X Shore excursions

[dlh015]

Newbie to X...I booked an ABCs Caribbean tour in January.  When I had a look at excursions they offered, there were none offered for Aruba and Curacao. 

 

I am assuming that means they are sold out.  Is that how X does it? 

 

Or perhaps it means they haven't lined any up as yet? (But I would think they would have some set up since the sailing is only 4 months distant...)

 

I ask because Princess will show the excursion but it will say 'Sold Out'  or 'waitlisted'.

 

This is not a big deal as I can book/create my own excursions but I just want to know if this is how X does it.

 

Thanks...

 

 

[cruisestitch]

Sorry but it could be either

[jelayne]

Our Cruises show excursions with a sold out banner on some of them.

They may add more as the cruise gets closer.

 

[D. B.]

Try www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com

 Just enter your cruise line, ship name and sailing date.

 They have the same "If you Miss the Ship" guarantee as the Cruise Lines and are often smaller groups.

 We use them a lot.

 

[canderson]

53 minutes ago, D. B. said:

Try www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com

 Just enter your cruise line, ship name and sailing date.

 They have the same "If you Miss the Ship" guarantee as the Cruise Lines and are often smaller groups.

 We use them a lot.

 

We've had ship departures delayed for late Celebrity excursion returns.  Haven't ever heard of that courtesy being offered for any private tour, so while private excursion companies may get you to the next port with their guarantees, it's really not "the same".

 

All you can go by is reputation, which is obviously important to the independents, but if it hits the fan (e.g., major traffic tie-up on coast road due to accident, or 150hp Yamaha outboard crapping out half way back), the resulting effort by Celebrity will usually be very different.

[D. B.]

shore excursions group is a Big provider and has a lot of experience. 

 They use a lot of the same tour companies as the Cruise line.

 I was on one of their excursions in the Caribbean last March and they had us on the Same tour offered on the ship but with 10 guests instead of 50 and the guide ask US what order we wanted to do the stops and how long we wanted to be at each stop.

 Our tour included a Lunch and when the ships group of 50 was rushed through the lunch we were able to relax and enjoy ours.

 The only thing they can Not do is have the Ship delay departure by 10-15 min.

 

[canderson]

2 hours ago, D. B. said:

 

 The only thing they can Not do is have the Ship delay departure by 10-15 min.

 

Or an hour, as it turned out once (the Yahama left us high and dry in Belize).  Those above were our stories.  Yeah, we've taken a zillion excursions over the years, some X and some private, but we were glad those two happened to be via X.  Private is often cheaper and better, but "the same" = almost, but...

[lifeisrealygood]

My wife and I have a March 2023 cruise on the Silhouette to the Southern Caribbean.  There are still no excursions for St Croix, only one for St Marten, a few for Antigua, many for the Dominican Republic, and so on.  Celebrity just seems to be slow at putting the excursions up.  For our March cruise, a few more seem to get added every week.  For example, Antigua had none listed a few weeks ago, then three showed up, and the other day another three showed up.  They are populating slowly.  Your cruise is in January, but they still can be figuring out their excursions.  Keep looking every day.  They will start populating.  

 

As far as being sold out, the Celerity excursion will still show up under the shore excursions, with a "Sold Out" banner placed over the top left of the picture.  They will not take the excursion down if sold out..  It still shows, just that it is sold out.

 

Hope that helps.

 

We have been on over 30 Celebrity Cruises, and this is the latest that shore excursions seem to be showing up.  Perhaps it is the return from Covid causing the problem, who knows.

 

We have an ABC cruise leaving on September 17th, next month, on the Equinox, and the excursions do not seem to be as plentiful as we have had on prior ABC cruises. We love catamarans, whether just a sail to a beach or snorkel stops, but catamaran excursions seem to be very limited for our cruise next month.  We booked a catamaran sail in Bonaire, but it seems to be more of a sail to a beach for the day, than a true relaxing catamaran sail.  

[the penguins]

9 hours ago, D. B. said:

Try www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com

 Just enter your cruise line, ship name and sailing date.

 They have the same "If you Miss the Ship" guarantee as the Cruise Lines and are often smaller groups.

 We use them a lot.

 

ToursbyLocals is our choice and then to split the cost with one other couple on the Roll Call. TBL will pay the costs of getting you to the next port if you miss the ship. It's all about choice: ship big group no choices: other companies smaller groups but with very little choice: private guides like through TBL you have total control and very small groups (in our case usually 4, max 6). TBL also refund in full if the ship doesn't dock.

[the penguins]

8 hours ago, canderson said:

We've had ship departures delayed for late Celebrity excursion returns.  Haven't ever heard of that courtesy being offered for any private tour, so while private excursion companies may get you to the next port with their guarantees, it's really not "the same".

 

All you can go by is reputation, which is obviously important to the independents, but if it hits the fan (e.g., major traffic tie-up on coast road due to accident, or 150hp Yamaha outboard crapping out half way back), the resulting effort by Celebrity will usually be very different.

X's guarantee is to get you to the next available port. The ship will wait for a time as that is a cheaper option but will not wait indefinitely. 

[hawkesbaynz]

This week I booked an overnight trip to Hanoi with X when we port in Halong Bay Vietnam.  There was a count down on the website. We took the last 2 slots and now it is SoldOut. The cost was £366 each but we had loads of OBC. We usually do private tours but when it involves a 3 hour journey on a famously busy stretch of road I went with X. 
 

I have a 3 week South America tour with Oceania next year. All there tours came out early with the usual baffling charging scheme. Have booked all private tours incl. TBL. Always demand to be back an hour before departure.

[keesar]

13 hours ago, dlh015 said:

Newbie to X...I booked an ABCs Caribbean tour in January.  When I had a look at excursions they offered, there were none offered for Aruba and Curacao. 

 

I am assuming that means they are sold out.  Is that how X does it? 

 

Or perhaps it means they haven't lined any up as yet? (But I would think they would have some set up since the sailing is only 4 months distant...)

 

I ask because Princess will show the excursion but it will say 'Sold Out'  or 'waitlisted'.

 

This is not a big deal as I can book/create my own excursions but I just want to know if this is how X does it.

 

Thanks...

 

 

On our upcoming cruise in February, there had been no excursions listed  for  two of the ports until this week when they appeared in the Planner.  Check periodically and they should become available.

[vickykay]

We were in the Caribbean this past Feb and very few ship excursions.   Apparently many of the providers had shut down during the pandemic and we’re not fully up and running / organized.  So there may be more offerings as you get nearer to your sail date.  You can also call shore excursions.

[canderson]

5 hours ago, the penguins said:

X's guarantee is to get you to the next available port. The ship will wait for a time as that is a cheaper option but will not wait indefinitely. 

Didn't say that.  But they've waited for us twice, once for an additional hour, once for ~45 minutes.

[dlh015]

10 hours ago, lifeisrealygood said:

My wife and I have a March 2023 cruise on the Silhouette to the Southern Caribbean.  There are still no excursions for St Croix, only one for St Marten, a few for Antigua, many for the Dominican Republic, and so on.  Celebrity just seems to be slow at putting the excursions up.  For our March cruise, a few more seem to get added every week.  For example, Antigua had none listed a few weeks ago, then three showed up, and the other day another three showed up.  They are populating slowly.  Your cruise is in January, but they still can be figuring out their excursions.  Keep looking every day.  They will start populating.  

 

As far as being sold out, the Celerity excursion will still show up under the shore excursions, with a "Sold Out" banner placed over the top left of the picture.  They will not take the excursion down if sold out..  It still shows, just that it is sold out.

 

Hope that helps.

 

We have been on over 30 Celebrity Cruises, and this is the latest that shore excursions seem to be showing up.  Perhaps it is the return from Covid causing the problem, who knows.

 

We have an ABC cruise leaving on September 17th, next month, on the Equinox, and the excursions do not seem to be as plentiful as we have had on prior ABC cruises. We love catamarans, whether just a sail to a beach or snorkel stops, but catamaran excursions seem to be very limited for our cruise next month.  We booked a catamaran sail in Bonaire, but it seems to be more of a sail to a beach for the day, than a true relaxing catamaran sail.  

Thank you...it was very helpful. I now know what to expect...

[the penguins]

3 hours ago, canderson said:

Didn't say that.  But they've waited for us twice, once for an additional hour, once for ~45 minutes.

Sorry I was just clarifying that neither the ship nor some (perhaps most) of the private tour companies will leave you stranded. One of the ships justifications for its high prices is their " guarantee'" on this point. In practice there is very little between what for example TBL offers and what the ship offers. We choose the time of our return to ensure we have plenty of time in hand.

We have only once come close to missing the ship - (an Amazon Cruise with HAL) when as a group of 40 on 2 river boats with 20 passengers each we were "rescued" by 4 of  HAl's  crew. When we eventually boarded we were told that the Captain had already decided to delay sailing for up to an hour.

 

[Virginia100]

I’m going to ABC in February. Watched for months snd very few to none in Aruba and Curaçao . I wondered why and one reason may be we arrive in Aruba at 10am snd Curacao at 9am, a little later than usual,  so getting providers that already fill up on the many hotel stayers may be difficult. I wanted to book a safari jeep tour on Aruba, there are several excellent ones, but all depart before 10  am arrival. Not very good of Celebtity.

[D. B.]

Cruise ship arrivals are scheduled at certain times because of things they have no control over.

 Pilot availability. Dock worker (line handling  availability) . Other Traffic-ship scheduling conflicts.

  Not just arbitrary decision by the cruise line.

 I received a notice that my Aug. 20th. cruise leaving Vancouver Canada had its sailing time Moved Up (sooner) due to Port changes not under their control.

 That will cause some guests to change their Flight bookings.

  On that same cruise one of our stops has been changed to another Port because of Rockslides at Skagway. Stuff happens. I will miss one of my private excursions, so I know how it feels.

[dlh015]

22 hours ago, D. B. said:

Try www.shoreexcursionsgroup.com

 Just enter your cruise line, ship name and sailing date.

 They have the same "If you Miss the Ship" guarantee as the Cruise Lines and are often smaller groups.

 We use them a lot.

 

Thanks for this. For some reason (maybe like I didn't enter the right criteria 😂), they didn't show up on my earlier searches...

[dlh015]

Just as a follow-up, Celebrity excursions for my January cruise have, this morning, started showing up.

 

Thanks to everyone for their posts...

 

Happy cruising! 

[Virginia100]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:39 PM, D. B. said:

shore excursions group is a Big provider and has a lot of experience. 

 They use a lot of the same tour companies as the Cruise line.

 I was on one of their excursions in the Caribbean last March and they had us on the Same tour offered on the ship but with 10 guests instead of 50 and the guide ask US what order we wanted to do the stops and how long we wanted to be at each stop.

 Our tour included a Lunch and when the ships group of 50 was rushed through the lunch we were able to relax and enjoy ours.

 The only thing they can Not do is have the Ship delay departure by 10-15 min.

 

I looked them over. In Aruba they had one jerp type safari that fit into the ships docking schedule. To my surprise it had an age limitation of no one over 65!!! Now I’m over that but I don’t lift weights 7 days a week to be slighted at.

[D. B.]

The age restriction was probably the result of an accident or insurance claim from someone who should Not have been on that activity.

[canderson]

6 hours ago, Virginia100 said:

I looked them over. In Aruba they had one jerp type safari that fit into the ships docking schedule. To my surprise it had an age limitation of no one over 65!!! Now I’m over that but I don’t lift weights 7 days a week to be slighted at.

I still look pretty good behind the wheel of a Formula Ford, and could probably give them a few tips on dirt track driving in those Jeeps, too. 

[the penguins]

5 hours ago, canderson said:

I still look pretty good behind the wheel of a Formula Ford, and could probably give them a few tips on dirt track driving in those Jeeps, too. 

X's excursions sometimes have these odd terms as well. On one cruise there was a tour that included a 2 mile walk along a flat path. The tour accepted accompanied children but no adults over 55. All due to we were told to "insurance issues".