Shore Excursions

[Cruisin' S. Pacific]

Am doing a South Pacific cruise with Holland America this fall. My complaint is that they take the local tour operator's price, contract exclusivity with them for that day, and jack the price up as much as double. The local operators tell me they are then not allowed to take direct bookings for that day from the ship's passengers.

We are travelling to Nuka Hiva, Papeete, Moorea, Bora Bora, Raiatea, Rarotonga, Pago Pago , Suva, and Port Vila. My question is did any of you find when you arrived onshore that there were a lot of local people offering their own tours around the islands in most of these places

Any advice would be appreciated!

[kakalina]

We have done this itinerary 3 times and the 4th in March 10. If you email me I can give you info on several private shorexes we've dealt with in the past. Also if you check out the Hawaii/South Pacific boards here there is lots of helpful info. We have been to most of these ports but not the last three listed.

[aussiedisneyfan]

Do have a look at the ports of call thread. Lots of info about tours there. The only ones we haven't been to are Nuka Hiva and Pago Pago. I think there were tours from the wharf in just about every port. We had booked privately for Bora Bora and Raiatea.

Also have a look at the P&O Australia threads as they tend to talk about anything over there and a lot of the ships go to Port Vila.

[wowzo]

If you are on the Amsterdam, go to the roll call board. They are booking private tours like mad.

MaryAnn