally and environmentally nasty. He was also pushing charitable donations of specific goods to be delivered to a certain person only. Many people fell for his spiel and maybe he was a wonderful honest man with purely altruistic motives but it certainly left us wondering and more than a little annoyed at his domination of the roll call. As a result we really don't think the roll calls are a place for guest speakers.

[donaldsc]

You guys must end up taking tours with some real losers.  I set up tours on almost every trip that I take and I also join tours if I find one that interesting.  I have never had any problems with either the tours that I have set up or the ones that I have joined.

 

I also find it interesting the problems of the hangups that you have with payment.  The way that I handle it depends upon whether the guide expects a deposit or payment in advance.  Many of the do expect a deposit as guides have been taken advantage of when people who have booked tours change their minds and don't show up for the tour.  The guides depend upon the tours for a living and I find it reasonable for them to expect a deposit.

 

The way I handle this is that if no deposit is expected, all costs are shared and paid for when we take the tour.  If a deposit is expected, I can end up laying out a lot of money before the trip.  In this case, I expect the people on the trip to pay me for the monies that I have laid out before they are allowed to join the group.  I don't expect to make any money on the tours that I organize but I also don't expect to have to lay out hundreds or on some longer trips thousands of deposit dollars.  I will also add that when I post a tour on C C, I provide full information on the tour including a link to the guide's WEB site so the people who are interested in the tour can make their own decision as to whether they want to join the group.

 

Maybe I have been lucky but this has always worked for me.

 

DON

[Expat Cruise]

I have been involved in several roll calls and in the private tours we have set up. But they are not for profit for me or my friends cruising.  What we get out of this is better tours and a lower price. In most ports all guests pay the tour operator directly.  Our last cruise had six ports and we set up private tours at all six ports, only one port were we required to prepay, that port was Darwin AU. The minimum tour price was AUD$998 dollars for up to nine guests.  We ended up with 15 guests, from our roll call and people traveling with roll call members. But the price was split equally for all 15 guests.

 

In Brisbane and  Lombok/Bali each person paid the tour operator. Yes I directly set up 6 private cars in Lombok for different people in the group, but everyone paid for their own cars. No one within the group made any profit of the other members.   

 

The same thing in the two Vietnam ports, 47 guests, 4 tour groups and 37 guest, 5 tour groups everyone paid the fees directly to the tour guides. No one in the group had a extra profit from the tours.  And in Hong Kong again, everyone paid their own fee to the places we went. 

 

So while you may see big groups of private tours on the ships it is not a for profit deal for the guests it is to have a better overall tour group in the ports. My wife & I have four couples from our last cruise that we did tours with and are now friends. It wasn't about profit it was about building friendships that we last much longer than our 23 day cruise.

 

Besides the selling or promoting of tours to cruise ship passengers on the ships is not allowed and can get you thrown off the ship. So who would ever risk a $10,000 cruise to make a few dollars off of tours?  The tour group you see have been setup before boarding the cruises.