Which to book...Seabourn Tours or Private Tours?

Hi all - we are newbies to Seabourn, and have booked the Jul 27 Baltic Gem & Low Countries for our 25 anniversary!

2 years ago DH and myself sailed with Royal Caribbean to the Mediterranean - being newbies, we booked 2 RCI tours due to time constraints - one in Sicily (Mt. Etna) and one in Athens (concerned about strikes at the time), in Ephesus, I booked a private tour. We both hated the RCI tours. Herded like cattle with our little sticker on, BORING tour guides - (one who didn't shut up on the drive back from Mt. Etna - couldn't escape her), we did skip out on the Athens tour guide at the Parthenon. We LOVED the private tour guide we hired in Ephesus.

So my question is - what are the Seabourn excursions like? We are going to be in St Petersburg for 2 days, and I'm wondering if I should book a private tour through Seabourn, or if I should book a group tour through Seabourn or go with one of the tour companies mentioned here on the boards?

Thoughts? Thanks in advance!

No doubt you will get a lot of replies on this topic. We've done a few SB group tours and I'd say 50% we've been happy with, the other 50% have been disappointing. And we had a few cancelled due to a lack of other pax signing up. My suggestion is look at non-Seabourn tours that might interest you, and if they require a larger group or are too expensive create a post looking for others to see if they'd like to join you, we've had some good luck in joining with other passengers. However, if a group tour really interests you I'm sure some of folks on this board have done it and can give you more details - I've not done the segment you are so I can't answer re: specific tours. Typically the private tours they offer are, IMO, high priced for what you get and you can do better with an outside vendor. Also realize that some of the ship's group tours are constrained by the slowest or least mobile folks who take the tour

Depends what you want from the tours.

We took two Seabourn tours during our visit to Saint Petersburg last year.

The buses weren't crowded, but of course as with any group tour there was a definite sense of being herded at times.

It was our first visit there, and overall we were happy enough with the tours; I think they were adequate for first timers like us who do intend to return.

All of that said, if this is likely to be your one and only ever visit there, I'd recommend you to take a private tour. That way you can see what you want to, on your own time, and get a more in depth visit tailored specifically to you.

Which SB tours are you currently interested in?

Private every time especially in St Petersburg

Thank you so much for your replies! You completely confirmed my thoughts of booking private tours. I was thinking that the Seabourn might be a stepped up version from RCI,

Haven't figured out yet what tours we'd like to do, since I just booked on Wednesday. I have to do a little reading to refresh my memory on the Russian revolution,not figure out the must sees!

Thank you so much for your replies! You completely confirmed my thoughts of booking private tours. I was thinking that the Seabourn might be a stepped up version from RCI,

 

Haven't figured out yet what tours we'd like to do, since I just booked on Wednesday. I have to do a little reading to refresh my memory on the Russian revolution,not figure out the must sees!

Good decision.

The SB tours probably are stepped up from RCI tours, but on any group tour, IMO, it's impossible to escape that sense of being herded. Even when each tour bus is only half full. Especially in Saint Petersburg where every place we visited was very busy.

We will go back and we will definitely arrange private tours next time, but the SB tours were adequate and gave us a good overview in preparation for our next visit.

Private every time especially in St Petersburg

Agree... we did private last year in St Petersburg and covered much more ground than the Seabourn tours did. The one exception would be to book the Seabourn evening event at St Catherine's Palace if they are offering it - I heard amazing things about it and wished I'd done it!

 

The one exception would be to book the Seabourn evening event at St Catherine's Palace if they are offering it - I heard amazing things about it and wished I'd done it!

Agree. Everyone we spoke to who went to this event gave a glowing report. Don't miss it if you get the opportunity.

st. Petersburg is the one port in the world where there is absolutely no doubt that private excursions are the way to go. Check out Denrus, Alla or Red October.

We did 3 days of private with TJTravel ,ask for Millie,in St Petersburg, slipped thru long lines....did not wait anywhere...even attended Swan Lake and sat in the Tsars box for less than the ships price....our private car wisked us in and out..we had lunch at Russian restaurants...the best...

That said we have used Seabourn tours in many ports in a variety of countries...

The very last one was the 4x4 visit to to see the King penguins in the Falkland Islands...had an excellent experience....they even provided us with a boxed lunch!!!!

In some ports it is easier to book on your own, the more remote and smaller port we like the safety of the ships tours....

We can not find anyone to share a tour for St Petersburg - the roll call for July 13, 2014 Legend is only two people! Anyone know of another site where there may be a roll call category?

We can not find anyone to share a tour for St Petersburg - the roll call for July 13, 2014 Legend is only two people! Anyone know of another site where there may be a roll call category?

With 2 it might be Cost effective to book your own. My experiences are solo.

Sent via squirrels and a rotary phone

We have now had over 50 days on board the Sojourn on the World Cruise, on the other side of the world from St. Petersburg. We've taken 5 Seabourn excursions, and all have been fine, but none has been a "wow." Yesterday we took a risk on a car and driver in Bali that we found via internet; only $60 for 8 eight hours, versus the hundreds of dollars that Seabourn was charging. It was an excellent experience. I can report that many of my fellow passengers (not me, mind you) have been super-disappointed with some Seabourn excursions, quite a few have demanded their money back in some extremely uncomfortable situations.

As far as I'm concerned a privet tour always beats a ship's excursion. There is nothing like walking off a luxury ship and on to a bus to kill the feeling.

As far as I'm concerned a privet tour always beats a ship's excursion. There is nothing like walking off a luxury ship and on to a bus to kill the feeling.

I totally agree Henry.

Some guests even fly economy and then get on a luxury line.

I have never understood this either.:eek:

I totally agree Henry.

 

Some guests even fly economy and then get on a luxury line.

 

I have never understood this either.:eek:

Sadly I am a skint member who saves up to go on Seabourn, I would have to cut down my cruises to one in a long time if I had to fly 1st/Club and then pay for private tours........

I wish I had a rich Uncle who would leave me a few quid when he dies.......sounds like I really need Mr L to adopt me....

Sadly I am a skint member who saves up to go on Seabourn, I would have to cut down my cruises to one in a long time if I had to fly 1st/Club and then pay for private tours........

I wish I had a rich Uncle who would leave me a few quid when he dies.......sounds like I really need Mr L to adopt me....

I gave generously to the soup kitchen that you frequent.:D

I thought that the rewards system started with silver not skint.

Having done a mix of private and Seabourn now. If I can get a viable, non mass market option privately I will every time.

Our recent Falklands we did privately and we had much longer than the SB tours, Nyree at Estancia knew exactly what she was doing , the food was excellent. Nyree promised we would be back in plenty of time and even when we had a slight hitch it was solved in the blink of an eye. We had enough time to do a tour of Port Stanley before boarding "not the last tender." The 15 minutes we had with the colony before the masses from our ship arrived was amazing. The total cost for 3 was the the same as 1 for the ship booked tour.

Of our 2 Seabourn tours one was cancelled due to weather (although it was not really an issue, more a case of over safety) and SB could not offer us a viable alternative from their selection. (A long bus day instead of a Kayak trip offered 10 minutes before the bus trip was to go and 1 hour 10 before the Kayak departure) This lead us to having a "lost" port day as we were told by SB Chacabuco is a stop for tours. :mad:

The other was supposed to be adventurous yet there were people whitewater rafting who couldn't even walk to the raft, much less cope with a paddle in whitewater. We still enjoyed the day but TBH, it wouldn't have been hard for SB or the guides to "grade" the groups.

I'll second the Catherines by nightand even though it isn't all that intimate, still a bus etc, in terms of Catherine's Palace totally intimate.

We did private independent tours in St P and definitely worth the extra $$ as we saw way more, partly because SB docks in the centre of town. It almost worked out the same $$ as SB for the there of us again for the three days. SB don't factor in discounted entry for students. ;)

Mr L we flew cattle to South America…. but thanks to status the 3 of us had 2 seats each, each way :D The only perk we missed out on was business class food

Our experience is consistent with other views.

We did private in St Petersburg for 3 days and it was excellent.

Biggest disappointment with Seabourn excursions is when they include lunch somewhere. The last thing we need is to spend a lot of time waiting for a meal that is not any better than on the ship. Otherwise they are generally ok and not overcrowded. You only have to be docked next to a bigger ship to see the comparison.

The one thing that Seabourn did well on this front was in Copenhagen last year when they arranged a tour for those departing the ship with a drop off at the airport. This beats having to find your own way then wait around for hours because you have nowhere to leave luggage.

We had an excellent experience in Iceland but that was by hiring a car with driver and guide through Seabourn, and we had a group of 6.

We are on the World Cruise from HK to Mumbai and have booked all private tours in India for the 2 of us, including drop off at the airport. We've been there before (as land tourists) and used the same company. Happy to provide further info.

You can have the same convenience on the day of departure by hiring a private car and driver to pick you up at the port, store your luggage in the trunk and give yo a tour of the departing city or wait while you have a lovely lunch etc. And it probably doesn't cost any more than what the ship charges for its tour.

We have been on several cruises with SB. Generally, we like to do private tours (agree, especially in St.P.). We have also done a few SB cruises. They are a big step up from mass market. In our experience, they don't fill the bus taking only 20-25 people per bus. No name tags and the guides have been good. I also agree with the objections to the long lunches during the SB excursions. If there is one advertised, we will try to look for a private tour where we can get a quicker lunch and spend more time sightseeing.

The ship to airport buses with an excursion are offered on many ports. Several were not listed in the brochures, but they were announced on board a few days before the end of the cruise.

We used Alla tours when we were at St Petersburg, it was very good. The tour lasted 2 days, it was reasonably priced and covers all major attractions. As for the other ports, we made our own way.

I much prefer private tours for a whole bunch of reasons, but occasionally take those provided by the cruise line depending on the port and what's on offer.

One thing to keep in mind is that the ship won't usually wait for private tours that are late, but will jump through hoops to get its own tour groups back on board. This happened during our last Seabourn cruise on the Pride in September. We were in Fort William, Scotland for the day when one of the tours got caught in a massive traffic jam caused by a serious accident on the main highway. Adding to the drama, our ship had to leave port no later than 7:00 pm in order to legally navigate the narrows on the way back to sea, or remain in port all night and miss its next port of call.

The ship's staff talked the bus driver into taking a bunch of back roads to a passenger ferry where it disembarked the tour group. On the other side of the water, the tour group was met by another hastily arranged bus which took them through more back roads to the ship, where they arrived with 5 minutes to spare. As a back-up, the ship had also arranged to bus the tour group up to the other end of the loch where they would have been tendered aboard the Pride before it went out to sea.

We were very impressed at the herculean effort by SB staff to get the tour group aboard in time, and will certainly factor this into our future thinking about when and where to take the ship's excursions over private tours.

We hired a car, driver, and guide from Red October for SP and we saw and did ten times as much as our fellow travelers did on the SB tour. I read the Masse book about the Czars and formed my own itinerary of what we wanted to see and do and the guide was terrific -- we saw everything we wanted to see. We even got to eat lunch in a SP restaurant that was "off the beaten path," and truly authentic -- not a place where tourists usually go. I highly recommend you hire your own car/driver/and tour guide -- so much better than what any mass tour company can provide. Have a great time in SP -- we certainly did.:)

Thanks all for your replies. I just spoke with our travel agent and she said we have to book through Seabourn due to visas- she said the ship has a blanket visa only for those on the prebooked Seabourn tours. She also said we can't get off the ship for a private carrier because we won't have visas. The private websites all say they provide visas - but how do we get them to go off the ship?