Question on excursions.
 

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.

Depends which ports you visit. Depends if its a place where youd prefer to rent a car and drive around for the day. Depends if you're doing stuff later in the day, with tours that can't guarantee theyll get you back to the ship in time.

CruiseCritic forums are really good for this. You'll probably find a whole discussion board dedicated for your particular sailing.

I guess I should post that info too in case any of you have been before.

We'll be on the Carnival Liberty in December, visiting Cozumel, Belize, Roatan and Grand Cayman.

I had not considered a car rental, but am open to it if there are interesting things that would be accessible that normally are not visited by regular excursions.

google the ports....should bring up some info....

Rent a car in Cozumel so you can see the entire island. The best beaches (sand vs rock) are over by Rasta's and past.

Not sure how adventurous or what you want to do, but it's less expensive to book outside the cruise line for your excursions. You can use http://www.shoretrips.com. Less expensive and they've been around for 15 or so years.

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.

Look to recommendations on Trip Advisor for each of your ports. The ports of call section of Cruisr Critic is also a really good place to look.

Whatever you do, do NOT book though the cruise line as for your ports they will be the most expensive, most crowded option. For less money, you will find reliable independent excursions that are less crowded and in many cases offer more within the tour.

The one thing you do need to do before booking independently is find out refund policies if your ship can't make it into port especially Grand Cayman (which is missed a lot). A good operator will refund any deposits/pre-payments if the ship can't make into port.

DO also be aware if you do not book with the ship and you are late to return to the ship when it's time to leave port, they will NOT wait for you and you are responsible to get yourself back on board. IF you book with the ship, they will wait.

That being said, we have never booked an excursion through the cruiseline, but there is just the two of us and we know we will make it back on time come hell or high water. You know your family and your group. Some see the extra money spent booking excursions through the ship to be cheap insurance so they aren't left behind. This is an especially important consideriong if your excursion takes you far from the port. Vans/trucks break down every day. I don't want to scare you, but you do need to be aware of this part of the deal when you book independently. Like I said, we have ALWAYS booked independently. But you know your group, what excursions you might want to go on, and your stress level....

One of our favorite things to do as the ship is pulling away from port is watching the pier runners frantically trying to make it back on board. Priceless!!!

I find googling "port name shore excursions" comes back with lots of info. For the most part, you will do better on your own. Certain ones, like the Atlantis Submarine in Cozumel are actually a touch better deal through Carnival.

Check out www.toursplaza.com for Cozumel, and www.boddentours.com www.therisroatantours.com or www.roatanchristophertours.com for Roatan for personalized tours if you don't want to be in a large group or driving yourself.

In Belize, where you have a 30 minute or so tender ride into port, some of the Carnival tours benefit by being picked up right at the ship, where the private ones, you have to factor in that tender trip. Grand Cayman also has a tender, while Coz and Roatan are docked. In Cozumel, many people like to head over to the mainland to see the Mayan Ruins at Tulum. If you want to do that, I strongly suggest just sucking up the cost of the ship tour. The ferry ride is about 13 miles and Tulum is another 30-45 minute over the road from there. I wouldn't want to remove myself from the ship by that much on my own.

And this is one of the biggest myths that the cruiselines perpetuate. If you're booked on a cruise excursion, the ship *may* wait for you. However, there are a number of factors that can result in the ship leaving without the group from the cruiseline. (As an example, Buenos Aries is down a long narrow shipping channel, that requires that the transit be scheduled. If the ship misses it's slot, it can result in a much longer transit time.) The only real responsibility the cruiseline has is if they ship leaves and you're on a cruise booked tour, they're responsible for getting you caught up to the ship.

I'm firmly convinced most of those people are the ones that have been drinking too much while in port that they forget when they need to get back to the ship :).

For the ports mentioned by the OP, I wouldn't even consider going with cruiseline excursions myself. There's far better options available independently. And all these independent companies know far too well that their livelihood depends on them getting people back to the ship on time, because if they don't, the bad publicity will kill their business. Cruisecritic's port boards is probably the best place to look into options for what you can do.

Some popular excursions may also be bought out by the cruiseline so that they can resell at much higher prices. The dolphin swim in Curacao comes to mind.

In Cozumel we hired a driver through this person. I did my homework on CruiseCritic and everyone had only good things to say. I would recommend using his company.

Eduardo Esquer Cozumel <[email protected]>

I found the website http://www.toursplaza.com/

We asked for Gerry and he was great. He was waiting for us when we got off the ship. We stopped at the big grocery store first and bought drinks and snacks. Gerry had an ice chest in the van. Gerry will take you any place you want. If you have an itinerary he'll follow it or he can suggest where to go. His is a local and English is very good.

This is a good option if you don't want to drive. It really does take the hassle out of the day. You can go anywhere and stay as long as you want or if something is boring then just move on.

Book with cruise line???

More assured vendor selection, insurance, etc. Price likely higher (the cruise line is a profit making business, as are travel booking agencies).

Tours vs "do it your self drive" depends on Your skill.

Less time required of YOU to research choices. Some may only be available thru ship, then many are not available thru ship at all.

Modest chance of very regretable results if YOUR rental car or ventor has a breakdown and you miss the ship. Few people are ever left behind, those that are definately made the wrong choice! YOU will be blamed, forever!

Feel lucky?

In Port for hours more that you plan to be gone, or overnight, then booking on your own, really takes the "left behind" out of it.

In those ports, I would book independent excurisions on your own, you can arrange ahead of time or book right on the pier when you disembark. Unless you are really concerned about staying on task, those ports are very easy to navigate and you can get back to the ship in time without difficulty.

Cozumel easily driveable if you want to rent a car.

Belize more third world would do something where you are not driving. One of the best excurisions I have done was in Belize-zip lining in the rain forest, followed by cave hike. Saw monkeys, birds, iguanas, etc all throughout the zip line and you were about 70-100 ft up so very integrated into the forest. Belize also has one of the best reefs in the world second only to Great Barrier Reef so diving/snorkel is very good.

Roatan also 3rd world not as many established roads, better to leave the driving to a group. I have gone to the zoo in Roatan, also snorkeling at a local beach. It's less developed than Cozumel and Grand Cayman.

Enjoy, Carnival Liberty is a nice ship!

The rent a car option is good - IF you know the area, are confident of driving under very different conditions than you are used to and you understand you MUST have insurance in most places (e.g. Mexico legally requires insurance for liability) and without insurance, you are quite likely to be detained until the issue is "straightened out" - can be days, weeks.

As well, what we call "local knowledge" is also on occasions invaluable, I recall driving into a petrol / gasoline station in Belize City only to recognize some very serious gang members and carefully drive on. Many places that seem idyllic have a poison pill possibility - areas you should absolutely not visit, rampant pilferage from cars (Bonaire comes to mind), traffic jam prone places, military checkpoints, etc. A rental agency is not going to spend much time educating you, a local driver or guide will know all about these things.

The Belize Zoo is truly spectacular, but out of town - natural habitats and local critters you are not likely to see most places. There are archaeological sites, etc.

Be aware activities are entirely at your own risk - there are no USOSHA or other regulatory agencies in many countries that are inspecting and licensing any of the parasailing, zipline, etc. and though I do not want to be a party pooper, you will become your own expert and inspector here, and liability laws in most countries do not protect you in case of injury. This is probably applicable to shipboard contracted tours as well - the cruise line will generally not stand behind any tour supplier, it's all on you. (They always claim to have inspected, etc. and then issue a strong disclaimer...:p)

OTOH, hiring a driver for four to six hours can be cheaper than renting a car, and the driver takes the hit for accidents / incidents. There are also, as others have indicated, local tour providers that are reputable.

thanks, answered many of the questions i had myself

Just a quick follow-up:

1) For Cozumel, we hired a cab through Eduardo Esquer. Although Eduardo was not our driver, he had one lined up for us who took us around the island, including to the San Gervasio ruins, a beach on the south end of the island, and some shopping. While the taxi service he provided was perfectly fine, I think he was only necessary for transport to San Gervasio and back - the other places had cabs coming by, and it would have just been cheaper to hire them as needed, or even renting a car on our own.

2) For Belize we booked a tour through the cruise line because I couldn't find an equivalent tour of what we wanted to do online. You do get a slightly higher priority with the tenders if booked through the cruise line which may be better for ports with shorter stays like Grand Cayman.

3) We booked a kayak and snorkeling tour through ShoreTrips.com in Roatan. This excursion was fantastic and I highly recommend it. ShoreTrips is a third-party booking agency and the actual tour was run by Subway Watersports - however the price is identical booking with them.

4) We had nothing prebooked for Grand Cayman and after seeing the docks at the previous places, we determined we could easily find an excursion of our own upon arrival. Unfortunately the other half wasn't feeling too well that morning so we just showed up around 1p and wandered around town for a few hours.

Cliff Notes: I was quite happy with the results I had with booking outside of the cruise-sponsored ones and recommend others do the same!

Agree with all that MastaHanky has advised and will only add that some ports of call such as Belize the cruise ships anchor offshore because of a reef and tender you to shore which can take up some of the time for your port of call stop.

Also I did some research on Cruise Critic and found that the day my Holland America cruise in January '12 stopped in Belize there were, IIRC, 5 other cruise ships all in port at the same time making it harder to find availability through a local tour company so I opted to book onboard.

As with much regarding travel there is no hard & fast rule that applies to all travellers in all situations so you have to find what works for you. Happy sails! :)

Also, be aware that when tendering to a port (at least with NCL), only passengers who have ship booked excursions can leave first. This can result in a significant wait for the others. We also ran into this when we docked in Quebec City, and almost missed our privately booked excursion.


DD

Suite guests too- I stayed in the penthouse last cruise and we were escorted to the tender whenever we liked.

It does add value to use a ships tour on a short stay tender port, but that's the rare case. Personally I'd always rather do a private tour- many times you end up with the ship group anyway as they use the same service provider!