Shore excursions, Voyager.

[cac&mjn]

I believe the search is down.......... what is the typical price range of shore excursions booked with the ship? TIA

[Travelcat2]

It would help if you posted the ports you will be visiting. Some ship excursions (Alaska) are extremely expensive. :)

[cac&mjn]

It would help if you posted the ports you will be visiting. Some ship excursions (Alaska) are extremely expensive. :)

 

Cozumel

Belize City

Costa Maya

Costa Thomas de Castilla

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Hmm., I've done those ports, last December. All I can find right now is this:

 

DATE: Tuesday December 18, 2007

PORT: Santo Tomas de Castilla

TOUR CODE: SST-2265

EXCURSION: Visit to Q'eqchi Indigenous River Community

DURATION: 6 Hours

DEPARTS: 9:00 AM

PRICE (US$): $125.00

# OF TICKETS: 2

 

It was worth it. Can't find any of the other prices...

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Oh, I found these too:

 

YOUR SHORE EXCURSION REQUESTS:

 

DATE: Sunday December 16, 2007

PORT: Cozumel

TOUR CODE: COZ-1827

EXCURSION: Exploring Cozumel by Jeep & Snorkel

DURATION: 4 1/2 Hours

DEPARTS: 12:30 PM

PRICE (US$): $79.00

# OF TICKETS: 2

 

DATE: Monday December 17, 2007

PORT: Belize City

TOUR CODE: BLZ-6675

EXCURSION: Lamanai Mayan Ruins & New River Cruise

DURATION: 7 1/2 Hours

DEPARTS: 8:30 AM

PRICE (US$): $89.00

 

 

Avoid that Cozumel excursion like the plague.

[Island Cruiser]

We have noticed the price of shore excursions, like everything else, going significantly up. As the value of the dollar declines and the cost of everything else goes up, that is inevitable. You really have only three choices: arrive at the port and go solo and take your chances, book a ship's tour, or make private advance arrangements. Your choice on "solo" depends a lot on (1) the port and (2) your personal independence and flexibility. Sometimes solo has worked well for us, other times not so well. The ship's tours are a bit pricey by our standards but usually pretty well done and predictable. But one of the things you can predict with unfortunate reliability is you have a good chance of encountering Jake Snake on your ship's tour (holds up the bus by arriving late, really late, complains loudly and constantly, asks repeated stupid questions of the guide, and/or starts lobbying to go back to the ship well before the tour is completed, and worse. You want to throw him/her overboard!) We have had generally good luck arranging private tours in advance. Easy to do in some places, nearly impossible in others. We've discovered if you can link up with one or two couples in booking a private tour, the cost is about the same or only a little bit more than booking a ship's tour. So we arrange private tours whenever we can. Just got back from a sensational Black Sea cruise on Navigator. Our four private tours were sensational. But our ship's tours were quite good too. Jake Snake must be adverse to the Black Sea. Pat

[NCCruzQueen]

The next Voyager Western Caribbean cruise is Dec. 1. The Regent website states that the excursions come available for booking on Aug. 3. You should get an idea of the possible excursions and costs then.

[Travelcat2]

We have done the Western Caribbean cruise. In this particular case, Regent was not the way to go (I did a review of this on CC -- Navigator, 2007). We found private and small group tours that were wonderful -- priced competitively (less than Regent). There were six ships docked in Cozumel -- several thousand people there. There are small group tours that are very good. Belize -- loved the cave tubing excursion (private excursion). Our Regent tour in Key West was a disaster -- not a matter of money -- it was just a mess (120+ Carnival passengers guzzling (not even sure how to spell that) beer with only 6-7 Regent passengers.

 

While I believe that Regent has some wonderful tours -- it seems that there are better non-Regent excursions offered in the Western Caribbean!

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Unless Key West is completely new to you, just get off the ship and walk around. Very pleasant, and it's free.

 

In Guatemala, we took the ship's tour instead of a private tour on the advice of a woman who posts sometimes who is Guatemalan. It turned out very well--it was a concierge tour, i.e., fewer people, and it was very nicely done.

[OrpingtonT]

On two occasions we have not called at scheduled ports because of diversions due to medical emergencies. I know that this is not an infrequent occurrance, but if you have booked a Regent shore excursion you will not incur any charge. I suspect you may well have to pay at least part of the charge if you have booked private arrangements.