Shore Excursions

[lorraine22]

I will be traveling to San Juan, St. Maartin, Charlotte Amalie, and Puerto Plato. I was hoping to use my cruise line to book excursions (Celebrity Apex), but the ones that interest me are sold out. Any recommendations on other excursion companies would be appreciated. I was looking on Shore Excursions but didn't know if they were reputable or not.

 

Thank you.

[1025cruise]

You should check out the ports of call boards for your ports.

[BklynBoy8]

With our personal cruise line website, we monitor any tours that are sold out to see if additional ones are added.

 

We also wait till we are on board to see the tour sheet they forward to us to use to see if again any more tours are added on. The ship may see the demand for addition tours to be added and contact the island to arrange.

 

We personally do not do personal tours as we feel protected touring with the ship. You are personally protected by the staff and are assured not to miss the ship. The ship waits for all tours by bus by the tour office till departure. Personal arranged tours will be responsible to be back to the ship on time.

 

Expensives yes! But there are pluses working with the ship.

[crystalspin]

2 minutes ago, BklynBoy8 said:

We personally do not do personal tours as we feel protected touring with the ship. You are personally protected by the staff and are assured not to miss the ship. The ship waits for all tours by bus by the tour office till departure. Personal arranged tours will be responsible to be back to the ship on time.

Expensives yes! But there are pluses working with the ship.

It should be noted that the ship will wait for ship's tours IF THEY CAN. A ship left their own and at least one private tour in Costa Rica recently. The captain had to make the Panama Canal schedule! The left-behind people missed the PC. The difference was, the cruiseline paid for the ship's tour people to meet the ship on the Atlantic side of the Canal; the private tour had to arrange their own.

 

There surely are pluses to working with the ship.

[sanger727]

Any of the "shore excursion" companies are third party sellers that don't guarantee the quality or safety of excursions.

 

We personally almost always book locally. We use the ports of call board for recommendations and trip advisor to find highly rated tour companies. And then we book directly. We have had some really exceptional tours going this route. It isn't just about the money; cruise tours tend to be large and impersonal. 

[bbwex]

We have, for the most part, used private tours on all of our cruises.  The private companies depend on being certain to get their groups back in time.  I have read a lot of these boards, and have never heard of a private tour company being late.  Yes people who go off on their own have missed the ship, but that has always been passengers who did not go on any tour at all, but went off by themselves.  Tour companies generally guarantee that they will get you to the next port if need be, but, as I said, I have never heard that that was ever necessary.  A private company that missed getting their people back would be out of business the next day.

 

I do go on the Ports of Call section and spend some time going through the notes to get a feel for which companies are the better ones.  I don't go by a single posting, as that can be unreliable, but if you read a bunch of postings, you will get the drift.

 

Private tours, particularly in busy ports, can be much more efficient. Ships' tours are generally on large buses and you wait for the slowest person to get back on the bus before you can go on.  Private tours generally keep together better, and use smaller vehicles that can navigate the roads more easily.  Plus you can ask to add something that you found out was worth doing.

[lenquixote66]

We have always booked on the ship and usually the night before.Only once has the excursion been closed out.

[fruitmachine]

8 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

We have always booked on the ship and usually the night before.Only once has the excursion been closed out.

Given the number of people that post on CC that their ship's excursion to X, Y or Z was sold out when they tried to book online, that must be extraordinary!  Could it be that the only ones you were offered were those with space?

[cruisemom42]

14 hours ago, lenquixote66 said:

We have always booked on the ship and usually the night before.Only once has the excursion been closed out.

 

When is the last time you cruised?

 

Things have changed post-Covid. There are fewer guides available so fewer tours offered and much greater likelihood of selling out.

[lorraine22]

We cruised back in December of 2019.

[lorraine22]

I'll check with the cruise line before trying to go another route. So, even though the excursion says it's closed out, I guess there's a possibility that people may cancel?

[mammajamma2013]

5 minutes ago, lorraine22 said:

I'll check with the cruise line before trying to go another route. So, even though the excursion says it's closed out, I guess there's a possibility that people may cancel?

There's always a possibility of cancellations, but if it's a tour you're really interested in, it's better to find an independent tour guide. It is more time consuming because of the research you need to do, but you will get some good results.

 

I've used Shore Excursion Group and been happy with them. Someone on Cruise Critic also suggested looking into Tours by Locals as being a good way to find excursions. The Ports of Call here on CC is filled with great ideas, also. Good luck finding what you want and have a great cruise.

[lorraine22]

Thanks so much!

[sanger727]

2 hours ago, lorraine22 said:

I'll check with the cruise line before trying to go another route. So, even though the excursion says it's closed out, I guess there's a possibility that people may cancel?

 

we planned a last minute outing on a cruise once. We had plans to tour independently and then the rest of my group opted to stay on the ship for the day. My DH and I checked out the excursions available and whale watching was the only thing that interested us, but it was sold out. They put us on the waiting list and the evening before we were informed that we could go on the excursion. So yes, I don't know if they do a waiting list ahead of the cruise, but they should do one on the ship.

[lorraine22]

Thanks.

[lenquixote66]

11 hours ago, fruitmachine said:

Given the number of people that post on CC that their ship's excursion to X, Y or Z was sold out when they tried to book online, that must be extraordinary!  Could it be that the only ones you were offered were those with space?

Or ones that no one else had a desire to do.

[lenquixote66]

6 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

When is the last time you cruised?

 

Things have changed post-Covid. There are fewer guides available so fewer tours offered and much greater likelihood of selling out.

I last cruised December. 2019