Norwegian Epic August 9th Shore excursions

[chrissmash]

Hi folks,

 

Quick question, one of my friends was explaining about his RC cruise excursions and most of them seemed to be half the price of Norwegians. Would you expect this?

 

Also may I ask, has anyone used 3rd party shore excursion groups? I am always a little wary as I do not want to miss the boat when it leaves port. I did notice that some of the excursions are 1/3 of the price of Norwegians.

 

Your thoughts?

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[smartpeach]

Not only private excursions are half the price, but they are also ...eh...private. You can customize your tour. Cut it shorter at the sights you don't want to see as much or longer in others. You don't have to wait around for others and you have your guide all to yourselves instead of sharing with a bus full of people.

 

I suggest you go check out the European ports board for recommendation of different tour companies. if you only have a small group, you can look to share a minivan with some people in your roll call to make it even cheaper.

 

Tour companies will try their best to get you back in time as its bad for business. As long as you try and get back at ship at least an hour before all aboard time, you should be okay.

 

:)

[TSUmom]

We used private tours in May for Italy and France. I am not sure if I can mention the names. Our May 13th Roll Call actually booked a few great tours and we had 15 passenger vans and a guide. With 15 the guide was included. Hop on over to the rollcall boards and look ours up. You can get ideas there. Also they are very reputable and we were back on ship in plenty of time. Enjoy your cruise.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I haven't used cruise line excursions since my 2nd cruise! Independents provide a much more enjoyable experience IMO. As mentioned, they're usually significantly less expensive, and you have a lot fewer people on the tours. Often times roll calls I've been on have set up shared tours, which has worked out great. I've never even come close to missing the ship. As others have said, go visit the Ports of Call board and see what's recommended for the ports you're visiting. These folks wouldn't be in business long if people were missing their ships!

Edited June 20, 2015 by Quilting_Cruiser

[canuck059]

Its rare that I would book a ship's tour now. As others have said, for the same cost or less, you can have a private/small group tour. The roll call is an excellent place to put together small groups (Someone posts a tour they are interested in and asks others to join to fill a mini-van), although I've had more luck with this approach with European cruises rather than Caribbean. Don't forget that tour guides carry phones and if anything unforeseen happens (ie road closures, demonstrations, etc.) they are quickly made aware of the situation by their office/other guides and are able to avoid the problem. Their business depends on them being able to get you back to your ship in time. One bad review will impact a lot of future bookings Do your research, check the reviews and have a great cruise!