"Shore Excursions" Question?

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Lew

The choice is entirely yours, if you are happy going off on your own on a shore-side tour and doing your own exploring, it is a lot cheaper, and you usually go to all the same places as the shore excursions.
The ships cruise tours are, in my opinion, more expensive but have the advantage of being the safest option. There is normally a representative from the ship with you as an escort, you are never, as far as I know, left behind at any of the stops and if something happens while on the excursion, the escort is in touch with the ship.
The best thing you can do is look at the cruise company web-site and pick the excursions that you really want to do. Then look at the tourist board web sites of the places you are visiting. there will be links to tour companies that you can compare prices and itineraries.

tropics man

To us it depends on where you go. You probably wouldn't want to go out in the streets alone in Jamacia or some place like that, so it would be best to go with the ship. Now in Grand Cayman, there's a good place to wing it on your own. I don't know about your pacific ports. Check with a site called " cruise/critic.com." There you just sign up to be a member and ask any questions you want about any cruise question you like..

Johan from Sweden

I would say go with carnivals shore excursions (prebook them on carnivals web page). The major reason for that (apart from launguage problems) is that if youre for some reason (like traffic) is late to the ship theyre wait for you. If youre on youre own theyre dont and youll have to be onboard at least half an hour before departure. That things alone would make me choice the cruise lines shore excursions in any city I am not familiar about.

Let me illustrate this with an excample from my own cruise to tallin and S:t petersburg with Royal. I had been to tallin before and doing the basic tour there so I choiced to go into the city on my own. The ship moored a short walk from the city centre and I had no problem being back to the ship well before departure.

I hadnt been to S:t petersburg and thus took a shore excursion there. It proved to be a good choice since the ship moored in a port far from the city centre without any form of public transportation.

Just some excample to show what you could expect. Johan.

Naomi

Go with their shore excursions. Going off on your own might waste your time.
You should swim with the dolphins! :D

Anna B

We just took our first cruise last month!! We did both. Bought shore excursions through the cruise line and going off to do our own stuff. From our experience both were really nice and going off alone was definitely cheaper.
I could certainly see though it happening that quality could decrease because there are no "guarantees" from the cruise line. Often times "more experienced" cruisers will do their own thing so you will end up forming little tour groups with a several couples most of the time. This is good because you can be sure to make the deadline time back to the ship at the end of the day. Either way there will always be people trying to sell you things to do on their island/town.

Also, most cruise lines allow you to sign up for shore excursions when your ON the ship so you can try a day on your own and if there is any trouble, start buying through the cruise line!

If you do go out alone, make sure the tour guide understands your cruise line and knows what time you will be back. Interrogate everywhere you will go and what you will do/see. This might sound extreme but you really gotta make sure your getting what you pay for. They are usually happy to help cuz they are fighting over your business with 10 others who want to show you the same stuff.

Overall, i would at least plan one day to try out not being planned up by the cruise line. See what the natives have to offer!!

I hope this helped and wasnt too long, but this was what we experienced. Good luck! :-)
HAVE A BLAST ON YOUR TRIP! I KNOW YOU WILL! :)

Barkley Hound

There is a big savings if you book an excursion on your own BUT if they return to the ship late it will leave without you. When you go on a ship excursion the ship will wait if the excursion is late.

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basebratt

we didn't book any excursions at all and we had a blast.....that way we did what we felt like that day..we wern't stuck to a schedule...we rented jet skiis in the bahamas, quads in ST Marrteen and we had a blast just flying by the seat of our pants! have fun

gary o

Actually you are in port for such a short time it really doesn't matter..You aren't going to learn much about the city with a tour. I found it is more interesting just walking in the tourist area close to the ship. You go on a cruise for the fun on board the ship.... there is so much to do. The port stops are probably for the passengers to spend money for the local economy.

randall_nd

Yes, you can save money by walking off and taking an excursion not affiliated with the cruise line, but if you do book through the cruise line, you're guaranteed not to miss the ship in case of mechanical failure or any other unforeseen mishap. It is always best to be back on board early. The Lido Deck is thee place to be that time of day anyway. Also, it seems much warmer on land and you will most definately want to shower as soon as you are back on board. Then it's happy hour!!!
Bon Voyage!!!

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