Shore Excursions Group

[galavanter]

Hi - Mom and I are on HAL 7 day inside passage RT from Vancouver. Has anyone booked w/Shore Excursions Group
Thanks!

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I would like info on this topic, too. We are on the Radiance of the Seas on Aug 31 (NB). We booked through an online TA. The booking came with a credit for the Shore Excursions Group. We booked a Juneau/Mendenhall tour.

[Treven]

My TA's agency uses this company for their excursions. I have two excursions with them on my upcoming Alaska cruise, early June.

[Cruiser304958]

Shore Excursions Group is one of the larger worldwide shore excursion brokers - in the same category as ShoreTrips, Port Promotions and Viator. Some people here at CC don't like any brokers but I use them sometimes for convenience and they're very reliable.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Thank you--that is good to know. We booked an excursion that cost just $9 more than our credit and it is from 9:30 to noon. Since we are in port until 8:00 I figured I did not need to worry about the ship leaving us.

[carorules]

Those who booked with Shore Excursions Group, any feedback?

[sardam]

I too am wondering about this company. Any reveiws from those that used them earlier in the year? Thanks

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We booked with this group as my posting from many months ago indicates.

We did the city tour and Mendenhall Glacier tour in Juneau. There were 3 small tour bus loads of us from the Radiance for the 9:30 tour. The tour driver was excellent. He took us to Douglas Island across from Juneau to see the view and the Log Church near the Mendenhall Glacier. He had interesting things to say about the city--many things were not the traditional tourist dialog. We had wrist bands that got us into the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center without an additional fee. We had an hour or so at the Vistor Center. This was plenty to walk around and see things--but, not enough time to take the hike to the Falls. [If you are interested in that it takes 45 min-hour] I would take this tour again. We were very satisfied.

There was one issue:
The getting on the bus in the morning was a little disorganized. The employee that was the check-in person and handing out the wrist bands was in a wheelchair. With the 100s of people in the parking area where all of the tours met it was impossible to see him. He needed to be in a more prominent position or have a sign with him to hold up. We walked around and asked various tour operators if they knew where our tour was meeting. Finally someone on our tour heard us and told us where he was.

Then another employee came up and told us which bus to get on. The ony problem was he had taken all of the names the night before and placed them on buses. He had no way of knowing if parties were together or not unless they booked the excursion together. This was a big problem. Grandparents did not book with their children/gradchildren--but, they wanted to be on the same tour. Likewise for us and our traveling companions and many other passengers. Passengers were getting miffed and he was put out. Finally, he gave up and people just boarded buses until they were full and then filled up the next one. [why did not he do that to begin with. ]

We had a credit for this excursion from our online TA. I suspect it is the same one you used. The only part of the land tour they arranged that I did not like was the bus between Seward and Denali. It got us there in one day. That was the plus. However, it was long and not that comfortable. The driver/tourguide was not very good. He told us several things that I knew were not true.

He told us that Mt McKinley was named after one of the first people to climb it. [He did not know that McKinley was a US President. I know that not everyone knows all of the US Presidents. But, if your job is to give tours to a National Park and a big feature is named after a President, don't you think you should know that one?]

[frugaltravel]

Originally Posted by DragonOfTheSeas

I would like info on this topic, too. We are on the Radiance of the Seas on Aug 31 (NB). We booked through an online TA. The booking came with a credit for the Shore Excursions Group. We booked a Juneau/Mendenhall tour.

I hope you didnt have too large of a credit since you could have gotten to Mendenhall and back for under $20 per person.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

The credit was $75 for the two of us. This tour worked out the be $84. So, at $42 for the tour I realize I could have done it for less--but, this was included in the total price of the cruise tour. It also included a tour of Juneau before we headed to the glacier and the admission to the Mendenhall Visitor center. [$6]