Originally Posted by
MastaHanky
Hi,
I somehow got roped into booking a Caribbean cruise on Carnival in December. This will be the first time on a cruise for any of us (group of four.....so far).
I wanted to know if it was best to book the shore excursions through the cruise line, or if there are other 3rd party places to book excursions through. Are there any benefits to 3rd party places? We were curious if they were cheaper or gave more variety that you may not get from the cruise line.
Cruise ShoreEX work like this:
They take a 3rd party company multiply the price by 2-3x and sell you the same product.
Anything you want to do you can do without the markup. Basically when you walk off the ship you can pick up a full tour, take a private taxi to do the same tour, or whatever you want.
I've hired cars in most of those ports, and its doable, but depends on what you are looking for. What I do is look up what the ship is offering, then decide what I want to do, then book it off ship.
I only prebook Scuba as its an all day thing and I want pickup confirmed.