Cruising Excursions.Com

The company Cruising Excursions.com has been recommended to me by my travel agent. There prices are considerbly cheaper than the cruise company. Which is fine if the tours are the same or better quality. Clearly you do expect a certain standard from the Cruise company's.

So my question to cruise critic members is :

Has anyone used this company for trips in Spain ?

Many thanks

Again, a search would find threads like this:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2226464

As mentioned, some issues with customer service...

The company Cruising Excursions.com has been recommended to me by my travel agent. There prices are considerbly cheaper than the cruise company. Which is fine if the tours are the same or better quality. Clearly you do expect a certain standard from the Cruise company's.

 

So my question to cruise critic members is :

 

Has anyone used this company for trips in Spain ?

 

I've not used this particular group. But I want to take some issue with you saying "Clearly you do expect a certain standard from the Cruise company's" which implies a HIGH standard. Other than the "guarantee" the ship won't leave until you get back, I've seldom seen anything a ship's tour offers that is superior to a private tour. If not this company, find another. We've had private tours in Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, and ALL, without exception, were excellent and lived up to what they promised. In fact, a couple of the tours we had were, frankly, among the highlights of my lifetime (as far as travel) and this would not have been so on ship's tour (we've done a couple). And in some instances (such as in Turkey and Egypt) our PRIVATE TOUR FOR 2 was cheaper than something comparable on a bus. And when the private tour WAS more expensive, it was still worth it. When we stopped in Livorno a couple of years ago, we had our driver take us to Pisa first before heading to Florence. We were there looking around, taking pictures, joining the first group up to the top of the tower, and only as we were leaving did the first bus from the ship show up. For us, cruising is a splurge and the shore excursions are the high points, so we try to maximize them.

They are just a reseller. They do not operate tours themselves. If you want to book a private tour, it's a good idea to book with the operator themselves. You can ask them more detailed questions etc.

As Aquilegia's post, they're a booking agency / consolidator / broker / call-it-what-you-will. Same as better-known agencies like Viator and CityDiscovery, but specialising in shore excursions. A number of other agencies have sprung up too but cruisingexcursions, UK-based, seem to have gained the support of a number of UK travel agencies - my guess is that those travel agents have been targeted by cruisingexcursions, possibly sweetened with a share of their commission.

Their tours will have many similarities to ships' tours but they'll not be the same in detail or run by the same operators.

They get very mixed reviews - mostly about the quality of the tours, which is more down to the tour operators themselves. But I've also seen examples where they have been slow and reticent about refunding - and refunds should be a significant advantage of using a middle-man like an agency or a cruise line.

Booking through a cruise line is certainly no guarantee of a good and problem-free tour, I've seen and heard of (and once experienced) plenty of poor ships' tours - but have never heard of a problem with refunds.

A recommendation carries little weight in law, but I don't know the legal obligations of travel agents if you book a tour through them.

The other advantage of a ship-booked tour, "we guarantee you won't miss your sailing", is grossly over-played by cruise lines in an attempt to scare you into booking their over-priced tours. Very rarely (eg Luxor or Hanoi) is it a significant risk.

In most circumstance you're much better-off to book direct with a well-reviewed local tour operator, but it does mean research, research, research.

Just MHO as always

JB :)