Alaska Excursions: self booking vs ship

[nanarchy]

In May I am cruising Alaska for my second time and was wondering at whether I perhaps should try self booking some of the tours. I know what I want to take my wife to see and the tours out of such small towns seem to be incredibly well organized regardless of how you booked. we are booked on a 10 day cruise and the stops are mostly full days so little to no risk of missing the boat.

 

seems I would save upwards of a thousand dollars booking it myself. Are there any big negatives to this approach? apart from the obvious it is on us to make it back to boat on time.

[JasonV1]

You've listed the biggest negative of course. If the ship can't stop you may have more hoops to jump through to get a refund from the vendor, and obviously you are hoping the vendor will still be in business.

 

I'm doing Alaska for the first time next summer and am doing private tours whenever it makes sense to do so. I'm doing pretty well known tours though (crab fishermen-which the ship also offers and Harv and Marv whale watching) so I'm not to worried about those. I haven't yet decided on he other 2 ports.

 

The ship is in most ports late enough that it seems like a disaster is all that would keep you from getting back on time.

Edited December 11, 2014 by JasonV1

[huskerc]

We did Alaska last year and did all of our tours privately. We're going again next year and will do the same.

 

Often the cruise line offers the same tour, but be aware of the details. In many cases you are talking about the difference in driving around in a van of 10-12 people with a private tour, versus a greyhound-style bus of 50 people with the ship's tour.

 

Whale watching with Harv and Marv was fantastic. Four of us on a small boat and we had whales come so close we could practically touch them. We saw the ship's tour at one point. It was a double-decker where most people didn't have a particularly good view of anything.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

Book private tours. Would you rather go on a whale watch with 5 other people or 99 other people? Private wins hands down. Have never had a problem and have my third Alaska cruise coming up, complete with private tours in two ports.

[TMLAalum]

My post title is taken from a major US home improvement mega-store, but it really applies well to booking private tours vs. ship excursions!

 

My best suggestion to you is to find the roll call for your May Alaska cruise. There will likely be cruisers who are organizing private tours that you can join, or you can organize those yourself and seek interested participants from your fellow cruisers.

 

Our Alaska cruise was our first and the only one in which we didn't join or organize a private tour (although we did rent a car in Skagway to head to the Yukon, and were shown the highlights of Juneau by DH's cousin who lives there). As you can see by my signature, there've been a few cruises since Alaska, and private tours and DIYing are definitely our preferred way to get the most out of our ports-of-call!

[Lois R]

Depends on the person....I am also sailing to Alaska next year and will

have a lot of obc. I plan on doing a private tour in Ketchikan and will

use the ship's tours in Juneau and Skagway....I want to use credits

up and so it will help pay for 2 excursions:)

This will be my 4th time going to Alaska as well. I might be in the

minority but I don't really care;).....I have credit I want to use up.

And from what I have researched, not all the ship's tours have 100

people on them. Hi Linda:D

[cruisecriticmember]

Depends on the person....I am also sailing to Alaska next year and will

have a lot of obc. I plan on doing a private tour in Ketchikan and will

use the ship's tours in Juneau and Skagway....I want to use credits

up and so it will help pay for 2 excursions:)

This will be my 4th time going to Alaska as well. I might be in the

minority but I don't really care;).....I have credit I want to use up.

And from what I have researched, not all the ship's tours have 100

people on them. Hi Linda:D

 

I agree. I will be taking a small boat tour to Sawyer glacier in Tracy Arm and from what I've read you can only do that one by booking with Celebrity. I am taking a float plane tour and a helicopter tour and I suspect the size of the flying transport will be the same as with private tours. Ok the group walking on the glacier may be larger with the cruise line tour but from what I understand glaciers are pretty roomy so I think there will be room for everyone. I have read that private tours are cheaper but I have Not seen any posts actually documenting the truth of that assertion. What I would like to see is someone who will be on my cruise and who does private tours compare notes with me about my experiences and theirs. So far the roll call for my cruise has been very small (6 people) and Very quiet but we have 7 more months until we sail. Lastly the Alaska ports of call thread on CC has over 1100 Pages of entries-that's a lot to sift through.

[ghstudio]

our rule of thumb is that if we can book a private tour and do what we want AND plan to get back to the ship at least 90 minutes before sailing, we book private. There is nothing, in my opinion, that is better about a tour with 40 plus people than a private tour with 2-8 people.

 

The only exceptions are a) when we have so much OBC that we need to spend some (we don't try to take money home from OBC's)....or b) there is a port where we almost don't care what we see...we just want a drive by of whatever a tour guide thinks is important.

[SPacificbound]

You could also take your question to the Alaska forum. :)

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=55

[cb at sea]

No negatives...get a guidebook...that's your BEST investment!

[donaldsc]

In general but not always, ship tours are overpriced and over peopled. Unless the ship has booked all the tours in town which can happen in small towns, go private.

 

All of the tour operators know that they will get really bad reviews if the miss the ship so they will get you back in town. Even if you do miss the ship because of some horrible never happens occurrence, distances and flight costs in AK are not bad so if what will never happens actually happens, you just fly to the next port. Easy. Also, it will be a good story when you get home.

 

DON