Celebrity's own excursions - any reviews on website

[The Odd Couple]

When we sail with Holland America and buy their excursions, there are passengers' reviews against whatever excursion which are really useful in deciding how interesting it might be and whether it is worth the money. Does Celebrity have the same on their website?

[Luvcrusn]

When we sail with Holland America and buy their excursions, there are passengers' reviews against whatever excursion which are really useful in deciding how interesting it might be and whether it is worth the money. Does Celebrity have the same on their website?

There used to be, but since the launch of the new website last year I haven't been able to find them either. I guess I'll rely on cruise critic reviews exclusively.

[The Odd Couple]

That's a shame, but thanks for the info anyway.

[Vagabond Knight]

When we sail with Holland America and buy their excursions, there are passengers' reviews against whatever excursion which are really useful in deciding how interesting it might be and whether it is worth the money. Does Celebrity have the same on their website?

 

Nope. We're in the process of looking through the excursions now, and that's been one of our disappointments. Not only are there no ratings or reviews, there is insufficient detail regarding many of them. They tell you some idea of where a tour goes and what you might see, but often have no information about the transportation. (Examples: Will you be in a 10 passenger van, or a 50 passenger bus? Is it open air or A/C?) These details can be helpful, along with the more descriptions and opinions of people who've actually experienced the excursion.

[cublet]

Hello,

 

Let me give my opinion of ships' bought excursions, in no particular order.

 

There are fewer than you think. Look at ones priced the same and their itineraries and you may see that they are the same, but proceeding in a different order.

 

The level of 'effort' or 'activity' required is a work of pure fiction - an easy (by icon) tour of Lisbon turned out to be a walking tour. And Lisbon isn't flat!

 

You will pass many things that may interest you but are not mentioned in the commentary. For example I have passed, without any reference made, The Barcelona Pavilion, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and the Greek Parliament building with glass covered excavations to the fore (though not at the same time).

 

Names might be misleading: I visited the St. Petersburg Museum expecting to see 'stuff', eg space exploration, but it turned out to be an art gallery.

 

I don't know if this is helpful, but if you are sufficiently mobile and confident, I would look at either doing your own thing or the 'hop-on, hop-off' bus. This latter can be a better buy than the ship's shuttle bus.

 

Regards,

 

Cublet

[kag19]

Trip Advisor has reviews of some of the excursions on their website. They don't have cruise specific reviews but some of the experiences are available to the public so you can read the reviews from there and determine from there if the excursions were from a cruise. Most users will state how and where they booked the experience. I used that for our upcoming cruise to narrow down what we wanted to do and then booked it through Celebrity. Normally we book on our own but unfortunately with some of the ports still damaged from the hurricanes we wanted to book directly through Celebrity in case of issues.

[ghstudio]

I would start with trip advisor to find "what to see" or "what to do" in each port. I'd then look at ship tours to see what they suggest/offer. Finally, I'd go to my cruise critic "roll call" and see what others are setting up in the way of (small) group tours....and I'd join them rather than taking the celebrity tour.

[voyager70]

I also check on Tripadvisor. Not only unbiased reviews but usually quite a few pics which give you a good idea of what to expect. I liked it when they had the reviews on the website. Found them very helpful. Maybe they got rid of them because some with poor reviews weren't booking.

[gerelmx]

Better review opinions from several independent sites such as CC, TA, etc. Most of the time I have booked boat tours and have always met my expectations, and what is mentioned in the brochure. Certainly they are a little more expensive if you compare them with a local operator. But you have several advantages as a priority landing, guarantee to return to the ship !! :) Let me tell you when our cruise to the Norwegian Fjords, we contract with RCCL the full day tour in Flåm, Voss & Stalheim. When the bus returned to port Splendour OTS was already sailing in the Fjord. Several of the lifeboats were waiting for the passengers of the bus. It was quite an adventure to take the cruise in motion. Also in certain excursions the passengers are accompanied by a member of the crew.

 

Bon Voyage

[Vagabond Knight]

Maybe they got rid of them because some with poor reviews weren't booking.

 

That is one possibility, but having spent a lot of time on the Celebrity site lately, and seeing how poorly programmed and problematic it is, my husband and I (who both work in IT) thought it may have been something they couldn't figure out how to do properly... or that they eliminated that function to simplify the site for the web programmers/maintainers. This seems to be a theme with so many travel sites (we've seen it with timeshare exchange sites as well). They make "pretty" websites, but they don't seem to want to hire enough experienced IT folks (or outsource to a good firm, if necessary) to create and maintain a robust and smoothly working site.

[voyager70]

That is one possibility, but having spent a lot of time on the Celebrity site lately, and seeing how poorly programmed and problematic it is, my husband and I (who both work in IT) thought it may have been something they couldn't figure out how to do properly... or that they eliminated that function to simplify the site for the web programmers/maintainers. This seems to be a theme with so many travel sites (we've seen it with timeshare exchange sites as well). They make "pretty" websites, but they don't seem to want to hire enough experienced IT folks (or outsource to a good firm, if necessary) to create and maintain a robust and smoothly working site.

 

Excellent point and makes total sense.

[Mike981]

That is one possibility, but having spent a lot of time on the Celebrity site lately, and seeing how poorly programmed and problematic it is, my husband and I (who both work in IT) thought it may have been something they couldn't figure out how to do properly... or that they eliminated that function to simplify the site for the web programmers/maintainers. This seems to be a theme with so many travel sites (we've seen it with timeshare exchange sites as well). They make "pretty" websites, but they don't seem to want to hire enough experienced IT folks (or outsource to a good firm, if necessary) to create and maintain a robust and smoothly working site.

 

Agree. Also having web experience AND restaurant experience, I look at it like a small restaurant that expands because of popularity. But they only double the inefficiencies they had before that they could work around and it is to expensive to 'fix' the real issue.

[Muffinz]

I too am having problems deciding what excursions to do - there is not enough detailed information on the website about the excursion - such as the exact times.... we are being tendered in to 3 ports on our cruise and one excursion says it starts at 0930 - but is that the time you need to be ready to leave the ship or is that the time the excursion starts once you are on shore?

it's quite confusing really

[NantahalaCruiser]

That is one possibility, but having spent a lot of time on the Celebrity site lately, and seeing how poorly programmed and problematic it is, my husband and I (who both work in IT) thought it may have been something they couldn't figure out how to do properly... or that they eliminated that function to simplify the site for the web programmers/maintainers. This seems to be a theme with so many travel sites (we've seen it with timeshare exchange sites as well). They make "pretty" websites, but they don't seem to want to hire enough experienced IT folks (or outsource to a good firm, if necessary) to create and maintain a robust and smoothly working site.

Pretty sure they discontinued reviews prior to the roll-out of the current website.

 

Just another reason to consider independent tours.