Excursions Pricing with Explora Journeys

[jbfg8r]

Seeking feedback from past Explora Journeys passengers, particularly those who have sailed in the Caribbean: Are the excursion prices on this premium cruise line comparably premium, or do they align with the costs of organized excursions on other MSC, NCL, Royal and then like? Additionally, is it still feasible to arrange private tours with external operators?

[kris816]

You may want to check out the thread called Explora Destination Experiences Caribbean posted by Cruisingxpert. Someone posted an attachment of excursions that includes pricing. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be feasible to do your own excursions. I plan to do that in March. 

[mike@sea]

Excursion prices were reasonable for what you get in my experience. I would however not compare it to the ones on the big cruise companies ( the ones you mentioned ), as they have a whole different passenger count to calculate their prices off. 
Just looked at excursion prices with e.g. Windstar on the other hand, and I „feel“ that they are much more expensive than compared to Explora. Especially given the fact, that their excursions read exactly like the ones you would receive on the mass market lines, just at a much steeper price.
I will not book any excursion with them on my upcoming cruise (Ägais) for that reason.

 

Explora felt different and I was happy with them, got my money‘s worth so to say.

Most, if not all Explora excursions seemed a bit more refined in content, smaller groups, much more varied. 
 

The pros and cons for private tours are well known. I am definitely on team „Explora excursions“ to feel safe and well taken care of. 

[Dr. Cocktail]

I will add to Mikes' excellent post.

 

Our first excursion in Martinique was superb - decent enough snorkeling but a superb seafood luncheon with wines and cheeses on the way home. Not crowded and excellent.

 

The other two were "standard" snorkeling excursions but with easily 1/2 the number of guests onboard as the major cruise lines.

 

The low number of passengers really made socializing very pleasant and the crew were spectacular in handling a medical emergency on one of the trips.

[jbfg8r]

Thanks, I noticed that topic. It seemed to be an alternative question, however if there is an excursion attachment then I'll look for it.

[jbfg8r]

23 hours ago, kris816 said:

You may want to check out the thread called Explora Destination Experiences Caribbean posted by Cruisingxpert. Someone posted an attachment of excursions that includes pricing. I don’t see why it wouldn’t be feasible to do your own excursions. I plan to do that in March. 

Must be an older excursion list as it's not including the ports on the western itinerary that I was looking into.  But none less thanks. It certainly gives me an idea on cost.

[Misssmb]

I think they may need to work on better descriptions. We booked a Beach excursion on an island in Greece and it didn’t tell you what was included. It turns out that it included two chairs, and umbrella and $30 credit per person towards food or drink. I was, however, a little disappointed that it was a tender port and by the time we got off and walked to the buses and drove to the beach we didn’t get as much time there as we were supposed to get.