Tours

[kirky]

I am sailing on the Brilliance on August 16, 2005. I would like to start booking private tours but would also like to share some tours to cut down on costs. If you confirm with private tours, will they add people to your tour to help with the cost or is it your responsibility to find others to share the cost. If I end up booking a private tour with driveamalfi and end up with just my DH and myself then the cost will be quite expensive especially after the coversion from cdn to the euro.

[jody]

kirky,

In my experience, the tour operators usually require you to find your own tour-mates. Otherwise, they find people complain that they don't like the other people on the tour or that you want to do different things. It is easier for them to put that responsibility on you. We have had good luck finding good tour-mates here on CC, but you have to do what you can to ensure people are committed and won't back out. Some people have asked other CC'ers to send them a deposit to reserve their spot.

[Leejnd4]

Kirky, both of my private tours (in France), with two different tour operators, require that we find our own tour mates. I've been lucky so far -- we've got 6 for one and 4 for another, which makes it affordable.

 

Agree that you need to insure that the people you plan your tours with will come through for you. I've heard stories recently of people backing out, leaving the other stuck with the full amount.

 

LeeAnne

[Bruin Steve]

When you book a private guide or driver (which is different than booking with a tour company which offers tours publically by the seat), you are booking that driver and car...and are paying by the tour, not by the person...It makes no difference to the guide whether there are 1 of you or 4 of you...or six (assuming he has a vehicle that seats six)...It is completely up to you to come up with the passenger list...

 

Importantly, find out what sort of vehicle you are hiring and how many people it holds...No sense finding two other couples if your driver only has a sedan that seats five...

 

From my experience, doing a private tour with only two of you will be very costly...but, OTOH, if it's something you can afford and don't mind paying, it's the easiest and most flexible thing to do...You are in complete control...

 

Finding a second couple to share the costs usually brings the cost down to a managable level...If your driver has a VAN and you can find two other couples, you can usually end up a little ahead of the game...

 

But there are problems...First, you never know if the others you find are compatible with you...Just sharing a tour in Naples doesn't help if they only want to go to Amalfi and you want to go to Pompei...Or you might want to fit a whirlwind tour into your port stop and your tourmates turn out to be octogenarians who need extra time to walk anywhere, can't climb stairs and need frequent rest stops...

 

Second is the timing/confirmation issues...You may need to line these drivers up early...and potential tour mates don't even need to make final payment on the entire cruise until two months prior...and people are flaky...So, you've guaranteed full payment on your credit card, but the prospective tour mates can evaporate...Even if you get a cash deposit from them, how much? People will walk away from $50 or $100 and it WON'T cover their half of the tour...

 

We have been on ships with people who have booked private tours only to have people flake out who have then asked us and several others as late as the night before whether we wanted to join them...And, you know what? Often these folks HAVE been able to rustle up "takers" on the ship as late as that...But, there is the risk...

 

Also, just because you exchange a few E-Mails with people on the internet, doesn't mean that when you finally meet them onboard you're going to find that you really want to hang out with them touring 7 or 8 different ports...I met one couple on the Med cruise who told me of their nightmare tour mates...Apparently, the folks were loud, obnoxious and embarrassing...They complained about everything and kept redirecting the driver to places that this couple had no interest in visiting...And they were committed to touring six different ports with these folks!!

 

Frankly, it has all made me very wary of booking private tours unless I already have 4 in MY party...

[Leejnd4]

Yikes, that is a lot to think about! But all true.

 

I will say that Michel LeGrand of Revelation has not asked me for any deposit, we've done all our communication by email and he said this: "The policy of our company is based on trust with our clients, so we don't ask for any deposit ; to make a reservation all i need is your confirmation, with the number of people in your party. From there i will send you a reservation voucher with all the details." But our other tour operator (Tania of ProvenceTours) did require a deposit.

 

I've been making a point of having email conversations with the people we're intending to share our tours with, and they all seem very nice. We are all mostly in the same age range, so that's one good sign, I suppose. Obviously none of us has any idea what we'll be like in person. Hey, they might all hate me! I guess I'll hafta keep my innate obnoxiousness in check, huh? ;)

 

LeeAnne

[juliejoe]

We met online and toured with others on Mediterranean, Australia/New Zealand, Baltics, and Transatlantic cruises. We have been very fortunate to meet fantastic people, with whom we are still in contact. We have never booked a tour that required a deposit. We are now getting to know and becoming e-mail friends with others that we'll tour with on our Greek Isles and Antarctica/South America cruises.

 

It works well for us to be specific and plan what the private tour itinerary will be before cruise time. We have positive attitudes, are flexible and easygoing and have not toured with anyone who was a bad "fit". Arranging private tours with others from cruisecritic has been really successful for us. I'd guess that the bad experiences are infrequent.

 

Julie

[jezzdogg]

We used Revelation last year and they were WONDERFUL. The young lady who was our driver had spent a several years in the US as an au pair. We were able to have 3 other couples join our tourm whih brought the cost down considerebly.....We meet them thru our roll call and met on the ship the first day......she gave use the whole tour, we went to Nice, Cannes, Monte Carlo, Monnaco for the changing of the guards and to St. Paul and Eze. If fact we came back close to 1 1/2 late and there was not extra charge......e all gave her a extra nice tip for that......she also brought along a cooler full of soda's and water that she keep supplying to us throught the day.