Book excursion through HAL or independently

[smgardner]

Hi All- We are heading on an Alaskan cruise, leaving on 5/28. We are going to do the Mendhall Glacier helicopter/dog sledding excursion. I was set to book it through the cruiseline for $580/each. Then, I found out we can book it outside of the cruiseline for $510 each. I understand the security of booking it through the cruiseline. But, it is $140 for that convenience. They pick you up at the dock either way. Just w ondering what experiences have been with those that book independently. I am a bit conflicted...

[Fouremco]

We seldom book ship's excursions for a number of reasons, including price. For example, a snorkeling excursion I looked at this week costs $69 with HAL and $44 when booked directly with the supplier. That's a heck of a markup! In your case, I'd book directly.

[mllewis48]

Hi All- We are heading on an Alaskan cruise, leaving on 5/28. We are going to do the Mendhall Glacier helicopter/dog sledding excursion. I was set to book it through the cruiseline for $580/each. Then, I found out we can book it outside of the cruiseline for $510 each. I understand the security of booking it through the cruiseline. But, it is $140 for that convenience. They pick you up at the dock either way. Just w ondering what experiences have been with those that book independently. I am a bit conflicted...

 

 

 

Understand the reasoning but "buyer beware"

 

If for some reason you have a delay and do not make it back you can wave at the ship as it leaves the pier.

 

Food for thought.

 

Enjoy Alaska

[TiogaCruiser]

We did it for others Temsco in Skagway (and NorthStar in Juneau) independently. It was still available as a direct booking. (2009)

 

I thought the helicopter companies now were honoring the book-through-the-ship contractual agreement now.

[smgardner]

We did it for others Temsco in Skagway (and NorthStar in Juneau) independently. It was still available as a direct booking. (2009)

 

I thought the helicopter companies now were honoring the book-through-the-xx contractual agreement now.

 

Meaning, they would not let you book with them if you could book through the cruiseline?

[Lizzie68]

We do all our independently. Never had any problems and saved a lot of money.

[Stratheden]

Two weeks ago the Noordam was one day late at one port and totally missed two ports.

 

Not sure what happened to all those pre booked private excursions but the ships excursions were fully refunded. There were lots of phone calls and emails flying around for 24 hours.

 

Just some food for thought.

[Fouremco]

Two weeks ago the Noordam was one day late at one port and totally missed two ports.

 

Not sure what happened to all those pre booked private excursions but the ships excursions were fully refunded. There were lots of phone calls and emails flying around for 24 hours.

 

Just some food for thought.

That's never been a problem for us. Many excursion providers require neither a deposit nor pre-payment when making a reservation, and those that do provide a refund if a ship doesn't make it to port as scheduled. Two years ago we needed to fly home half way through a two-week cruise for medical reasons and received a full refund for all excursions on which we had placed a deposit. Of course, we do our research and only deal with reputable organizations with a proven track record.

[TiogaCruiser]

Here's the current page for Temsco:

http://www.temscoair.com/booking_request.php

 

Here's the page from Northstar:

http://www.northstartrekking.com/reservations.php

 

 

When I tried to book a private mountain bike ride with a company in 2010, they refused the booking because I was on a cruise. There were no similar shorex, but I was refused as they had an exclusive contract. They offered other shorex thru the ship.

 

These restrictions were not in place in 2009. They took our booking knowing we were on the ship. In one situation, there were 2 helicopters. One for us and one for HAL. They picked us up at a stop a few hundred feet from the ship, then we drove to the ship to pick up the others. The price delta was a whopping $10 pp. the other situation we had a morning shorex, and the 2 of us had the helicopter and dog camp to ourselves.

Edited April 19, 2016 by TiogaCruiser

[smgardner]

Thanks, if it was a few bucks I would not hesitate to use the cruiseline. But, the difference is $140.

[BKFlowerMound]

There is ever so slightly more risk booking an excursion privately than through the cruise line but it is in my opinion nearly always worth the risk:

 

1) the risk of being left at the dock is so slight as to be not really worth considering as the people providing the service have a lot of incentive to get you there on time. Sometimes, there's no risk as you'll be in the exact same tour as cruise line passengers, you are just paying less. I think the risk increases if you haven't prebooked something and are arranging it at the dock but it's still pretty slight. Frankly, the people who are missing the ships aren't people on private excursions, they're independent people bad at time management who had four too many at Senor Frogs.

2) the loss of deposit risk if the ship arrives late or not at all is, in my experience, a red herring. Reputable operators refund your money in these instances. They don't want a bad review on cruise critic or elsewhere. This is usually spelled out at the time of booking if a deposit is taken.

3) you often cannot only do it cheaper, you can do it much, much better for cheaper. In other words, you can book a more private, more customized tour for less. Of course, you're in a sense paying for this as you have to do the research to find reputable operators, etc., but cruise critic helps. Who wants to be on an excursion with six busses with 300 others? Do you really want to stop at that jewelry factory where you know the cruise line is getting a kick back?

 

Sometimes you have to fork over the extra money for the cruise line's tour. We've had issues with booking privately in Alaska as the cruise lines do have exclusive arrangements with some of the tour operators there. Also, sometimes the rate of gouge isn't so excessive and you need someplace to burn some OBC. This is usually most true with shuttle type tours where they're taking you someplace and little else.

 

Here's the "too long; didn't read" or "tl;dr" version: Price is lower, quality is higher, and risk isn't as great as cruise line would lead you to believe if you book privately.

[rebeccalouiseagain]

For $510 per person you could probably do another week on the ship. Too rich for my blood, but you only live once.

[knittinggirl]

When I tried to book a private mountain bike ride with a company in 2010, they refused the booking because I was on a cruise. There were no similar shorex, but I was refused as they had an exclusive contract. They offered other shorex thru the ship.

In Hilo (2011), they told us that we would have to book the Culinary Home tour through the ship, because they had a non-compete clause in their contract.

There is ever so slightly more risk booking an excursion privately than through the cruise line but it is in my opinion nearly always worth the risk:

 

Not sure about that.

 

When we went on our Alaska cruise out of San Francisco on Celebrity, printed in the Celebrity Daily News that if you missed the ship, we wouldn't be allowed back on the ship in future ports. Guest Relations said it was due to the Passenger Vessel Services Act. That would make it a major hassle.

Edited April 19, 2016 by knittinggirl

[RMLincoln]

I booked a private helicopter tour at the pier in Skagway, not much cheaper than the ship tour but I wanted to have the advantage of seeing what the weather was like plus make sure I was feeling well enough (I had been seasick the first day so was leery of pre-booking). I didn't like the no-refund policy of the ship tour. Sure, they refund if they miss the port but not within 48hrs (IFRC) if you change your mind for your comfort level.

 

I think the local tour companies in Alaska are very reputable high quality and if you are in agreement with their policies I'd say go private. Any shore excursion that costs over $500 is a lot of investment so I'd be sure to understand their policies. Enjoy, m--

[KirkNC]

Deleted

Edited April 19, 2016 by KirkNC

[KirkNC]

In Hilo (2011), they told us that we would have to book the Culinary Home tour through the ship, because they had a non-compete clause in their contract.

 

We have occasionally encountered the same thing. It seems to be a smaller ports where the options are limited. We had two occasions where this happened on Iceland ports.

[knittinggirl]

This is as good a thread to post this question as any.

 

Do they ever add different excursions to the list after you've boarded. Or is the list on hal.com complete?

[kevingastreich]

We do all our independently. Never had any problems and saved a lot of money.

 

Once, on PEI, we grabbed a tour on the pier (as we always do). The guy walked us to a rattle-trap van with duct tape over the "check engine" light and four mismatched tires. When I questioned the "sea worthiness" of the rig he said "Don't worry, if we break down I'll call my brother to come get you". It was a great price so we went ahead. Evan at all that, we had a great tour with a great guide and were back in plenty of time. We still laugh about it. :D

[vivAtornado]

i'm a big fan of excursions booked through the cruise line, especially out of country. When i was in belize we went out to one of the pyramids and a woman in our group suffered heat stroke at the top and had to be helicoptered out. we got back to the cruise tender THREE hours after scheduled sail away time, and the boat was of course waiting and i didn't even have to sweat it out. that clinched it for me that the extra expense was worth it.

[DeeDee Groff]

This is as good a thread to post this question as any.

 

Do they ever add different excursions to the list after you've boarded. Or is the list on hal.com complete?

 

Aboard the Maasdam for 60 days (B2B) this past winter, there were excursions added after we boarded for three ports of call.

[ellieanne]

This is as good a thread to post this question as any.

 

Do they ever add different excursions to the list after you've boarded. Or is the list on hal.com complete?

 

Sometimes new excursions are added on board, other times the list online is complete. I know on one of my cruises, the excursions for New York never appeared online, so we had to wait to book once we got on board -- thinking that the ship would definitely have excursions offered in New York City.

 

On another cruise, a couple of excursions that were listed online were cancelled and there were other options available on board. Those that booked online got first chance for the new excursions or refunds if they chose not to rebook.

 

I'm not really sure how or why some cruises have new and/or different offerings on board, and there is no real way to predict it. But it does happen.

[Beejay4016]

Two weeks ago the Noordam was one day late at one port and totally missed two ports.

 

Not sure what happened to all those pre booked private excursions but the ships excursions were fully refunded. There were lots of phone calls and emails flying around for 24 hours.

 

Just some food for thought.

 

Hi Stratheden. We were on that cruise and had booked a tour in Auckland privately through Viator. I contacted them when we got home, advised them what had happened (although I'm sure the whole Kiwi tourism industry knew about it) and there was no quibble whatsoever - our money was refunded into our bank account within a couple of days. I often use Viator as they are no more expensive than booking tours directly with private companies, and you do have that extra little assurance in case something goes wrong. I also noticed with the tours we booked through them in NZ that, if for some reason you didn't make it back to the vessel on time, there was a guarantee to get you to the next port to meet up with the ship there.

Edited April 20, 2016 by Beejay4016

[kevingastreich]

i'm a big fan of excursions booked through the cruise line, especially out of country. When i was in belize we went out to one of the pyramids and a woman in our group suffered heat stroke at the top and had to be helicoptered out. we got back to the cruise tender THREE hours after scheduled sail away time, and the boat was of course waiting and i didn't even have to sweat it out. that clinched it for me that the extra expense was worth it.

 

I can definitely see the value in cruise line booked excursions for longer and more detailed trips as there are more things that can go wrong to possibly delay your return to the ship. For short term "city tours" in populated areas, you can probably risk it knowing that if something did happen you most likely could find your way back to the ship someway somehow. That being said, I do remember one time the Captain came on the loudspeaker and announced that we were going to wait "one hour max" for some passengers who had not yet returned to the ship and were not on HAL booked excursions. The four people showed up 30 minutes late and we were still at the dock waiting for them.