Tours -What is you preference

[Wilbo]

After reading many posts, we have decided to book our own tours on a Southern Caribbean cruise in March.

We have decided by booking our own tours we have more fexibility.

This is a first for us. Usually we book direct with HA prior to the cruise.

Just curious - What do you prefer & why?

[kazu]

For most ports and areas we book our own private tours. It's not a matter of money (although it works out cheaper in most cases if you have a group), it's the flexibility. You stop where you want to stop. If you want to stay longer in a a certain area, you do. something of particular interest - you'll see it.

 

No 15 minute bathroom break, no forced stop at the 'store' that is very touristy.

 

As long as you check out your tour guides (and cc is a great spot), you will have a good tour with a local with knowledge who wants to share with you all about their country/area.

 

with 8 people max, there is just more time to see a lot of things and in greater depth. You lose a lot of time while 40 people get on and off buses.

 

We still do some HAL tours for certain ports - I really like that they have added reviews and hopefully people will start rating. We've done a couple that are tremendous, but there are lots others than just don't measure up. JMO though :)

[alpal1993]

We do a combination of both ship and independent tours.In some instances ex Alaska HAL reserved the tour(Bering Sea Fishermans Tour ) for the afternoon and we could not book the morning session.It was the same price plus we got ship credit.Win Win situation

[Randyk47]

It's situational for us. If it's a new location we'll typically stay with HAL tours for at least the first visit and then maybe look to private tours for subsequent visits. If it's a complex or complicated tour then we'd probably stick with HAL no matter how often we've been to the location. (For example, we were going to visit Egypt on the Prinsendam last year and would have taken a Giza Plateau tour to see the pyramids. That's a long tour and you travel quite a ways from the port. No way I'd do that privately and risk missing the ship.)

[kyriecat]

In the Caribbean, I mostly book tours with private vendors. There isn't much risk of missing the ship and the smaller group usually makes for a better tour. There are a few exceptions when I've booked ship tours. In St. Lucia I wanted to take a combination land/sea tour that I couldn't find available through any private vendor. In Cozumel I wanted to see the Tulum ruins but was hesitant to go so far into the mainland part of Mexico on my own. For my upcoming cruise I have a couple HAL tours booked. I wanted to go to the Pacific side of the Panama Canal but the only passengers booked on HAL tours are allowed off the ship in Gatun Lake. For Costa Rica, my husband wanted to do the train, canal, and plantation tour but I contacted several vendors and none offer that combination.

 

Basically, if I can find a tour that I want through a private vendor, I'll book it. I've had lots of good experiences with private vendors, usually with a smaller group and less cost than a cruise tour.

[Cruzin Terri]

I don't book a ship tour unless there is no other way to see what I want to see or do what I want to do.

Terri

[Willsot]

We do a combination and have been quite please with the HAL excursions. When a full-day tour might run close to sailing time we choose HAL. We've also had wonderful private tours.

[CtheW0rld]

for carib. tours - i walk off the ship and book one on the dock. much less expensive and more personal.

[cb at sea]

Since we enjoy beaches, we don't book 'tours" at all..we just grab a cab or bus and go! It does take a little research to do that...but for me, that's part of the fun of planning...looking up info on where we'll be.

 

Same with shopping and restaurants on shore...and even some "sights", if we're interested.

[RuthC]

If I'm cruising with a group of friends, and we all want to do something in particular, then I'll take a private tour, or go off with them for the day.

But I am mostly cruising alone, so take HAL tours. I may meet up with others I have met on the ship, but am not tied to them.

It's safe. And for me, it's cheaper than trying to book a private tour for one.

[foodsvcmgr]

For years I booked only independent tours, primarily for their lower cost.

 

The past year or so I have reverted to tours sold by the cruise line as the

price differential has seemed to disappear.

 

That being the case, I like the simplicity, certainty, and lack of effort involved with taking an official cruise line sponsored tour.

[Jemima]

We take HAL shore excursions. I haven't found much price difference for the excursions we want to take. Also, HAL excursions have a number of advantages: canceling and changing and adding until a day or so before the cruise (10% fee), ship knows where we are, we're ok if the excursion returns late, excursion meets HAL requirements, probably easier to get a partial or full refund if excursion is way (and negatively) different than advertised. We also have some concerns about arranging a private excursion with a few other passengers unless we knew them well. If a ship excursion is to go to A, B and C; then it will go those places. Let's say I'm most interested in B. On the private excursion, most of the group might decide to stay longer at A, skip B and go to C.

[sandiego1]

I typically book tours that are not from the cruise line. The last thing I want on vacation is to be herded onto a bus w/ 40 people and pushed through large corporate owned restaurants/shops. I much prefer the smaller, more personal tours I find on my own.

 

But if we are short on time in a port, tour isn't offered independently or the tour is far from port (Belize zip line comes to mind), then I would book w/ the cruise ship. Same reasons as others mentioned - don't want the ship to leave w/o me.

 

I did 3 HAL tours and was disappointed each time. We did the ATV excursion in Costa Maya and the Dune Buggy in Grand Turk. Both times we were part of large groups on poorly maintained equipment. Tours were poorly run and ran late so we had to wait a long time before we got started. We also did a Belize zip line tour was much different than expected. We were told it was less than 1 hour to the zip line site. It was over 1 1/2 hrs each way. We were off ship for more than 5 hrs total (lots of waiting once we got to the site) and there was absolutely NO food offered. Just got a quick bathroom break w/ water. When I mentioned this to the Captain (met him at a Suite function), he was horrified that we were gone from 10:30 to 4:00 w/o any food. By the time we got back to the ship, all food stations were closed. We tried room service but it was an hour wait. Luckily I had stashed a few food items in my bag to munch on during the bus ride. Folks around me started a bidding war for my chocolate bar! However, the zipline itself was great and we had a lot of fun. They just need to rework the tour and ensure folks truly know what they are getting into. The excursion desk totally lied to us. It was supposed to be a 3 hour tour.

 

I loved all of the independent excursions I booked for Alaska (amazing and much more reasonably priced than Princess) and a few in the Carib (better than HAL and Celebrity).

[LarryF]

We too prefer booking independent tours for the same reasons as most have posted. We will do ship excursions when there are short port times. Mostly though we like to rent a car and do our own excursions when possible. This gives us total flexibility.

 

We've rented a car twice in Skagway, Alaska and driven the Klondike highway to Emerald Lake and back. The scenery is incredible and we stopped often to look at the awesome veiws. Both times we spotted a bear. It was comical watching the people on the tour buses zooming by trying to see the bear as we took pictures of the bear less than 10 feet from our car!:eek:

[Koshlong]

I've enjoyed both. When port time is short, or I'm uncomfortable with a port, we'll take HAL tours. Independent tours are fun with a larger group. I've never really been comfortable with the "rent a taxi at the port and ask for a tour" approach, though.

[Arwen]

We have taken eight cruises and most shorex have been through HAL. However, for the first time, we joined other CC'ers who had organized an amazing shorex in Bora Bora (last year).

 

We are leaving for the Caribbean in less than two weeks, this time with Celebrity. We did our homework and found some wonderful excursions to book independently. Only in Grenada, did my husband book through the cruise line because he wanted to do the bus tour thing.

 

We used TripAdvisor.com reviews and the comments on Cruise Critic using the Google search to get recommendations on various activities for our port stops.

 

When booking independently, I always make sure that we will be back to the ship 2 hrs before ship departure in case we encounter a delay.

 

Also when going independently, I make sure I have the phone number of the Port official (listed on the daily HAL news brochure), AND backup plans on how to get to the next port in the unusual and improbable case of having to meet up at the next port ( like being prepared for any undue event)

 

We will be taking a Mediterranean cruise this October and we will be booking through HAL for sure.:)

[tip]

We have been on twenty cruises and counting. We find that most of the ship's sponsored excusrions are nothing more than overpriced cattle herds. The only exception might be a port or area where safety or the political situation is a concern.

 

We have found that we get some great recommendations on tours by reading the ports of call threads on these boards. It is easy to ask for and read recommendations of others and you can usually find a web site which details the tours. Sometimes (if we read that they are available), we will buy a tour at or outside of the gate. If we want to have a beach day, we find that a cab is the way to go. We always leave a cushion of 2-3 hours to return to the ship before they raise the gangplank. This avoids the last minute rush. Many ports have shopping just steps away from the ship which we often take advantage of before boarding.

[Oceanwench]

I've been on three excursions through HAL and all were dismal. :(

The worst one was in San Juan - a total waste of time. The bus actually parked near a public beach and the tour guide got out and was eating at a food stand. No one got off the bus ... we just sat and waited.

 

On the other hand, our tours with locals have been memorable. Lots of fun, lots of interesting sights, stop and go as we pleased, customized to our preferences.

 

Even when a local tour fell through recently in Curacao (the promised vehicle did not arrive, and we refused to be crammed into a small van), we were able to walk into town and find a colorful, open-air bus that took us around the island for $15 pp -- and included water, soda and beer! :D

 

There are great tips on the Ports of Call boards here.

[VermeulT]

We do a combination and have been quite please with the HAL excursions. When a full-day tour might run close to sailing time we choose HAL. We've also had wonderful private tours.

 

Ditto.

[Susie51]

We take HAL shore excursions. I haven't found much price difference for the excursions we want to take. Also, HAL excursions have a number of advantages: canceling and changing and adding until a day or so before the cruise (10% fee), ship knows where we are, we're ok if the excursion returns late, excursion meets HAL requirements, probably easier to get a partial or full refund if excursion is way (and negatively) different than advertised. We also have some concerns about arranging a private excursion with a few other passengers unless we knew them well. If a ship excursion is to go to A, B and C; then it will go those places. Let's say I'm most interested in B. On the private excursion, most of the group might decide to stay longer at A, skip B and go to C.

 

I feel the same way.

[Hlitner]

We have been on twenty cruises and counting. We find that most of the ship's sponsored excusrions are nothing more than overpriced cattle herds. The only exception might be a port or area where safety or the political situation is a concern.

 

We have found that we get some great recommendations on tours by reading the ports of call threads on these boards. It is easy to ask for and read recommendations of others and you can usually find a web site which details the tours. Sometimes (if we read that they are available), we will buy a tour at or outside of the gate. If we want to have a beach day, we find that a cab is the way to go. We always leave a cushion of 2-3 hours to return to the ship before they raise the gangplank. This avoids the last minute rush. Many ports have shopping just steps away from the ship which we often take advantage of before boarding.

 

Totally agree. When traveling in the Caribbean, South America or Europe we seldom see the need for any tours and always do our best to avoid the "herds." We do understand that many only feel secure when they are on an excursion and part of a "herd" but some of us prefer to be lone sheep! Using a combination of public transit, rental cars, our feet, and some common sense we generaly can accomplish more than the excrusions (when we want to do more), avoid being herded like cattle, and often save thousands of dollars on a cruise by not paying the inflated excursion costs. As a very simple example, most cruise lines will charge about $80 a person for a bus from Civitavecchia to Rome while the train costs about $13 and includes all days use of Rome's buses and metro (this is called a BIRG ticket). Another example is that if you are in a port like St Thomas and want to go to a beach such as the famous Magans Bay, it is a lot less costly to simply grab a taxi from the port (you will be half way to the beach while they are still trying to organize the bus groups).

 

Hank

[KirkNC]

We are with Hank, what I see as a third option. We virtually never use a ships tour but do occasionally use an independent company. Our most common MO is to do our own DIY tour. On our recent 17 day Med cruise with 15 port days, we used a tour once (for the Vatican). All other ports we used our feet or some form of public transportation to see the sites the port had to offer. I just about guarantee we either saw more or saw it cheaper (or most likely both) than any ships tour and most private tours. It does take a lot of work before hand but I actually enjoy the research. The DIY mode really makes it critical that you know more about where you are going and what you are seeing so I think it makes for a richer experience.

We are with Hank, what I see as a third option. We virtually never use a ships tour but do occasionally use an independent company. Our most common MO is to do our own DIY tour. On our recent 17 day Med cruise with 15 port days, we used a tour once (for the Vatican). All other ports we used our feet or some form of public transportation to see the sites the port had to offer. I just about guarantee we either saw more or saw it cheaper (or most likely both) than any ships tour and most private tours. It does take a lot of work before hand but I actually enjoy the research. The DIY mode really makes it critical that you know more about where you are going and what you are seeing so I think it makes for a richer experience.

 

Kirk

[Krazy Kruizers]

it really depends on the port -- if we know the port -- we will do our own

 

but a new port -- we tend to book hal's tours

[Cruising-along]

it really depends on the port -- if we know the port -- we will do our own

 

but a new port -- we tend to book hal's tours

 

This is what we do too. We tend to book the ship's tours if it's the first time at that port for us, or if the area isn't the safest...but we really prefer to do it on our own after that. We love the research and planning, and either renting cars or taking public transportation. We feel like we get to "know" an area much better than when we take tours -- either ship or private.

 

Our next cruise coming up in October is a Med cruise and we will be traveling through France and Italy for a week by rental cars. When we get on that ship we'll most likely be tired and ready to be "taken care of" ;) That and the fact that most of the Med ports we'll be visiting will be new ones for us (other than Egypt, but that's another story) :eek: we're looking at doing ship's tours for most of them.