Excursions

morning all, would it be better to book excursions on the boat if you can , or online found a few websites , not sure what to do,

If you know what you want to book it's good to bon them to ensure that you are able to book the excursion as some of the more popular ones can book up.

Keith

We always book ship tours as we are very risk averse though most people here say you can get a better price and often a better experience by making your own arrangements - or joining with others on your roll call.

If you are going with ship tours, I would book early, especially as, at the moment, you can cancel up to the time specified, (usually a couple of days before the trip unless it involves accommodation or flights) without having to pay.

We booked excursions for our Panama Canal cruise next week about three months ago through the Princess website. A couple of weeks later DH decided he would like to swap his diving in Aruba for the land tour I am doing but by then it was fully booked. So I wouldn't wait till I got on the ship.

Hope that helps

Beth

Just remember if you do book a tour on your own,if you miss boarding you have to get to the next port on your own.

lobg cruiser

Just remember if you do book a tour on your own,if you miss boarding you have to get to the next port on your own.

lobg cruiser

Nearly all the people missing the boat seem to have completed their tour (ship or private) and stopped in a bar for too long.

We book both types of tours! If there is the slightest possibility of a Non-PCL tour running long :eek: it's best to skip it and book PCL tours. It's a matter of preference and we prefer to error on the side of safety! :D

It's funny watching the stragglers running to catch the ship! :p But it's sad when they don't make it! :(

Just Mike

Have you joined our roll call for the cruise??...there are a number of people organizing private tours/excursions and looking for participants via the roll call.

Just remember if you do book a tour on your own,if you miss boarding you have to get to the next port on your own.

lobg cruiser

True!! But that would lead to VERY bad reviews and business would not be good for the private companies. It's also true that the private excursions and the cruise excursions are often run by the same company. The cruise lines don't run excursions. They are the middle man. Yes, sometimes the protections they provide are good (and I've done both). But it's not always necessary.

We have taken 100 to 150 private tours over the years of cruising. We have never missed the ship or worried that we would

We do our research and do private tours. Trip Advisor is a great help as well as folks here on CC. As another poster mentioned, if the tour is a long one book PCL. We did do PCL for a tour to Tulum in Mexico which entailed a ferry ride come Cozumel to the mainland and then a 2 hour bus ride to Tulum. And we were late getting back because of a traffic jam due to an accident.. PCL had arranged for a shuttle to meet us at the end of the pier so we could get to ship faster than walking he whole pier.

Are you sure you even NEED an "excursion"? For many things, like beaches or shopping, you can easily do those on your own. Get a guidebook...read up on the places you'll visit...knowing something about your ports will be most beneficial!

As long as you keep track of time, there are no worries about "missing the ship"...

I have never heard of anyone missing the ship when taking a tour from a local tour company.

That being said, we almost missed the ship on a local tour in 2010. The tour was a boat tour on St. Vincent. The tour company was Baleine tours and usually referred to as “Wayne’s tour” because he is the operator. The tour was great and lots of fun. The last stop was a beach stop and Wayne was in the water with everyone. He became enamored with a couple of young ladies and he forgot about the time. I had to get his attention and insist that we needed to leave. We speed back to the dock, ran about a block to the ship and got on with less than 5 minutes to go.

I still take local tours, but I am leery of taking a tour that gets back close to the ship’s departure time.

decide first what it is you want to do for the day. Then figure out the most comfortable way to do your itinerary. If too much of a pain to do on your own, compare companies recommended on this board and on trip advisor. Then compare prices with cruise excursion. Forgot to say, check if it is a tender port. If it is, try to do a ship excursion. On Princess, I would book what you want on line, before the cruise. You can do a private excursion if it is short and later during the day, to allow you time to get on tender. Just make sure what you have planned will get you back in plenty of time to take tender back to the ship. We have been on many cruises, and have taken private excursions, cruise ship excursions, and no excursions, depending on the port.

Sometimes what you want to do can only be booked through the cruise ship.

For our upcoming New England Princess cruise, we are doing two Princess excursions, two private excursions, and doing hop on hop off trolley for Boston and taxi to the places we want to do.