For those who are booked, are you happy with the “mandatory” shore excursions?

[sprinkles]

Must have the “bug” since booking Friday.  DH just inquired about the excursion offerings.   So I took a look and am not thrilled with the choices.  Wondering if others feel the same.  If you’ve even looked.  Plus, it seems like there’s no way there’s enough to accommodate 2600 passengers (although yes, I’m sure many will choose to stay on board ).  Thoughts?  
 

[dog]

2 minutes ago, sprinkles said:

Must have the “bug” since booking Friday.  DH just inquired about the excursion offerings.   So I took a look and am not thrilled with the choices.  Wondering if others feel the same.  If you’ve even looked.  Plus, it seems like there’s no way there’s enough to accommodate 2600 passengers (although yes, I’m sure many will choose to stay on board ).  Thoughts?  
 

Where do you see excursions requirement changes?

[JimmyVWine]

Excursions are the unspoken logistical problem with returning to cruising. If you really insist on taking a cruise in 2021, prepare to take cruises to nowhere or maybe 2 stops at Princess Cays and 4 sea days.  As hard as it is going to be to get everyone in the US and Europe vaccinated, imagine how long it will take to accomplish this in Belize or Aruba or St Maarten or Mexico. Until that happens there is no way that a cruise line will allow 3,500+ passengers to roam freely around a foreign port. 

[casofilia]

I would expect that Cruise Company only shore excursions may well be with us for quite a while especially in places where there are still a large number of cases of Covid each day and/or where vaccination is very poor.

[sprinkles]

1 hour ago, dog said:

Where do you see excursions requirement changes?

 

1 hour ago, dog said:

Where do you see excursions requirement changes?

Sorry, guess “requirement” was the wrong word.  It was in the headlines that recent attempts at cruising like the first MSC (I believe ), the only way you could leave the ship at a port was by taking a ship sponsored tour.  The MSC cruise made headlines when a family choose to ditch their tour and subsequently was disembarked upon their return to the ship.   At any rate there has been many discussions about this.   Looking at my cruise offerings it appears that Princess is currently planning on this being the case.

[cruzsnooze]

I have no problem with taking the ships excursions. It's a good idea until the pandemic is behind us and I feel safer.

[Potstech]

No problem with them if that is what it takes to cruise again. Either follow the cruise line's rules or stay home.

[sprinkles]

Missing my question folks. I don’t have any problem taking ship tours either.  I was asking for those who are booked, are you happy with the offerings ?  As in the specific excursions currently being offered For your specific cruise/cruises you are booked on.  I guess I’m posting this in the hopes that people discuss it and Princess actually reads it.  I’m sure it’s currently at the bottom of their priority list.

 

However, DH and I love the beach and on my cruise, only Cabo shows beach time at a hotel . No worries, if we can go we’ll go.  But I’m going to stay on the ship and use the pool and drink my “free drinks” before I’m going to go sightseeing in a cramped bus all day.  Yikes, shame on me for forgetting my “place”. I’ve only been a member since the beginning of this board (yes longer then my date shows, at one point they changed the board and I didn’t know how to update my tag).  Wow, shame on me for getting excited at the thought of cruising again and asking a simple question.

 

 

[caribill]

I do not think that Princess has made any changes yet to shore excursions.

 

They have not announced that only Princess shore excursions will be permitted and they have not yet revised or eliminated shore excursions because of Coivid-19 concerns.

[Oulton Jim]

Surely there is also a logistical challenge of huge proportion. Let's imagine a cruise ship of some 2000+ passengers berthing at a port and that the majority are on board anticipating a ship-organised list of excursions [assuming that current protocol continues]. Coaches may well be restricted to 20 per coach -so if you do the maths it becomes a logistical nightmare.....

[dog]

2 hours ago, caribill said:

I do not think that Princess has made any changes yet to shore excursions.

 

They have not announced that only Princess shore excursions will be permitted and they have not yet revised or eliminated shore excursions because of Coivid-19 concerns.

Thanks for clarifying. I am booked for Dec 10/21 Enchanted 10 night Caribbean cruise. Don’t see any difference in excursions offerings yet nor requirement to use only ship sponsored ones. 
 

at this point I am not pre booking anything like in the past. 

[MissP22]

I'm supposing that masks & distancing will also be a requirement when on those tours. 😷 I can't imagine doing a walking tour or sitting on a crowded non-airconditioned bus in a hot Caribbean climate wearing a mask.

Just one more reason to not sail until the virus has subsided. 

[skynight]

8 hours ago, sprinkles said:

Missing my question folks. I don’t have any problem taking ship tours either.  I was asking for those who are booked, are you happy with the offerings ?

We have experienced some good and not so good ship and private excursions. Expect that will never change. The pandemic is still raging everywhere. There is no safe place to be. For maybe next year, fuzzy timeline, I would expect some restrictions for getting off the ship at ports of call. For those that choose to cruise during these times they have to accept and follow the stated protocols. Princess has not made any announcements regarding passenger's ability to disembark at ports on their own. We'll all have to wait and see. 

[simong]

ship sponsored tours are an overpriced product as a attempt to extract more revenue i feel that it will be likely to cruise passengers must provide proof of vaccine which we will have a "shot card" and the cdc will have a record of whom gets the shots give it about 6 months

[Paula_MacFan]

For our next booked cruise the excursions listed are exactly the same as they were for the cruise we had planned for September 2020 that was cancelled.  So I haven't seen any changes in the offerings for us.  Having said that, I think there are so many unknowns right now surrounding the pandemic, vaccine schedules, and the return to cruising, that speculating on excursion requirements is just that -- speculation.  It's hard to tell right now when cruising will return, let alone all the logistics of each separate port and their local and state safety requirements.  

[sprinkles]

7 hours ago, Oulton Jim said:

Surely there is also a logistical challenge of huge proportion. Let's imagine a cruise ship of some 2000+ passengers berthing at a port and that the majority are on board anticipating a ship-organised list of excursions [assuming that current protocol continues]. Coaches may well be restricted to 20 per coach -so if you do the maths it becomes a logistical nightmare.....

Thank You Jim, for being the ONLY person to understand my post.  

[CineGraphic]

Think of all of those port fees and taxes people will pay, and then they'll never get off of the ship.

[caribill]

An example of a ship's excursion on MSC:

 

As planned a couple of days ago, in Palermo, we took our only ship (like there were another choices...) excursion. So, here how it worked out. It was described as a three and a half walking tour of the city. On the ticket we found out that the meeting point was at the pier at 9:45 so five minutes earlier we reached the ship exit but we were stopped by an officer that told us it was not our turn yet(!?...) and left waiting in the hall were of course other people were already standing and more arriving since many had our same tour ticket. Ten minutes later we were allowed to exit and we noticed that on that deck as well, near the elevator, more people were standing waiting to be allowed to exit. We didn't think it was a smooth process, perhaps would be better to gather people for groups at theater or other ship halls as we are used than stop all people around the exit.

At the pier we met with our guide and collect headphones and receivers, we were 20 in our group. An MSC hostess went with us as well, she walked at the end of the group while the guide was at leading the group. During the tour we stopped at several sights and while the guide explained what we were looking at we could wander around, for instance the square we were at and take pictures, headphones worked very well, we could hear her at several meters of distance, the important was that we were always in sight. The times we are living in allow social distancing by default anyway, I'm sure those tourists' places would be crowded one year ago.

 

We went to the cathedral as well and it was the only monument we saw either outside than inside. Then we were offered a small cannolo and a bit of granita as a break, that we had standing outside the cathedral. Of course it was mandatory to always follow and stick to the plan and we were repeated several times we must wear properly the face mask, that is that it must cover nose and mouth, I saw at least a couple of time the MSC hostess approaching personally people of our group asking them to adjust their face mask, there is always someone that never learn, or do not want to. The other major rule you must follow during excursions is that you are not allowed to shop anywhere, the guide reminded us that a couple of time as well since there were people trying to sell us tourist stuff. 

 

In the end the excursion lasts just over three hours, we were a bit tired since it was really hot but it was nice and we definitely would do it again, a good way to see a glimpse of a city for the first time.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2759896-live-from-msc-grandiosa-genoa-september-6-13-2020/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-60350913

[caribill]

Just now, caribill said:

An example of a pandemic ship's excursion on MSC:

 

As planned a couple of days ago, in Palermo, we took our only ship (like there were another choices...) excursion. So, here how it worked out. It was described as a three and a half walking tour of the city. On the ticket we found out that the meeting point was at the pier at 9:45 so five minutes earlier we reached the ship exit but we were stopped by an officer that told us it was not our turn yet(!?...) and left waiting in the hall were of course other people were already standing and more arriving since many had our same tour ticket. Ten minutes later we were allowed to exit and we noticed that on that deck as well, near the elevator, more people were standing waiting to be allowed to exit. We didn't think it was a smooth process, perhaps would be better to gather people for groups at theater or other ship halls as we are used than stop all people around the exit.

At the pier we met with our guide and collect headphones and receivers, we were 20 in our group. An MSC hostess went with us as well, she walked at the end of the group while the guide was at leading the group. During the tour we stopped at several sights and while the guide explained what we were looking at we could wander around, for instance the square we were at and take pictures, headphones worked very well, we could hear her at several meters of distance, the important was that we were always in sight. The times we are living in allow social distancing by default anyway, I'm sure those tourists' places would be crowded one year ago.

 

We went to the cathedral as well and it was the only monument we saw either outside than inside. Then we were offered a small cannolo and a bit of granita as a break, that we had standing outside the cathedral. Of course it was mandatory to always follow and stick to the plan and we were repeated several times we must wear properly the face mask, that is that it must cover nose and mouth, I saw at least a couple of time the MSC hostess approaching personally people of our group asking them to adjust their face mask, there is always someone that never learn, or do not want to. The other major rule you must follow during excursions is that you are not allowed to shop anywhere, the guide reminded us that a couple of time as well since there were people trying to sell us tourist stuff. 

 

In the end the excursion lasts just over three hours, we were a bit tired since it was really hot but it was nice and we definitely would do it again, a good way to see a glimpse of a city for the first time.

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2759896-live-from-msc-grandiosa-genoa-september-6-13-2020/page/4/?tab=comments#comment-60350913

 

[dog]

6 hours ago, dog said:

Thanks for clarifying. I am booked for Dec 10/21 Enchanted 10 night Caribbean cruise. Don’t see any difference in excursions offerings yet nor requirement to use only ship sponsored ones. 
 

at this point I am not pre booking anything like in the past. 

I will add:  I am ok with excursions being offered on my next cruise, but I do not believe they are mandatory, as you suggest. Hope I have answered now. 

[dog]

1 hour ago, sprinkles said:

Thank You Jim, for being the ONLY person to understand my post.  

Please explain. See my post above. I am ok with excursions offered. I do not see any changes as you suggest. I am referring to Princess cruise line. 

[Woobstr112G]

I want to be onboard so a wholehearted yes I will happily book ship base shore excursions.  Will I miss getting off the ship and wandering around; of course l will.  The desire to be onboard however will outweigh this.....

 

Bob

[LACruiser88]

I think this is a very "fluid" situation and many changes can occur before actual cruises restart.  With the roll-out of the vaccines, current cruise requirements will surely be rolled back...

[Oulton Jim]

All reasonable logic points to it having to change - I would not countenance the walking tour as was well explained earlier. It so much reminded me of being back at school. One teacher at the front and one bringing up the rear. 

[sprinkles]

4 hours ago, dog said:

Please explain. See my post above. I am ok with excursions offered. I do not see any changes as you suggest. I am referring to Princess cruise line. 

 

4 hours ago, dog said:

Please explain. See my post above. I am ok with excursions offered. I do not see any changes as you suggest. I am referring to Princess cruise line. 

No offense, it posted out of order.  I understand you are only talking about Princess.  However they are not sailing yet, as Caribill described above in MSC which IS cruising, it is the only way to get off the ship.