Carnival vs. independent shore trips?

[travelgrammy]

I hope this is the right place to post this question! I've seen references to taking shore excursions that aren't booked through Carnival, but I don't know how it works. What are the advantages of not going through the cruiseline? What are the disadvantages? And how do you find the shore trips if you don't go through the cruiseline? Can they be booked in advance? We're going to Catalina and Ensenada this cruise, if it matters.

Thanks in advance!

[phinfan63]

Personally, I vote for booking your excursions yourself. A good place to start in on the port of calls boards. Usually someone there has used someone they can recommend that is reliable.

 

Pros - they are usually cheaper, smaller amount of people involved and you can get an excursion more tailored for what you are looking for. A good tour operator will give you a lot of history for the island and show you things that you may not see on the cattle-drive version.

 

ex: we booked a driver in Montego Bay and he took us where we wanted to go and made suggestions. he gave us alot of information as we drove and took us to a local eatery that was great. We took a boat trip on the Black River (I think) and saw the crocodiles but we saw a booked excursion and the boat probably had 20-25 people in it. We only had the 4 of us and the boat driver - much better!

 

Cons - If they do not get you back to the ship in time, Carnival will leave you. This has not happened to me so far and I figure as long as you plan to arrive back at the ship 1-2 hours early - it shouldn't be a problem.

 

 

Just my two cents - take it for what it's worth. :)

[mzloolue]

The port of call boards are great.

 

There are tour guides who actually get most of their business through word of mouth on CC.

They want to give you a good tour because they really want the good feedback.

Two years ago we found edventures on the Calica board.

When we told them that we had found them on CC they were amazed because they had no idea that they were getting such good word of mouth and were unfamiliar with the web site but were, of course, really interested.

 

Last summer our "crew" went to Progreso Mexico.

One of our traveling companions booked through the ship to go to some nearby ruins.

Later, the rest of us decided to go too...

The cost for 10 of us to get a van to the ruins and back, pay entry, and hire a guide was less than the one person paid on the ship's tour.

We also got a more personal tour and got to stay longer and see more.

 

However, we have been very cautious to make sure that we plan to get back early and build some wiggle room into our plans.

 

And you have to be willing to spend the time to research your plans.

[Kudos2Fly]

For me it depends on how long we will be in an port. One time I did look in to doing our own excursion (non-ship) and I found that it wasn't really going to "save" that much money. $10-15 off what the ship would charge. To me that's not a big saving. I wouldn't want to have to worry about getting back to the ship.

 

But if you are in a port for a long time 6 hours or more, then you probably could go on your own.. We have done that before also...

 

So for me it depends on a few factors, but one is not to save money on a excursion.

[TheJunks]

I would suggest booking with a private company. We did and saved lots of money. Booking through a private company also gives you the opportunity to have a smaller group and more personal experience. Carnival excursions tend to have a ton of people and you don't get to experience as much. We saw this in Grand Cayman. Our boat had 20 people on it. The cruise ship excursion boats had about 100 people on it. The private companies make their living off these tours and are very good about getting back to the ship on time but it is still good to be aware of the times yourself. Also, on our cruise we talked to a lot of people that booked through Carnival and had their excursions cancelled when the private companies still went and were fine. We found all of our companies from the individual cruise ship reviews on this website. People listed what excursions they did and with who. It was a great help!!! :)

[Leo Jay]

I wouldn't worry too much about getting left behind unless your independent excursion...

 

(A) is quite a distance from port,

(B) uses transportation of questionable reliability and/or

© is scheduled to return to port uncomfortably close to the ship's scheduled departure time

 

We have one port like that, so we do the ship excursion there; otherwise, I'd just go with whatever suits your interest, price considerations, etc.

[LHP]

It truly depends on the port and how comfortable you are with "independent" travel.

 

Fortunately, there are only a couple of ports that we have been to where I would not venture out on our own. Jamaica and Belize to name two.

We don't frighten easily. We did Israel on our own! But the poverty in these two ports have created a tense and unhealthy situation where you can get in over your heads in a hurry. Sadly, in Jamaica you are not always guaranteed safety...even on a ship tour. But those are rare and your odds are much better on a ship tour.

 

Ports that are extremely cruiser friendly like Cozumel, St Thomas, St Maarten, Grand Cayman and Costa Maya do not have large safety issues.

 

Independent tours do save you money. However, if you are the kind of traveler that is going to allow the worry to interrupt a good time in port...then by all means use a ship tour. Until folks have traveled for awhile, they are just not comfortable being on their own and that is perfectly ok.

 

Also, I would always do a ship tour if the destination I want to go to is more than an hour from the pier OR requires leaving the island. For example, Cozumel is the safest place I know....BUT if I was going to do the Xcaret tour (which requires leaving the island on a 45 minute ferry ride) I would only do that through the ship.

 

Whatever you do, always keep your watch on SHIP time....because that is the sailing time that the ship uses.

 

Know your comfort zone and act accordingly. None of us "climbed Mt Everest" alone the first time out!!

 

Have a great cruise.

[Wennfred]

It cost alot less to book your own private excursion but you are better off booking with Carnival. Some of the reasons, the tour guides Carnival hires are checked out. If your tour is late returning back to the ship due to a flat tire etc. Carnival will wait for you.

 

But this is one of the coolest reasons to book with Carnival:

 

Posted by Golf43

I just returned from the Carnival Sensation. I learned something that I thought I would share with all of you. We took an excursion booked through Carnival. I tripped over something and fell while on this excursion. I had to go to the ship's Infirmary. I saw a doctor, they took x-rays. Gave me 2 packets of Motrin and put a splint bandage on my hand. Since I was on a Carnival excursion, Carnival paid for all of it. If this happened with an excursion not associated with Carnival then I would have had to pay for it.

When I walked into the Infirmary the nurse said to me that the doctor fee to start off with would be $60.00. Then she asked if I was on a Carnival excursion. I said Yes. Then she said that Carnival would pay for all of it.

 

 

Fred

[Leo Jay]

It cost alot less to book your own private excursion but you are better off booking with Carnival. Some of the reasons, the tour guides Carnival hires are checked out. If your tour is late returning back to the ship due to a flat tire etc. Carnival will wait for you.

 

But this is one of the coolest reasons to book with Carnival:

 

Posted by Golf43

I just returned from the Carnival Sensation. I learned something that I thought I would share with all of you. We took an excursion booked through Carnival. I tripped over something and fell while on this excursion. I had to go to the ship's Infirmary. I saw a doctor, they took x-rays. Gave me 2 packets of Motrin and put a splint bandage on my hand. Since I was on a Carnival excursion, Carnival paid for all of it. If this happened with an excursion not associated with Carnival then I would have had to pay for it.

When I walked into the Infirmary the nurse said to me that the doctor fee to start off with would be $60.00. Then she asked if I was on a Carnival excursion. I said Yes. Then she said that Carnival would pay for all of it.

 

 

Fred

 

That's good, I guess, but sort of odd. If you tripped and fell on board, you'd have to pay your own medical expenses (assuming it wasn't due to Carnival's negligence) -- sort of illogical that if the same thing happens on one of 'their' excursions off the ship, they pay.