Celebrity "Small group" excursions

[wildcats40]

We are trying to decide on excursions for an upcoming Caribbean cruise.  Some of the excursions are designated "small group."  In general,, how much smaller are these excursions (tours) than the others?  We'd prefer not to be on a bus of 40 people.  

[upwarduk]

I have been on a mini bus with 16 people ( in Russia, so a while ago now).

[phoenix_dream]

In my (admittedly limited) experience they will be between 10 and 20 guests - usually in a small tourist van.  

[southernbreezes]

2 hours ago, wildcats40 said:

We are trying to decide on excursions for an upcoming Caribbean cruise.  Some of the excursions are designated "small group."  In general,, how much smaller are these excursions (tours) than the others?  We'd prefer not to be on a bus of 40 people.  

My experience is they are not that small 30 to 40 consistently.

[Jim_Iain]

I've done a couple small group excursions and had between 8 - 18.    The one with 18 they had broken down onto two Vans. 

 

 

[SusieAV8R]

On 3/6/2023 at 7:25 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I've done a couple small group excursions and had between 8 - 18.    The one with 18 they had broken down onto two Vans. 

 

 

 

On 3/6/2023 at 7:25 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I've done a couple small group excursions and had between 8 - 18.    The one with 18 they had broken down onto two Vans. 

 

 

Our experience is closer to Jim_Iain's:  "small group" was 6-8 for the ones we took pre and post covid.  (These were cooking with local island chefs in their homes or lengthy walking or standing tours like learning how to roll cigars.)

[terrydtx]

We no longer book any cruise ship sponsored excursions, we now book small group private tours often at less cost than the cruise line. Most small group private tours are 12 or less people.  We are just tired of being hosed by the cruise lines.

[NMTraveller]

The numbers can vary from 10 to 50.  The ones with over 20 should not be sold as small groups IMHO but they are.

Edited March 8, 2023 by NMTraveller

[the penguins]

On 3/6/2023 at 9:24 PM, wildcats40 said:

We are trying to decide on excursions for an upcoming Caribbean cruise.  Some of the excursions are designated "small group."  In general,, how much smaller are these excursions (tours) than the others?  We'd prefer not to be on a bus of 40 people.  

Nothing that X offers meets our definition of small (except their Private Journeys). 

The only way to guarantee this is to book a private guide and to share with one or at the most 2 other couples from your Roll Call. Price works out about the same as going with X but the experience is so much better. Lots of company's offer the service, our choice is Toursbylocals.

[chemmo]

We did a Celebrity small group island tour in St Lucia. Minibus (12?) probably one of the most uncomfortable journeys we have ever taken.

The minibuses are used as coaches are too big for many of the roads on an Island tour. Every seat was used, no leg room. There were several six footers on board who had knees jammed and head’s touching the roof. As most people had a small bag with water, sunscreen etc they were blocking any possible stretching aisle space. Air conditioning not good. We had thought a small group tour would be better as there were less people. However, we didn’t have a proper guide, just the driver, who barked the name of the places we passed and barked out the return to bus time at stops. The trip itinerary itself was actually very good but to be honest we were so uncomfortable we just wanted to get back to the ship. 
 

We did feel the tour description was a bit misleading as being sold as a ‘small group’, in our thinking, implied better than a coach tour but in fact we found it simply uncomfortable. We did feed back to the concierge that we felt that a warning of limited head and leg room should be on the description. 
We did this simply to give feedback. However, we are aware that another full minibus group on the same tour as us went to Shore Excursions and asked for their money back as in addition to the issues we had their minibus had no air conditioning…

 

 

[southernbreezes]

On 3/6/2023 at 7:25 PM, Jim_Iain said:

I've done a couple small group excursions and had between 8 - 18.    The one with 18 they had broken down onto two Vans. 

 

 

I wish I could same the same but never had that experience. Always much larger.

[PurpleTraveller]

Last year in Kotor on a Mediterranean cruise our "Small Group" excursion was 29 passengers on a full size bus. Hopefully in the Caribbean the tours are smaller.

[Ken the cruiser]

We book the large excursions all the time and have had no issues with any of them on the 190+ days of cruising we've done since it started back up. Our secret is to sit in the back of the bus. This way there is very little chance anyone will be coughing behind us, which definitely gets us twitching. I can just imagine what it's like on a "small group" excursion in one of those 10-passenger vans. But then we're pretty much anti-social, so there is that. 😂

[Cat4158]

On 3/8/2023 at 3:00 AM, terrydtx said:

We no longer book any cruise ship sponsored excursions, we now book small group private tours often at less cost than the cruise line. Most small group private tours are 12 or less people.  We are just tired of being hosed by the cruise lines.

I’m pleased for you that you do that - but it doesn’t answer the original question. 

[SusieAV8R]

3 hours ago, PurpleTraveller said:

Last year in Kotor on a Mediterranean cruise our "Small Group" excursion was 29 passengers on a full size bus. Hopefully in the Caribbean the tours are smaller.

Whoa!  29 is NOT a small group (IMO) and comments accordingly need to be made to X, either via surveys post cruise, Facebook (or similar social media) during cruise after such an excursion or on this type of list serve.  Otherwise this is false advertising.

[SusieAV8R]

On 3/7/2023 at 10:17 PM, NMTraveller said:

The numbers can vary from 10 to 50.  The ones with over 20 should not be sold as small groups IMHO but they are.

Sorry, but 20 is not a small group.  And if X keeps advertising as such, we need to go with private tour companies who do not charge high prices for so called advertised "small" groups.

[PurpleTraveller]

1 hour ago, SusieAV8R said:

Whoa!  29 is NOT a small group (IMO) and comments accordingly need to be made to X, either via surveys post cruise, Facebook (or similar social media) during cruise after such an excursion or on this type of list serve.  Otherwise this is false advertising.

 

I was very surprised there were so many on the tour but this was my first Celebrity cruise and shore excursion. I was going to mention it in my post cruise survey but neither my husband or I received one. I don't consider 29 a small group either.

[the penguins]

13 hours ago, SusieAV8R said:

Whoa!  29 is NOT a small group (IMO) and comments accordingly need to be made to X, either via surveys post cruise, Facebook (or similar social media) during cruise after such an excursion or on this type of list serve.  Otherwise this is false advertising.

Sorry not false advertising as X never clarifies it's definition of "small".

Our definition is maximum 6 ideally 4.

Lots of words like this in advertising another example from cruising "classic ships" I.e. " old".

[seacruise9]

Hi, 

 

I recently cruised aboard the Celebrity Beyond (Feb. 19, 2023 cruise) and did a Celebrity small group excursion in Puerto Plata (Explore Puerto Plata and Cable Car). There were nine of us on a minibus (there were some empty seats). This particular tour was excellent. 

[mmr923]

7 hours ago, the penguins said:

Sorry not false advertising as X never clarifies it's definition of "small".

Our definition is maximum 6 ideally 4.

Lots of words like this in advertising another example from cruising "classic ships" I.e. " old".

In our case, Celebrity DID actually bother to define "small"  - this is from the description of the tour we have booked on our upcoming TA in Seville - it's called "Small Group Legendary Seville" and part of the description is this: 

I would rather do smaller than that, but I don't consider 20-25 an unmanageable amount. I'm just not interested in the big tour bus sized things.  

[ECCruise]

Unless we would have a bundle of non-refundable OBC, I really don't see any advantage of the "small group" tours other than to enhance revenue at X.  

If we book private tours (we frequently can book for just the 2 of us at prices similar or less than such "small group").  Even if we join others or they join us, we are in control of the numbers and thus never a surprise ("OMG, there are 29 on our small tour")

[SusieAV8R]

1 hour ago, mmr923 said:

In our case, Celebrity DID actually bother to define "small"  - this is from the description of the tour we have booked on our upcoming TA in Seville - it's called "Small Group Legendary Seville" and part of the description is this: 

I would rather do smaller than that, but I don't consider 20-25 an unmanageable amount. I'm just not interested in the big tour bus sized things.  

I do find "small Group" being up to 25 unmanageable since I invariably end up at the rear of such a group and can't hear (no, I am not hearing impaired) what the tour guide is saying.  

[SusieAV8R]

9 hours ago, the penguins said:

Sorry not false advertising as X never clarifies it's definition of "small".

Our definition is maximum 6 ideally 4.

Lots of words like this in advertising another example from cruising "classic ships" I.e. " old".

 

20 minutes ago, SusieAV8R said:

I do find "small Group" being up to 25 unmanageable since I invariably end up at the rear of such a group and can't hear (no, I am not hearing impaired) what the tour guide is saying.  

 

20 minutes ago, SusieAV8R said:

I do find "small Group" being up to 25 unmanageable since I invariably end up at the rear of such a group and can't hear (no, I am not hearing impaired) what the tour guide is saying.  

We have taken tours with well known companies who are not related to the cruise industry which define "small" as 10-18 or 4-6, depending on the activity.  No surprises when one arrives to take the tour.  If X wants "small" to mean up to 29+ (with mini buses) in an attempt to capture those of us who say we want small excursion groups and it does not suite us folks who want smaller numbers, I suggest brooking a tour through one of these well-known tour companies. 

[Lastdance]

We did one last November that was only 6 in each van.  We usually do not do Celebrity tours, as we prefer to go by ourselves, or with a very small group.

[NMTraveller]

5 hours ago, mmr923 said:

In our case, Celebrity DID actually bother to define "small"  - this is from the description of the tour we have booked on our upcoming TA in Seville - it's called "Small Group Legendary Seville" and part of the description is this: 

I would rather do smaller than that, but I don't consider 20-25 an unmanageable amount. I'm just not interested in the big tour bus sized things.  

Well at least they defined small on this excursion.  Most times they do not.