First time Alaska cruiser

[pal]

I am hesitant to book a tour that is not with the cruise line. How safe is it to do that and how many of you have done it that way?

[Eaglecw]

We've taken a number excursions from tour operators who are not with the cruise line/ship. When you get to the Port there will be a number of small kiosks with tour operators selling there tours We've gotten some pretty deals by haggling over the price. Do we feel safe, yes. There never has been a problem. A few of the worse tours we've been on were off the ship in Alaska.

 

What tours did you have in mind?

Edited May 23, 2014 by Eaglecw

[mapleleaves]

MANY folks use independent vendors for excursions. Not necessarily because they're cheaper but because you often get a more personal and perhaps longer excursion; instead of 100 others there might only be 10-20.

 

For my personal comfort level I'd prefer to go with someone tried and true, like Harv & Marv, FISHES and other vendors whose names appear frequently in trip reports. If you go to the STICKY above, called ' 2013 Alaska cruise review list" you'll find dozens of trip reports from last summer. Go to reply #45 where the reports are sorted by cruiseline/ship. The reports are quite detailed and include info on activities, excursions, vendors, etc.

[WalleyeLJ]

I am hesitant to book a tour that is not with the cruise line. How safe is it to do that and how many of you have done it that way?

 

We've been on two Alaska cruises and I booked all our excursions independent of the cruise lines. We usually do the same in the Caribbean as well. If you reseach here on CC and Trip Advisor, you can get a good idea if a tour operator is safe, fun and reliable. Lots of people book onshore - I just love to plan (it's half the fun for me), so I book months or even a year plus in advance to make sure I get the tour and time we want. Have a great trip!

 

L.J.

[Keith1010]

We always look at both the ship tours and the private ones and then make our decision on a case by case basis.

 

When we take a private tour we make sure there is a lot of pad from the time the tour ends to when we need to be back on the ship.

 

Keith

[Northern Aurora]

We rarely book cruise line sponsored excursions, but will at certain ports (for example, we are booked on a cruise around Japan in 2015 which includes a quick port stop in Russia, and will probably use a ship sponsored excursion onthat port since it isn't a common Russia port). Despite the fact that we live in Alaska we have done Alaska cruises, and never used a cruise line sponsored excursion. But we do ensure that we have a safe cushion of time to make it back to the ship.

[Cookiecookie]

We are cruising Alaska in August, and I have had no hesitation in booking 3 excursion direct with the vendors, and we are in the UK. You can get excellent info from CC. I emailed the companies direct with loads of queries. They were very efficient in getting back to me, and gave me great confidence in booking with them direct.

 

 

Canadian Rockies/Alaskan Cruisetour August 2014

Oasis of the Seas August 2013

Independence of the Seas August 2008

[zumbafan]

I stopped booking Carnival Excursions after my first cruise--I use Trip Advisor for recommendations and have never had a problem.

[Cpinkston]

We are cruising Alaska the end of June! So excited! Can I please get some recommendations on where to look and who to use for the independent excursions? Which ones are best?

Thanks in advance. Cathy

[Mytime2014]

We are cruising Alaska the end of June! So excited! Can I please get some recommendations on where to look and who to use for the independent excursions? Which ones are best?

Thanks in advance. Cathy

 

I think the suggestion was to look at the sticky of 2013 reviews at the top of this board and read reviews of the different independent excursions. There are a few mentioned upstream of your question.

 

If I had known of CC when I booked my cruise in February - I certainly would have tried some of them. But its my first cruise and now I know!!! Mine were all discounted 10% due to a special that was running at the time of booking - but still, I might have gone independent on some of them.

[Cookiecookie]

We are cruising Alaska the end of June! So excited! Can I please get some recommendations on where to look and who to use for the independent excursions? Which ones are best?

Thanks in advance. Cathy

 

If you tell us your ports then perhaps people could post some suggestions.

[Giantfan13]

We also haven't booked a ship's excursion in over 10 years. They are basically a cattle call and whomever is on a ship's excursion is a slave to the slowest person on that tour. Plus, most ship excursions do not really care if you have a great time. Their job is to do what they say they will do. Put that against any of the private tour vendors, who want and need your recommendation to keep business coming back. Most of these vendors will bend over backwards to please you and make sure you will go back and tell your friends, especially the ones on Cruise Critic, that you had a great time.

AND, if you stay with the most popular ones, you will be much better off. Any of these private vendors would basically be ruined for life if anyone on their tours ever missed their ship because of the fault of the vendor. it just won't happen. Forget the flash in the pan outfits, stick to ones recommended here or on Trip Advisor and you will see more, at a cheaper price and come back with many more happy memories/

 

Cheers

 

Len

[olemissreb]

We booked all our excursions independently last year in Alaska and they were great! Other than our Kenai Fjords tour and our shuttle into Denali, all of them were small and personal. The largest one was probably the bus into the Yukon through Chilkoot Charters - maybe 25 people on the bus. While booking independently in the Caribbean will save you a ton of money, the same isn't necessarily true for Alaska, but the product is soooooooooo much better.

 

As many have said, look at recommendations here on CC and also on Trip Advisor. You won't go wrong if you do your research. If you have questions, come back here or even post on TripAdvisor. I'm in research mode for independent operators for our cruise in March - I won't book a cruise line excursion unless it's the only way for me to see or do something.