Have You Ever Regretted Sharing a Private Tour or Ride With an Unknown Fellow Passeng

[uktog]

I will never go on a private tour again. It's no fun having to crawl out of the back of a six or eight person van, because more often than not, the other participants have "fill in the blank" which limits their mobility, and thus, they cannot sit in the back of the van. Put me on a big comfortable bus!! Ahhhhh.

 

 

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I totally agree I do have a slight disability so easy access helps. I had a miserable 8 person tour because a single cruiser who was highly strung but a regular cruiser pulled rank on the ship got off ahead of everyone else and commandeered the most accessible seat because she was a nervous passenger- she does it every time. I was then at the back struggling to get on and off so at two stops I did not even bother to avoid holding up others. I will go on private tours with roll call people I've met before otherwise I'm on the ships tours. One prat on a bus of 30 can usually be avoided one with 8 spoils your day

There are those who ridicule those who use ships tours- this thread correctly highlights why private tours can be good but they can be a disaster.

 

 

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[Spursgirl]

Think disagreeable people can ruin both private and ships tours. We rarely do ships tours but took one last month in Menorca. At our first stop a couple returned to the bus more than 30 minutes late meaning our time was restricted at each following stop. We were so frustrated at being told we only had 10 minutes at a charming spot we had never visited, we told the guide we were leaving the tour and would return to the ship by taxi.

 

My private tours have always included lovely people up to this point but appreciate this may not always be the case.

[uktog]

We prefer the private tours, 6-8 people is perfect. It's painful to wait for 50 people to load and unload a big bus and the lineups to the washrooms are toooo long. The ship sponsored tours make an obligatory sales stop at a jewelry shop or leather factory, waste of time. We've had some talkative, selfish people join our tours, but also some who have become dear friends.

 

 

 

Never been on a Celebrity tour with 50. Most was 42 but that was an "on your own" trip aka a transfer to a Seville from Cadiz. I believe they aim for a max of around 36 but in many cases as the buses are smaller it's much less than that. Of course you get the selfish on both ship and private tours

 

 

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[fred111]

Several years ago on a Med cruise, we took a ship's bus to Florence. It was sold as a round trip transit and "Florence on your own." Needless to say, the driver decided to stop at a leather store in route so people could use the bathroom.

It was supposed to be a ten minute stop.

 

One women decided she would be fitted for a leather jacket and would not leave until they did the fitting, arranged for delivery to the ship, and she had the opportunity to buy matching gloves, etc.

 

The driver didn't want to leave until she was done with her shopping. Guess he wanted his finder's fee. We told him the bus was leaving in five minutes with him driving or not. He dragged the shopper to the bus and we got to Florence 45 minutes late.

 

That is what encouraged us to take tours only with people we know.

[HelenREMfan]

On a Baltic cruise a lady from the US and I arranged a private tour for the 2 days in St Petersburg. We used SPB and 2 other couples joined us, one other British and one US. It worked like a dream. We knew we had some mobility issues..... we arranged a timetable to suit ourselves whilst taking advice from the company - who were great! Any part of the trip anyone felt not up to they remained with the bus (which had a free wifi) as just 4 of us went for a trip on the underground (can highly recommend that!)

With arranging things via people on the roll call we were able to organise things so everyone knew what would be happening.

I do have to say that the odd Celebrity excursion didn't work as well as despite Celebrity reserving seats at the front for me - I have severe osteoarthritis a couple without disability decided they needed to sit there for the return to the ship and left me to struggle further down the aisle of the bus. On the dolphin ad whale watching trip in the Canaries several people came and stood in front of the disabled sitting area so blocking my seated view and opportunity to take photos.

On balance if you do the right organising beforehand the private trips should work well.

[4774Papa]

We recently shared a taxi from port to the nearest City, with 2 other unrelated people from our roll call. We met for coffee while waiting for the ship to be cleared and then headed for the exit. That's when one of them realized they had forgotten their sea pass card in their stateroom. We would have been at the front of the line to get on the port shuttle to the taxi meeting place. Now we had to wait while the line grew ever longer. 20 minutes later out she came. We were lucky the taxi was still waiting for us. Then she showed up 10 minutes late to meeting place for getting back to the ship with the prearranged taxi. We were just about to leave without her. Not the worst horror story by any means, but it sure was annoying.

 

 

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I usually organize tours on cc from the roll call for the cruise. The people that join us are strangers, except for a couple of cruises where we had family or friends cruising with us. We never had any problems with others. We have been on ship's excursions were others were late meeting the bus, like one group of four were half an hour late meeting us in Granada after touring the Alhambra.

[Dunmore2]

Never been on a Celebrity tour with 50. Most was 42 but that was an "on your own" trip aka a transfer to a Seville from Cadiz. I believe they aim for a max of around 36 but in many cases as the buses are smaller it's much less than that. Of course you get the selfish on both ship and private tours

 

We had 48, plus driver and a guide to Ephesis. It was a large coach/bus.

 

Two years ago we were on a bus to Corinth Canal, and there was another bus traveling with us. It was a huge group of more than 80. We completely overwhelmed the coffee shops,washrooms, ice cream parlors, etc when we stopped. We were split up though while at the sites. The tour itself was great and it was a way to use up onboard credit.

 

It was our experience in Sicily that turned us off the most. We waited 20 minutes for a couple at our first stop who were taking pictures of cars in the parking lot. At the second stop, we lost a couple. Turns out they joined another tour group, not Celebrity. We waited an hour until this was figured out. We were late getting to the ship, 30 minutes past the "all aboard".

 

As far as private excursions go, we've had the misfortune of sitting in the very back of a 12 seater van, and the driver/guide speaking too quietly( he had laryngitis) and missing out on his commentary.

We've just had better luck overall on the private excursions vs ship's tours. Thank goodness there's choices!

[Beanb41]

For a private excursion to be really successful it is sometimes necessary as the organiser to be a little dictatorial, like meeting time on the ship and reinforcing that the meet time pre departing the ship and the rules for the excursion. I do this long before the cruise even starts and never had an issue. Some excursions take a lot of planning and it only takes one to stuff it up. Where we travel as a group we stick together until such time as one can become a freedom traveller and be responsible for returning to the ship

[tbmrt]

I've organized and participated in small group tours numerous times.

 

The problems that stand out in my mind are having to wait for others who prebooked our tour, then arrive late or don't show up at all or having a tour operator hold us up trying to add additional passengers to the van.

 

Other than that, the tours went smoothly.

[Flamencacha]

I'm gonna steal your quote. :*

 

 

 

Describes me to the T

 

 

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[Pilgrim70]

I have organized many private shore excursions and have participated in others I didn't organize. 99% were great, met wonderful considerate people. Had one couple that thought they were on their own time table.. they were left behind, the tour company had another group going ,so they joined them.. I would definitely do it again. On large bus tours there is always someone that is not on time.

 

 

 

Have done several private tours that have worked very well. Some very nice people most of the time. Did one where we had a rather unpleasant couple. Complained when driver was a little late picking us up at a point during the tour. Traffic was the problem. They continued to talk about how they had paid a lot of money for the tour and didn't like the wait. Also they made a point of buying wine and putting it in their water bottles to sneak back on the ship. Only one bad tour out of several.

Also in Pisa we had signed up with a group for a wine tour. The women who had organized the group took ill and missed the cruise. Others in our group knew this in advance and didn't show for the tour. The tour organizer said we shouldn't have to pay for the entire group and gave two of us a beautiful tour for a very reduced price.

 

 

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[hubofhockey]

Even if you know the others, eight is a lot and can get difficult. We have met some who are now close friends on shared roll call tours, so they can be a great thing. Now, we try to keep it at four. You can save a lot, even with four, on a private excursion. We often do much better going with no one else.

 

My one bad story comes from a roll call where I had someone request to "hold two spots for me" and I put a roster on the roll call listing their names on that tour at least five times before the cruise. We had a group of ten and it was priced as ten sharing. Those two never showed. We waited 15 minutes and later emailed them from the tour and their response was that they found another tour and never confirmed. I had to ask others on the roll call to help make up the deficit. Nobody complained, but who needs those headaches? Overall, the benefits of making great friends (we have) far outweighs the BS of that tour. However, now I am at the point where we don't do too many private excursions at all and the ones we do, we'll do alone or with one other couple - six people absolute max.

[villauk]

Describes me to the T

 

 

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I thought you were going to post, slamming your travelling companions on private trips when I saw your name :D. I'll let you off ;p.

[Lois R]

People can be rude/annoying on both types of tours.....private or cruise line.........I just returned from my first cruise on

Silversea (which was FANTASTIC:D)......the roll call was very small....and the cruise ship tours were small as well,

of course the ship is much smaller too.

 

I chose the ship tours and overall I was very pleased. We had 1 problem and this can happen anywhere, where you get

1 person who is just MEAN/RUDE.........I could not stand it and I came to the defense of our escort because one of the

passengers was verbally attacking the young woman.:mad:.........this was not the tourguide, but Silverseas sends another

person to be on the tour.....this gal normally works in the casino. She was an "escort/chaperone"........long story short,

the idiot guest had complained about other things on the cruise too but when I saw her yelling at the gal? I had to step in....

Many times I know folks "don't get involved".......but I am glad I did. I made sure (along with a couple of other guests)

we made sure Shore Excursions knew it was the passenger who was rude and not the employee. I felt awful for her

and in all my years of cruising I had never seen something like this happen..........I keep thinking back on it........

I feel like it should have been a scene from "What Would You Do?"...........sometimes we just have to step up and help.

Edited August 27, 2017 by Lois R

[sdnich]

Only have had two negative experiences in over 35 cruises doing mostly private tours. In Turkey, we had a young newlywed couple (all the rest of us were mid-50's +). The wife was the one corresponding on CC. At Istanbul, this husband wanted to see a site that wasn't on the itinerary rather than joining us at lunch. Our guide was very accommodating and took them there. Also, our bus would hold 24 and I only wanted to keep the group to about 16. He was very vocal about sharing the total charge as we could have had more folks and lowered his price which was reasonable to begin with (under $50 per person).

 

 

 

Second experience was primarily with a tour conductor in Panama/Colon; He had included another separate group from Australia on our tour bus. No big deal at first but this group spread out and didn't sit with their own spouse but in individual seats. We had to split up from our loved one. Some of these folks wore the same clothing for consecutive days in a very warm climate; not a very pleasant experience. Plus the driver decided to return via a different route from Panama City but did not want to pay a toll. He circled around and met with a huge traffic jam in the central city. It took us hours to get out of the city. I'll never recommend Robert's tour.

 

 

 

Just curious is that Roberto's tour/robtads? I have them booked next April for just four of us I would not be happy if they added a second group in with us!

 

 

 

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[jean87510]

I'm only comfortable going on tours that I arrange. I will only do ones that accept separate payments from everyone going. I've had nothing but success in Caribbean because it's more laid back. My husband and I did a van tour in gran canaria and it really wasn't for us. Too much driving and visiting a pottery factory an hour out of the way was just dull. We were at maspalomas and due to a long bathroom pit stop we were just driving by the dunes. My husband and I said oh no way. We want to get out and see them. We did get out to experience them. At the end of tour we were given free time to shop for an hour or eat. I thought it was not a good way to see and experience island and if I did it again I would arrange my own tour. Last time I'll do a private roll call van tour.

 

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[Guindalf]

We have done many tours with people from Roll Call as well as ship's excursions. In our experience, there are ignorant people in both groups. There sometimes seems to be a sense of entitlement and they are the only ones that matter!

 

Probably the worst situation we were in with stranger was on the Zenith, out first Celebrity cruise in 2004. We loved it, but we had a six=top for dinner and one couple was great and we enjoyed their company. The other two were 'happy hour friends' - litterally! Two moderately attractive ladies in their 40's who knew each other from the after-work drinks in a bar. One had booked the cruise with her boyfriend and they split up before the trip, so she asked her drinking buddy to fill in the gap.

 

Apart from showing up late to every meal, they insisted on going outside for a cigarette between courses! I was a smoker at that time, but I would never dream of holding up an entire dinner table while I fed my habit!

[1982CruzStart]

We have done a number of private tours, some i have organized and some that i have joined on the roll call. Most have gone very well, with everyone getting along and adapting to unexpected changes or issues.

 

We were on one where one couple and the organizer were almost at each other's throats. It was ugly. The itinerary was set by the organizer so you could join based on that or find one that suits you better. they joined knowing what the itinerary was going to be. Well at one spot, that was very important to the organizer, the other woman decided she didn't want to stop there as it wasn't interesting to her. She thought she could orchestra a mutiny and get her way. We backed the organizer as it was part of the original itinerary and thoroughly enjoyed the stop.

 

I could care less about the front seats as well as being vertically challenged so i almost always automatically crawl into the back. It is easier than having to fight/argue with people about seating. Sometimes my DH isn't as happy about it but goes with the flow. Most of the time the group is willing to take turns but really i am happy to settle into one spot and just stay there for the trip.

 

We have had far worse luck with ship's tours and after doing mostly private tours we opted for a ship's tour and on the last one swore we would never do another one again. People can be unbelievable rude and inconsiderate if they can't have their way.

[H2OH!]

Overall we have had great experiences!

 

One port of call was a tender so our butler offered to take all of us down together. the 4 couples met in our cabin and off we went. worked perfectly.

 

The worst tour was one I had arranged based on cc and trip advisor reviews...it was sardinia dream tour. They clearly overbooked and we did not get an air conditioned van or the white vans they advertise. One couple crawled in the back (trunk area of jeep) with my husband as they endured a long trip to the beach. They advertised lunch and then handed pizza that had been in the hot jeep. the whole thing was a train wreck. We all paid as we were in a foreign country. I emailed the owner when we got back on the ship and he stated 1) if we were dissatisfied we should not have paid (yeah right, in a foreign country- no way), 2) we had gotten suntan lotion on the seats so he had to pay to have the 30 year old jeep detailed (it was a beach excursion and we all used the dry- spray on suntan lotion and sat on our towels because the seats were hot!) and 3) we never asked for ac. I felt like the blue, old jeep we received was false advertising. And the tour guide spoke no english despite the website stating english speaking guides. I still feel badly about the tour :(

 

I would never use sardinia dream tours again! while they have 5 starts, you can see some customers who had issues and how rudely the owner attacks them. I will say that another couple in our cc group had one of the nice vans and said it was a good tour.

[cruise kitty]

So far, I've been very lucky, I've organized a few & also joined up with a few.... when I organize now I try & stick with a maximum of 6 total, but 8 can work too.

 

Our one 'interesting' experience was on HAL, we did a short 7 day cruise to Mexico & joined a group that went every year & had organized a tour in one of the towns, I think it ended up around 15 or so people, & we traveled in a little train of golf carts. The organizer had some sort of "connection" where he wanted to exchange his USD for pesos, rather than just use an ATM... we all waited 45 minutes in the sun while he did this.. in a back alley mind you, but guess what, the golf bag area of each cart carried an ice chest full of beer, so we didn't complain too much lol. There was a lovely lunch served on the beach for us, it was really nice but we managed to be seated across from a very vocal "birther" remember those? She was loud, she was determined, she was crazy, & denied everyone else the joy of listening to us brag about our kids. ;)

[vtcruising]

I am enjoying this thread. I have often thought of starting a thread about "how to be a good private tour member when joining tours organized by others." We have joined tours with roll call members and organized a few. All have worked out quite well overall, but could be better if everyone followed a few suggestions. The following are my suggestions, based on our experiences (and I've seen others already discussed on this thread that I hadn't thought of - we can all learn :D):

1. Please review the itinerary info carefully before signing up. It is disheartening to have someone complain about not going to certain sites when they were not in the listed itinerary.

2. It is good form to gather your water, money, snacks, jacket and use the restroom prior to the meeting time so that the tour will start on time and all sites can be visited for the allotted times.

3. Offer to rotate seats at various stops so that all can be in the better seats at some point.

4. Please don't monopolize the tour guide - others may have questions too.

5. Don't try to modify the tour without input from the group - it should be a group decision.

6. If you have special needs please mention it to the organizer ahead of time - they can let the tour guide know and they may better be able to accommodate you if they have a heads up.

7. Please don't be a "bossy pants", "whiney pants" or complainey pants." Relax and enjoy the tour - things aren't always perfect and sometimes the unexpected happenings are the funny things we talk about for years.

8. Thank the organizer - they have likely put a lot of work into this tour (and often their credit card is used for the deposit so they take the risk). Let them know how much you appreciate their efforts.

 

An example of a great tour group: We had one tour that I organized at a winery in Tenerife. We did all the usual winery stuff and then they took us to the basement where they had special events for couples on Saturday nights that involved Wine and Erotica. I had no idea that they were going to take us down there. On the way down the ramp to the basement the art got more and more interesting and then we entered a room with eye-opening displays, a wishing well for things I won't discuss here and a video of an actual Saturday night event playing. Some in the group took it well and others blanched. I was pretty embarrassed and thought that I would get a few complaints from our group of 10, but everyone marched through and never said a word to me - they were troupers. We ended up making friends with people on that tour and have cruised together since - we still giggle about the Erotic Wine Tour that I arranged. :D

[OCruisers]

I will never go on a private tour again. It's no fun having to crawl out of the back of a six or eight person van, because more often than not, the other participants have "fill in the blank" which limits their mobility, and thus, they cannot sit in the back of the van. Put me on a big comfortable bus!! Ahhhhh.

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(y) Agree with you. Often doing a smaller group sounds good but they are most likely to be in small vans which are not fun.

Much prefer to go with a larger group on a big comfortable bus! :)

[cruisebabe50]

We went on a group tour of the Bacardi Distillery and the Forts in San Juan and had a similar experience. Everyone was ticked off at this lady. She was always late to the bus. Every stop! The driver was also irritated. I think we should have left her behind. But I am mean.:evilsmile:

[Flamencacha]

I thought you were going to post, slamming your travelling companions on private trips when I saw your name :D. I'll let you off ;p.

 

 

 

Oh, no! I am usually easy to go. I organized a tour in Sicily, and the last two to join were the only ones that complained. We got off at the first stop, and bam! I was not happy, she was a tour guide in her native state. Oh well it was a great day anyway.

 

 

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[welove2cruise2014]

Wouldn't do it. We are very much "do things on OUR schedule" type of people and wouldn't want or like to be inconvenienced by folks who may not wish to operate on our schedule.

 

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