Having experience now with shore excursions with HAL and Voyages of Discovery, the ones we took with Crystal were exceptionally poor in comparison. Inferior guides, too much "shopping" emphasis and shallow exposure to the ports. And they were not cheap.

Interesting to see they con passengers with onboard credits only to suck it back with higher excursion prices. Why should this surprise me. Crystal was too large to get into many of the downtown docks, which was an advantage for the much smaller Discovery, which made one dependent on some sort of pricey port arrangements on your own or the ships now even pricier shore excursions.

Crystal promised free "shuttles" which never happened in most ports allegedly due to taxi driver complaints, except Dubai which took one only to a remote shopping mall.

And in the interests of full disclosure, this also happened on the Discovery when it was not close to a town or a safe area as in some of the South African cities like Port Elizabeth and Durban - and the shuttles cost five pounds sterling RT.

All of this is illustrative showing the brochure price for a trip ..... is only the beginning. It is the credit card you pay off once you get home that is the real cost of a cruise line.