How many cruises did it take to do your own

Excursion?

Our first two cruises we just did the Carnival Line excrusions. I really didn't think we were very brave or adventurous when we just walked off the ship in Key West and did something on our own. But I really felt adventurous when we "winged" it in the Bahamas,(4th cruise) and we had a blast with memories to last a life time. Our next cruise we are doing 4 ports, and are not doing any of the normal things, or booked with anyone to do them. Are we crazy or now "normal'?

Did our own excursions on our first cruise. The same trips from the cruise line was almost twice the price.

After 3 cruises, I started "winging it."

Since I'm mainly just a beach bum, it's so much easier to just hop in a cab and head for the beach, on my time. Our cruises seem so much more relaxed now. No rushing to gobble up breakfast and fight the crowds (especially at a tender port) to get off the ship and to the meeting spot.

I haven't completely ruled out Carnival excursions, especially if I'm going to a port were there's no good beaches a reasonable distance from port. We will be in Belize in October and may do a cave tubing excursion since there isn't much else to do in terms of my beach bum-ness.:D

I planned my own excursions from the 1st cruise. I don't know if I would have felt so comfortable doing it without these forums, but there is so much information in the Ports of Call forum to make anyone feel confident.

I didnt do a ship excursion until about my 8th or 9th cruise.:D It was a kayaking trip that was only offered by the cruise line.

I like the freedom and cost saving of indie tour operators or using public transportation to experience the ports. It probably helped that I had traveled to many of the ports well before I caught the cruise bug, so I wasnt worried about missing the ship.

For us we have done it both ways. For me it depends on the ports and well to be honest how much work I want to put into it. I like to book and pay ahead of time and be done with it sometiems and other times winging it makes it on my list.

Took awhile as we did not know how to research tour guides on our own for first few cruises.

It was our 3rd cruise before we ventured out and booked independent tour operators. But it was after a fair amount of research and recommendations of folks on this board. Since then, we've done a combination of private and cruise-line sponsored excursions, it just depends on the specific port, the tour, the price, etc.

It was our 4th I think.. the one to Maz. and PV..but we did book thru the ship in Acapulco and still had an amazing time..

Our next cruise I am planning on doing one or 2 ports of call privately and the rest thru the ship..

We did Carnival excursions our first cruise, then I found CC and the port of call boards.

I think with all the information out there for different excursions we get to plan something adventurous or beachy depending on the itenerary.

Some of my most amazing experiences are researched private tours.

Belize was Cave tubing, amazing, the company we used had a fun bus, gave out samples of Cashew wine and carried your tubes up the trails for you. Awesome time!!!

Costa Rica, we did a zip line/ tour thingy, it was amazing, fell in love with Cost Rica and always watch for AI's there for good deals.

Cozumel we love the all inclusives, hang out on the beach drinking margaritas, little snorkling........ good times.

Grand Cayman was my fav ever, swimming with the stingrays, snorkling in that beautiful water and going to Rum Point for lunch, so nice we did it twice. Now we're going back to GC in the fall, we gotta go to Hell ;)

I say just research on the port of call boards and see what the majority like.

However you can be disappointed too.

We like to be a bit more active, we went to St Lucia and everyone raved about one tour company, we HATED it. In a bus up and down and around hills all day long, very little out of the bus time, and it's not their fault but the little time we had at Jalousy beach we got taken out by boat and dumped without anyone from the tour with us, it rained most of the time (which is NOT their fault) but the staff from the beach had most of the sheltered tables to keep them dry and I have 10,000 dollars worth of electronics on my head. I did take my ears out and put them in a waterproof container, but then you can't talk or communicate with anyone!!

Kinda sucked!!! So you can be disappointed too, but that was the only time I've been led wrong on these boards, and truthfully most everyone loves that tour, it just wasn't for us, too much sitting in a bus, not our thing!!!

Carole

I do a mix of ship and self excursion. I found most tour company do not do individual booking when they know there is a ship in a port and will refer you to the cruise line. Other times, they block out the good times for the ship tours instead making it hard to booking individually.

Thanks to CC, we booked independent tours at every port on our first cruise. On our second cruise, we did one excursion through Carnival--the America's Cup Regatta Race--because that was the only way it was offered, but all the others were independent. For our upcoming cruise, all our excursions are independent.

We did Carnival excursions our first cruise, then I found CC and the port of call boards.

I think with all the information out there for different excursions we get to plan something adventurous or beachy depending on the itenerary.

Some of my most amazing experiences are researched private tours.

Belize was Cave tubing, amazing, the company we used had a fun bus, gave out samples of Cashew wine and carried your tubes up the trails for you. Awesome time!!!

Costa Rica, we did a zip line/ tour thingy, it was amazing, fell in love with Cost Rica and always watch for AI's there for good deals.

Cozumel we love the all inclusives, hang out on the beach drinking margaritas, little snorkling........ good times.

Grand Cayman was my fav ever, swimming with the stingrays, snorkling in that beautiful water and going to Rum Point for lunch, so nice we did it twice. Now we're going back to GC in the fall, we gotta go to Hell ;)

I say just research on the port of call boards and see what the majority like.

However you can be disappointed too.

We like to be a bit more active, we went to St Lucia and everyone raved about one tour company, we HATED it. In a bus up and down and around hills all day long, very little out of the bus time, and it's not their fault but the little time we had at Jalousy beach we got taken out by boat and dumped without anyone from the tour with us, it rained most of the time (which is NOT their fault) but the staff from the beach had most of the sheltered tables to keep them dry and I have 10,000 dollars worth of electronics on my head. I did take my ears out and put them in a waterproof container, but then you can't talk or communicate with anyone!!

Kinda sucked!!! So you can be disappointed too, but that was the only time I've been led wrong on these boards, and truthfully most everyone loves that tour, it just wasn't for us, too much sitting in a bus, not our thing!!!

Carole

You bring up a good point when doing research, you have to make sure the excursion matches what you want/like to do. Glowing reviews are meaningless if the tour is boring to you. Many people love less active tours.

That's why I get so anal about researching and asking people and the tour operator questions about every aspect of the tour.

I have actually had some tour operators tell me, that their tour wouldnt be a good fit for me, which I appreciated.

Having never sailed before, I booked all of our upcoming cruise excursions through Carnival. Once I get the feel for how "cruising" works, and with the knowledge I gained here, I feel sure I will be winging it from now on and booking them myself...

We always book our excursions through independent tours at each port of call. The excursions that you do on your own are so much better for many reasons......

1. More time spent at each stop.

2. Less people on each excursion. When you see excursions through the Cruise line they always seem packed with people.

3. Less money if you book on your own.

4. Individualized tour guide. You can feel free to ask questions and have your guide pull over if you want to stop somewhere for pictures.

Thanks to CC and the various threads on excursions we booked some excursions independently on both our Alaska cruises. It was the best decision we could have made, as there was an awesome tour company in Skagway we used twice!

We did some excursions on our own our first cruise. We still do them through the cruise line occasionally, when it makes sense.

We have always gone independent. Why pay twice as much?

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We;ve always done our own excursions from the very beginning.

From 2nd cruise on primarily book through private tour companies. Information on these boards is priceless.

ChipQ http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

In 14 cruises, we have done 1 ship sponsored excursion.

I do a mix of ship and self excursion. I found most tour company do not do individual booking when they know there is a ship in a port and will refer you to the cruise line. Other times, they block out the good times for the ship tours instead making it hard to booking individually.

So absolutely TRUE. In many cases they are PROHIBITED from doing private bookings if they want to handle the cruise line's business.

I can't remember ever booking a ship excursion. I seldom book excursions anyway, preferring to mix with the locals at the places they enjoy going to. Although the Mazatlan port call is out now, I used to book Randi's Happy Horses in Mazatlan (3 times). It was such a great excursion, running the horses on the deserted beach of Stone Island and lunch right on the beach at Victor's. I miss this and Randi, an ex-patriot living in Mexico.

Our 1st cruise we booked only thru ship, but by our 2nd cruise we learned to wing it at the port. I did not discover CC til our 5th cruise. But even before discovering CC we did a mix of private & ship tours. This board has helped us so much, it is amazing how much more informed I feel now about a lot of things- tours, staterooms, ship, dining options, etc. In the past we felt we needed a tour for evey port. We ended up getting worn out by end of cruise. But for our upcoming cruise we will do a couple of tours & just catch a cab to a beach or shopping for the other 2 ports. I cannot say it often enough or loud enough- this board has helped us with our planning, so just do your research people. It's easy with the help of CC'rs. THanks everyone

There is no right or wrong answer here but we have never done our own thing. We have always booked through the cruise line.

Everyone has varying degrees of their comfort level. We just don't feel comfortable doing a non ship excursion.

But I am not saying never... :)

There is no right or wrong answer here but we have never done our own thing. We have always booked through the cruise line.

 

Everyone has varying degrees of their comfort level. We just don't feel comfortable doing a non ship excursion.

 

But I am not saying never... :)

Same here...but when we went back to Nassau in stead of taking an excursion we just walked around the area, when we go to Grand Turk we are just going to go to the beach and walk around. We do not feel comfortable booking an "independent excursion" all ours we book through the ship...guess thats our comfort zone :)