Are Cruise Excursions Overpriced??

[Heidi13]

4 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

I like whatsinport to help find which pier we will be docked and for port shuttle info.  

 

That's also about all I use it for and the pier info is often not sufficiently detailed as it requires further research.

[ldubs]

Just now, Heidi13 said:

 

That's also about all I use it for and the pier info is often not sufficiently detailed as it requires further research.

 

Very true.   I have what'sinport bookmarked.  I go then to get a link to the "official" port website.   I just find it more convenient that looking up each one separately (and having to wade thru all the "sponsored" stuff).

[sparks1093]

2 hours ago, Flatbush Flyer said:

I’d say pretty much all of them unless you’re talking about a higher priced five figure trip.

Actually the cost of the trip would not be too relevant, what would be is the extent of the injuries and associated cost. If a tour operator were negligent and caused injury to a passenger I could see someone including the cruise line in any attempt at recovery. One of the selling points for ship excursions is the fact that the operators are vetted by the cruise line and it could be argued that act makes them at least partially responsible. Arguing is, after all, what lawyers get paid for. 

[donaldsc]

Almost all ship tours are way overpriced unless you are unable or unwilling to take a private tour.  In that case the ship tours are not overpriced.  It is as simple as that.

 

DON

[ontheweb]

We pre-booked 2 excursions on the NCL Prima cruise we had earlier this month.

 

The first was Brugge on your own. It started as more money than just getting transportation there, but with my $50 off for BOGO and each of us having 10% off for our Latitudes status, it was a bit less expensive. (It ended up not happening as the ship did not make the port due to an extremely low tide.)'

 

The other one was in Alesund, Norway. It was a walking tour for the art deco architecture and a visit to a museum about art deco. It was relatively inexpensive especially after the discounts I mentioned above. No big bus tour as it was a walking tour, and there were only 15 of us plus an excellent guide. it was well worth the money we paid for it.

 

[Mary229]

It is fairly simple to educate yourself on your available options.  I use cost, size of group, distance, difficulty of reliable transport, cost of extracting myself should I miss the ship as guides to choose.  I remember good and bad outcomes.  Recently I was in the southern Caribbean on my way back from South America and I wanted to see a particular garden.  We grabbed a taxi and went only to meet the ship tour at the garden an hour later.  As it turns out there were only 10 people on the ship tour and the cost would have only been a few dollars more. If the cruise lines did a better job describing what they offer it would make it easier to make the decision.  
 

It is the same with cruise line hotels.  I avoided them for years but in recent experiences I received outstanding value and service. The reason was they had not adequately described what was included.  It was a very nice hotel with a restaurant breakfast paid by the cruise line (undisclosed), private driver from the airport (only described as a transfer), and a transfer to the ship which included a 6 hour private (private driver and tour guide) city tour including lunch at a landmark restaurant , all undisclosed in the description.  

[jsn55]

34 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

It is fairly simple to educate yourself on your available options.  I use cost, size of group, distance, difficulty of reliable transport, cost of extracting myself should I miss the ship as guides to choose.  I remember good and bad outcomes.  Recently I was in the southern Caribbean on my way back from South America and I wanted to see a particular garden.  We grabbed a taxi and went only to meet the ship tour at the garden an hour later.  As it turns out there were only 10 people on the ship tour and the cost would have only been a few dollars more. If the cruise lines did a better job describing what they offer it would make it easier to make the decision.  
 

It is the same with cruise line hotels.  I avoided them for years but in recent experiences I received outstanding value and service. The reason was they had not adequately described what was included.  It was a very nice hotel with a restaurant breakfast paid by the cruise line (undisclosed), private driver from the airport (only described as a transfer), and a transfer to the ship which included a 6 hour private (private driver and tour guide) city tour including lunch at a landmark restaurant , all undisclosed in the description.  

I so agree with you about the awful inadequate descriptions of anything by a cruiseline.  Would it kill them to state about how much time is spent 'on your own', how many 'shopping experiences' you might endure, how long it takes to 'get there' and many other details of a shore excursion?  I've always found that cruiseline-booked hotels for pre and post stays are horrendously expensive.  We used one once that was included in the cruise and it was really awful.  Perhaps if the cruiseline bothered to describe both hotels and shore excursions completely it would be easier to compare/book.  And they'd generate more revenue.  

[no1racefan1]

I think ship excursions get a bad rap on CC because there's an overgeneralization that they are overpriced, sitting on a bus, not interacting with locals, etc. etc. You really just need to do your research to determine if an excursion will meet your needs. On our four cruises we have done mostly ship excursions with a couple of DIY ports.

 

This is our ship excursion experience:

-Have never booked a tour bus excursion or any excursion that was more than a few people in a group. You should be able to see this in the excursion description.

-Excursion companies contracted by cruise lines are still local companies, and all of our tour guides have been local. One of my favorite cruise memories is hanging out with our local tour guide in Hilo--it was a 8-passenger van but there were only 6 of us--three married couples who all booked the excursion that day to celebrate our anniversaries (all strangers, not booked together) and we had the best time. We had extra time so she drove us to see a black sand beach on the way back to the ship.

-Comparing prices, most have been within $20 of booking the same independent excursion. It's worth that much to me to have tickets in advance, be told where to meet, get off the ship, and be on our way, without having to make any of those arrangements or worry about changing ship schedules.

 

I make sure to read lots of reviews--a lot of cruise lines offer the same excursions, so if I can't find enough information on the line we're sailing, I'll go read reviews on other lines' websites. Also, some lines (Princess does this) list tour details that includes a timeline of how long traveling, how long at each stop, etc. If you put in the research, you should have a very good idea of what to expect. We have yet to have a ship excursion that was not a highlight of our trip!

 

[cruisemom42]

Are excursions overpriced? Here’s a real world example.

 

I’m currently onboard an Oceania ship that was in port yesterday in St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Other than walking around the small town, the only major attraction is a visit to L’Anse aux Meadows, the only Viking site discovered in North America and a UNESCO site. 
 

Unbelievably to me, Oceania did not offer any excursion there until very shortly before the cruise started. I might’ve booked thru them, had they offered one as I’d read taxis were few (I later learned there are two taxis total in town). But by the time they got around to posting a tour, I had tracked down one of the taxi drivers and booked transportation to the site on my own.

 

Oceania ended up with 3 large bus loads to the site. We were all there for the same amount of time. O tour participants had a guide, but I found that upon buying my ticket to the site, I was also entitled to a free guided tour by a site employee (run by Canada’s National Parks system.) Plus I had the same access to the interpretive docents at the reconstruction of the site.

 

Here’s the kicker. I paid $80 for transportation plus about $9.50 for my admission and included tour (converted from CAD). So roughly $89.00. Oceania’s tour cost $279 per person.

 

Sorry but that is a ridiculous difference.

[broberts]

1 hour ago, cruisemom42 said:

Are excursions overpriced? Here’s a real world example.

 

I’m currently onboard an Oceania ship that was in port yesterday in St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Other than walking around the small town, the only major attraction is a visit to L’Anse aux Meadows, the only Viking site discovered in North America and a UNESCO site. 
 

Unbelievably to me, Oceania did not offer any excursion there until very shortly before the cruise started. I might’ve booked thru them, had they offered one as I’d read taxis were few (I later learned there are two taxis total in town). But by the time they got around to posting a tour, I had tracked down one of the taxi drivers and booked transportation to the site on my own.

 

Oceania ended up with 3 large bus loads to the site. We were all there for the same amount of time. O tour participants had a guide, but I found that upon buying my ticket to the site, I was also entitled to a free guided tour by a site employee (run by Canada’s National Parks system.) Plus I had the same access to the interpretive docents at the reconstruction of the site.

 

Here’s the kicker. I paid $80 for transportation plus about $9.50 for my admission and included tour (converted from CAD). So roughly $89.00. Oceania’s tour cost $279 per person.

 

Sorry but that is a ridiculous difference.

 

Apparently the 3 large bus loads on the Oceania excursion do not agree.

 

You went through an extraordinary amount of work to setup your excursion. If you were working the same period of time would your compensation not be at least $190?

[cruisemom42]

27 minutes ago, broberts said:

 

Apparently the 3 large bus loads on the Oceania excursion do not agree.

 

You went through an extraordinary amount of work to setup your excursion. If you were working the same period of time would your compensation not be at least $190?

I spend many many hours researching all my trips; for me it is part of my enjoyment. I look at it as a bit of a game to figure out special openings to rare sites and off-piste places. This one was a piece of cake.

[mnocket]

1 hour ago, broberts said:

 

Apparently the 3 large bus loads on the Oceania excursion do not agree.

 

You went through an extraordinary amount of work to setup your excursion. If you were working the same period of time would your compensation not be at least $190?

This once again proves how different people see things differently - not right or wrong, differently. 

 

The quality of the excursions I take are important to me and I don't at all mind doing the research to make sure I get the experience I'm looking for. I find the excursion descriptions provided by the cruise lines often lack the accurate and comprehensive information I need to really understand what I'm getting.  That wouldn't be much of a problem if there were reviews of those excursions from prior participants, but most cruise lines do not provide a mechanism for reviewing their excursions. I think we've all read trip reports on CC where people were disappointed that the ship's excursions were overcrowded, stopped for "shopping opportunities", or otherwise turned out to be not what they expected. 

 

I find it's usually fairly easy to search online for private tours and then read reviews from people who have taken those tours.  I'm guessing in many cases I spend no more than an hour researching each port - so yeah, $190 savings for an hour's work - I'll take it. Even when it takes more effort - like when I'm communicating back and forth with the tour operator to arrange a custom tour or I'm totally unfamiliar with the location - it's worth it to me to get exactly what I want.  It's not always about the money savings, but often it is as I can often find excursions nearly identical to the ship's excursions for half the price. Easy money from my perspective, but I understand that many disagree and prefer the ease of booking ship's excursions - there are certainly cases where I also take that route. 

[sparks1093]

20 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

Are excursions overpriced? Here’s a real world example.

 

I’m currently onboard an Oceania ship that was in port yesterday in St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Other than walking around the small town, the only major attraction is a visit to L’Anse aux Meadows, the only Viking site discovered in North America and a UNESCO site. 
 

Unbelievably to me, Oceania did not offer any excursion there until very shortly before the cruise started. I might’ve booked thru them, had they offered one as I’d read taxis were few (I later learned there are two taxis total in town). But by the time they got around to posting a tour, I had tracked down one of the taxi drivers and booked transportation to the site on my own.

 

Oceania ended up with 3 large bus loads to the site. We were all there for the same amount of time. O tour participants had a guide, but I found that upon buying my ticket to the site, I was also entitled to a free guided tour by a site employee (run by Canada’s National Parks system.) Plus I had the same access to the interpretive docents at the reconstruction of the site.

 

Here’s the kicker. I paid $80 for transportation plus about $9.50 for my admission and included tour (converted from CAD). So roughly $89.00. Oceania’s tour cost $279 per person.

 

Sorry but that is a ridiculous difference.

Since there was that much demand for transportation, and you had already tied up half of the available options 😉, it was a sellers market. For you doing all of the research and making the arrangements is part of the fun, absolutely. But for many they don't have the time or inclination to do that kind of research and in reality only one other passenger would have been able to replicate your experience given the limited commercial transportation options (and of course that is something that is limited to specific ports such as this).

[cruisemom42]

32 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

Since there was that much demand for transportation, and you had already tied up half of the available options 😉, it was a sellers market. For you doing all of the research and making the arrangements is part of the fun, absolutely. But for many they don't have the time or inclination to do that kind of research and in reality only one other passenger would have been able to replicate your experience given the limited commercial transportation options (and of course that is something that is limited to specific ports such as this).

This wasn’t exactly the case. The taxi had reserved a spot for me but also took four others, as well as making a return trip to the port for more pac while we were in the site for two hours. And there would’ve been time for at least one afternoon run as well. Also car rentals were another option I ran across (not for me as I hate driving).

 

At any rate, my point wasn’t so much about the options as whether charging $279 for a three hour excursion on a school bus with a tour that’s already included with the $10 site admission is a fair price or not. My vote is the latter.

[sparks1093]

26 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

This wasn’t exactly the case. The taxi had reserved a spot for me but also took four others, as well as making a return trip to the port for more pac while we were in the site for two hours. And there would’ve been time for at least one afternoon run as well. Also car rentals were another option I ran across (not for me as I hate driving).

 

At any rate, my point wasn’t so much about the options as whether charging $279 for a three hour excursion on a school bus with a tour that’s already included with the $10 site admission is a fair price or not. My vote is the latter.

And my point, which was lost in my attempt at humor, was that given the limited resources available in that particular port it was a sellers market. Cruise lines are in business and need to make money, after all. I suspect that in order for the two taxis to transport three bus loads of people to that site and back would have been beyond their ability (although I am sure that they would have loved that windfall). 

[cruisemom42]

9 minutes ago, sparks1093 said:

And my point, which was lost in my attempt at humor, was that given the limited resources available in that particular port it was a sellers market. Cruise lines are in business and need to make money, after all. I suspect that in order for the two taxis to transport three bus loads of people to that site and back would have been beyond their ability (although I am sure that they would have loved that windfall). 

A seller’s market, yes. But one could also say it is a seller’s market after a natural disaster when goods are in short supply - but the uglier term is price gauging. 
 

My opinion, of course, but you can’t convince me the cruise line I. Question needs to charge $279 per person to make a decent profit on a three-hour large-bus excursion. It’s part of the many issues that are making cruises less and less attractive for some (along with larger ships that limit port selections and fewer hours in port).

 

Who knows, they might have sold six bus loads if they’d only charged $100 less….

[broberts]

24 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

A seller’s market, yes. But one could also say it is a seller’s market after a natural disaster when goods are in short supply - but the uglier term is price gauging. 

 

Our reasonably free market economy accepts one as desirable and the other as not. It's a cultural distinction.

 

27 minutes ago, cruisemom42 said:

 

My opinion, of course, but you can’t convince me the cruise line I. Question needs to charge $279 per person to make a decent profit on a three-hour large-bus excursion. It’s part of the many issues that are making cruises less and less attractive for some (along with larger ships that limit port selections and fewer hours in port).

 

Did you consider that the buses may have had to come and return some distance? Given the number of taxis it seems unlikely that 3 busses would have been available locally.

[cruisemom42]

2 hours ago, broberts said:

 

Did you consider that the buses may have had to come and return some distance? Given the number of taxis it seems unlikely that 3 busses would have been available locally.

They were local school buses. Not being used currently as school is not in session yet.

 

[sparks1093]

4 hours ago, cruisemom42 said:

A seller’s market, yes. But one could also say it is a seller’s market after a natural disaster when goods are in short supply - but the uglier term is price gauging. 
 

My opinion, of course, but you can’t convince me the cruise line I. Question needs to charge $279 per person to make a decent profit on a three-hour large-bus excursion. It’s part of the many issues that are making cruises less and less attractive for some (along with larger ships that limit port selections and fewer hours in port).

 

Who knows, they might have sold six bus loads if they’d only charged $100 less….

Yes, there is certainly a fine line between the two. 

[Subman738]

Stuff at Royals private islands are TERRIBLY OVERPRICED!!  The water park at Coco Cay is currently at about $130 pp and the Zip Line on Labadee is basically $100 for 1 ride. And don't even start on any of the bungalows in either place. But yes, I think that the other excursions are wildly overpriced also. 

 

[ldubs]

4 hours ago, Subman738 said:

Stuff at Royals private islands are TERRIBLY OVERPRICED!!  The water park at Coco Cay is currently at about $130 pp and the Zip Line on Labadee is basically $100 for 1 ride. And don't even start on any of the bungalows in either place. But yes, I think that the other excursions are wildly overpriced also. 

 

 

That water park looks awesome.  $130 seems pretty steep to me too.   I don't know what a "fair" day ticket price would be for the equivalent on land with an included no extra cost snack bar.   

 

On the other side of it, there are a number of free attractions on CoCoCay.    We had a shuttle to an uncrowded beach with nice lounge chairs under umbrellas. Right across the road was a buffet set up.  Cost was zero.