Shore excursions not booked through cruise line

[katjoeus]

Currently looking at The Shore Excursions Group, Shore Excursioneers, Viator and Shorefox.

Does anyone have any reservations / bad experiences with either of these companies? I think I've booked through Viator and Shorefox before and all went well, but things change..

 

Any input appreciated!!

[LHT28]

We usually book with local recommended guide & not a broker like Viator

 

No problems booking with locals

do your research

[AmberCascades]

I agree with the poster above. I've used Shorexcursions group a couple of times before. They'll pack you into vehicles like sardines. One time the guide was great but the other time the guide was terrible. I won't use them again because I have no desire to sit in the laps of total strangers on long bus rides.

[wheezedr]

Currently looking at The Shore Excursions Group, Shore Excursioneers, Viator and Shorefox.

Does anyone have any reservations / bad experiences with either of these companies? I think I've booked through Viator and Shorefox before and all went well, but things change..

 

Any input appreciated!!

You do not mention ports but only on a rare occasion would I book through one of these agencies. We generally book directly with local tour operators. Smaller vehicles and more opportunity to customize our tours.

[teknoge3k]

I would book directly with the operators and skip the brokers. If you book directly with the operators you can read reviews and see all about them rather than going blindly by booking with a broker in which you will never personally come in contact with that company.

[CruiserBruce]

I would do a couple of searches on the Ports boards, where there are many comments on these brokers, their pluses and minus'. Yes, their prices are very attractive, but that means the broker has to seek low bidder providers, which have caused problems like poor English speakers. Our negative experience involved contacting a provider when we found a problem with what Viator had arranged...it was near impossible.

 

We also now only deal direct with vendors.

[bigmohes]

Ditto on all of the above post. Check out the locals first unless you are going to an area that makes you uneasy or you have fear of possibly ending up in a dangerous area. I have used Viator and did not have any issues.

[donaldsc]

I use Viator as a resource to find tours that I might be interested in. Then I can usually figure out who is actually doing the tour and then book directly w them. Might as well let the tour company keep all the money instead of them having to split it w Viator.

 

DON

[Heidi13]

Have never used a broker or 3rd party for booking tours. The benefit of using these services is they require minimal research.

 

Personally, I research tour providers on CC Boards, Tripadvisor and general Google searches. Takes a bit of time, but generally pays with a better tour with a smaller group.

 

Rather than using a broker, we would probably stick with a ship tour, at least if a ship's tour is late the ship waits.

[katjoeus]

Ok, thanks! Will look at tours and then try to find local operators - already found some interesting stuff for Cozumel (the other ports in question this time are Belize - already booked, Grand Cayman and Mahagony Bay, Roatan).

 

My line of thinking was that the "big" brokers would make sure they only work with reliable companies and would make sure that things go right (some of them actually have a back-to-ship-in-time guarantee) but I'll be happy with local operators, as long as there are plenty of reviews to be found!

 

This time round, Viator seems quite expensive, so i'll just be consulting them to get ideas :-)

[CruiseGal999]

Currently looking at The Shore Excursions Group, Shore Excursioneers, Viator and Shorefox.

Does anyone have any reservations / bad experiences with either of these companies? I think I've booked through Viator and Shorefox before and all went well, but things change..

 

Any input appreciated!!

 

I'm tagging along on this thread. I purchased a Viator tour for my upcoming cruise that leaves 9/9th. I don't know where, how, or if the 'ticket' I purchased will be accepted. A little fearful of this first time.

[CruiseGal999]

I just looked at my Viator ticket. It's run by Grayline Bus Tours ... price is essentially the same with either Grayline or Viator.

 

Anyone have issues with tour company accepting the broker tickets?

[katjoeus]

Viator is a Tripadvisor company - I'm pretty sure they are reliable! I know we've used them before (in Barbados, I think, and another place). If you're in doubt, contact the company directly since you know who it's with - email them and say you just wanted to double-check that all is good for your upcoming trip :-) Never hurts to get peace of mind...

[CruiseGal999]

Viator is a Tripadvisor company - I'm pretty sure they are reliable! I know we've used them before (in Barbados, I think, and another place). If you're in doubt, contact the company directly since you know who it's with - email them and say you just wanted to double-check that all is good for your upcoming trip :-) Never hurts to get peace of mind...

 

I just called the company doing the tour ... Prince Edward Tours ... and she said they have my reservation and Viator is good with them. They have never had any issues with using their tickets. So ... good to go there. Yay.

[cruisemom42]

I've taken Viator tours a few times.

 

My issue with using a middle-man like Viator isn't that they won't be reliable, but that there is no way really of checking that the actual company used is going to provide a quality experience. Yes, sometimes you can figure out the local provider, but often -- especially in large cities where there are literally hundreds of small tour providers -- it's almost impossible.

 

I have to say I've not been impressed with Viator based on my own experiences. Twice the tour I booked included three different language groups, so the guide had to repeat all of the information three times. (English, Spanish, and French). Unfortunately the other language groups were not very polite about being quiet while the guide talked in English. Plus, a lot of time standing around...

 

Another time, in Lisbon, one of the four scheduled tour stops was not made, and no explanation was given by the guide (who also basically abandoned us in Fatima). Yes, I complained to Viator and eventually got a 25% refund -- but the fact is that I didn't want the refund, I wanted the tour I'd booked -- it's not like there is an easy 'redo' button!

 

And finally, I was booked on a Viator tour in Rome that was cancelled because not enough people signed up. Even though they had my email and phone, they didn't bother contacting me in advance and letting me know, so that I went across town to the meeting point (the local tour office) and only then found out I had no tour. Not only that, but they didn't want to refund my money; tried to talk me into a different tour that I didn't want. Again, I eventually got my refund but not without the hassle.

 

Somehow, I've never had these kinds of issues when working directly with tour providers who could answer questions in advance and about whom I could read reviews online. If a quality experience is important to you, I'd avoid Viator.

[cb at sea]

Many things are easy to DIY....so you might consider that. Especially Grand Cayman...great bus system! Cheap, too!

[sirenitas]

Ok, thanks! Will look at tours and then try to find local operators - already found some interesting stuff for Cozumel (the other ports in question this time are Belize - already booked, Grand Cayman and Mahagony Bay, Roatan).

 

On our first cruise I booked our excursions independently.

 

For Cozumel we used Black Hat Cozumel http://www.blackhattours.com/ Super nice driver, took us everywhere around the island - his website is pretty new, but check him out on Facebook.

 

For Roatan we went with Victor Bodden http://www.boddentours.com/

 

Belize we went cave tubing with Vitalino Reyes https://cavetubing.bz/

 

We did not do Grand Cayman so can't help with that one ;)

 

All our tours were great, friendly guides, clean buses, prices were very reasonable. We had our own van in Cozumel and Roatan (there were 5 of us), and for the cave tubing I think there were 10-12 of us in our van.

My thing with Viator and all of those is that I want to make sure transportation is not a huge bus or there are so many people that it takes forever to get anywhere. I did research the heck out of the vendors we ended up using and it really paid off, I could not have asked for better service.

[GottaKnowWhen]

Currently looking at The Shore Excursions Group, Shore Excursioneers, Viator and Shorefox.

Does anyone have any reservations / bad experiences with either of these companies? I think I've booked through Viator and Shorefox before and all went well, but things change..

 

Any input appreciated!!

I’ve had three Viatour excursions. All ok, 6 or 7 out of 10 ok. If I have the time to research in more depth I will almost always either book a local guide (with others on the roll call to share expenses) or take a cab after negotiating a by- the -hour price with him. Never heard of the other companies you mention. For my “local” guides I look to ToursByLocals, SpainDayTour, ItalyDayTour or similar.

Stan