Shore excursion prices

[Li-shan]

I'm interested to know, from anybody who has got information about shore excursions recently, what the cost of shore excursions is like now - does it seem to be higher because of a captive audience, or lower because they will probably sell more as it is the only way to go ashore?

Edited July 15, 2021 by Li-shan
Mistyping

[tring]

On 7/15/2021 at 3:52 AM, Li-shan said:

I'm interested to know, from anybody who has got information about shore excursions recently, what the cost of shore excursions is like now - does it seem to be higher because of a captive audience, or lower because they will probably sell more as it is the only way to go ashore?

 

We visited The Isles of Scilly with Fred last Wednesday and must say our excursion to Tresco Abbey Gardens was both excellent and also excellent value.  The cost was £35, and we also got a 5% gold level Oceans discount as a pre booked tour.  The entrance fee is £15 (£14 for concessions) and if we had been tendered to St Mary's (as is normally the case), or been there on a hotel holiday, we would have also needed to have paid £12pp for the return inter Island ferry to Tresco.   

 

Once we arrived on Tresco, we were directed to the route to the gardens, which was about a 15 minute walk.  We were then given a map an allowed to just go off on our own to explore the gardens and/or also visit the coffee shop, before meeting at the Tresco boat pier two hours later. The other hour of our 3 hour trip was taken up by the boat rides there and back as well as the walk to the gardens from the pier.  Scilly is beautiful.

 

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by tring

[irvington]

Thanks for this information. My husband just asked me this since it doesn't seem clear from their website.

[Pentlands]

They are extortionate, in my view. £90 for a panoramic tour of Belfast and £130 for a town walk are but examples of what we have had to pay to get off board and they were not the most expensive.

 

[tring]

1 hour ago, Pentlands said:

They are extortionate, in my view. £90 for a panoramic tour of Belfast and £130 for a town walk are but examples of what we have had to pay to get off board and they were not the most expensive.

 

 

Fred has not visited Belfast recently, so I assume you are referring to other cruise lines rather than Fred.  We paid £35 for a 3 hour walk in Falmouth last week on Fred and were only charged £32 for a guided walk in Scilly, which included refreshments, though the weather was not suitable for tendering, so that was refunded the day we should have visited.  Other Fred prices included £35 for a panoramic tour in Portsmouth which also allowed a fair bit of time out of the coach.  Some further afield ones (that included what would be high admission charges), cost more, but nothing like the prices you are suggesting, nor have I ever seen those sort of prices on a British cruise line, though I know the US based lines rack the prices up and also quote in $ which makes them seem more expensive to us - can I ask where you have got those prices from please?

 

Edited August 17, 2021 by tring

[July morning]

We've pre-booked our excursions for Belfast "Giant's Causeway" £69pp after loyalty discount

Falmouth "Lost Gardens of Heligan" £68pp no discount for this tour.

[tring]

2 hours ago, July morning said:

We've pre-booked our excursions for Belfast "Giant's Causeway" £69pp after loyalty discount

Falmouth "Lost Gardens of Heligan" £68pp no discount for this tour.

 

Worth ringing shore excursion department regards no loyalty discount for the Falmouth tour.  That is the price in our tour book for last week and it did not have the Oceans discount taken into account.  We got a discount for our Tresco trip on our July cruise after ringing them, but it took a while to come through.  It seems their system was not taking the discount off the prices as it should have done.  We also got the impression they may not bother to refund the discount if not requested, though not really sure about that, it is just a hunch we had after speaking with them.

 

The only reason you should not get a discount is if you had booked the cruise on a saver fare, or if a discount was already taken off the prices you have been given - the tour books normally have the discount deducted from prices shown, but then they are usually odd amounts, not round pounds.

[July morning]

Thanks for your reply,  I did think it was strange only getting the discount on one trip. 

Didn't book a saver fare as we wanted to choose our cabin and dining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[T4TS]

Having just seen the shore excursions and prices for the Fred Olsen Iceland trip in August, wondering if anyone else thinks the charges are exceptionally high this year eg a 4 hour trip to the Blue Lagoon is £165 per person or a 3.5 hour hike towards Valagil £125 each! I wouldn't mind forking out if it was just for a couple of us, but taking extended family and therefore paying over £1000 for a half-day excursion seems excessive and like we're being fleeced. FO will ultimately lose out in our case as will source our own trips and arrange our own hikes, but feel like they're taking advantage when we've already paid substantially more than the current listed price for similar cabins and was wondeirng what others views were.

 

[twotravellersLondon]

4 hours ago, T4TS said:

they're taking advantage when we've already paid substantially more than the current listed price for similar cabins and was wondeirng what others views were.

 

Even before Covid, Fred's prices were off-putting because the headline price was later inflated with all manner of extras. We cruised the Corinth Canal with Fred in 2019. It was a nice trip but expensive in a balcony cabin. The additional price of drinks, "gratuities" and Wi-Fi and suchlike then significantly added to the basic cost.

 

The same trip in the same cabin in 2024 would now cost us more than twice as much. By the time we added all manner of other costs... including excursions, in our opinion, the price would be exorbitant. 

 

Fred's cruises lost over £25,000,000 in the first three months of this year. It looks as if lots of once loyal FOCLs customers, like ourselves, aren't as attracted to the brand as they once were and that numbers on Fred's cruises are really low.

 

Fred seems to be beginning to get the message. He recently commissioned an independent report into what people thought of his brand. But the problem is... once people are put off... it's really hard to regain their trust and get them back on board again. 

 

We used to do four or five cruises with Fred every year. Since Fred was reluctant to refund us promptly when we chose to have our deposit back at the beginning of covid we've not booked another cruise with him.

 

The main reason is that we've been comparing the market.  We have to pull up a spreadsheet to calculate the real price of what Fred's advertising. Once we move up to "Freedom" fare, add the Gratuities, the essential Wi-Fi and so on... the price is often eyewatering compared with brighter, newer, better ships being run by Fred's competitors.

 

We had originally been attracted to a similar Fred cruise to your one... but ten we worked out that in a balcony cabin it would cost us about £1,000 a day. By comparison with three other cruise lines... all visiting the same areas at about the same time... Fred was by far the most expensive. We opted for a different line that we'd used before. We believe that the food, entertainment, service and accommodation is better for us than what Fred's offering.

 

That's just our personal opinion... we've taken our choice and paid our money... and we feel much better about the choice having done our own research and worked out the real prices. 

[jimbo1683]

7 hours ago, T4TS said:

Having just seen the shore excursions and prices for the Fred Olsen Iceland trip in August, wondering if anyone else thinks the charges are exceptionally high this year eg a 4 hour trip to the Blue Lagoon is £165 per person or a 3.5 hour hike towards Valagil £125 each! I wouldn't mind forking out if it was just for a couple of us, but taking extended family and therefore paying over £1000 for a half-day excursion seems excessive and like we're being fleeced. FO will ultimately lose out in our case as will source our own trips and arrange our own hikes, but feel like they're taking advantage when we've already paid substantially more than the current listed price for similar cabins and was wondeirng what others views were.

 

Iceland is a very expensive country. The cheapest entry to the Blue Lagoon is about £52 pp by itself and a return coach from Reykjavik to Blue Lagoon is just under £40pp if you were doing it youself so thats £90 and of course I don't know if you had any other extras included such as food or drink. Agree £165 vs £90 seems steep if they are comparable experiences.

[T4TS]

Yes I appreciate the high cost in Iceland. But it was more for things like £125 for a hike with no entrance fees to pay, yes a guide but that divided between however many in the group would be minimal compared to the end cost being charged to user... Comparable packages from local tour operators (which probably are who FO are using as local suppliers anyway) charge much more reasonable prices including coach, guide, entrance fees etc and it works out about 1/3 - 1/2 cheaper so the upsell from FO I therefore feel is unreasonable. Of course they give you all the 'only the ship's tours guarantee to get you back to the ship in time' etc but I doubt the local operators will fail to deliver you back in time unless there's a real emergency. But I suppose like you said FO are trying to recoup some of their lost revenue so feel justified in charging such high prices. For us though it has meant we simply looked elsewhere for shore excursion providers whereas ordinarily we would have supported FO if they'd been less pleonectic. We have tried other cruise operators but like the smaller size of ship and the gentler pace of FO so will stick with them for now, and dream of one day affording the more luxurious small ship operators with everything thrown in! 

[twotravellersLondon]

2 hours ago, T4TS said:

I suppose like you said FO are trying to recoup some of their lost revenue

 

Fred's problem is that he's lost 1,000's of loyal, long-term customers and was doing so even before Covid. The idea of charging those who do board a small fortune will only drive more people away.

[Eglesbrech]

On 7/7/2022 at 7:31 PM, twotravellersLondon said:

The main reason is that we've been comparing the market.  We have to pull up a spreadsheet to calculate the real price of what Fred's advertising. Once we move up to "Freedom" fare, add the Gratuities, the essential Wi-Fi and so on... the price is often eyewatering compared with brighter, newer, better ships being run by Fred's competitors.

Exactly that. I can get a suite with a butler, drinks package, WiFi and tips for the same as a balcony on Fred.

 

Add to that the premium they always seem to add  for travel from the North and it is off putting. The journey to Southampton is almost worthwhile given the savings and more inclusive package offered.

 

We we’re looking at a cruise and a very similar one from Dover is about 30% less. I accept that there is more fuel when going South from Rosyth but it never seems to work the other way for northern cruises. The (generally) older cruisers who cant travel to Southampton will just have to live with the prices but younger folks will just jump in a car, plain or train.

 

I have always enjoyed our cruises on Fred but the prices are now getting just a bit much by comparison.

[July morning]

For the first time ever we didn't do any tour excursions they were ridiculously  expensive.

Last year while on Borealis you had to do an excursion to get off the ship but not this year but the difference in price was much higher for this year.  When they became available on line I was sure they had made a mistake. I looked out last years tours for Belfast we went to the Giants Causeway which we enjoyed but this year the exact excursion was almost £60pp higher we were thinking of going to the Titanic Experience and it was grossly inflated as well.

[tring]

On 7/7/2022 at 2:35 PM, T4TS said:

Having just seen the shore excursions and prices for the Fred Olsen Iceland trip in August, wondering if anyone else thinks the charges are exceptionally high this year eg a 4 hour trip to the Blue Lagoon is £165 per person or a 3.5 hour hike towards Valagil £125 each! I wouldn't mind forking out if it was just for a couple of us, but taking extended family and therefore paying over £1000 for a half-day excursion seems excessive and like we're being fleeced. FO will ultimately lose out in our case as will source our own trips and arrange our own hikes, but feel like they're taking advantage when we've already paid substantially more than the current listed price for similar cabins and was wondeirng what others views were.

 

 

We have just returned from an Ambassador cruise which visited Rekjavik and price for The Blue Lagoon trip was much the same, perhaps exactly the same, but I do not have a copy of the tours and prices that were only online.  We did look at that one as it is somewhere we have not been, but decided to give it a miss at those prices.  As stated Iceland is very expensive and getting more so from what we saw.  All ship's tours are likely to be the same, (US brands usually higher again), so perhaps worth looking elswhere (though direct booking prices have risen a lot compared to pre-Covid prices as well), but always the disadvantages, given the possibility the ship will not dock for some reason etc., so best to check you could cancel at short notice and will get back in time.  Difficult decision, though perhaps less risk if docked overnight.  Their are hot spring bathing pools in the city of Reyjavik, which may be of interest to you - one is walkable from the cruise terminal and another near the Cathedral.  Details of those can be found on line.

 

You may find the ports of call section of use, as well as Trip Advisor forums/review pages.

 

[T4TS]

Thanks for the replies. We are hoping to go to some other baths on our trip instead of the actual Blue Lagoon as have been told they'll be less busy, less touristy/ more authentic and gives you the same type of bathing experience with a landscape view for less cost. The last time we tried to cruise on FO to Iceland the itinerary included 2 days in Reyjavik which was much more sensible and attractive to us. When that was cancelled and they offered an alternative I was really disappointed the itinerary only included 1 day in Reyjavik and overall therefore a 1 day shorter sailing but asked a lot more for the trip. Such a shame that they are losing their loyal customer-base, I hope they can turn things round and the old FO charm can return. Wish there was more choice to cruise out of Scotland direct, especially now with the farce of flying, but at least alternatives are out there with Ambassador/ reincarnated CMV returning to regional ports next year.

[jeanlyon]

We never do any excursions.  Always prefer to DIY wherever we go.