Reserving shore excursions onboard?

[European_CruiseGirl]

Hi all - I would need your advice on reserving shore excursions. We are planning with DH our shore excursions for our upcoming Noordam 11 day cruise and have already booked one "must do/see" shore excursion. However we are unsure about what to do at one port in particular (St Maarten). We could do some shopping, go to a beach or do an island tour and cannot seem to decide which one to choose in advance.

 

I know that shore excursions can also be booked onboard but how big is the risk that very many of the excursions are already fully booked by then? I have noticed that some excursions are listed on HAL's pages as "space limited" but we wouldn't be interested in any of those at St Maarten. So are basically all other available until the booking deadline or are there still some capacity restrictions so that when you try to book them onboard you will find out that nearly everything is already sold out?

 

Have you reserved your shore excursions always in advance or have you also booked them onboard? And what are your experiences on the availability of shore excursions if you have reserved them onboard? And finally - is the price of a shore excursion higher when purchased onboard and not in advance?

 

Thank's again for your help! :)

[NYreadytogo]

We have purchased shore excursions on board many times. They cost the same on board as if you pre-book. Some popular ones and ones that are exclusively through the cruiselines (like catamaran champagne sails), do get booked up, but most do not. For things like bus trips they tend to just get extra buses if more people sign up. If you'd only be interested in the generic- "tour around the island" or "get taken to a beach" trips, then I would be shocked if those were fully booked when you got on board.

[bruce-r]

We almost never go with the ship's excursions. The only time we have to is when visiting the cruise line's private island. In that case we reserved a cabana as soon as they became available to reserve online.

[arzz]

On many of the Caribbean islands, if all your want is a drive around tour, you can usually do that on the pier when you get off the ship. There are usually taxi and van drivers that have excursions that will cost less than those offered on the ship to do a generic island tour. If you hire your own driver negotiate your price and how long you will tour before you get in the taxi. With a private driver you can also determine exactly where you wish to go.

 

I would not hesitate to do that on St. Maarten -- I do believe that we have, in the past. We have done such tours on many of the islands. We have had many good experiences this way. I would not do it in Jamaica -- in fact I usually do not get off the boat in Jamaica. Use some judgement as to where you go off independently.

 

Just be sure that you know how long you have for touring and when you need to be back to the ship.

 

If there is a must see or must do, by all means reserve it in advance with HAL -- you do not want to miss a "must do".

 

Many people haunt the shore excursion boards on CC to get advice from others as to what to do. You can often find some really good recommendations for trips and tours to book in advance with independent operators that are recommended by other cruise critic members. This, too, we have done but only when we find several posters who tell the same story and have the same recommendation about the tour operator.

 

Good luck and enjoy whatever you do.

[MercedMike]

On many of the Caribbean islands, if all your want is a drive around tour, you can usually do that on the pier when you get off the ship. There are usually taxi and van drivers that have excursions that will cost less than those offered on the ship to do a generic island tour. If you hire your own driver negotiate your price and how long you will tour before you get in the taxi. With a private driver you can also determine exactly where you wish to go.

 

We usually take the ship’s shore excursions. The stranger and more exotic the port, the more likely we are to take the ship’s excursions. The ship delivers a large number of people to that port, often with great regularity. Usually the shore excursion staff can be relied on to know the best excursion companies, have chartered the best vehicles, reserved the best guides who speak the best English, tied up the admission to the best attractions at the best times, and in general have taken care of seeing that the very best is available to their passengers. In addition, the ship’s shore excursion staff monitors the ship tours, and makes sure that all their passengers are back aboard in plenty of time. More than once I have seen massive traffic jams which delayed lots of buses and vans. The ships passengers on shore excursions were accounted for, accomodated, given special dining times and all taken care of. Others were on their own.

 

You can go to the Internet and shop around for independent excursion operators. Port Promotions is one, and is sometimes $3 or $4 less than the ship's excursion, but its choices are severely limited. Shoretrips.com is another. At cruiseconcierge.com you will find listings for lots of independent operators. You can just go to Google and put in the name of the port and "tour" and it will turn up a lot of information for you. We have done that with considerable success, in more "civilized" ports where we felt things were well regulated, especially when there were things we wanted to see that were not on the regular ship's excursions. But you have to understand you are on your own if anything befalls. If you take an independent tour and your tour vehicle gets lost or has a flat, be sure you have your camera with you, because you might have an opportunity to take a great picture of the stern of your ship as she sails out of the harbor without you!

 

If you get off at dockside and try to find a tour you are taking the leftovers. Negotiating with a taxi driver is not a good way to find out how much he knows or how good his English is, but it is a good way to let him know that you are carrying what may be, to him, a substantial amount of cash. A lot of people do it and love it, but in general it is too risky for me!

 

Have a GREAT cruise!