Excursion selection general questions

[OhPinchy]

We've narrowed down our choice of cruises to two: Norwegian Pearl (Miami, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel, Grand Stirrup Cay) and the RCI Mariner of the Seas (Port Canaveral, Labadee, Haiti; Ocho Rios, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; Cozumel, Mexico).

 

It seems the deciding factor for us will now be based on which ports of call appeal the most. We'll be going in mid-November so it's fairly last minute but hopefully we can still get places on excusrions that suit.

 

We're very interested in snorkelling, snuba, scuba, and seeing wildlife. The Mayan ruins in Belize also sound fascinating.

 

From reading these boards it seems some ports have a dock where you can walk off the boat, in others (like Belize) the ship anchors at see and you 'tender' in to the shore on smaller boats which eats a good chunk of your available time.

 

Is there any thread or site that lists all available excursions for each port (independent and cruise company organised)? At the moment I'm just trawling through threads on the Port of Calls forums and trying to piece it together to form a view of what's available.

 

It seems the pros of booking with cruiseline is that they have to wait for you to get back to the boat, though downside is they tend to be expensive and I'm guessing quite packed? Upside of going independent is more variety, possibility of a more private experience, and price with downside being the risk of missing the boat.

 

When booking independently do you pay in advance - I'd really prefer not to? I'd prefer the flexibility of being able to decide if we want to do an excursion on the day but I guess that's not really an option?

 

Is there anything that mightn't be obvious that we should consider when arranging excursions? I have bit of time available so I should be able to research on the web etc. as needed but appreciate any tips - thoughts on any of the above ports more than welcome too :D

[Toyz711]

i can only speak for NCL...they charge the excursions to your on-board account. the tickets are in your cabin, at check in, and the billing shows up on the 1st day billing. most excursions can be cancelled 48 before, there are a few excursions that have other cancellation rules.

belize is a tender port..all ships must tender, there is no dock for the cruiseships. because of this and the time involved...i did the NCL tour for lamanai. we had 23 people on the tour and a very good tour guide.

on tender ports, the ship's excursions and the VIP get off on the 1st tender (on our ship, they were very strict about it...some ships aren't)

we were off the ship at 8:15 and on the bus by 8:30..lamanai is a full day tour, we made it back 20 mins before the last tender (5pm)

here's a website that show both lamanai and altun ha

http://www.belizeexplorer.com/cgi-local/explorer.cgi?db=explorer&uid=default&Category=Mayan+Sites&view_records=1&nh=1

 

i have photos of lamanai in my webshot link (in signature)..we didn't do anything in roatan.

we did see howler monkeys (high in the trees) at lamanai

[fann1sh]

You can get a quick snapshot of port highlights on CruiseCritic here:

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/ports/area.cfm?area=9

 

The ship's own excursions are more expensive than what you can arrange on your own. On the other hand, the ship will wait for one of its own excursions if you're late returning. On most islands of the Caribbean, it's hard to get so far from port you can't get a taxi back in time. For Belize, depending on the site, I might go with the ship's own tour for safety.

 

There are online providers who compete with the ship's excursions. This is one:

 

http://shoretrips.com/

[cb at sea]

Sometimes, excursions are still avail. on the day of, but you can't really count on that!

You can wait until you board to make your choices--they do hold back a number of spots for those who don't do the "computer" thing.

Anything with a tight time schedule, I'd do through the ship--but I like to play it safe!

[OhPinchy]

Appreciate the thoughts folks, thanks.

 

I saw it mentioned on a thread here that there's a site out there where you can check how many cruise ships will be in a particular port on a given day to help you predict how busy it will be etc. Somebody mentioned porttimes.com but that doesn't seem to be an actual live site and I couldn't find any such site by searching - does one exist?

[fann1sh]

Sadly, porttime.com just closed down in the last couple days. The owner couldn't justify the work it took for the revenue it generated with advertisements.

 

There's another website, but it isn't free. Check out:

 

http://www.cruisecal.com/portal/

 

Just my opinion, but think it's worth the subscription price to be able to check how many ships/passengers in port.

[OhPinchy]

Thanks for that fann1sh, I'll look at that site, seems to be exactly what I need. Think I'll start with a subscription for a month or 2 ($3 per month) and see how useful I find it.

[OhPinchy]

So I've subscribed to CruiseCal.com and had a look at the number of ports that will be in each port for the 2 cruises we're considering and here's how it looks:

 

NCL Pearl 16th November from Miami:

Roatan, Honduras: Pearl will be the only ship in port.

Belize: 3 ships in port (Pearl, Veendam, Carnival Miracle)

Cozumel, Mexico: 4 ships in port (Pearl, Ruby Princess, Liberty of the Seas, Carnival Inspiration)

Great Stirrup Cay: Pearl will be the only ship in this privately owned port.

 

Mariner of the Seas 16th November from Port Canaveral:

Labadee, Haiti: Mariner will be the only ship in this privately owned island.

Ochos Rios, Jamaica: Mariner will be the only ship.

Grand Cayman: 4 ships in port (Mariner, Westerdam, Carnival Conquest, Carnival Triumph)

Cozumel: 4 ships in port (Mariner, Independence of the Seas, Ocena, Carnival Conquest).

 

We have been leaning towards going with the NCL Pearl as the ports seem to offer better snorkelling and diving we're after, but should we be concerned that Belize and Cozumel might be overrun due to the large number of ships in port on those days (and Grand Cayman if we were to go with the Mariner)?