Has Anyone used Shore Excursions Group

[Boscodog]

We booked our cruise with a large online Travel Agent. They are affiliated with Shore Excursion Group to book excursions. They have nice packages for our upcoming summer Mediterranean Cruise. I have seen some very good reviews and some not great reviews. I am apprehensive to trust them to our excursions, but it would make things so much easier. There is not much of a roll call yet and teaming up with other passengers may not be viable.

[themanmaw]

We booked our cruise with a large online Travel Agent. They are affiliated with Shore Excursion Group to book excursions. They have nice packages for our upcoming summer Mediterranean Cruise. I have seen some very good reviews and some not great reviews. I am apprehensive to trust them to our excursions, but it would make things so much easier. There is not much of a roll call yet and teaming up with other passengers may not be viable.

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I have the same question.

[sandancer]

Is this the same company as Cruising Excursions.com??

[LondonTowner]

They will be a third party reseller. Personally, I would book direct with a local tour operator or use public transport. If you do some research on each port you will find plenty of suggestions.

 

Tripadvisor and local tourist offices are also good sources of information.

[Keith1010]

I agree with LondonTowner.

 

Keith

[CruiserBruce]

I also agree with LondonTowner. A quick search on this or the Italy board will find several threads on the operation. Summary: great prices, customer service issues, at least partly because you aren't dealing direct with the tour providers.

[JayRich65]

I have used them in Athens, Santorini, Naples, Istanbul, and Kusadasi. With the exception of Istanbul, I was very pleased with the tours. With the exception of the Santorini volcano excursion, they are not third party sellers. They have their own groups, with are generally much smaller and cheaper the the ships excursions. The best one was in Naples, where we had a small group of 6 people who toured Pompei and Amalfi coast.

[LondonTowner]

JayRich

 

You must have been lucky that they turned up in each destination. I have to disagree with your comment about them operating their own excursions. If you read their website it states that they use local operators. In fact, for the number of destinations they offer, it is nigh on impossible for them not to work as a third part reseller, like Viatour and CruisingExcursions.

 

Personally, I don't see any advantage of booking through these type of companies when I can go direct to the tour operator.

[JayRich65]

Sorry, let me clarify what I meant, for almost all of the excursions, they may use another party for the operator but the tour group was not combined with other tours sold by others. When you find them, they almost always have a sign for "Shore Excursions Group". So, the bottom line is with few exceptions (Santorini Volcano being one) all of the folks on the tour have purchased through Shore Excursions.

[LondonTowner]

JayRich

 

I think you have missed the point. The passengers may have all booked through Shore Excursions, but they are not the operator of the tour. They have bought the tour from somebody else.

 

They are not contracting the coach or employing the guide, somebody else is doing that.

[CruiserBruce]

Sorry, let me clarify what I meant, for almost all of the excursions, they may use another party for the operator but the tour group was not combined with other tours sold by others. When you find them, they almost always have a sign for "Shore Excursions Group". So, the bottom line is with few exceptions (Santorini Volcano being one) all of the folks on the tour have purchased through Shore Excursions.

 

Yes, they may have purchased through Shore Excursions, the guide and/or driver ARE NOT Shore Excursions employees...they are a contracted local provider. That is what "brokers" do. Sell the excursions, take your money, and arrange a local vender to provide the tour. If you need to contact the local vender, or they need to contact you, it can get challenging.

[Wisconsin Travelers]

We booked our cruise with a large online Travel Agent. They are affiliated with Shore Excursion Group to book excursions. They have nice packages for our upcoming summer Mediterranean Cruise. I have seen some very good reviews and some not great reviews. I am apprehensive to trust them to our excursions, but it would make things so much easier. There is not much of a roll call yet and teaming up with other passengers may not be viable.

 

We exclusively used Shore Excursions Group on our first Mediterranean cruise a couple of years ago because they were affiliated with our online travel agent. Other than the tour in Rhodes, they were ok. The problem in Rhodes started when the pick-up point was not where it was described on our paperwork. It continued when the "guide" who was actually German got lots of his dates and facts mixed up regarding history.

 

As I recall, the Amalfi coast tour van driver had really broken English and was difficult to understand so I just tuned him out and enjoyed the spectacular views.

 

Our guide in Kusadasi (tour to Ephesus) was outstanding. I wish I knew how to contact him because I'd love to refer business to his company. He was one of the best guides we have ever had anywhere!

 

Now I'm planning excursions for another Mediterranean cruise, and I have found that Shore Excursions are considerably more expensive than other companies.

 

As others have commented, companies like Shore Excursions or Viator contract with local companies to actually conduct the tour in the particular location. We have had great luck with Viator and I'm using them almost exclusively for our upcoming cruise in September.

 

If you have time in your planning, check out recommendations on CC and also Trip Advisor. Read all of the reviews you can for the tour you're interested in. Sometimes the general tour description isn't as thorough as it should be. Last week I was all set to book a tour that included a cable car ride. It wasn't until I had read about 40 reviews that I learned about a 10 minute steep climb to get to the cable car entrance - and I have rotten knees! Glad I kept reading!!

 

Best of luck to you - and be sure you post your reviews back on CC for everyone!