Prepay for private tour?

[sue in florida]

Has anyone had experience with prepaying for a private tour? Glory Tours in Barbados is asking for payment to hold your seat. The tour sounds good so would like to hear about any experience with this--bad or good. Thanks.

[Papa T]

Has anyone had experience with prepaying for a private tour? Glory Tours in Barbados is asking for payment to hold your seat. The tour sounds good so would like to hear about any experience with this--bad or good. Thanks.

 

Two questions come to mind 1) What is the rep of the tour company - will they deliver the product? 2) What happens if you are late or miss the port. Last September we missed 4 of 9 ports on a cruise - people who had prepaid lost their money. In two weeks we head to SA for a cruise on Infinity which includes a stop in the Falkland Is. We pay cash for the tour if we arrive - if the ship can't come into port we don't pay. No question your chances of an on-time arrival in Barbados are much better than ours. Good luck!

[StartrainDD]

We prepaid for a tour in Belize last November. It ended up being the best shore thing we have ever done and it was an incredible pleasure to be in a small goup of 8 rather than the busloads on the ship sponsored tours.

 

I did check out the tour provider on these boards and also on Tripadvisor, and made certain that their "Contract" said it was refundable in case of a port call cancellation.

 

I have a prepaid "Deposit" on our shore trip for Grand Cayman next month, and that is also refundable in case our port call is cancelled.

 

If they don't have such a provision in their agreement, I would not prepay.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

[Cindy G]

If you pre-pay or render a deposit by credit card, you will have the added protection of the card. Most cards will reimburse for services/products, etc. not up to standard or action not completed.

[eandj]

Read the small print for refunds for cancellations due to the cruiseline and or if you are sick and can't make it. We don't ever prepay...at least not the full amount.

[caladvoc8]

There are others on these boards with much more experience than I have, and hopefully they will contribute to this discussion. My experience is limited to my recent effort to investigate private excursions for an upcoming Mediterranean cruise. I have discovered that most tour operators request a credit card number to reserve a tour, that they pledge not to run the cards, and request payment in local currency at the conclusion of the tour. Can hardly blame them for requesting at least some security against unannounced cancellations and don't begrudge them asking for credit card number. However, have had two experiences departing from this apparent norm. Among three companies I communicated with in Sicily, one insisted on a substantial deposit up-front. Decided to eliminate them from consideration solely for that reason. At the other extreme was allarounditaly, the owner of which (Fabrizio) would not even accept a credit card to secure a reservation for our 16-member group excursion several months hence, content to accept what he colorfully and aptly described as a "Gentleman to Gentlemen" agreement.

 

Bottom line for me: If a tour operator insisted on money upfront, I'd be looking for another company. If, and only if, all reputable tour operators in a certain geographical area insisted on a cash deposit would I consider parting with my money in advance of the excursion, and even then I'm not sure it would ever make sense without substantial assurance as to the company's bona fides from the likes of the Cruise Critic community. At the very least I'd be using this forum's search function to see what, if anything, has been posted concerning "Glory Tours."

 

Good luck!

[rjscott]

Sue in FL, in researching tours for Barbados myself last year, I did see 'Glory Tours' a lot on the Barbados Port of Call forum. There are many posts that sing their praises, but also many posts that complain about issues with double-charges on credit cards and trouble getting those charges reversed or similar. You might want to read the recent posts on the Barbados forum and see if these issues have been resolved or still persist.

Good luck!

[RichS10]

I agree with caladvoc8. I would never pay in advance for a tour, especially when my arrival is dependent on a cruise ship that may or may not dock or be able to tender.

 

There are other sites like Trip Advisor where you can check out tour operators. If you can't find any info on them, that's not a good sign IMO. In Italy while on the Century, we used private car tours by Bob's Limousine for Rome and Naples. The reservations were secured by a credit card with a confirmatory email that the card was only to be used to secure the reservation. Read and print out the tour operator's contract regarding what happens if you don't make the port. Make sure you're comfortable with those terms. The credit card is the only way to go since it can be contested with the card company if any shenanigans occur. In Italy, we paid cash and tip to the driver after the tours. (BTW, Bob's is a great company).

 

I would run away from any tour company that knows you are on a cruise and still wants to be paid in advance. I would also run away from any company that does not have their terms and conditions in writing.

 

If all else fails, go with the ship's excursions. If the ship doesn't make port, the excursion is automatically refunded to your ship board account.

 

Rich

[tjunmin]

I have pre-paid for tours in the past, and have paid deposits for tours in our upcoming cruise. Check with the tour operator cancellation and refund conditions. In our first visit to Barbados, we used Glory Tours and were very satisfied with them. They were twenty minutes late picking us up at the port from the arranged time, but other than that, it was great; the tour was better than we expected and we did not experience billing issues with our credit card.

 

Happy Sailings!

 

Thom