New to cruising

Can anyone give me guidelines about taking any of the excursions?

We are sailing on Mariner of the Sea ( Royal) on Jan 2 and my husband and I are having a tough time deciding what excursions are worthwhile and whether we shoud book through the ship or some independents. We will be in Ocho Rios, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and Labadee. Any input will be greatly appreciated.:confused:

Sometimes we take ships' excursions, sometimes we go on our own.

Deciding factors include:

cost of excursion we want to take - generally the more costly the excursion, the more likelihood we will do a ship's excursion, although most people do the opposite. We make this choice because with the ship you have several sorts of guarantees - if weather is bad and excursion has to be cancelled, we will not be charged. If you have made the excursion plans off ship, you usually have to give (at minimum) a deposit and might or might not get it refunded if the excursion is cancelled. Also, sometimes the ship does not dock where it was planning to - this happened to us in Grand Cayman, ship had to tender in a completely different area than was originally planned. If we had a private excursion planned we would now have lost time trying to get to our starting point. Also, although not common, ships sometimes don't make the port at all. Again, either a lost deposit (or more) or the hassle of trying to get it back.

The cruise lines typically research their excursions and excursion providers carefully. They are trying to keep as many passengers happy as possible. Providers are checked that they actually provide the services they say they are providing and must meet safety requirements - for example, all cruise snorkel trips I have ever been on there is a careful review of using equipment, mates are usually very helpful with the equipment and there is no drinking of alcohol until after the last snorkel.

Time constraints are also a consideration. If time is short, and/or travel time on excursion is extensive, and/or the natives don't speak English, we will usually go through the ship.

The times we usually go on our own is in places where we are not pre-arranging tours, but instead are "winging" it. So, St. Thomas we just get off the ship and hop onto a taxi, either going to Magen's Bay or another beach on St. Thomas or take the taxi to the ferry for St. John. We have found it is usually a complete waste to take a ship's tour to the beach, because much beach time is wasted getting a group together, then travelling together, and then they usually allot shopping time, something we have little to no interest in doing.

The "ports of call" section here is an incredible resource. I always check it out for my cruises (even my land vacations) even if we have been to a port already. Look there, see what you are interested in, and then plan your choices.

We did your itinerary several years ago and chose a photo tour in Ocho Rios due to concerns at the time about personal safety. While we had problems with some vendors, many people have no problems. Jamaica is a beautiful island, but we would probably either pick a snorkel trip next time, where we really spend no time on the island or stay on the ship.

Grand Cayman was one of our all time favorite stops. We chose a ship's tour - catamaran snorkel to sting ray city. We considered one of the many highly recommended private tours, but at the time I was not comfortable giving my credit card over an unsecured internet connection to hold our tour. They weren't going to charge anything until we got there, but we decided to go with the ship's tour anyway. We had a wonderful time. Despite worries on board, the catamaran wasn't over crowded, the mates were extremely helpful, the ride on the cat, with the winds of the Cayman's filling her sails and making it feel as if we were flying, was one of the highlights of any cruise we ever went on and swimming with the sting rays was truly amazing.

Cozumel we took a ship's tour to Tulum and Xel-Ha. The ruins of Tulum were fascinating, but it was a long, hot day, despite our enthusiastic and knowledgeable Mayan tour guide. If we ever return to Cozumel we will plop ourselves down on one of the beaches at Cozumel, rather than take the ferry to the mainland.

Visit the port of call section, see what is recommended, make your decision and then try not to second guess yourself ;O.

Enjoy your cruise!

If it is a lengthy excursion (like Tulum) or a late one, there is the added advantage that the ship will not sail until the passengers on the excursions booked through the ship are aboard. There have been times when a bus broke down and delayed return. If that was a private tour the cruise line is under no obligation to wait beyond a reasonable all-aboard time.