Excursion price gouging

[hop2it]

I was going to book a boat tour (New England) directly with the operator, as I've done on many trips, but found out that the cruise line took over the entire capacity and is selling the excursions for more than double the standard fare. Good old free enterprise at work, I suppose, but I'm still disgusted.

[jhannah]

I can understand some markup. That's a standard business practice. But more than double? That does smack of gouging.

[casper106]

The cruise line gets half the excursion fee.

[Nic6318]

I was going to book a boat tour (New England) directly with the operator, as I've done on many trips, but found out that the cruise line took over the entire capacity and is selling the excursions for more than double the standard fare. Good old free enterprise at work, I suppose, but I'm still disgusted.

 

 

Hi there

 

There generally are other operators offering similar tours. Keep looking, ask on your roll call if some people might be willing to book something that may be better and more private.

 

good luck

have a great cruise

[Splinter]

You might want to look on some other sites that book shore excursions. Google "shore excursions" to find some of these.

[Cruising-along]

Check out tours on Trip Advisor. Most places there usually are choices. :)

[hop2it]

Thanks for the suggestions, but it appears the outing I had in mind is a unique one (Bar Harbor lobster boat). I'll probably go ahead and pay the inflated price but will make up for it by reducing an on-board expense elsewhere. Just as a matter of principle.

[OlsSalt]

I was going to book a boat tour (New England) directly with the operator, as I've done on many trips, but found out that the cruise line took over the entire capacity and is selling the excursions for more than double the standard fare. Good old free enterprise at work, I suppose, but I'm still disgusted.

Willing seller meets a willing buyer. Sounds okay to me. This is economic realities talking, not a conspiracy to gouge or run rough shod over any one individual. You can choose not to go on this cruise if you think these reasonable business practices in play are "disgusting". Which they are not.

 

We have run into same situation in many small, limited resource ports. Or ones where the local unions are so strong they dictate the terms for arriving passengers, not the cruise lines.

 

Economics is the study of scarcity. Supply and demand. It is often simply not economic for small ports to have an excess of supply, in order to accommodate the occasion cruise ship visit. Nor economic interest or will to bust local unions who they have to live with well after the cruise ship leaves. Or environmental restrictions that limit the number of motor crafts in their waters.

 

Years ago I got the best travel advice ever. Budget up front for" getting taken" somewhere along your trip. Know this can and probably will happen, up front. Then use that pre-planned travel money to cover these unfortunate extra costs and don't let them ruin the rest of your trip.

[OlsSalt]

Thanks for the suggestions, but it appears the outing I had in mind is a unique one (Bar Harbor lobster boat). I'll probably go ahead and pay the inflated price but will make up for it by reducing an on-board expense elsewhere. Just as a matter of principle.

Be sure and tell them or HAL might miss your protest .... on principle. I am sure local operators will want to risk empty slots instead of a guaranteed pre-booking ..... on principle too.

[mame42]

Thanks for the suggestions, but it appears the outing I had in mind is a unique one (Bar Harbor lobster boat). I'll probably go ahead and pay the inflated price but will make up for it by reducing an on-board expense elsewhere. Just as a matter of principle.

 

I have done this excursion with HAL, and it is more than worth the price, one of the most educational and fun I have ever taken.

[StartrainDD]

Thanks for the suggestions, but it appears the outing I had in mind is a unique one (Bar Harbor lobster boat). I'll probably go ahead and pay the inflated price but will make up for it by reducing an on-board expense elsewhere. Just as a matter of principle.

 

We are doing this tour in April (first cruise ship of the season). Yes, during the AM HAL has the boat chartered. But they also have an afternoon tour open to the public which we booked. And it will likely be warmer in the afternoon!

 

You didn't say when you are sailing but if you are on the Veendam April 21 repositioning cruise join us and come over to the roll call (which is pretty quiet).

[CruiserBruce]

They are charging what the market will bear. If no one buys at that price, the price will come down.

 

Not gouging- an overused, hyperbolic accusation for any time someone thinks a price is too high.

[kazu]

There are certain operators that only deal with the cruise lines - I suspect it's in their contract with the cruise lines.

 

And there are other operators that avoid dealing with the cruise line and prefer to deal with private tours.

 

If the tour you want is a ship's tour, then there can be no choice.

 

One of the few ship's tours we have booked on our upcoming cruise involves a Flamenco show. I arranged two private flamenco shows with this club in the past for our roll call and they were top notch (and we do know the difference;)).

 

the cost was nominal - around 22 euros max. The HAL tour is much more than that, but if we want to go, it's HAL or no go. So, even though the price is far more than what we paid, we choose to go.

 

It's just the way it is. ;) And you can either say yay or nay.

[OlsSalt]

They are charging what the market will bear. If no one buys at that price, the price will come down.Not gouging- an overused, hyperbolic accusation for any time someone thinks a price is too high.

Yes, who in fact is the "gouger". The customer who wants a special deal or the provider who gets the he/she can get. "Gouging" is a trigger word for me too.

[OlsSalt]

I can tell you from first-hand experience that it is true. The cruise line often gets half the excursion fare. But there is a snag involved. Since cruise line passengers are so fond of lawsuits when anything goes even slightly wrong on a tour, the major cruise lines are forced to take out $5+ million liability insurance on every passenger on every tour.

Depending on where that tour might be going, the insurance company takes a relatively huge chunk of the revenue from that tour. The net profits for the cruise line are not nearly what they might seem to be. There are ALWAYS options. Even if the tour operator has sold all his tours to the cruise line, there will always be somebody else who is willing to take your money. You just need to work a bit harder to find that person.

If you are willing to take a tour with someone who does not have that massive insurance policy to cover mishaps, you can save a lot of money.

The recent tragic event in NZ for Celebrity passengers underscores this issue.

 

NZ reported there had been another incident with Celebrity passengers and a bus on the same day, plus two other what appeared to be private bike incidents in the past months too - did not disclose whether this was a private bus tour or not for the second incident.

 

From NZ news: Tragedy has struck Celebrity Solstice on New Zealand roads three times in the past few months.

A Canadian passenger from the ship was severely injured when he was hit by a campervan while cycling with his partner on Otago Peninsula nearly two weeks ago.

And an elderly American woman was killed in November while riding a bike in Tauranga the day the ship arrived in the city.

 

The same afternoon a bus carrying ship passengers collided with a car on State Highway 29. The car's driver died, but nobody on the bus was injured.

[foodsvcmgr]

I will likely be in the minority here, but I find most cruise line shore excursions the last few years to be rather reasonably priced and good value against independent tours. Much more so than 10 or 20 years ago when gouging was more the norm IMO.

[Toad]

We are often in Bar Harbor, and I think if you call the Chamber of Commerce you will find that there are other very similar tours.

 

 

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[hbgroadends]

I was going to book a boat tour (New England) directly with the operator, as I've done on many trips, but found out that the cruise line took over the entire capacity and is selling the excursions for more than double the standard fare.

I wish there was someone from the cruise lines who knows the hows and whys for the pricing would answer some of these questions. I've booked an Alaska land/cruise package and have priced shopped all of the excursions I want to do. Interestingly enough, HAL's prices were identical to, or maybe a dollar more than, the tour operators for all but one excursion, which was the first time I have seen that happen. On every other cruise I've been on, the cruise price was always higher.

 

For the one excursion, HAL was only $15 more than on other sites, but I wondered why their price was different for the exact same excursion. Although, someone's mentioning about the insurance does make some sense.

 

Still, it would be nice to know the thinking behind the pricing of the excursions.

[hop2it]

Thanks for all the replies to my post, even the rude ones from the price-gouging enthusiasts (who I suspect may be retired gas station owners who delighted in hurricanes). With further searching, I did indeed find alternative tours like the one offered by the cruise line, so I'm grateful for that suggestion in particular.

[avian777]

Thanks for the suggestions, but it appears the outing I had in mind is a unique one (Bar Harbor lobster boat). I'll probably go ahead and pay the inflated price but will make up for it by reducing an on-board expense elsewhere. Just as a matter of principle.

I have done this excursion with HAL, and it is more than worth the price, one of the most educational and fun I have ever taken.

OP, we have done this excursion twice and will do it again (& again & again) if it's available (at virtually any price imaginable) when we visit Bar Harbor in the future. Our experience and recommendation mirrors that of mame42 to a tee. Take the excursion unless the thought of paying "the inflated price" will prevent you from enjoying it.

Smooth sailing ...

[cruisemom42]

I can tell you from first-hand experience that it is true. The cruise line often gets half the excursion fare. But there is a snag involved. Since cruise line passengers are so fond of lawsuits when anything goes even slightly wrong on a tour, the major cruise lines are forced to take out $5+ million liability insurance on every passenger on every tour.

Depending on where that tour might be going, the insurance company takes a relatively huge chunk of the revenue from that tour. The net profits for the cruise line are not nearly what they might seem to be.

 

There are ALWAYS options. Even if the tour operator has sold all his tours to the cruise line, there will always be somebody else who is willing to take your money. You just need to work a bit harder to find that person.

If you are willing to take a tour with someone who does not have that massive insurance policy to cover mishaps, you can save a lot of money.

 

 

Is that you, BruceMuzz? :confused:

[cruisemom42]

There's no doubt in my mind that there are times when the cruise lines approach price gouging with excursions. It seems to vary by area. (Alaska excursions for some reason tend to be closer to what private operators charge.)

 

In some cases the costs are really hard to swallow. A few years back I looked into an overnight tour in Israel through HAL on my Westerdam cruise. The cost of it was more than the cost of my entire cruise. I was able to arrange for a private tour for two days (by myself on one day and with one other couple on the second day) with a licensed archaeologist/specialist in my particular area of interest, with a private vehicle and seeing virtually the same sites for a fraction of what HAL was charging.

[iancal]

It is not just HAL. We were on a Princess South American cruise earlier this month. The excursion prices were high, at least double.

 

We do private for three reasons. They tend to be better,much smaller numbers, and more flexible. They tend to be much less expensive. All of the money we pay stays with the local tour operator..it does not sail away with the ship.

 

We were shocked at what Princess wanted for an SCL airport transfer. Even more so after we we stayed in Valparaiso and then paid les than $5 each for the bus to Santiago, and two days later paid under $3 USD each for the airport bus..

 

My sense is that the cruise lines really Takes advantage of customers in countries where the first language is not English.

[foodsvcmgr]

Agree with iancal, while I don't have a problem with ship "tour" pricing, "transfers" are another matter, usually many times the price of cab fare and you have to wait around while the bus fills.

[OceanTraveller4ever]

Putting aside the very high priced private HAL excursion offerings 500 to 2000+. There is peace of mind in booking with HAL.

So I paid 89USD with HAL as opposed to 40 with a local taxi. If something goes wrong as in car/bus breakdown. road closures, hold ups of any kind, etc..as.it can happen,.

The HAL excursion will have your back.......anything else....you're on your own....