Shore excursion prices

[margincall]

We have sailed on several cruise lines,and researched others over past 17 years,but never been on MSC,but were considering one next spring.part of choosing a cruise for us,is looking at shore excursions. When looking at MSC

website, they,just like every other line,have the description, duration, and difficulty level,but unlike every other cruise line,they don't show the prices of the excursions. 

For us senior citizens, that is part of the choosing which cruise equation. 

Do you have to book a cruise to find that out,or is there somewhere to find it.

Thanks

[Heartgrove]

We have sailed twice on MSC in Europe and have found the excursion prices to be very reasonable. Compared to our regular cruise line Holland America, excursions are roughly 2/3rds the cost and just as interesting.

[mysweetsmile03]

Thank you for posting this. I am not trying to hijak your post, but don't know how to make my own post lol, tech is not my thing.   I was wondering about the shore excursions offered by MSC versus doing on our own.  Does anyone have any recommendations especially for ocho rios and cayman.  Husband and I were thinking of horse swim and blue hole or Dunns river falls but welcome any recommendations.  

[margincall]

2 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

We have sailed twice on MSC in Europe and have found the excursion prices to be very reasonable. Compared to our regular cruise line Holland America, excursions are roughly 2/3rds the cost and just as interesting.

Thank you

[margincall]

41 minutes ago, mysweetsmile03 said:

Thank you for posting this. I am not trying to hijak your post, but don't know how to make my own post lol, tech is not my thing.   I was wondering about the shore excursions offered by MSC versus doing on our own.  Does anyone have any recommendations especially for ocho rios and cayman.  Husband and I were thinking of horse swim and blue hole or Dunns river falls but welcome any recommendations.  

Fyi,I am not tech savvy either,but if you scroll to msc cruises,click on it,near top,it will have bar,start new topic.just go from there

[mysweetsmile03]

Ty so much 

[Fergus]

We have an MSC cruise booked for the Med next year.  Our last cruise was Norway last year.  I almost wept when I saw the MSC excursion prices - they are miniscule compared to Norway, LOL! And very comparable or even lower than what we've typically seen in the Caribbean.

[margincall]

59 minutes ago, Fergus said:

We have an MSC cruise booked for the Med next year.  Our last cruise was Norway last year.  I almost wept when I saw the MSC excursion prices - they are miniscule compared to Norway, LOL! And very comparable or even lower than what we've typically seen in the Caribbean.

But am I correct that you could not see prices until you booked the cruise?

My wife is wary of that.she made an analogy that is like booking a cruise without knowing how much the cabin,or the pre paid gratuities are. 

We are looking at Caribbean out of NYC next year,and comparing prices of similar cruises on carnival out of ny. 

We compared prices on cabins,pre paid gratuities, on board credit,but not excursions. 

Senior citizens like as like all th information lol

[dexddd]

Right, their excursions are reasonable.  Last few times at GC we just rented a car.  Place along water maybe half mile.

 

Last time Ochos we did the Falls.

[Heartgrove]

2 hours ago, margincall said:

But am I correct that you could not see prices until you booked the cruise?

My wife is wary of that.she made an analogy that is like booking a cruise without knowing how much the cabin,or the pre paid gratuities are. 

We are looking at Caribbean out of NYC next year,and comparing prices of similar cruises on carnival out of ny. 

We compared prices on cabins,pre paid gratuities, on board credit,but not excursions. 

Senior citizens like as like all th information lol

 

Just a quick comparison without going too deep into research for you. We just finished the MSC cruise that took us to Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland. We paid $54.00/pp for a three hour guided excursion to see the Callanish Standing Stones and driving through a good part of the island. By comparison, Holland America in August 2024 has a four hour guided titled "Historical Lewis" excursion basically the same plus adding visiting a small remote village along the coast. HAL is charging $109.95/pp. 

 

For our cruise with six ports and six excursions of varying itinerary for each (transportation-only to guided excursions between 3 to 5 hours) we spent a total of $337.00/pp. 

[ms sjsky]

I do know MSC states their excursion prices are 20% cheaper when booked prior to boarding.

[KINGBOBOFTHENORTH]

Once a cruise is booked then the excursions being offered for that sailing have prices showing for them. I think that you're correct, that when you look at excursions ahead of any actual booking, there are no prices for them.

[Nick2000]

We have been in Europe with them and prices of tours were quite cheap compare to other lines.

[CruisingFox27]

On 10/7/2023 at 3:03 AM, margincall said:

We have sailed on several cruise lines,and researched others over past 17 years,but never been on MSC,but were considering one next spring.part of choosing a cruise for us,is looking at shore excursions. When looking at MSC

website, they,just like every other line,have the description, duration, and difficulty level,but unlike every other cruise line,they don't show the prices of the excursions. 

For us senior citizens, that is part of the choosing which cruise equation. 

Do you have to book a cruise to find that out,or is there somewhere to find it.

Thanks

I've never been able to see the excursion prices until the cruise is booked. If you list the itinerary and excursions you're considering, others may have it booked and could advise on prices. 

[Mark_T]

55 minutes ago, CruisingFox27 said:

I've never been able to see the excursion prices until the cruise is booked. If you list the itinerary and excursions you're considering, others may have it booked and could advise on prices. 

I was thinking the same thing, across multiple cruise lines I don't recall ever being able to check the price of an excursion for a particular cruise before it has been booked.

 

The good news is that as others have said, the MSC excursion prices all seem very reasonable to me when compared to other lines.

[margincall]

5 hours ago, Mark_T said:

I was thinking the same thing, across multiple cruise lines I don't recall ever being able to check the price of an excursion for a particular cruise before it has been booked.

 

The good news is that as others have said, the MSC excursion prices all seem very reasonable to me when compared to other lines.

On carnival and Norwegian,,always saw the prices prior to booking.

I know on carnival,and ncl you still can

Edited October 8, 2023 by margincall

[Bethwte]

I'm also a new MSC cruiser and also wanted to let you know that unlike some of the other lines, it seems MSC does not tell you the times of your excursions until on board (and apparently often the night before, per the answers I received on this board when I just asked about it). Now that may not matter to you if that's all you planned to do for the day, but I did find it a little frustrating. That said, the prices were pretty unbeatable so I can't be too mad about it. 

 

Example of pricing based on my upcoming cruise to Northern Europe. Please note sometimes NCL will offer $50 off per stateroom per excursion, so for you and your wife you could potentially subtract $25 per person from their numbers. MSC is pretty much always cheaper, even with that $25, sometimes significantly so. I'm not sure if Carnival offers deals as I haven't cruised with them in almost 20 years. Sorry that I can't help you with pricing for the Caribbean specifically.

 

Le Havre, France:

Rouen is $71 on MSC (5 hours) and $119 on NCL (5.25 hours), no option for just Rouen on Carnival

Honfleur is $83 on MSC (4.5 hours), $109 on NCL (4.25 hours), and $90 on Carnival (4 hours)

Le Havre by foot is $41 on MSC (3 hours) and $75 on NCL (3.25 hours)

Paris Sightseeing tour is $126 on MSC (10 hours), $199 on NCL 10.25 hours, and is $200 on Carnival (10.5 hours)

Mont St Michel is $126 on MSC (10 hours), NCL does not offer it, and $180 on Carnival (10.5 hours)

 

Zeebrugge:

Bruges Walking tour is $46 on MSC (4.5 hours) and $89 on NCL (4.25 hours), Carnival's tours are longer (8 hours) and are $110 for a walking tour and $79 for on your own.

Brussels is $69 on MSC (8 hours) and $109 on NCL (8 hours), Carnival's includes more of a guided tour and a lunch and is $130 (8 hours)

Ghent is $52 on MSC (5 hours) and is $109 on NCL (5.25 hours), Carnival's incudes the canal boat tour ($11 to do on your own) and is $120 (5 hours)

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:00 PM, margincall said:

But am I correct that you could not see prices until you booked the cruise?

well, yes, but it's like that for all the lines which we've been on. We never see prices until you book a cruise and you only see prices for that cruise.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

On 10/7/2023 at 12:00 PM, margincall said:

But am I correct that you could not see prices until you booked the cruise?

My wife is wary of that.she made an analogy that is like booking a cruise without knowing how much the cabin,or the pre paid gratuities are. 

not really, because you are not obligated to take an excursion in general and you are not obligated to purchase MSC excursions only. You can always book a 3rd party excursion.

[Até]

Actually, there is a way to see some MSC excursion pricing prior to booking by using the open-to-the-public MSC TA website feature.  See linked page, at the bottom you can fill out drop boxes to select your sailing and create a PDF file of available excursions that include pricing.  Note that the request form's "Port" field needs to be the embarkation port - and sometimes the PDF format is hard to read.  The PDF will include all excursions at each port of call of the sailing selected.  I have never verified their accuracy.

 

https://www.mscbook.com/shop/TAPortalExternalView?storeId=10757&catalogId=10001&langId=-1004&taportalIframeKey=MENU_EXCURSIONS

 

Attached example is Meraviglia for 5 November, 2023 out of NYC.

MR20231105NYCNYC.pdf

Edited October 9, 2023 by Até

[Nunagoras]

Prices will just to be shown once you have your cruise booked.

 

As pretty much everyone is saying, MSC shore excursions are usually very reasonably priced, far below RCI which is my unique comparison term. Sometimes those MSC excursions do come as cheap as some independent tours, which turns them very convenient and competitive.

[JamieLogical]

9 minutes ago, Até said:

Actually, there is a way to see some MSC excursion pricing prior to booking by using the open-to-the-public MSC TA website feature.  See linked page, at the bottom you can fill out drop boxes to select your sailing and create a PDF file of available excursions that include pricing.  Note that the request form's "Port" field needs to be the departure port - and sometimes the PDF format is hard to read.  The PDF will include all excursions at each port of call of the sailing selected.  I have never verified their accuracy.

 

https://www.mscbook.com/shop/TAPortalExternalView?storeId=10757&catalogId=10001&langId=-1004&taportalIframeKey=MENU_EXCURSIONS

 

Attached example is Meraviglia for 5 November, 2023 out of NYC.

MR20231105NYCNYC.pdf 305.81 kB · 1 download

 

Hey, that's super slow, but pretty nifty. Thanks for the tip about "port" meaning the embarkation port for the sailing. It seems fairly accurate. I put in the info for my 10/25 Meraviglia Sailing out of NYC and it seems to match.