Upset with Oceania's Shore Excursion

We recently returned back from the Gondolas to Gaudi sailing on the Riviera. We unfortunately did not have a good experience with one of Oceania's shore excursions. We selected the tour of the Lipizzaner stud farm while in Slovenia. The tour was advertised for 4.5 hours, but our tour guide rushed us back to the ship in 3.45 hours. He thought he was doing us a favor so we could eat lunch earlier back on the ship. In doing so we missed not one, not two, but three sights. We had a separate guide while on the farm and we did not tour the chapel, manor house, or museum that was described in the tour description. The training session was only 45 minutes instead of an hour and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that the facility turned off the lights during the training session while the guide was still speaking. This cut the commentary short and many seniors were forced to walk down the bleachers in the dark. We were given 30 minutes of "free time", but it was spent using the rest room and walking up the hill back to the bus. The female guide at the stud farm could not be heard since Oceania combined two tour buses together once we arrived and the guide was extremely soft spoken. The employees of the farm were having their own discussion in the back further hampering our hearing I spoke with someone from the second tour bus and they were given more time there and paid for the exact same tour (Not OE). We submitted a complaint form at the shore excursion desk and got a general run of the mill letter from Oceania on our last day stating there was nothing wrong with the tour and there would not be a refund or credit for a shore excursion in the future. Have any of you had this experience before? We paid to visit several places on the tour and did not visit three of them.

I hope this does not happen to me this winter. I travel mainly on another line and was given money back due to a soft spoken person. missed the whole lecture in a church. others also complained. fro the same reason.. quiet guides and short tours should not happen.

Any time you take a ship's tour THEY control how you spend your time. Not unusual. I cannot imagine Oceania refunding money for that reason

Your experience is why there are many of us who only do private tours

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Sorry your excursion turned out that way. Over the years we have only taken O offered excursions and mostly have been satisfied. In the odd instance where we are not pleased we complete the ship feedback form. While O is "at the mercy" of shoreside vendors I believe they take steps to eliminate poor performers where possible.

Once I tried for a refund on a bad shore excursion and I was sent in circles - write it up, wait for Miami to approve

Miami said they needed time for review By that time I was home No refund

I think it's good to let others here on cruisecritic know you were dissatisfied

I do hope O eliminates the poor performers, but I don't know this for sure

I think shore excursions should have a separate evaluation form so that feedback can go to O as well as the tour company and guides

I think shore excursions should have a separate evaluation form so that feedback can go to O as well as the tour company and guides

This is an excellent suggestion! If tour companies and guides knew they were being evaluated by the passengers it could make a huge difference. And Oceania could then decide on not contracting with poor performers.

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Had a really bad shorex in Mexico on O last year - instead of taking us to all the places where the guide was supposed to, she dropped us at a mall while she did personal shopping. Went to the desk, spoke to two people, got a 50% refund credited before we even left the ship.

Had a really bad shorex in Mexico on O last year - instead of taking us to all the places where the guide was supposed to, she dropped us at a mall while she did personal shopping. Went to the desk, spoke to two people, got a 50% refund credited before we even left the ship.

With proper feedback, guides like this get dropped from the shore ex company's roster.

Same thing with us in St. Lucia two years ago. The guide took to us to a batik shop and insisted we had to use a very steep set of stairs to get to it. When we left, we saw a much easier entrance; I pointed this out to him and he was quite defensive. There were a number of people in our bus who should not have been on those steep stairs, but he didn't care. He almost killed us twice; one time he ran a stop sign and had to brake quickly to miss hitting a truck, and the second time he ran a stop sign, a car nearly blindsided us. I complained at the excursion desk, filled out the evaluation form with all the details, and only got "we're sorry". We love Oceania, but do our own excursions for this reason and also because they are over-priced compared to what you can get on your own.

Same thing with us in St. Lucia two years ago. The guide took to us to a batik shop and insisted we had to use a very steep set of stairs to get to it. When we left, we saw a much easier entrance; I pointed this out to him and he was quite defensive. There were a number of people in our bus who should not have been on those steep stairs, but he didn't care. He almost killed us twice; one time he ran a stop sign and had to brake quickly to miss hitting a truck, and the second time he ran a stop sign, a car nearly blindsided us. I complained at the excursion desk, filled out the evaluation form with all the details, and only got "we're sorry". We love Oceania, but do our own excursions for this reason and also because they are over-priced compared to what you can get on your own.

Seems to be hit or miss in what they will do for you when a shorex goes bad. I think it depends who in Miami gets the complaint. At times they will refund a portion of the cost and at times nothing for the same exact thing Good luck.

I find getting money back or not strange. I got money back on AZ again this summer due to a poor guide. she might of known facts but we could not hear her with the machines. i had money given back in the past several times. i even walked off a tour in Mexico.had more fun on my own than with the guide. al lcruiselines should give money back if you paid for a bad tour.. msot times it is the guide that is bad not the tour.

Shore excursions do vary and this is not O it is all the lines that I have been on that "sponsor" shore excursions -- the cruise line's own employees are not on the bus and giving the tour. You are never ever going to have 100% satisfaction with the excursions -- for each one you sell to your customer that customer has a slightly unique expectation of what will happen. Some customers even go so far as to "remake" the descriptions to "what they wish" rather than "what the reality is". All this said, the cruise line does have some responsibilities to their customers. They should see that the product given is safe, legal and the equipment used is proper and likely to work properly. (Busses have inspections required by government, guides are licensed if required by law, and itineraries provided by tour company matches the product that is delivered .) Many lines have employees in civilian clothing that go on the tour and report back -- it is a great thing to actually have this feedback.

You have choices. You can DIY but believe me it is not always easy to arrange, safe to do so, and there is the risk that something out of your control (traffic or accident) delays you and you must DIY to another country after missing the ship. It is not unheard of that criminals see a very large opportunity to "guide" you to trouble. One of the best things about private guides or group guides is that they know the local "opportunists" and where they are so you are not there with them. Shore excursions have tiers of service also. You get better experience with a private guide and car for yourself and those you choose. This usually costs more than seat on the bus tour *and no matter who you buy it from*. People who take HoHo and Viatours and walking tours with a local guide are buying a product from a vendor -- just not the cruise line -- and this is not personalized to you at all. On the other hand O is now offering OE and OC excursions which is the product that most matches the private car/guide tour. Their common point is the cost and limited supply of folks able to provide this service. The last point is that cruise ships (especially the BIG ones) often are in a commercial port far far away from the city in the brochure. Private guides can not get in the port facility (think national security) to transport you to the sight. 2 hour drive for 2 hour tour then 2 hour bus back (just working on tour now with that description in much prettier words!). It is true folks that not all the places we want to see are near the sea!:(

Summary: Some ship excursions are excellent. Some are not. Some private excursions are excellent. Some complete disasters. Most are somewhere on the range of OK to Pretty good. O or any cruise line makes money from their shore excursions and they do not make money if they give it back because it did not meet or exceed YOUR expectations. There is so much wiggle room in the contract for shore excursions you could drive the bus through it. Employees know who pays their salary and they get lots of practice explaining why they can't give your money back. The lines also know that 90+ % of the passengers don't know that you even can do anything on your own:D (and they ain't telling). Trouble is ALL travel is a variation of this theme unless you own your own yacht!

I do report bad excursion experiences to the excursion desk and to the management so they have the information to improve the product. AND twice I wrote immediate emails to the cruise company when I thought that safety warranted immediate action -- overloaded boats (taking on water) and no safety rails for the water boarding of those boats (total of 4 times to board and unload to beach and rocks in Puerto Princessa) and the description that this excursion was moderate effort and wheelchair accessable:eek: The other time was a snorkeling trip with a guide who did not swim! and did not understand that a red flag on the beach meant "don't go in the water!".

I have two words for everyone: PRIVATE EXCURSIONS! That way you control the agenda and it usually doesn't cost more than the overpriced big bus tours the ships sell.

I have two words for everyone: PRIVATE EXCURSIONS! That way you control the agenda and it usually doesn't cost more than the overpriced big bus tours the ships sell.

We do not use private excursions (i.e. excursions in private cars , with your own guide for two persons, etc., they are too expensive, and not in our view, value for money) but there are excursion companies which specializes in operating cruise excursions at a much lower price than what you would pay for an excursion operated by your cruise line company.

They seem to "tag" their excursions in a such a way that you find similar excursions for almost every excursion offered by your cruise company. And this is available around the world.

We tend to use a company called Cruising Excursions, but there are others .

These companies usually have similar excursions as the cruise line have, at a MUCH LOWER PRICE !!!! You could find yourselves saving hundreds of dollars if you take a series of excursions for the cruise, especially when you are traveling with partners, friends or families, no kidding!!!!!

It is not only Oceania which charges more for their excursions - most , if not all, cruise companies do that (charge more). You can't blame the cruise line company for making as much profit as they can, can you? After all, they are a business! It's up to you, the traveler, to be a savvy as you can and find the best deal available in the market.

Just do your search on the internet, and put in "Discount Cruising Excursions", and you may find quite a few of them (discounted cruising excursion companies).

A couple of years back, when we stopped in Santorini on the (I think) Nautica, we had booked an excursion via Cruising Excursions. However, as the waters were very choppy, the captain cancelled the tender to take us on land. And the ship sailed on.

We had thought we had lost the money paid for the excursion.

However, when we returned home, we found in our computer "in box" an email from Cruising Excursions which indicated that as we were not able to get on land and we were not able to use the excursion, they refunded us in full. And all of that was done without even asking! For us, that was the "acid test" that the company was reliable.

I have two words for everyone: PRIVATE EXCURSIONS! That way you control the agenda and it usually doesn't cost more than the overpriced big bus tours the ships sell.

The way to go in most places. If we can get 4 or 6 people it is much cheaper and we can make our own agenda. The message boards are a great place to get info. and ask questions. Very helpful.

Notwithstanding the fact that arranging your own tour is usually a better idea, I happen to tour the farm three weeks ago. It takes about an hour to get there from the port, and the show always starts around 3 pm. The tour starts at 2, and while we were late due to a wonderful pizza at the hotel restaurant, we caught up to the english speaking guide within five minutes. I gather the guides are quiet as they don't want to spook the horses, but we heard what we wanted to hear and saw what we wanted to see. Flies in a crowded barn were part of the experience, but it was a stable we were visiting. Don't blame the cruise line for missing something, as the tours are completely run by the stable, getting you there and back is all the cruise line can do.

I appreciate everyone offering the suggestion of booking our own tours. We actually always do tours on our own, but we had OBC that we wanted to use on an Oceania shore excursion. The long comment about the tour not being up to expectations was helpful, but this tour was not just "not meeting our expectations". The actual description printed in the Oceania catalog says these three places were to be visited and we did not. It was not a matter of whishing we did, but it wasn't part of the tour type deal. I am just looking to see if anyone was successful in getting their money back.

I do understand. Even with those tours that were unsafe -- no money or consideration back. In fact one of the few times I felt disrespected by a cruise line employee. They referred me to the shore excursion wording that they (the cruise line) merely offered these excursions as a "convenience" to the passengers and that they do not provide nor control the content of tours. Lawyers win again. If enough complaints come in though, they do drop the tour and that is a very big stick!

I do understand. Even with those tours that were unsafe -- no money or consideration back. In fact one of the few times I felt disrespected by a cruise line employee. They referred me to the shore excursion wording that they (the cruise line) merely offered these excursions as a "convenience" to the passengers and that they do not provide nor control the content of tours. Lawyers win again. If enough complaints come in though, they do drop the tour and that is a very big stick!

This seems to be the only part of Oceania Cruises that mostly gets bad marks from its customers. Probably in part because it is the only part of the cruise that their own people do not run things. Still they should do a better job in picking tour operators. Hope it will change in the future if enough people complain.