SHORE EXCURSIONS by CELEBRITY?

So, those who choose the larger excursions often offered by the cruise lines are mentally deficient? We always choose ship excursions for sea and snorkel excursions. Those are on catamarans, not little boats. Entry and exit from the vessel is much easier. Plus, they must get you back aboard, not leave you in the water for fish food, as a private tour person might. Different people have different needs, and anyone who doesn't know that has rocks in their head!

 

 

 

Shaco

Private sea and snorkel excursions are usually better than ship excursions. The ship excursions tend to cram as many passengers in the boat as they can. I have done both but prefer the independent ones. I have done many. They generally tend to be better and as a bonus cost less. And they won't leave you behind. They depend on good reviews on Cruise Critic and TripAdviser. You definitely need to research when picking a private tour.

Also while the ship excursions will get you back, it might be the next port. They don't always wait. Sometimes they can't because of tides or the port orders them out.

Ship shore excursions are a last resort for me because they are almost always overpriced. I always look at doing my own thing first, usually by public transport. If that is too difficult I look at private tours and only choose the ship's excursion if time is an issue. The anxiety of being stuck in traffic on the way back from a private excursion when the ship sails in an hour is not something I'm keen to experience.

 

However, apart from cost I think comparing the different options is like apples and oranges. Each type of tour has it's own plusses and minuses, even if one of the plusses of a shore excursion is laughing at the stupidity of the one or two idiots who always find their way into a big group :D

I've done a lot of excursion's on my own not to save money had a wonderful taxi service in Corfu, had a not so wonderful tour in Venice (guide recommended by Rick Steve's), had a wonderful tour of Lisbon private guide & van (also recommended by Rick Steve's) lol etc etc etc none were to save money only to enhance the experience! Had a great NCL tour in Santorini had a mediocre jeep adventure in Mykonos also NCL Had a great Olympia/farm tour NCL:rolleyes: lol! :confused::D:eek:

Hello to OP! I will on the same sailing and yes I saw your post in the roll call and the responses.

Can't agree more with the 'mixed' approach suggested by many above. I have very little cruise experience but I have always been the one doing all the research for all of my family when we travel in other modes so I was really comfortable with choosing and picking private tours which can be more personal and often cheaper. At some destinations we chose to rent a car which was both cheaper and provided more flexibility. But really the choices depends on factors such as accessibility of the port, familiarity with local languages etc.

My first and only cruise so far was to Alaska and we didn't take any ship excursion because I did a lot of research and it seems that almost all private tour companies in Alaska are very legit and there was rarely any really awful experience mentioned. Also the Alaskan cruises are very popular and I could find vast amount of information just by googling or looking at the CC forum.

However for the upcoming Asian cruise, there isn't as much information - there are some, and it took a bit more digging to find them. I am an Asian I live in Singapore and my friends/relatives travel to these Southeast Asian countries very often only that they have never done through a cruise and their usual itinerary generally consist of close to zero planning and just lazing around on the resort beach and/or shopping so even as an Asian I can't find as much information about Asian cruises.

Apart from that, I think the biggest difference between Asian cruise ports and Alaskan/Caribbean ports is that many of the advertised destinations are in fact very far away from the ports and requires some long uncomfortable bus rides on roads that may be in very bad conditions (of course that's not the case in Singapore and Hong Kong - it is really easy to get around everywhere using public transport). We always love to explore on our own but in this case it is impossible to just walk off the ship and start exploring - the Thai and Vietnam ports in our itinerary are all commercial ports with nothing to do around it.

For our sailing, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City are about 2 hours drive one way from port and Hanoi about 3-4 hours drive one way from Halong Bay port where we will be tendering. Taxi rides that long aren't exactly cheap and some haggling skills are required also at some of the ports taxis will be in shortage. Of course, renting a car seems totally out of question - don't think any of us are used to driving in places like Thailand/Vietnam. The cheaper alternative will be to charter a van if you have a larger group or find people on the roll call to split the cost. But considering that we are only a group of 2 and the ship is offering a 'Do it on your own' option which is not significantly more expensive I will probably just do that. I may be wrong but it seems that at least in Asia the ship's tour prices aren't that much marked up compared to the private tours so for a small group of 2, the savings may be quite insignificant anyway.

Oh and I could also mention another scenario, say if you have some OBC and think that it won't be used up on drinks/food you may find it logical to use the OBC to purchase some shore excursion from the ship.

Ultimately as many have already mentioned, there are many different considerations for different destinations and different people with different travel styles so there is really no saying which option is absolutely better than the other.

Happy sailing and hope to meet you soon onboard!

As the topic starter I tend to agree with below - from tinywingz - I am doing the Singapore to Hong Kong and the prices compared with the hassle etc I have decided to go with Celebrity this time.:)

"For our sailing, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City are about 2 hours drive one way from port and Hanoi about 3-4 hours drive one way from Halong Bay port where we will be tendering. Taxi rides that long aren't exactly cheap and some haggling skills are required also at some of the ports taxis will be in shortage. Of course, renting a car seems totally out of question - don't think any of us are used to driving in places like Thailand/Vietnam. The cheaper alternative will be to charter a van if you have a larger group or find people on the roll call to split the cost. But considering that we are only a group of 2 and the ship is offering a 'Do it on your own' option which is not significantly more expensive I will probably just do that. I may be wrong but it seems that at least in Asia the ship's tour prices aren't that much marked up compared to the private tours so for a small group of 2, the savings may be quite insignificant anyway."