"Shore Excursions Group" Company???

[teacherman]

On a Roll Call, someone said to check out this site "Shore Excursions Group" for some good prices on shore excursions for our South America cruise.  It is a nice looking site which has some excursions listed for a few of our ports-smaller groups and good prices.  Have any of you ever booked through this organization?  Your thoughts about doing it?  Is it real?

[edgee]

21 minutes ago, teacherman said:

On a Roll Call, someone said to check out this site "Shore Excursions Group" for some good prices on shore excursions for our South America cruise.  It is a nice looking site which has some excursions listed for a few of our ports-smaller groups and good prices.  Have any of you ever booked through this organization?  Your thoughts about doing it?  Is it real?

We have booked with them. Advantage of not lining up for crowded ship tours. We have had mixed results...some have been just fine, others just so so...depends on local provider which is always the case. If you want to do a "non cruise line provided" tour these guys will save you some money compared to ship provided tours and often the quality is the same or better. Also, by using a company like SEG they will guarantee a full refund if the ship misses the port and they say they guarantee you will not miss the ship or they will pay to get you to the next port to catch up. Hiring local tour providers on your own does not give you those guarantees. In summary, I can confirm that they are legitimate and usually their tours are fine.

Edited April 29, 2019 by edgee
clarity

[57redbird]

We used them for an excursion in Mazatlan --- our experience was so-so....after our pickup at the port we were taken to a small tequila distillery in town where we had a brief explanation of what was being made & a shopping opportunity.  Then into another van for a ride in to the country to Noria for another tequila distillery tasting & another shopping opportunity for tequila, leather goods & jewelry -- don't buy the opals they are selling there!  I did & later found out they were manmade & set in sterling silver so my ring couldn't be sized, despite what the seller told us.  Back into the van for a ride to a unique lunch stop --- authentic, open air (complete with chickens roaming around).  The tour was supposed to include a cheese factory stop but it was closed.  Hit a small town for a stop at a leather worker shop --- shoes, wallets, belts.

Guide was informative but we spent more time getting places than seeing what was expected....pricing was fair.

[CruiserBruce]

If you do a search, you will find MANY threads discussing this company, particularly on the Ports boards.

 

They are a broker, not a provider. This means they take your money and contract for the services of a low bid local vendor.

 

The plus- low prices. The negatives- customer service can be tough. If you need to change or otherwise alter your excursion, it may be difficult to contact the right people. If you read the many discussions, you will see things like poor English skills mentioned, and private transfers that morphed into a shared shuttle, with delays to pick up a full load. We have experienced some of these problems with  brokers. As a result, like others, we prefer to deal direct with providers, not through a middle man.

[Fouremco]

I've used them a few times quite happily.

 

FWIW, the Big Box store and another major North American cruise TA both promote Shore Excursions Group.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Fouremco

[TiogaCruiser]

38 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

I've used them a few times quite happily.

 

FWIW, the Big Box store and another major North American cruise TA both promote Shore Excursions Group.

The BigBox also offers a 10% discount with a code. 

[penaddict]

14 hours ago, Fouremco said:

I've used them a few times quite happily.

 

FWIW, the Big Box store and another major North American cruise TA both promote Shore Excursions Group.

What is the "Big Box store?"  I usually know that means places like Home Depot, etc.  LOL

[crystalspin]

When I was organizing our Trans-Cape Horn cruise, this company tried to tell me the penguin tours they sold were during nesting season when in fact their calendar was completely reversed from when you would see penguins! 

 

I sent them the links to several naturalist/expert sites detailing this fact, but they would not back down and correct their website. I'm sure they had cheap prices for trips to see NO PENGUINS! 

 

After this experience, I ruled out any excursions with them. 

[crystalspin]

12 minutes ago, penaddict said:

What is the "Big Box store?"  I usually know that means places like Home Depot, etc.  LOL

The BB store we refer to on here is a membership warehouse company that houses a travel agency under the same roof as big packages of toilet paper and mediocre pizza. Their in-house credit card will not protect you if you use it for travel with any other agency, which I learned the hard way. 

[Fouremco]

15 minutes ago, penaddict said:

What is the "Big Box store?"  I usually know that means places like Home Depot, etc.  LOL

That's right, and one of them has a travel agency. Not Home Depot! 

[penaddict]

5 minutes ago, crystalspin said:

The BB store we refer to on here is a membership warehouse company that houses a travel agency under the same roof as big packages of toilet paper and mediocre pizza. Their in-house credit card will not protect you if you use it for travel with any other agency, which I learned the hard way. 

How would the credit card not protect you?  It has a travel benefit and doesn't exclude other travel agencies as it doesn't say that in the program guidelines.  

[crystalspin]

37 minutes ago, penaddict said:

How would the credit card not protect you?  It has a travel benefit and doesn't exclude other travel agencies as it doesn't say that in the program guidelines.  

It did not protect us when our Canadian based China tour company lost their license. Our own Chase card would have! To the tune of $10K as we were paying for another couple's trip as well. Bigbox said "that is not covered" (note, I don't KNOW that it would have been covered if CC had sold it, maybe they would never have sold it, but the tour company had been in the business for a long time). I said, my Chase card would refund and they said, this is a different product. Subsequently we only use that card for toilet paper! 

[HokiePoq]

1 hour ago, Fouremco said:

That's right, and one of them has a travel agency. Not Home Depot! 

Actually I belong to two warehouse clubs that have a travel agency attached.  Haven't used either yet though.

[Fouremco]

11 minutes ago, HokiePoq said:

Actually I belong to two warehouse clubs that have a travel agency attached.  Haven't used either yet though.

Hmmm, I'm not sure if there's a second one in Canada. If so, I've not heard about it.

[HokiePoq]

23 hours ago, Fouremco said:

Hmmm, I'm not sure if there's a second one in Canada. If so, I've not heard about it.

 

Our second one with the travel agency only has locations in 24 states and none in Canada.   Got an email offer from them today but have never booked with either of the big box stores.  If the third one in our area has a travel agency I don't know about it.

[cenmn18]

We used Shore Excursions Group during our Alaskan cruise and were thoroughly satisfied with their service on 3 of 3 excursions. Guides were outstanding with both knowledge and service and equipment was well maintained. For the Whitehorse rail trip, it appeared that those of us who booked through SEG were simply on a different car than those who booked through the ship (at a savings in cost). We took a whale watching excursion and a family in our group from a Disney ship, who said they had booked through their ship, were in our group on the SEG excursion. 

Like everything else, you need to comparison shop and take time to read the reviews. What is unacceptable for one person to write a negative review, maybe something you wouldn't give a thought.

[Riversedge]

We booked a couple of shore excursions with them for our Med/transatlantic trip.  One of them was cancelled because the ship had to change itinerary at the last minute.  We immediately got our money refunded with no problem.  The other one was very good.  But of course the excursions are only as good as the local company they use.  I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.

[Fouremco]

2 hours ago, Riversedge said:

But of course the excursions are only as good as the local company they use. 

From research we've done for various ports, their local companies are excellent and are sometimes used by HAL. In one case, we could book directly with a local HOHO company, book through SEG or book through HAL. It was very slightly cheaper booking through SEG for the identical full-day, unlimited use ticket, and the starting point was a three-minute walk from the dock. If you booked through HAL, at a considerably higher price, the trolley met you at the doc but gave you a single tour around the route.