Excursion details - more information needed

[Muffinz]

Hi all,

 

How do we find out more detailed information about a shore excursion we are interested in? (more information than is provided on celebrities website)

 

We are on Solstice in April 2020 and it docks at Pago Pago (American Samoa) for 1 day.

There is an excursion we are interested in - it's a 3 hour tour with stops at various places, but reading some of the reviews / comments under Pago Pago Excursions someone has commented

The buses are "Island Style" which means they are bits and pieces of vehicles put together! The seats are wooden and hard and the bus itself does not have air conditioning

 

We won't be interested in doing the excursion if we are on a rickety old bus, so how can we find out what sort of transport / bus will be used for this excursion?

[cruisestitch]

You can’t.  The local providers change from time to time, buses break and are replaced, a tour operator might own a mix of old a new vehicles, so there is just no way to know ahead of time what bus you will get.

[Davidc5412]

We did this cruise last year and yes they are rickety old buses as that’s all that are available on the island. Didn’t concern us but others were a little worried

[Kartgv]

That sounds a lot like the bus we had on a similar tour about 5 years ago - very picturesque, but not exactly comfortable.    Our bus broke down part way through the tour, in the middle of nowhere.   Luckily after about 15 minutes a church bus drove by, stopped to see if we needed help.   The driver dropped off his load of passengers and came back to pick us up and deliver us to our beach/lunch destination.   By the time we finished our lunch, they had another bus there to pick us up.   No guarantees on some of these tours!    I'm not sure you'll be able to find out exactly what kind of bus you'll get in advance, unless you book a private tour which guarantees specified vehicles - check out specific tour review on TripAdvisor.   

[ghstudio]

Rest assured that if anything goes wrong with your tour due to the bus on a Celebrity tour, Celebrity will immediately point you to the small print that says they have no responsibility for anything...it's between you and their vendor.  (I speak from experience).  However, if that's the only transportation available, you are kind of stuck with it.  Maybe you can find a private "tour" where they use a car.

[mahdnc]

10 minutes ago, ghstudio said:

Rest assured that if anything goes wrong with your tour due to the bus on a Celebrity tour, Celebrity will immediately point you to the small print that says they have no responsibility for anything...it's between you and their vendor.  (I speak from experience).  However, if that's the only transportation available, you are kind of stuck with it.  Maybe you can find a private "tour" where they use a car.

 

It strikes me funny that on the sales end, the excursion has the Celebrity look and feel.  But on the delivery and liability end, it definitely doesn't.

[Muffinz]

56 minutes ago, Davidc5412 said:

We did this cruise last year and yes they are rickety old buses as that’s all that are available on the island. Didn’t concern us but others were a little worried

thanks for the reply.

our other option is to just get off the ship and have a 'look around town' - is there anything to do in Pago Pago in the way of shopping / markets...etc?

[Pushka]

Princess is as bad. We had a dreadful excursion in Asia and the complaints line was basically the whole bus but nothing was done about it. Not their fault they say yet they are happy to receive the premium they charge on top of the vendor costs. 

[zitsky]

5 minutes ago, Muffinz said:

thanks for the reply.

our other option is to just get off the ship and have a 'look around town' - is there anything to do in Pago Pago in the way of shopping / markets...etc?

 

You might also look at Tripadvisor.  I took a peek and there is some info about activities.

[Muffinz]

thanks - I looked on Trip Advisor.... apparently there is a shopping mall / Plaza there but there's no information about it that I can find

[ECCruise]

There is so much to see on Samoa that I wouldn't think of wandering around the port or going to a mall.  There are private tours available (which is what we did the last time we were there) than might incorporate and island tour, maybe some beach time, a lunch, etc.  There is a beautiful National Park there.  Good hiking on this island.  

[Davidc5412]

7 hours ago, Muffinz said:

thanks for the reply.

our other option is to just get off the ship and have a 'look around town' - is there anything to do in Pago Pago in the way of shopping / markets...etc?

There was a market set up in the port area and we didn’t really look around the town area but there didn’t seem to be much in walking distance

[Davidc5412]

Leaving port as you see town area is quite small. Across the bay to the right is the tuna factory. Those who went said it was rather pungent

[Muffinz]

thanks for the replies.... I think we will just get off the ship and have a look around at the markets or anything else of interest

I did see a clip on Youtube someone had done as they left their cruise ship (not celebrity) in Pago Pago and it looked like there were people on the port area waving signs around advertising tours or something, so I think we will just 'play it by ear'

[Creekside89]

We were on this cruise last year as well. We did a private tour and it was the same type of bus. Yes they have no air conditioning but travelling with the windows open you don’t feel the heat. Yes the seats are a bit hard but you are not sitting in the bus the whole time. Our bus was in good condition. No complaints by anyone on the tour. 

Dont be put off exploring the island because of that. It’s part of experiencing another culture. 

Yes there were people waving signs outside of the port but we didn’t see how much they were charging.

 

 

 

 

[barbette165]

If you google Pago Pago buses and then look at the images you'll be able to see what the buses look like