booking excurions for people not on your ship

[trish1c]

We wanted to take the ship's excursion in Jamaica. We just found out friends will be doing a land based vacation there the week we'll be in port.

 

I can't find any on island vendors doing the excursion we want to take but we'd like to go with our friends.

 

Can we add them to an NCL sponsored tour?

[MeHeartCruising]

I've never seen any mechanism/process that would make that feasible to do. You could ask at the excursion desk when you get on board, but I doubt it is permitted to do.

[nyc2theworld]

We wanted to take the ship's excursion in Jamaica. We just found out friends will be doing a land based vacation there the week we'll be in port.

 

I can't find any on island vendors doing the excursion we want to take but we'd like to go with our friends.

 

Can we add them to an NCL sponsored tour?

 

You're going to have to look at 3rd party shore excursion companies. I can message you the two my travel agent recommended to me if you want.

[emcelh]

Maybe you can find a vendor that will do a custom private tour. Then join your roll call to see if you can find a few more people who would be interested. You might get the cost down to the same or less than the ship excursion.

[trish1c]

I would love the names of independent vendors if you have them.

 

As I understand CC rules, you can name vendors, just not TAs.

[nyc2theworld]

The two companies my travel agent suggested I look at if I didn't like NCL's excursions are

 

http://www.shoretrips.com and http://www.Triptelligent.com

 

I ended up not booking with either of them solely because I wanted the flexibility of planning things as I did them (since I sail solo). Just make sure you double check the schedule of the excursion vs. the ship's itinerary so you don't book one that starts at 8AM when the ship arrives at noon or you book one that ends at 3PM when you need to be back on the ship at 3:30.

[SuiteTraveler]

Marvyn's Paradise Tours (top rated on Trip Advisor) or Best Jamaica Day tours

[puddles99]

What kind of tour / excursion are looking for? Maybe one of us can help if you're more specific. Like others have noted, I'm not aware of any way to add non-cruisers to an NCL-sponsored excursion.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Mura]

OP, I'm not sure what you are really asking. I agree with the others that I can't think of any cruiseline that would permit non-passengers to join for a tour. Think of possible liability complications for one, not to mention that priority would be given to booked passengers.

 

But if your friends are their independently there is nothing at all to stop you from joining a tour that they have arranged ... for you all to book your own.

 

When we cruise we do about 75% independent tours (whether with a guide or just wandering around) and maybe -- at most -- 25% ship's tours. That's because I prefer DIY and DH prefers ship's tours, so sometimes we compromise.

 

Not often ...

 

Mura

[trish1c]

We want to climb Dunn's River Falls and go to Mystic Mountain to do the Jamaican bobsled tour.

 

We are in port from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 

Our friends are staying in Negril which is about 2 hours from the port.

 

We'd like to do these two things together & it is really frustrating that it's this hard to put it together.

[MeHeartCruising]

We want to climb Dunn's River Falls and go to Mystic Mountain to do the Jamaican bobsled tour.

 

We are in port from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

 

Our friends are staying in Negril which is about 2 hours from the port.

 

We'd like to do these two things together & it is really frustrating that it's this hard to put it together.

 

What about this one? What options do your friends have to get to your port?

 

http://www.excursionsinjamaica.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=159&Itemid=191

[trish1c]

What about this one? What options do your friends have to get to your port?

 

They were going to try to book a tour through their hotel. I don't know that we could join their tour any more than they can join ours but we are looking into that.

 

I have e-mailed all the vendors you guys suggested. Let's see who gets back to me with a plan.

 

Thanks so much for everybody's help. This is why CC is such an asset.

[Mura]

There have been a few occasions where we booked a tour through a hotel. There was no requirement that we be staying at the hotel. Usually these are with a tour agency that picks up participants from a number of hotels.

 

Mura

[trish1c]

Looks like we won't be seeing our friends while in Jamaica.

 

NCL needs to get it's act together. Customer Care said no problem of course you can add outsiders & transferred me to the shore excursion desk. She said there was no way we could add non-cruisers.

 

The "best deal" I found from an independent vendor is cost prohibitive.

 

The excursion through NCL is $89 pp. The vendor wants $120 or $30 each for transportation for the cruisers & we pay park admissions of $20 pp for Dunn's River Falls and $147 pp for the bobsled. :eek: Vendor will charge same admissions for our friends plus $320 for transportation. No thanks.

[Buford T Justiice]

Find a couple of "friends at the CC meeting" onboard, have them book the excursion, and have them give you their tickets. Your friends will have to meet the excursion outside the gated entrance.

[trish1c]

Find a couple of "friends at the CC meeting" onboard, have them book the excursion, and have them give you their tickets. Your friends will have to meet the excursion outside the gated entrance.

 

That is a creative solution. Thanks for thinking out of the box!

[yankees111]

That is not thinking outside of the box. That is going against rules in place, and these two outsiders will be taking the place on an NCL sponsored excursion of two people who are actually sailing on a NCL ship!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[Mura]

PLUS in many ports it's no longer easy for a non-passenger to get inside the port. The friends could have difficulty meeting the bus ... or being returned where they want to go.

 

I wouldn't try it myself.

 

Mura