How Many Excursions do you do?

Just curious how many excursions do you sign up for? And if you do, do they tend to be RCL or private?

We have 3 port days. At the moment, I'm thinking of 1 Royal Excurion, 1 private, and just seeing things ourselves for the third stop.

PS - And with those, is that with kids or without?

It depends on too many factors, have I been there before, what time does the ship leave, how safe is the port, what interests me, have others organized a private tour, the availability of private tours.

I tend to book tours myself but it just depends, for a lot of cities (Europe) I have found the hop on hop off buses to really be all I need.

It depends on the itinerary as to how many excursions I do. Sometimes it's one or two - or even none. Others, like the Med/Venice cruise, I'm planning excursions in every port.

I tend to do ship-based excursions for the added insurance that should something happen, the ship will wait for the excursion as long as possible or cover getting you to the next port July 31 really drilled this home. There is ONE 4-lane (two on each side) road between Anchorage and Seward. There was a horrible (one fatality at the scene and three air-lifts) accident that completely shut down the road for hours. There were MANY RCCL transfer busses behind the accident. They got about 200 of those passengers onto the train, but there were still some 800 passengers on RCCL transportation who were not able to get to Seward. We stayed in port until 2:45am when the last RCCL bus got there. Later in the cruise I met a couple who had opted for their own transportation between Anchorage and Seward, and they were saying how thankful they were that a) there were RCCL busses behind the accident and that b) their private transportation happened to have them in front of the last bus because that allowed them to make the ship.

I did one private excursion when I cruised Disney to the Eastern Caribbean (Soualiga Destinations in St,. Marten), and I'm doing a private excursion along the Amalfi Coast next summer because they offer the things I want to do that the ship-based excursions don't. BUT I research them fully - Trip Advisor reviews and so forth and will communicate with the tour operator before committing to ensure that I'm comfortable with their timing. With a private tour, I want the plan to be to be back at the ship AT LEAST an hour before All Aboard so I've got a bit of a built in cushion in case something hapens. The excursion I'm taking on the Amalfi Coast has that PLUS since I'm doing a private tour (as in just me), should I want to build in more of a cushion, I can do that.

Zero for the past few cruises.

Just curious how many excursions do you sign up for? And if you do, do they tend to be RCL or private?

 

We have 3 port days. At the moment, I'm thinking of 1 Royal Excurion, 1 private, and just seeing things ourselves for the third stop.

 

PS - And with those, is that with kids or without?

I want to get off at every opportunity and will probably stick to cruise line sponsored tours for the added insurance of making sure that we get back on the boat. We always take our kid with us.

Zero

Prefer to just go and explore on my own. Able to plan the time specific to my interests.

Depends on the ports. If its anything other than Jamaica then we do our own thing. If Jamaica, then we do one shore excursion through the ship.

We normally do none in the Caribbean since we been there dozens of times, but did a RCCL in Grand Cayman earlier this year and it was terrible , over crowded and unorganized. I would do a private tour- check with your fellow passengers on the meet and greet for your cruise they should be able to help.

We are doing Europe next year and since I do not know the ports except to take excursion at almost every port

I just got off Adventure that had 5 stops and I had my 2 kids with me. Since we were pretty much doing beaches we got our own transportation for 2 ports. Two ports we took private tour that was highly recommended on this board and trip advisor. We only took one RCI tour.

It really depends on the ports we are visiting which way we go. We do our research and figure out each individually. For the most part we do private tours or DIY days, but in some instances do book the ship tours. For the ship tours it is usually when the port time is short, the excursion takes you a long distance from the port, or if it is something we want to do that can ONLY be done through the ship.

When our kids sail with us we all do the excursions together. Of course at the end of the excursions sometimes the kids would go back on the ship and we would stay in port just a bit longer, but again depends on the port and what there is to do there.

For my upcoming cruise we have 4 ports, doing 1 ship excursion, 2 private excursions and 1 DIY. Do your research and come up with what works best for you.

It depends on the itinerary as to how many excursions I do. Sometimes it's one or two - or even none. Others, like the Med/Venice cruise, I'm planning excursions in every port.

 

I tend to do ship-based excursions for the added insurance that should something happen, the ship will wait for the excursion as long as possible or cover getting you to the next port July 31 really drilled this home. There is ONE 4-lane (two on each side) road between Anchorage and Seward. There was a horrible (one fatality at the scene and three air-lifts) accident that completely shut down the road for hours. There were MANY RCCL transfer busses behind the accident. They got about 200 of those passengers onto the train, but there were still some 800 passengers on RCCL transportation who were not able to get to Seward. We stayed in port until 2:45am when the last RCCL bus got there. Later in the cruise I met a couple who had opted for their own transportation between Anchorage and Seward, and they were saying how thankful they were that a) there were RCCL busses behind the accident and that b) their private transportation happened to have them in front of the last bus because that allowed them to make the ship.

 

I did one private excursion when I cruised Disney to the Eastern Caribbean (Soualiga Destinations in St,. Marten), and I'm doing a private excursion along the Amalfi Coast next summer because they offer the things I want to do that the ship-based excursions don't. BUT I research them fully - Trip Advisor reviews and so forth and will communicate with the tour operator before committing to ensure that I'm comfortable with their timing. With a private tour, I want the plan to be to be back at the ship AT LEAST an hour before All Aboard so I've got a bit of a built in cushion in case something hapens. The excursion I'm taking on the Amalfi Coast has that PLUS since I'm doing a private tour (as in just me), should I want to build in more of a cushion, I can do that.

We do ship excursions almost exclusively. I have a list of questions for private tour operators. And the one answer we must see is "I will get you to your next port." If they don't provide that answer, we don't use them. Period. And we don't hear that phrase very often.

We had one ship excursion supposed to be a five hour excursion stretch to about 9 hours. They pulled up the gang plank right after they boarded. Also, with Alaska, there's that weird passenger services issues. On one trip w/ Celebrity, must have been on high alert, because every Celebrity Today had the words "if you miss the ship, you may not be allowed back on future ports."

Do a search of what happens when you miss the ship. One man said it came into four figures, due to hotel rooms and flights. Once he caught up with the ship, he learned he'd been purged from the system. Eventually, he got back aboard. But for a while, it looked like he'd be joining his family back in the states.

We do 1 tour for each new port of call. So far all tours have been through Royal and I think I'll stick to that for the reasons the others mentioned. If it's a port we've visited before we usually find something close by to do including eating the native food for lunch.

Here's the thread about the man that missed the ship in Nassau. I first heard a cruise director tell us you didn't want to miss the ship on Holland America, and I thought missing the ship would be bad. But this post really explains what can happen.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2121215

We have booked 1 excursion in three cruises. That was in Jamaica.

We do ship excursions almost exclusively. I have a list of questions for private tour operators. And the one answer we must see is "I will get you to your next port." If they don't provide that answer, we don't use them. Period. And we don't hear that phrase very often.

 

We had one ship excursion supposed to be a five hour excursion stretch to about 9 hours. They pulled up the gang plank right after they boarded. Also, with Alaska, there's that weird passenger services issues. On one trip w/ Celebrity, must have been on high alert, because every Celebrity Today had the words "if you miss the ship, you may not be allowed back on future ports."

 

Do a search of what happens when you miss the ship. One man said it came into four figures, due to hotel rooms and flights. Once he caught up with the ship, he learned he'd been purged from the system. Eventually, he got back aboard. But for a while, it looked like he'd be joining his family back in the states.

Ahem. I *said* I almost exclusively do ship-based excursions. And in the rare case I don't (because the ship isn't offering what I want - at least without something I don't), I *do* do my research.

No need for a lecture.

Just curious how many excursions do you sign up for? And if you do, do they tend to be RCL or private?

 

We have 3 port days. At the moment, I'm thinking of 1 Royal Excurion, 1 private, and just seeing things ourselves for the third stop.

 

PS - And with those, is that with kids or without?

Hello :)

We started cruising 5 years ago. Our son was 8 at the time. Three of our cruises departed from Europe and 2 from the UK.

I love history and I love to be informed about what exactly I am looking at. So we have taken a private excursion in all port except 1. We have taken private excursions in Israel, Egypt and Russia just to name a few ports. We took 1 ship excursion that was with RCCL and that was in Normandy.

The ship excursion was a waste of time and money. It was on a huge bus and we were herded around like cattle. And I paid just a little less than I would have if we were to take a private excursion. I was very disappointed but I did want to see if a ship excursion would be worth it.

There is a lot of research that goes into doing private excursions so that is why we tried the ship excursion once to see if we would be satisfied going that route to save me a lot of work :)

So we are taking a cruise this December for our first trip to the Caribbean. It is a 10 day cruise with only 4 ports. We are doing an excursion in 2 and just going to relax at the beach for the other 2.

We are actually going to start cruising the Caribbean now and will more than likely start doing no excursions because we do like to just relax on the beach. However if we start cruising Europe again we will continue to do excursions again because Europe is amazing and there is so much history to see :)

We do 1 tour for each new port of call. So far all tours have been through Royal and I think I'll stick to that for the reasons the others mentioned. If it's a port we've visited before we usually find something close by to do including eating the native food for lunch.

Also like eating at native places, cannot understand eating at McDonalds in a place like Italy

With or without kids, I typically do an excursion at every port. Only rarely do I book with the cruise line, but have been surprised when they sometimes offer the best deal.

By excursion, I am including plans which may involve "on our own" but include more than walking around or shopping. For example:

I guess my answer depends on whether you define "excursion" specifically as a tour or activity where you participate with a group or if you define it as a planned shore tour/activity that goes beyond simply "winging it".

Also like eating at native places, cannot understand eating at McDonalds in a place like Italy

I also agree with this. When I am arranging our private tour I always ask the guide to take us to an authentic restaurant. When we visited Israel our guide had us so far off the beaten path that when we went out for lunch It looked like we were the only tourists among all the people there for lunch. It was a great experience and the food was amazing.

We either book an excursion thru the ship or take a taxi on-our-own. :)

LuLu

I just got off Adventure that had 5 stops and I had my 2 kids with me. Since we were pretty much doing beaches we got our own transportation for 2 ports. Two ports we took private tour that was highly recommended on this board and trip advisor. We only took one RCI tour.

Can I ask what private one you did?

I'm asking since we're thinking of St Barnards when in St Martin and i know many on here rave about it. Otherwise though, I'm more comfortable sticking with RCL.

I also agree with this. When I am arranging our private tour I always ask the guide to take us to an authentic restaurant. When we visited Israel our guide had us so far off the beaten path that when we went out for lunch It looked like we were the only tourists among all the people there for lunch. It was a great experience and the food was amazing.

Very much agree with this. We always ask the locals where to go to eat or just for a quick drink. Did this in Sicily on our private tour. Our guide took us into a town where I am pretty sure we were the only ones that spoke English. Our guide helped us order and had the best food ever. This is the way to if you truly want to experience the local culture in our opinion.

Even if you are doing a cruise sponsored excursion, ask the local guides for their recommendation and remember to let them know you do not just want the tourist spots!

I have gotten more comfortable over time doing private excursions - we pretty much have done all private the last 3-4 cruises and have never been disappointed or late :D

We almost always take our kids with us on cruises, so they have been with kids (but mine are now 16 and 17). We usually only cruise every other year or so and we are deliberately going places that we have never been - so we have booked excursions at each port. One of those might be a day at a beach - but I try and figure it out and have something arranged before hand.

We try to avoid crowds as much as possible - I look for excursions that are smaller, 8 to 10 people maybe instead of 50. I do my research on tripadvisor and I book only with highly rated companies - usually they are very popular here on CC too. It wouldn't be highly rated and popular if they allowed people to miss the ship - all it would take is one review like that and their business would tank. Is it possible to have some accident that makes you miss the ship? Of course, possible but very rare in my opinion. You know how long the ship will be in port each day - you make sure the tour you book leaves you plenty of time to get back.

We seldom do any "excursions"....we read up on our ports, decide what we want to do, and a guidebook is great for giving you tips on HOW to do those things! Rarely do you NEED an excursion, unless the trip involves lots of transportation changes or is so far away that you risk missing the ship. In that case, I'd go with a ship's excursion.

Things like beaches or shopping are quite easy to manage alone, with the proper info!

If you don't want to take time to research where you're going, then you almost have to pay a guide to get anything out of your time ashore.

We seldom do any "excursions"....we read up on our ports, decide what we want to do, and a guidebook is great for giving you tips on HOW to do those things! Rarely do you NEED an excursion, unless the trip involves lots of transportation changes or is so far away that you risk missing the ship. In that case, I'd go with a ship's excursion.

 

Things like beaches or shopping are quite easy to manage alone, with the proper info!

 

If you don't want to take time to research where you're going, then you almost have to pay a guide to get anything out of your time ashore.

For the Royal excursion we're "considering" (not sure though), it's one to Blue Lagoon in Nassau. There are minimal ferry rides and so we really can only do Royal as we wouldn't want to chance missing it and being stuck. It is extra pricey though ...but place looks really great. In most cases, i can see beach type excursions best to do on your own.