Self tour ports of call on Cuban Fusion and Pride of Panama?

How easy is it to manage without a guide or excursion on Cuban Fusion / Pride of Panama? Even if it's easy, is it advisable?

Our previous cruises have been to the Med / Adriatic, and most ports have been very easy to visit independently. Just wondering if this is an unrealistic aim in the Caribbean / Central America.

Thanks for any help :-)

The Caribbean is a hundred times easier than the Med. to DIY :)

At most ports there'll be taxis & minibuses ("vans" to our north American cousins) at the pier or port gate touting for tours, transfers to the beach etc.

In general get out on the pier along with the majority of fellow-passengers about 9 - 9.30 for the best choice & quickest filling of a minibus. Agree itinerary , approx. time-scale & cost (US dollars) before you board, pay when you get back - its the norm. Take beach gear with you cos the driver may offer to stop at a beach or at the end of a tour drop you at a beach near the ship.

I don't recall all the ports but.......

Cartagena - you can fix up a tour, or just a taxi to the town centre (its too far to walk)

Mo'Bay - best to fix something up before you cruise just as we did - the port authorities were very strict about who's allowed to drive in or even stop outside the port gate.

Grand Caymen - fix up on the pier to go to "Stingray City" - sandy shallows about a mile out to sea where wild stingrays congregate. Take snorkel mask if you have, but no need for flippers. Check out google images etc

Colon - the only port where a ship's tour is a must.

Colon is seedy & dangerous - local police send back cruisers who stray from the area just outside the port gate or from the city centre. City centre by shuttlebus, but folk didn't stay long, it's grim & uninteresting.

Colon is the port for the Panama Canal, ship likely offers

- partial canal transit (bus to Lake Gatun then local boat through the Calebra Cut & the southern locks into the Pacific at Panama City, then coach back to the ship.

- train excursion to Panama City. It broadly follows the canal

I strongly suggest you pre-book one of those two, and do it well before your cruise cos both sold out on our cruise. We did the partial transit - excellent.

Havana - the only port where you can't use USD.

IIRC you can use plastic at larger outlets. For cash get "convertible pesos" at the cruise terminal. Use either your debit card or sterling to avoid commission/interest/conversion cost double-whammy. You can use up unspent CUC in the big covered craft / crap market about 10 mins walk upstream from the ship.

Easy port to DIY using hop-on bus / taxis / shanks's.

JB :)

Thanks for that v useful info, John.

Thanks for that v useful info, John.

No worries :)

BTW, I forgot to mention that there's no other way of cruising the Panama Canal in your time-scale (ferries take waaaay too long), & the train is block-booked by the ship.

So altho we only very rarely do ships' excursions you really don't have a choice at Colon. Some on our cruise spent the day in a bar across the road from the port cos ship's offerings were all fully-booked in advance. And a cycle tour was escorted back to the ship after it was attacked. :eek:

Colon is aptly named, get your names down for a ship's excursion

JB :)

Just to add to John Bull's info, I did Cuban Fusion in January and didn't book any ship's tours.

Plenty of options available in Grand Cayman, with lots of operators offering things by the pier where the tenders land. As well as Stingray City, they were offering Island Tours and taxi tours etc. Submarine & boat trips also available. George Town itself is mainly a shopping/eating & drink port.

The ship docks right by the small town of San Miguel de Cozumel. Again, mainly a shopping/eating town. Plenty of Taxi drivers offering Island Tours here too.

Havana - again, ship docks right in the Old Town. As John has said, there is a HOHO bus and there are also drivers offering tours in the old American Cars. Havana is quite a big city but you can walk to many of the main sights etc. I would recommend buying a guide book or borrowing one from a Library, so that you can plan what you want to do there. On the second (half) day, I just walked into the very residential district immediately adjacent to the Old Town. There were hardly any tourists there and I just soaked up the Saturday morning atmosphere of the locals wandering around, leaving Church, shopping and chatting to each other, with Latin music wafting out of open windows. I was there as a lone male in his fifties and at no time did it feel unsafe - quite the opposite. Several people talked to me and seemed genuinely interested to know where I was from etc. It was wonderful.

Enjoy!

I always do ships excursions (saving £10 off a trip when spent £8,000 on a cruise is madness) and love waving to those left on the pier when returning late to the ship, that did DIY and the ship doesn't wait.

On 15 cruise's I have seen this 11 times happen.

Just to add to John Bull's info...

Many thanks for this :-)

I always do ships excursions (saving £10 off a trip when spent £8,000 on a cruise is madness) ...

We mainly enjoy making our own way around port towns/cities, but have chosen a couple of ship's tours where this didn't seem feasible. We haven't previously taken any independent tours (only two cruises under our belts, so we're not very experienced!), so are keen to find out about all options. It's certainly interesting to hear how others with more experience than us approach things.

I always do ships excursions (saving £10 off a trip when spent £8,000 on a cruise is madness) and love waving to those left on the pier when returning late to the ship, that did DIY and the ship doesn't wait.

On 15 cruise's I have seen this 11 times happen.

Each to their own comfort level, Seadog, and there are pros & cons for DIY - money isn't the only factor, there's things like freedom & flexibility rather than being led like cattle at the speed of the slowest.

But on the matter of money your figures are nonsensical, as you'd realise if you tried it sometime. :rolleyes:

Saving £10 on an £8,000 cruise?

An excursion doesn't cost £10 more than DIY, the average is 3 to 4 times as much..

With a one-day ship's excursion averaging £80 per person, just ten excursions work out at £1600 per couple. So on excursions you & yours are spending well over £1,000 more than me & mine. That's the cost of another cruise :eek:

And two people on a Marella cruise spend nothing like £8,000 on a two-week cruise, even including all the extras.

On 15 cruises you've actually waved goodbye to 11 parties left behind?

Or do you mean you've heard stories of that happening?

Cos on significantly more cruises than you, although we've also seen plenty of pier runners (there are folk out there without brains or who drink too much in port) we've never actually seen anyone left on the pier. Yes. of course it happens, and for every one who makes it to the pier just too late there's probably another who gets to the pier when the ship has sailed over the horizon. But you've seen it happen 11 times? :confused:

We have never even come close to missing a sailing, it's not difficult if you use common snse.

To repeat my first line, "each to their own comfort level, and there are pros & cons...."

And as I've also said, such as at Colon, we do sometimes take ship's excursions.

But your post simply isn't a balanced response.

JB :)

Each to their own comfort level, Seadog, and there are pros & cons for DIY - money isn't the only factor, there's things like freedom & flexibility rather than being led like cattle at the speed of the slowest. :)

There are also benefits of ships excursions, where you are not in a queue for entry into a particular place and get fast-tracked. But each to their own choice. Pros & cons on both sides, so we will leave that there.

But on the matter of money, your figures are nonsensical, as you'd realise if you tried it sometime. :rolleyes:

Saving £10 on a £8,000 cruise?

An excursion doesn't cost £10 more than DIY, the average is 3 to 4 times as much..

With a one-day ship's excursion averaging £80 per person, just ten excursions work out at £1600 per couple. So on excursions, you & yours are spending well over £1,000 more than me & mine. That's the cost of another cruise :eek:

And two people on a Marella cruise spend nothing like £8,000 on a two-week cruise, even including all the extras.

 

JB :)

I never said saving £10 on a £8,000 cruise. Love when people misread posts and jump straight in.

I was comparing the saving on an excursion compared with DIY when you have spent so much on the cruise in the first place. The small money savings are not worth it IMHO.

My average one-day ships excursions are at £47, so not sure you are looking at the right excursions. So with these new figures my average for 10 excursions is £940, might be a bit dearer than your DIY, but I like the comfort and safety of a ship organised excursion.

I have booked expensive ships excursions, but couldn't get anything close to the same trip by DIY. Example: Dubai, private limousine to a private seaplane to fly over the palm islands, world map and other landmarks, all for £240 each.

Just booked a two week Marella cruise for 2019 and it was slightly under the £8,000 but then I don't stay in an inside cabin on deck 3, I prefer the executive suites on deck 8.

I'd like to know how you are getting a 2-week cruise for £1,000. That's an amazing price or you are squeezing every penny and there is no enjoyment for that for me. I like luxury and comfort.

We could argue all day over this, but it depends on how much time, effort or money you want to spend on your holiday, so each to our own and we will leave it there.

Many thanks for this :-)

 

 

We mainly enjoy making our own way around port towns/cities, but have chosen a couple of ship's tours where this didn't seem feasible. We haven't previously taken any independent tours (only two cruises under our belts, so we're not very experienced!), so are keen to find out about all options. It's certainly interesting to hear how others with more experience than us approach things.

Just a few pointers......

If you pre-book an independent organised excursion with a reputable operator you won't miss your sailing. A tour operator's reputation - and therefore their business - would be ruined if that happened. There are certainly folk who DIY who screw-up & miss their sailing, seen plenty of CC posts about that. But in years of cruising & membership of CC I've never heard of a tour group missing their sailing.

Do bear in mind that your ship might miss the port, so if you have to pay with booking do check their cancellation policy - most will refund in those circumstances.

If you choose to DIY, follow a few common-sense rules.

- in particularly dangerous areas, don't DIY. Caribbean examples include Colon & La Guairá, some might include Jamaica

- check, double-check, and write down the latest back-on-board time.

- if ship's time isn't the same as local time,.keep a cheap & simple wristwatch on ship's time & be aware that mobiles & tablets might automatically change to local time. Your back-on-board time is ship's time

- use taxis & minibuses at the port. They're friendly, knowledgeable & trustworthy, they know each-other and they know the importance of back-on-board time. Taxi drivers who approach you further from the port may not even be licenced.

- start any tour at the furthest point from the ship & work your way back - if you're delayed you can miss out one or two places on the way back. Tour operators & taxi drivers do this as a matter of course.

- have a Plan B to get back in case anything goes wrong.

- allow yourself time for delays

- don't drink yourselves silly.

We use ships' tours

- when a destination is distant & transportation is unreliable. Not many places like that in the Caribbean, but Cairo, Luxor, Hanoi are examples.

- when timings are tight, allowing no wiggle-time

- when there's no option, for instance when the ship block-books transportation (like both the train & the boat options at Colon). The sugar train on St Kitts is another.

- when there's no Plan B. For instance the Baths of Virgin Gorda are accessed from Tortola by infrequent public ferry. If the ferry fouls-up the only Plan B is a very long swim to the next port of call. But if the ship's excursion boat fouls-up you're the cruise line's responsibility.

TBH, because you've taken the occasional ship's excursions when circumstances warrant it, I reckon you've already got the right sort of balance. :)

JB :)

Didn't mis-read your post, Seadog.

I said "An excursion doesn't cost £10 more than DIY, the average is 3 to 4 times as much."

Perhaps you'd like to check out Marella's excursions at the ports I mentioned on the OP's itinerary

http://cruiseexcursions.tui.co.uk/ExcursionResults.aspx?mode=1&portcode=L21485

Cheapest full-day is £56, up to £120. So I don't know where your £47 average comes from.

And now it's you mis-reading my post. ;)

I didn't say I could get a two-week cruise for under £1000.

Believe it or not, they're available ultra-late-booked, but there are plenty of excellent 7-10 day cruises for under £1000

That seaplane flight over Dubai booked direct would have cost you £178 pp plus a taxi from the port. So at £240 pp you didn't pay a huge amount more for a limo instead of a taxi. But you most certainly could have done it DIY without adding to the cruise line's coffers.

Your advice to those who book the executive suites on Deck 8 is doubtless welcomed by them

But I think you'll find them vastly out-numbered by us lesser mortals who don't have the sort of money you're talking about (does that make you feel superior?) or who choose to spend it in other ways.

Finally, you can't seem to understand that it's not all about money.

It's the freedom, the satisfaction and exploration of doing your your own thing rather than throwing your money down & being led by the hand. If you've not tried it, you can't understand.

But we agree, horses for courses.

JB :)

Just a few pointers......

 

JB :)

Thanks again for all the helpful info!