Shore Excursions

[wvpowergirl]

I'm sailing in January on an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Conquest to the Eastern Caribbean and I'm checking out the shore excursions online.. Although, I would love to do a few of them, I will only be at each port 7 to 9 hours and that just doesn't seem like a lot of time. Some of the excursions are 3.5 hours long for some of the tours. I'm one to always read the reviews and so many people post they're just not worth the time or the money. Is it worth trying to do any of them on your own or just go with Carnival?

[sparks1093]

I'm sailing in January on an 8 day cruise on the Carnival Conquest to the Eastern Caribbean and I'm checking out the shore excursions online.. Although, I would love to do a few of them, I will only be at each port 7 to 9 hours and that just doesn't seem like a lot of time. Some of the excursions are 3.5 hours long for some of the tours. I'm one to always read the reviews and so many people post they're just not worth the time or the money. Is it worth trying to do any of them on your own or just go with Carnival?

 

Welcome to Cruise Critic! A lot depends on how far the excursion is from the port, how easy it is to get there and whether or not you can get back in time. The advantage of an excursion booked through the ship is that they will wait for you in the event that you are late getting back (as happened to us on our CCL cruise when we did the dolphin excursion in Freeport). I have been happy with all of the excursions that we have booked. You can save money by doing it on your own though so if you can easily book directly with the operator it is an option (although if the ship misses the port you may not receive a refund so make sure you read the terms and conditions).

[thinfool]

If this is your first cruise I suggest that you use the ship's excursions.

 

While you are on your cruise, observe what others do and how things work...that way on your next cruise you can take advantage of the savings accrued by booking local excursions.

[BigMikefromTexas]

I agree with some of the other advice provided. Use the ships tours when possible especially on your first cruise.

 

7 to 9 hours is plenty or even too much for most people. 3.5 hours may seem like an short tour for you but is an optimal tour length for many of your fellow passengers on an activities/cultural/sightseeing tour. Also some of the islands just don't have that much to do! If you will be spending time at the beach, be sure to allow at least 30 minutes extra travel time back to your ship.

 

In some cases you will want to explore and shop after your activities/cultural tour. If you do a 2nd, or 3rd, private tour be sure that you don;t become a pier runner. First it can be very expensive if you cut it too close. Second, remove the stress from your vacation. If you like the place, you will likely go back.

[cb at sea]

The key to doing things on your own, is to KNOW something about where you're going. Before you start booking things, read up on your ports...a guidebook is VERY helpful! Then, you can decide WHAT you want to do, and how to do it.

 

So many things require NO excursion at all....

[John Bull]

Hi, & welcome to Cruise Critic,

 

I'll respectfully disagree a little with other posters. ;)

 

The eastern Caribbean has some of the easiest ports for DIY exploration. Easy even for first-timers. :)

There will be taxis & vans lined up in the ports - their drivers are friendly, trustworthy & reliable, they know their island & they know the importance of back-on-board time. They can replicate or vary ship's excursions, or offer something completely different.

Much more fun, much more flexible. No wasted time while a great herd of fellow-passengers get on & off at every stop and no wasted hour or more for a lunch stop. And much less chance of wasted time being taken to some retail outlet that's included on a schedule because it's a commission-earner for the cruise lines - something that seriously irks me & often happens on ships' tours.

Cost is around a quarter of the cost of ship's equivalent excursions, though that's for transportation only - no food or drink, and you'll have to put your hand in your pocket for any (minor) admission fees.

Be on the pier around 9am to 10am for best use of your day.

Like ships' tours most tours are around 3 to 4 hours (I agree with Big Mike about time).

After your tour, the driver can return you to the ship, or if you prefer drop you at shops or beach near the ship (so take your beach gear). If that's not walkable to the ship, driver can wait or return for you at an agreed time or tell you about other transportation.

By making it a morning tour you'll have no problem sharing a van tour on-spec., you'll get the best out of your day, and you avoid the risk of missing your sailing if there's some mishap or delay.

Agree an itinerary, approx. time-scale & price before you get it, pay (US dollars) when you get back - it's the norm.

 

I'd highly recommend this rather than ships' tours for simple sight-seeing by road.

Or pre-book a private tour, independently or on a tour-share arranged by a fellow-cruiser - see the Cruise Critic RollCall for your cruise. All the advantages of a DIY tour, but it's more reassuring to be booked and at a cost somewhere between DIY & ship's tours. (If you can't find your RollCall, post your ship & sailing date, and some kind soul will post a link)

 

Activity excursions - zip-lining, river-tubing, dolphins, catamarans, 4x4 etc - are much more difficult or impossible to arrange on-the-fly. You need to pre-book - there are pitfalls, & perhaps for a first-timer it's best to use ship's offerings.

 

Sparks makes the valid point about the guarantee that the ship will wait if a ship's excursion returns late.

There are no huge distances from the ship in the eastern Caribbean, there are specific risks of delays such as traffic congestion in some ports but they are over-hyped by cruise lines in order to persuade folk to take their own over-priced tours. Those risks can be eliminated by using a little caution & a lot of common-sense.

 

If you simply want a day on the beach, I can't think of a single port in the whole Caribbean where anyone needs to do it by ship's over-priced excursion.

 

The pier-runners?

Yes, it's fun to watch them. :D

But they're unlikely to have been on any sort of tour. :)

Most likely involves plenty of alcohol, often involves confusion over back-on-board time (esp. if clock time ashore is an hour different to ship's time), almost always involves inadequate common-sense or allowance for delays - heed Big Mike's suggestion of allowing (at least) a half-hour extra.

 

If I can't persuade you entirely, do at least DIY at a couple of your ports.

If you post your ports we can suggest which are most-easily done independently, and advise of any particular risks of a delayed return.

 

JB :)

[wvpowergirl]

Thank you so much for the reply and great advice..

[cruiseapril]

Which ports are you going to?

 

For us, the port matters in what we choose for excursions.

 

For instance, the last time we were in St. Thomas there were so many ships in that the car traffic was very busy. We had an inexpensive excursion booked- and were glad we did as our driver was waiting for us and we went right along to the beach and he was there for us afterwards.

 

We have done our own excursion in St. T.- but it was not so crowded then.

[OCruisers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic! :)

 

Please tell us where your port stops are.