NCL Ship sponsored excursions

[nattie]

We are normally Princess cruisers and recently tend to do a lot of ship excursions, because Princess offers good variety and have price point very similar to "on your own" tours, as well as always offering options for "small group" experiences. When looking to utilize the promo credits for my upcoming NCL Breakaway cruise, there are no options I actually want to take and prices are over inflated.

There were no "small group" experiences offered, nothing "off-the beaten path" and the only thing I ended up booking is $799 vs $399 for similar thing on Princess cruise we did in January (total, this is for cabana).

Is it standard for NCL? I remember feeling the same way about ship sponsored tours before (5-6 years ago), but than Princess completely revamped their offerings. Just curious about what NCL devotees do about shore excursions, just do everything on their own?

BTW, this is not meant to put NCL down in any way, I do like A LOT about the line, hence our choice to sail it again.