Cruise Line vs Other shore excursions...

Hello there,

I am booked on Carnival Vista for a Europe cruise this summer, I am now planning my shore excursions, what are the pros and cons of using the cruise line shore excursions or the other independent companies...

Thanks

Cruise line: Ship will wait for you or get you to the next port of late.

- little effort on your part.

Independent - Cost

- usually smaller group

- willing to make adjustments

Much smaller group and cheaper if you do not use cruise lines, we are also doing Europe this summer and will avoid cruise lines excursions for most or all of the ports.

We have done two European cruises in recent years and never done a ship's excursion because we are too cheap. There are advantagesto ship's excursions in addition to not having to worry about getting back to the ship on time. They make your planning and research a lot easier. And you frequently get preferred times to get off the ship at the various ports. You basically do not have to worry about any aspect of the port visit other than the slim possibility something will be cancelled.

The main disadvantages are cost, doing everything with a crowd, and lack of flexibility to customize your tour. I also wonder how much time is spent getting everyone on and off the bus or from place to place.

Planning your own tours is very time consuming although I love it as part of the cruise experience. We have booked tours on line which is good if you want a lot of information about someplace - such as when we stopped in Ephesus and had very little personal knowledge of potential sites but realized it was very spread out and very diverse. We more often research the various sites in a port and then figure out how to use public transport to get to them and strike out on our own. We are lucky we can still walk a lot to offset all that wonderful cruise food. The other downside of booking your own is worrying if it will be good and making it back to port on time. But you can find a lot of advice here if you want to book/plan your own.

Enjoy. I am already working on our various ports for a British Isles cruise in June.

Another pro of the cruise line is that they do check out the safety of their vendors. Also sometimes the offer an excursion that you can't do on your own.

Keith

What date are you sailing? I'm on the July 1 Vista sailing. I have tours booked through italytoursharing.com. They get great reviews. There is room on the tours we have arranged if you are on the same sailing.

The futher away from the ship the more I look at the ship's excursions. Some excursions are only availiable to the ship when in port by contract. Sometimes just to be with friends... :cool::cool:

It depends on the port.

Some ports have VERY highly recommended private excursion companies, in those cases it is fairly safe and easy to find your own.

If the excursion is a long ways away (Lamani Ruins in Belize City for example... 2 hours each way).. its typically a bit safer to go with the ship.

Before you book anything...get and read a guidebook. What you want to do might not require a guide at all!

Booking thru the cruise lines is always more expensive. Private tours are less costly...and DIY is a HUGE savings, if possible! Knowing something about where you're going is always a good idea!

In smaller ports you may find that the cruise line has booked all of the vetted companies and you may be left with questionable providers or none.

Be sure to check any companies on Trip Advisor to check their ratings and read the comments.

I have taken some amazing private tours but I have also been on some great cruise line ones.