As a family (including teens & 23 yr. old), we are first time cruisers on the Royal Caribbean. As much as I would prefer a more upscale liner, I think this will be fun for the kids. All the info on excursions is a bit confusing. Are they are good as they sound? Which ones would you recommend? Or is it better to go off on your own? We are booked on an Eastern Caribbean cruise. Would appreciate any and all tips.

Thanks!!!

Well I'm not the most experienced cruiser and I've not been on a carribbean cruise, but I will offer some tips:

Excursions offer certain advantages. Since they are sponsored by the cruiseline, you will never miss the boat in the event that you are running late. They will hold the boat until your group returns. Since the excursion is in conjunction with the cruiseline, if you have any grievances and want to request a credit you are afforded a forum to complain by way of the purser's desk. It's a bit harder to do this by way of a tourguide . . . and they are less inclined to really care since at 5pm you're sailing away. Another advantage is the timing of the excursions. If you want to do a late or very early activity, it might only be offered by way of the cruiseline. Finally, shore excursions might offer a blend of activities that would be harder to find elsewhere (a bike and beach activity for example).

This said, about 100% of the activities offered via the cruiseline will be available on shore. 100% of the activities will also be cheaper on shore. You need to seek them out though (they arent in a handy booklet) and boat transfers arent guaranteed. Still, most port cities are easily navigable. It's nothing to grab a cab and just go.

I would NOT book an excursion for every port. I would though book an excursion for an activity which the group as a majority or a consensus is really dying to do. That way you know before hand that you'll be doing the "dynomite parasailing scuba snorkle acrobatic adventure" before you board and wont have to worry about what happens if you dont find where to do it.

Also, on cruises you get spoiled relaxing during at sea days and then shore days you get into tourist mode. I find not booking too much in advance will temper the self inflicted i want to see everything on shore instinct and keep the pace a bit more relaxing.

Flyertalk is one of the greatest spots on the web... but let's face it -- not for cruises. Go to cruisecritic.com or the other mega cruise site whose name I forget :/ for 1000 more people who are ready to give you every last detail.

BON VOYAGE!!!

I been on a few cruises and this is my experience

Excursions are good, if it is something really unique, that you cannot find admission to it, other than by booking through the cruise.

My family and I booked every excursion on our first cruise in the Caribbean, after that we only did for one or so, there are always taxis at the pier looking for tourists, and chances are they will take you to the same places as the cruise line, cheaper, and you decide how long to take at each place, something might attract you more than the rest of the cruise organized excursion.

So, if it's for island sightseeing do it on your own, depends on the length of the cruise, but if you want do it solo on the first port, if you don't feel that you are comfortable doing it that way, make reservations with the cruise, they always have plenty of space, but make sure you ask

Have a wonderful time and don't forget the Dramamine

I've been on 7 or 8 cruises. Firstly, I love Royal Caribbean. Been on others and just like the way they do things. After all, we are not talking about Carnival here, which I would never go on.
As expressed earlier, I would only use the tours with the cruiseline for things like scuba or such. When you disembark on most islands, there are van drivers who will stop you and offer tours. What we do, is tell them where we want to go, what beach, and how long we want to stay there. For example, in St. Maarten, we get a van driver...tell him we want to go to the flea market. He takes us there and waits...(with about 5 other people he has picked up) and then we go for a drive to different areas...and then to Orient Beach. We tell him how long we want to stay on the beach and he is there to get us and return us to the ship. This is true of almost all the islands except Barbados, where they now have a person standing there loading people into the next available van for the predetermined tour. We then find another couple to share a taxi and usually the driver will give us a more personal tour that we love. These run about half of what the cruiseline charges. Additionally if you are several people, you can negotiate five dollars per person less than they are asking. They are happy to have as many people as possible in the van. We are doing the southern caribbean in April. Been there, done that, and would do it another hundred times. Spending a few days in Puerto Rico before boarding the ship. ^ ^

Heck, when there were 4 of us, we booked rental cars at most ports through a major car rental agency (Hertz, Avis, National, etc.) and were able to cover what the tours did much faster or more thoroughly and much, much less expensively.

But we did our homework and had tour books and maps and reservations all taken care of in advance (plus we had worked out how to get to and from the rental car office in advance in most cases).

The price markups on those on-board excursions are HUGE.

Depends on your self-confidence and the homework you do.

Also, never, ever believe a store recommendation from an onboard port lecturer as every recommendation is a paid recommendation. Not just 98% of them, not even 99% of them, but all of them.

For all the reasons given above, I have a very jaded view about ship's own shorex. I don't think that I would now buy a ship's tour unless (a) it was offering something that I really really want to do and (b) I cannot buy it on my own. There are some excursions like that, for example where the only operator of a certain type of trip (eg 12-metre yacht sailing) at a particular port is exclusively contracted to the cruise lines on cruise ship days.

For everything else, there are always alternatives both for pre-booking and turning up on the day. There are many BBs out there which have specialist discussion about individual ports and their offerings. This even includes SCUBA diving - see for example the discussion boards at www.scubaboard.com.

One other thing: Don't feel under any emotional or other pressure to get off the ship at the ports if you really don't want to. On my last cruise (last week) I actually decided that the ports of call were very low on my list of priorities for the week, and only got off the ship at one out of four of them. I had a fantastic time staying on board at the other three, using the ship's facilities when the ship was quiet and not crowded. After all, it was the ship's facilities that I'd paid money for ...

I'll try to make this long story short. Several years ago we were on the Panama Canal cruise. One stop was the San Blas Islands. The cruise director told us about the tour that was offered which consisted of disembarking and then taking small boats to the other islands. He announced that those taking the tour would be allowed earlier disembarkation. After his talk I went to ask what if we arranged our own tour. Could we leave the ship early as well? He responded by saying that we could not take a tour on our own, as RCCL booked all the small boats and we would be stuck if we didn't book with them. I was furious. I then told a wonderful lie. I told him I worked for 20/20 and that this was absolutely unfair, that making it impossible for people to arrange something on their own was unethical, that everyone was aware that the cruiselines guide passengers to stores that give them kickbacks, and that I was going to arrange to do a story on such events and he could be the star of the show! He got so nervous, that later that evening he approached me and said he felt badly and would try and find us a boat for the next morning. P.S. The next day we were allowed to leave the ship early and we got a chap who took only our people (6 of us) and we got to see the smaller island where the Cuna Indians actually live, not just sell their wares. We got a tour of their "church" and their living quarters. It was wonderful and also half the price the line was charging. So I also advise, don't be intimidated by these excursion pushers.

It really depends on what you are going to be doing. If you are taking a ships excrusion to just go to a beach for the day, and there are four of you, then it would be considerably less money to just grab a cab and go to the beach.

If however you are going to visit a very popular site (though I can't think of an example of this in the Islands, but if in St Petersburg, say the Hermitage), then the ships tours may get you around the long lines and the rest.

There are places where the cruise line vitrually books everybody as marysunshine indicates, some of the fishing trips for example are under contract when a cruise ship is in town, etc. But for the most part, if it's just a trip to this attraction or that one, and it's not peak season, then you can do them on your own. You don't, for example, need a shopping excrusion, if the shopping area is within walking distance of the ship.

Only taken 2 cruises, both with RCCL. The only shore excursion I have booked was on Coco Cay, RCCL private island. If you're going ashore there, and don't just want to bask in the sun and gorge yourself, you will have to book something with Royal Caribbean. My son and I took the Jet Ski tour and had a blast.

In general I find shore excursions to be overpriced for what you get but this expense has to be balanced against the convenience and peace of mind they provide. The trick in deciding which excursions to take is to fully research each destination and examine the excursions offered by the cruise line. In many cases you will find it is possible to basically duplicate the excursions offered using taxis or local transport for a fraction of the price (particularly as it sounds like a number of family members travelling together). Please let me know which ports you are visiting if you want specific advice and I will endeavour to point you in the right direction.

Do yourself a big favor and go to www.cruisecritic.com then click on "boards" and then scroll down to "ports". If you read those posts you will know more than you ever wanted about excursions on your own.