Viator Tours

[jjwoben1]

Does Viator guarantee return to ship in time for departure?

[pinotlover]

To start with absolutely none of the tour companies gives you a guarantee about anything, including the ones Oceania uses.

 

Second, all the professional tour companies know exactly when the ships depart and do everything in their ability to get you back with time to spare.

 

I don’t know where the myth came from “ if you’re on a ship tour, you won’t get left!”

[Jancruz]

1 hour ago, pinotlover said:

To start with absolutely none of the tour companies gives you a guarantee about anything, including the ones Oceania uses.

 

Second, all the professional tour companies know exactly when the ships depart and do everything in their ability to get you back with time to spare.

 

I don’t know where the myth came from “ if you’re on a ship tour, you won’t get left!”

Not a myth ships wait for their tours to come back..no matter how long, no matter what you read..

Jancruz1

Edited August 17, 2023 by Jancruz

[Guest ldtr]

There are cases where a ship cannot wait for a ship tour to return.  However, if you are on a ships tour and the ship has to leave the cruise line will take responsibility for and pay all expenses involved in getting the participants back to the ship.

 

If you are taking an independent tour and something goes wrong you are pretty much on your own to figure out how to get back to the ship and will have to cover the costs involved.

 

This is on a different cruise line but pretty much tells the story.  Was on a south American cruise.  There was a 3 day ship excursion to Machu Pichu.  About 200 people took the ships excursion.  Another group 30-50 if I recall made their own arrangements.  1 couple used American Express.  The independent group said before hand that they were on the same flights as the ship excursion so what could go wrong.

 

The second of two flights returning from Cusco to Lima had a bird strike on takeoff had to abort and slid off the run way,  closing Cusco airport.  The people on the first plane (about half of the ship excursion passengers)  made it back to the ship on time.  The ship had to leave Lima before the airport reopened.

 

The cruise line took care of all travel arrangements for those on the ship excursion (all flights, hotels, transfers, etc.  very nice hotels even if there was not time to enjoy them).  The ship made a special stop in Manta Ecuador to pick up those from the ship excursion.  The two that booked their tour with Amex also made it there and said that Amex took care of them as well.

 

The 30 or more that made their own arrangements on their own had to take care of their own arrangements, at their own expense, and were not able to catch up to the ship until the normally scheduled stop in Costa Rica about 4-5 days later.

[babysteps]

I think two things may both be true at once - #1 contractually the cruise company takes on no liability for third party arrangements, either air or excursions. #2 In practice, ships work much harder to (or perhaps have more control in situations where they need to) collect ships' excursion passengers than they do to embark delayed air passengers. 

[sunlover12]

I'm on Nautica next week where O changed several of the shore excursions times, without notification to passengers. I just happened to notice it when I logged into my account. The excursion we booked was supposed to be 10-3.  It's been changed to 1-6, along with several others. The ship is scheduled to depart the port at 6:00.  So much for all aboard 30 minutes before departure.

When I called Oceania they are clueless as to any of it.  Will be interesting to see what happens.