Booking snorkel excursion through cruise or directly through company?

[Macklin410]

I'm looking to book a snorkel tour when we are in Bermuda and saw a lot of good reviews for rising son tours and their snorkel tour on the Rising Son II catamaran. I checked out their website and everything looks great. I then noticed that the cruise line (royal caribbean) has the same exact excursion through the rising son tours company. It would only be several dollars cheaper if I booked the tour directly through rising son's website than if I did it through royal caribbean. I'm used to their being a much bigger price difference between booking something on your own or going through the cruise line. 

 

So my question is...is there any added benefit at all to booking the excursion through the cruise line for something like this?

[princeton123211]

4 minutes ago, Macklin410 said:

So my question is...is there any added benefit at all to booking the excursion through the cruise line for something like this?

I would check things like if the cruise line excursion provides transportation to and from the catamaran-- there would be some extra value in it if that were the case and it departed from a distance from the cruise pier you are at. 

[Macklin410]

1 minute ago, princeton123211 said:

I would check things like if the cruise line excursion provides transportation to and from the catamaran-- there would be some extra value in it if that were the case and it departed from a distance from the cruise pier you are at. 

 

From the looks of things and according to their website the tour leaves right from the Dockyard so no additional transportation would be needed.

[princeton123211]

2 minutes ago, Macklin410 said:

From the looks of things and according to their website the tour leaves right from the Dockyard so no additional transportation would be needed.

Then all things being equal you are most likely just paying the cruise line's commission in the form of the slightly higher rate booked through the ship. Unless you wanted to offload some extra OBC I would just book directly, 

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

4 minutes ago, Macklin410 said:

 

From the looks of things and according to their website the tour leaves right from the Dockyard so no additional transportation would be needed.

What about departure time and tour length?

 

Tour length should be the same... unless they figure more time for the larger cruise group.

 

But, is one departure time/return time more convenient overall?  I would pay a little extra to get a time that works better.

 

The second question is cancelation policy for missed port or for weather.  If you book through the cruise line, refunds will be easy and automatic.  If you book directly, it might be trickier.  Also, make sure the allow for same day cancelation if your ship misses the port (in which case, you may not be able to contact them about a refund until you return home).

[Macklin410]

2 minutes ago, PrincessArlena'sDad said:

What about departure time and tour length?

 

Tour length should be the same... unless they figure more time for the larger cruise group.

 

But, is one departure time/return time more convenient overall?  I would pay a little extra to get a time that works better.

 

The second question is cancelation policy for missed port or for weather.  If you book through the cruise line, refunds will be easy and automatic.  If you book directly, it might be trickier.  Also, make sure the allow for same day cancelation if your ship misses the port (in which case, you may not be able to contact them about a refund until you return home).

 

The departure and return times are exactly the same. Which kinds of makes me curious how this all works. If people can book the exact same tour directly through the company as you can through the cruise line, does that mean the tour can be a mix of people from your cruise and people who booked directly? Not that it would matter at all I was just curious how they keep track of everything if people can book the same tour through multiple sources.

 

I think I'll end up just booking through the cruise line. It's only a few dollars more and it will probably give some guarantee of easier refunds should something happen.

[PrincessArlena'sDad]

26 minutes ago, Macklin410 said:

 

The departure and return times are exactly the same. Which kinds of makes me curious how this all works. If people can book the exact same tour directly through the company as you can through the cruise line, does that mean the tour can be a mix of people from your cruise and people who booked directly? Not that it would matter at all I was just curious how they keep track of everything if people can book the same tour through multiple sources.

 

I think I'll end up just booking through the cruise line. It's only a few dollars more and it will probably give some guarantee of easier refunds should something happen.

If the times are exactly the same, I'd go through the cruise line.

 

We booked a tour outside the cruise line that was not available on our ship (Disney Fantasy), but apparently was available through the RC ship docked right next to us.  Well, the RC people were taken care of first, and we had to wait around like 2nd class citizens!