Ships Tours.

Other than ensuring you get back to the ship on time do you feel that the ships tours are value for money?This does not only apply to X.

The only time we have used the ships tours was when we did a Middles East Cruise in 2016 and that was purely for safety reasons.

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Did you not find the answer to your question when you posted in June 13? There were two pages of replies.

There has been a lot of discussion on this. Basically, it is a personal decision and there are several factors to weigh up. Security is one and fear of missing the boat another; simplicity is a third. Those who DIY, save money and gain flexibility and control; they also avoid being one of 50+ people arriving at the same time.

No doubt others can come up with dozens of pro's and con's but in the end, it's your decision.

Did you not find the answer to your question when you posted in June 13? There were two pages of replies.

Do you search history for each and every topic posted here ?? Just curious??

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It’s one of those things that often depends on where you are. In ports where you can DIY cheaply or their are an abundance of group your companies, I would say that the ship’s tours aren’t usually worth the money. But there are certainly ports where it’s cheaper to do the ships tour than to arrange your own private excursion (when companies don’t offer group tours). Personally, I’ve done the private tour with people from the roll calls before, and I would just as soon do a ship excursion.

We never do ship excursions in the Caribbean because there are so many other options. But, for example, we were in Hawaii recently and in some ports the ship tours were better priced than booking locally.

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On my last cruise, I took my service dog. To make sure we would have a good trip with the dog, I made reservations through Celebrity ShoreEx for my excursions. We were in Alaska. The ShoreEx manager contacted each of the sub-contractors for the excursions, then got back to me regarding whether the excursion would be suitable for the dog to come along. Knowing that Celebrity ShoreEx had my back made me book through them.

In the Caribbean or Alaska the only reason I can see to use the ship's tours is to use OBC to pay for them instead of paying out of pocket. All of them are cheaper on your own if there's no OBC in the equation.

In the Caribbean or Alaska the only reason I can see to use the ship's tours is to use OBC to pay for them instead of paying out of pocket. All of them are cheaper on your own if there's no OBC in the equation.

As others post, although rare, there can be exceptions. One example: there have been several reports of Key West trolley tickets being cheaper from the ship than buying direct.

Browsing ships excursions can also be a source to get ideas to further research

Other than ensuring you get back to the ship on time do you feel that the ships tours are value for money?This does not only apply to X.

The only time we have used the ships tours was when we did a Middles East Cruise in 2016 and that was purely for safety reasons.

 

 

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It depends on the excursion and may depend on the port.

When we first started cruising, we took ship's excursions. However, we were somewhat put off by the cost.

I started doing more research as well as joining our roll call on cc boards. Now, we rarely take ship's tours.

We are more likely to take a ship's excursion if the price is not significantly about a private tour. Also, if the port of call is a tender port, sometimes tendering can be very slow to depart the ship, unless you take a ship's excursion. We had a deplorable delay in Bali, Indonesia of 2 1/2 hours because the locals wanted a larger bribe, but we had a ship's excursion and managed to squeeze in our full day tour. However, others that had private tours didn't get off the ship until after lunch.

Another example is when the tour you want is a full day and your arrival back at the port is close to the drop dead time. We took a ship's excursion to Normandy from Le Harve port because of the risk of being late.

Also, the excursion was not more than 25% above the private tour price. We have seen some ship's excursions that were three times the cost of a private tour. I organized a private tour in Norway that cost $65 pp, while the ship's excursion for the same tour was $199.

Some tour companies will even guarantee to transport you to the next port, etc. if you miss the drop dead time.

On our first few cruises we did ship excursions. We spent a LOT of time hanging around shops that we would NEVER have spent time in. Obviously the tour guide got a kickback for bringing cruise passengers to these places. We now rely on reviews on Trip Avdisor, and other similar sites, to book our tours. We've had great success this way! When you are in a port, there are MANY guides that are looking for your business. They are VERY aware of the cruise ship's schedule, and will make sure you get back in time. Our BEST tour was with Vic's Tours in Costa Rico! He met us at the port, took just the two of us on the BEST birding tour (which is exactly what we wanted), and went out of his way to give us a great experience. I would suggest that you research tours that are not part of the ship excursions.

Sorry for all the uppercase words! I got a bit too enthusiastic!

We do both. For us it all depends on the port and how easy it is to arrange a private tour ahead of time and find other cruisers from our Roll Call who want to join us. Another point is how much work and coordinating we want to do. There are some really good values in splitting the cost of a private tour with a driver as opposed to a big ship bus tour. Sometimes it is just easier to join a ship excursion if the coordinating with a private tour company gets to be too difficult and expensive. I recently stopped negotiating with a company as their price was significantly higher than what I was getting through other local companies. You do have to compare apples to apples though.

We really do not like to do the bus tours as those make us a bit crazy!! If we can find an excursion through the ship that involves sailing on a small catamaran to a neighbor island in the Caribbean we will do that and also smaller catamaran sunset sails. For us they all have their time and place. We have never had to worry about being back on time as these private companies livelihood depends on getting their clients back to the ship on time. CC members are pretty frank and honest when talking about companies!! Their reputation is at stake. For cruisers who would worry excessively and not be able to enjoy a private tour for fear something would happen and they would miss a ship I don’t think it is worth the stress for them even if a private tour is cheaper. I think you have to do what you are comfortable with.

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