Booking Off Ship Excursions?

[Lightngsvt]

Does anyone have experience booking excursions with http://www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com/ ? Being novice cruisers Im a bit hesitant to book "off ship", but they seem legit and the prices are great.

[Essiesmom]

What are the people on your roll call doing? Have you asked this on the Ports of Call boards for your ports? EM

[Krazy Kruizers]

I see that you have been on the Celebrity regular board and have also joined your Roll Call.

Ask on your Roll Call what people are doing for excursions.

[Lightngsvt]

Will do, thanks. I wasnt sure where the proper place was to post this question.

[maryann ns]

Internet search:

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g150809-d1218376-r96777778-Cozumel_Water_Sports-Cozumel_Yucatan_Peninsula.html

 

http://www.tripadvisor.ca/ShowTopic-g227884-i1327-k4703486-Shore_Excursions_Group_has_anybody_heard_this_company-Lindos_Rhodes_Dodecanese.html

[Lightngsvt]

Thank you! I guess its back to ship based excursions. Probably best to play it safe.

[Gail & Marty sailing away]

Do some home work on each port ...

[maryred]

There are a couple of problems I see with this company. First just like the cruise line, most of their excursions could be booked directly with the resort/attraction for even less as long as your willing to find/hire your own transportation to the location (this may not apply to your particular ports if private transportation is expensive). But what is even more worrisome is that they require a 14 day cancellation notice for a refund, most other independent tour companies only require 48 - 24 hours notice & some will even waiver that time frame in cases where the port is cancelled last minute (due to weather) by the cruise line. The rest of their terms appear standard to the the tour industry. The only thing about that they exceed the standards on is their guarantee of getting you back to your ship on time or paying up to $500 per person to get you back to the ship at the next port of call.

 

Personally I would take their tours as an idea on what to do in port. Then researched further about booking directly with the physical site, attraction or resort. Then researching how to get to the place on my own, ex. is there a reliable public transport system in place (like in Bermuda/Bahamas, Canada, and most of Europe) between the port and where I want to go to or can I just hire any taxi at the port or do I need to reserve a service to go where I specifically want to go. Most ports have their own Bureau/Department of Tourism that has an official website and many attractions themselves have at least an info page on the web.