Princess shore excursions feeling rushed

[twee1]

Hello, we are on the Regal Princess on a 12-day British Isles with Orkney cruise. We are having a fantastic time! But I wanted to see if it has been others’ experience on Princess that the shore excursions have felt very rushed, and like we don’t have enough time? For example, yesterday in Orkney we had about 10-15 minutes each at the Ring of Brodgar and Cliffs of Yesnaby - which are literally the only things you do on that tour, and deserve much longer.  I don’t recall feeling so rushed on other cruises we’ve done (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity.) This is our first Princess cruise, so was wondering if this is a Princess thing, or something about this particular region? This has been a really consistent experience this week, so I don’t think it’s random anymore, nor do I think we have changed ourselves from the past. Looking forward to hearing any feedback! 

Edited September 1, 2023 by twee1
Edited title to be more specific

[NavyVeteran]

Princess gives detailed times in Excursion Details in the Cruise Personalizer. Did the times on your excursion match the times in the decription?

One of the problems with bus excursions is that they always spend either more time than we want or less time than we want at any specific spot. I don't think it is specific to Princess. Princess does not run the excursions - they use local third-party companies to do so. Other cruise lines use the same companies, so I suspect there wouldn't be much difference.

[DCThunder]

28 minutes ago, NavyVeteran said:

Princess does not run the excursions - they use local third-party companies to do so. Other cruise lines use the same companies, so I suspect there wouldn't be much difference.

With a little Google-fu you can often find the same (or very similar) local tour providers that cost less than Princess (no middleman) and may be more flexible in time at locations.  Despite all the fearmongering about missing the ship using a non-ship excursion, I've found private excursions to be preferrable.

[Torfamm]

1 hour ago, NavyVeteran said:

Princess gives detailed times in Excursion Details in the Cruise Personalizer. Did the times on your excursion match the times in the decription?

One of the problems with bus excursions is that they always spend either more time than we want or less time than we want at any specific spot. I don't think it is specific to Princess. Princess does not run the excursions - they use local third-party companies to do so. Other cruise lines use the same companies, so I suspect there wouldn't be much difference.

The one thing about Princess excursions compared to those booked directly with the tour companies can be group and vehicle size. It takes longer to board a bus than a 12 passenger van for example. Meal and toilet stops also can use up a lot more time. The exact same excursion with the same start and end time can leave more time at each site in a smaller group.

[wcflats]

We have been using private tour operators for years and been very pleased.  They the private operators are very considerate of returning time to the ship.  Much smaller groups usually six people or less.

[Paula_MacFan]

The Excursion Details tab shows each specific step of the excursion, including type of transportation, travel time, amenities available such as restrooms and air conditioning, number of steps involved, and time at each location.  You can also read reviews posted by other cruisers.  It's been our experience that the tours match the descriptions pretty closely.

Edited September 1, 2023 by Paula_MacFan

[Hlitner]

The major topic of complaint, on just about any cruise, are the excursions.  Hang around the shore excursion desk or Guest Relations and you can hear all the whining.  And yet, many folks keep booking the overpriced excursions.  It gets back to the definition of insanity which is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  

 

If you want to control your time ashore, either book a private tour or simply DIY.  About 40 years ago we booked a Princess excursion from Izmir to Ephesus.  The tour guide rushed us through Ephesus so she could take us to a "jewelry factory" and literally lock our bus load in the building (we were the only customers).  It completely soured me on cruise line excursions, and we have traveled mostly DIY for the past 40 years!

 

As others have said, the cruise lines do not have much control over their own excursions.  They are purchased from shore-based companies, marked-up by the cruise lines, and what happens....happens.  In fact, many cruise lines now outsource their entire shore excursion program to a third party (outside) contractor.  Even the shore excursion folks onboard, work for a third-party vendor...and not the cruise line.

 

Hank

[donaldsc]

What I just don't get is that people complain about the cruise ship tours but then they continue to do them instead of going to the effort of finding good private tours.  Finding private tours can be a good bit of work but IMHO it almost almost always pays off.

 

DON

[mskaufman]

We were on that cruise last month and did a mix of Princess excursions, tours from other vendors and DIY.  In Kirkwall we used Princess and don't remember the Princess tours being any more rushed than the others.  In Kirkwall we had plenty of time at the Ring of Brodgar.

[Coral]

Have you been to Europe before on the other lines? I think a lot of the tours are the same regardless of cruise lines. They contract out with external vendors. You may want to compare this tour to what the other companies are offering - it is probably very similar.

[NavyVeteran]

12 hours ago, twee1 said:

Hello, we are on the Regal Princess on a 12-day British Isles with Orkney cruise. We are having a fantastic time! But I wanted to see if it has been others’ experience on Princess that the shore excursions have felt very rushed, and like we don’t have enough time? For example, yesterday in Orkney we had about 10-15 minutes each at the Ring of Brodgar and Cliffs of Yesnaby - which are literally the only things you do on that tour, and deserve much longer.  I don’t recall feeling so rushed on other cruises we’ve done (Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity.) This is our first Princess cruise, so was wondering if this is a Princess thing, or something about this particular region? This has been a really consistent experience this week, so I don’t think it’s random anymore, nor do I think we have changed ourselves from the past. Looking forward to hearing any feedback! 

Which excursion were you on?

The 2.25 hour Ancient Standing Stones excursion scheduled only a 15 minute photo stop at the Cliffs of Yesnaby. It should have had a 35-minute guided tour of the Ring of Brodgar. Are you saying that you only stayed 15 minutes there? If so, they did not provide what they promised.

If you didn't get what is promised, the best thing to do is to complain to the Shore Excursions desk on the ship. They will sometimes provide a partial refund if the tour did provide what was promised, and they can take action to deal with the vender for future tours. There's not much anyone can do after the cruise.

Edited September 2, 2023 by NavyVeteran

[LibertyBella]

Well, I always book the longest, busiest shore excursions I can find in Europe, and the majority are ship excursions. (I have been cruising for decades on multiple lines.) Yes, I study every detail of the excursions, and I know all the timing, and what will be seen.  The only time we book independent excursions is if --the ship tours are not comprehensive enough, there is something we specifically want to do that is not offered (scuba-dive), or we want to go to a specific place or site not included in any ship tours.  Overall I have been very, very pleased with my cruise ship excursions, especially the most complicated ones, as they are well organized, the guides are very good, and I have always felt the prices were quite competitive.

 

We just sailed in July on the Enchanted Princess, Rome to Athens, with semi- rigorous full day excursions each day (Pompeii, Ephesus, Knossos, Istanbul) and temperatures were well over 100 degrees.  We also took multiple tours in Rome and Athens not associated with the cruise line.

 

I find that European tour guides speak extremely quickly, like to walk fast, and want to keep to their schedules.  They do not really want to "baby" their tour participants, but instead prefer to think of themselves as historical experts imparting knowledge to eager students. It is our responsibility to keep up with them.

 

DH and I are in excellent shape, so we can walk anywhere, but I love taking lots and lots of photos, so I am frequently running to catch up with the group. 

 

We took a Viking river cruise in March, and the half-day morning walking tours were a bit more relaxed, but not really long enough to feel that we had exhausted ourselves (we were a tiny bit bored, and went off on our own in the afternoons).  

 

In my opinion on cruises we are getting quick introductions to places, and it behooves us to read about a location thoroughly before going so we know what we are seeing, and then return home and study and reflect on what we toured.  By the way, husband is a history teacher and I am an almost-archaeologist, so we perhaps have a different perspective. We are quite happy to do DIY trips as well, but usually we rent a car and drive around a country rather than cruise (DH is an expert with a stick shift!).

 

 

[Ombud]

7 hours ago, Paula_MacFan said:

The Excursion Details tab shows each specific step of the excursion, including type of transportation, travel time, amenities available such as restrooms and air conditioning, number of steps involved, and time at each location.  You can also read reviews posted by other cruisers.  It's been our experience that the tours match the descriptions pretty closely.

Also check the group size. The above example has 44 participants.  I only book ones that max out at 20. Considering this one as it's a smallish group, lots of walking, I know anticipated free time, gotta read the whole thing

[twee1]

8 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

Which excursion were you on?

The 2.25 hour Ancient Standing Stones excursion scheduled only a 15 minute photo stop at the Cliffs of Yesnaby. It should have had a 35-minute guided tour of the Ring of Brodgar. Are you saying that you only stayed 15 minutes there? If so, they did not provide what they promised.

If you didn't get what is promised, the best thing to do is to complain to the Shore Excursions desk on the ship. They will sometimes provide a partial refund if the tour did provide what was promised, and they can take action to deal with the vender for future tours. There's not much anyone can do after the cruise.

Hi there, yes that is the excursion we were on. The times listed were pretty accurate (we had 30 minutes at the stones) but it was a 5-7 minute walk up to the stones and back, which left maybe 15 minutes for photos and walk around and take it in. We found we were consistently running back to the bus on this trip, and felt rushed, which hasn’t happened in the past. I think we feel that some of these sites need/deserve more time, but that said we’ve had an amazing time and have enjoyed most of our shore excursions. Thanks for your feedback! 🙂 

[twee1]

5 hours ago, Ombud said:

Also check the group size. The above example has 44 participants.  I only book ones that max out at 20. Considering this one as it's a smallish group, lots of walking, I know anticipated free time, gotta read the whole thing

 

[twee1]

Thank you, that is very helpful, will look more closely at group sizes in future. 

[Paula_MacFan]

10 hours ago, Ombud said:

Also check the group size. The above example has 44 participants.  I only book ones that max out at 20. Considering this one as it's a smallish group, lots of walking, I know anticipated free time, gotta read the whole thing

Agreed! I just took a small screen shot to share so the OP could see the Excursion Tab location 🙂

[SargassoPirate]

We have gradually gotten away from the Princess excursions, for some of the reasons others have mentioned here including the time to load and unload a big bus, the big bus tours only go where the big busses can park, and in larger ports with more than one ship in, it seems most of the big busses all arrive at the attractions at the same time. 

 

For example, on a guided land tour of Germany several years ago, in Munich we booked a tour with Tours By Locals for our group of four.  The guide was a historian, author of a couple of books on WWII history, and we had a very comprehensive nine hours of sights and history.

 

The remainder of the group on the big bus made three different stops where the bus could park and didn't see or experience a quarter of what we saw.

[Boiler Cruiser]

My wife and I had an experience on our recent cruise to Hawaii that resulted in the tour taking much longer than expected. 

 

Our bus driver fancied himself a painter, so at selected stops as we drove around Oahu, he would work on his painting while waiting for us at various stops.  Between stops he drove the bus (a full sized one) faster than expected, leaving us with little time to take in the sights as we drove by.  For example, we drove by the Bonzai Pipeline beaches and Sunset Beach, (a sight I REALLY wanted to see) as well as drove through Haleiwa so fast we did not get more than a glimpse of the sand and water, as well as the town.

 

At places like that Dole Pineapple Plantation (where, by the way, we were not able to buy fresh sliced pineapple), he stopped for more than 20 minutes longer than he needed to just so he would have time to finish his painting before driving back to Honolulu (driving fast again).  By this time, not being able to see much because of his driving speed, we were all wondering when we would get back to the ship.

 

As a result, we were the last tour back to the ship about 40 minutes late, about 10 minutes before that ship was scheduled to leave.  Needless to say, the ship's officers and the Excursion Coordinator were not at all happy.  They asked us to quick foot it to get on board.

 

What about the painting, you ask?  He gave the painting (a not very good beach scene) to one of our fellow passengers as they got off the bus.  That was why he was so fired up to finish it.

 

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[donaldsc]

On 9/2/2023 at 9:37 AM, Boiler Cruiser said:

My wife and I had an experience on our recent cruise to Hawaii that resulted in the tour taking much longer than expected. 

 

Our bus driver fancied himself a painter, so at selected stops as we drove around Oahu, he would work on his painting while waiting for us at various stops.  Between stops he drove the bus (a full sized one) faster than expected, leaving us with little time to take in the sights as we drove by.  For example, we drove by the Bonzai Pipeline beaches and Sunset Beach, (a sight I REALLY wanted to see) as well as drove through Haleiwa so fast we did not get more than a glimpse of the sand and water, as well as the town.

 

At places like that Dole Pineapple Plantation (where, by the way, we were not able to buy fresh sliced pineapple), he stopped for more than 20 minutes longer than he needed to just so he would have time to finish his painting before driving back to Honolulu (driving fast again).  By this time, not being able to see much because of his driving speed, we were all wondering when we would get back to the ship.

 

As a result, we were the last tour back to the ship about 40 minutes late, about 10 minutes before that ship was scheduled to leave.  Needless to say, the ship's officers and the Excursion Coordinator were not at all happy.  They asked us to quick foot it to get on board.

 

What about the painting, you ask?  He gave the painting (a not very good beach scene) to one of our fellow passengers as they got off the bus.  That was why he was so fired up to finish it.

 

Has anyone had a similar experience?

 

Although it would have helped w your lousy tour but I would hope that you complained vehemently to the cruise desk and got 100% of your money back.   

 

DON 

[Ombud]

Wow @Boiler Cruiser! I would have promptly been at the shore excursion desk to vehemently complain & request compensation to protect other cruisers of a similar disaster.