Excursion help on board (or lack thereof)

After seeing the post from an Adventure OTS cruiser that I copied below with my reply, I am wondering if this type of occurrence is more prevalent than I ever would have expected. Has anyone else experienced this?

quote=scottnkim;53641477]

Other staggering thing- stopped by the Excursion desk afternoon before St. Lucia. 2 ladies working there actually told us they have no idea about the island- they had never been there themselves, and had only been working for 3 weeks. They were certainly honest, but didn't expect to be told "Uh- your're on your own!".

This same thing happened to us on Anthem in 2015 and it was even more ridiculous. The only 2 people from the excursion department were both on vacation at the same time. The rest of the staff was new (literally the third day for one of them) and not one of them had ever been to that particular port (Barbados).

Fortunately, the guy from the jewelry port shopping desk knew everything and did a great job in guiding us. We informed corporate of his extra effort.

I think I will start a separate thread. Will be interesting to see if this has happened with any type of regularity.

After 10 years of cruising RCCL I don't think we've ever visited the excursion desk. Guess we haven't been missing much....:p

After 10 years of cruising RCCL I don't think we've ever visited the excursion desk. Guess we haven't been missing much....:p

Only to book something we already picked from the website or onboard TV. I just assume they may not know so we do the research ahead of time.

After 10 years of cruising RCCL I don't think we've ever visited the excursion desk. Guess we haven't been missing much....:p

Also in 10 years, I've only had the rare opportunity to visit the excursion desk 2 or 3 times and my results have been mixed. Although even if I do call myself a Royal Cheeleader, excursions are a place they have failed me very often and the reason I try to go private as much as possible.

I am sure I will be visiting the excursions desk on my upcoming Majesty cruise as they will probably cancel my CocoCay excursion for the 3rd straight time when I get on board. No problem that they charge my card months in advance and then cancel the excursion on boarding day and I get OBC, not credit to card. But I already have another excursion planned in Nassau as a back up that I can switch to.

Only to book something we already picked from the website or onboard TV. I just assume they may not know so we do the research ahead of time.

That is a good statement, I was booking a Nassau scuba dive on Majesty as my Coco Cay one was canceled. When he found the one I wanted he asked if I have had proof of 2 dives in the past year. I told him no, I just had one dive and that is what the requirement was. I told him to read his screen again, which he did and I was right. No big deal, only cost me a few seconds.

Are you using rci excursions or going on your own?

Are you using rci excursions or going on your own?

This was about RCL excursions. I would not expect them to know about private tours. I didn't even expect them to be "experts" on anything-just to answer basic questions. Frankly, I was not annoyed at them personally. I felt badly for them because of the position in which they were placed. They should have been working along side 1 or 2 "veterans" until they were better trained.

After 20+ cruises with RCI...I too have never visited the excursion desk and very unlikely that I will in the future....much easier to do my own research and use private vendors when possible...when I've had no choice but to use ship excursions I book them on the RCI website.

The best thing you can do is research your ports BEFORE you get on the ship! A guidebook is a very USEFUL resource! Libraries have them, if you don't want to buy one. Why WAIT until you're at their mercy???? Research is KEY to a good port day! The more you know, the better time you'll have and the less money you will need to spend to have that good time!

As for our experience-- we did do our own research. It didn't ruin our day at all-- but was noticed that "USUALLY", on previous cruises, the Excursion desk was a nice place to ask a simple question, as it had always seemed to be anchored by a staff that knew a little bit about the island. (Kinda like a waiter/waitress-- most would expect them to be able to speak about more things than just the role of delivering the food-- maybe a little bit extra about how it's made, spices used, etc. One thing we aren't afraid to admit is that we don't know everything, and that there may (or should) be somebody who has that little nugget of information from experience (or training) that makes your port day even better. :-)