Vetting of excursions booked through the cruise lines.

[horseymike]

How well vetted are the excursions booked through the cruise lines these days ?

[CruiserBruce]

There is an extensive process of vetting excursion vendors. I am sure every cruise line does it a little different, but as everyone holds the cruise responsible for anything that might go wrong, the cruise lines do very detailed assessments and screenings of their vendors.

[Markanddonna]

As cruiserbruce mentioned, the cruiselines do the vetting, but the reality today is that the pandemic has left some cruise tour agencies in disarray, with increased energy costs, big turnover in staff, etc. That is why many prefer to check out private excursions where we can check out their online reputation. There is no way for a person to know much of anything about your ship excursion except what is on the description.

[Hlitner]

All the cruise lines sell excursions operated by local contractors.  The cruise lines do not actually operate any of the excursions, so in a way, they are simply a third party booking agency.  It even gets crazier because these days most cruise lines hire a private third-party company to operate their on-board excursion desks.  

 

So now we get to the issue of cruise line excursions versus private tours versus Do It Yourself (DIY).  While I will admit to being a DIY person (all over the world for more than 50 years) there are certainly good reasons to book excursions or private tours.  DW and I truly dislike cruise line excursions because we do not get excited about being in a group of 50-60 and moving at the pace of the slowest person.  Just having a rest room stop for 60 folks can take a half-hour and watching some excursion groups get on and off the tour bus is sometimes like watching the turtle race the tortoise.

 

We are bigger fans of very small group private tours, and this is where being active on your Cruise Critic Roll Call (this is specific to each cruise) is a good thing.  You can join with a few others and find yourself in a group of 4, 6, 10 etc.  

 

DIY is a terrific option for folks who are willing to do their pre-cruise homework, have some "spirit of adventure," and also have a degree of travel common sense.   Being on your own gives you maximum flexibility, but the price is you need to do the planning and choreograph your plans so that you are always back to the ship on time.  We have been doing this all over the the world and never (knock on wood) missed the ship.  If you are simply exploring an area near the port (such as in Kotor, Montenegro) than DIY is easy.  When you want to go some distance from the ship (such as from Livorno to Florence), than you need to be somewhat more careful with your planning to make sure you get back to the port (one tip is to allow yourself some extra time and never rely on the last train).  I should add that DIY can save you an awful lot of money.  Just consider a family of 4 who books a walking tour of Kotor.  They will likely spend about $200 to simply walk around a compact town that is within spitting distance of their ship.  They could do that same walk on their own for zero dollars!  In many ports, instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a guide and bus, one can use the local buses for a few dollars and download an app that will direct them on a local DIY tour.

 

Hope this helps the OP.  On any cruise you are going to find plenty of folks who do all three options (excursions, private tours, and DIY).  

[Markanddonna]

8 hours ago, Hlitner said:

All the cruise lines sell excursions operated by local contractors.  The cruise lines do not actually operate any of the excursions, so in a way, they are simply a third party booking agency.  It even gets crazier because these days most cruise lines hire a private third-party company to operate their on-board excursion desks.  

 

So now we get to the issue of cruise line excursions versus private tours versus Do It Yourself (DIY).  While I will admit to being a DIY person (all over the world for more than 50 years) there are certainly good reasons to book excursions or private tours.  DW and I truly dislike cruise line excursions because we do not get excited about being in a group of 50-60 and moving at the pace of the slowest person.  Just having a rest room stop for 60 folks can take a half-hour and watching some excursion groups get on and off the tour bus is sometimes like watching the turtle race the tortoise.

 

We are bigger fans of very small group private tours, and this is where being active on your Cruise Critic Roll Call (this is specific to each cruise) is a good thing.  You can join with a few others and find yourself in a group of 4, 6, 10 etc.  

 

DIY is a terrific option for folks who are willing to do their pre-cruise homework, have some "spirit of adventure," and also have a degree of travel common sense.   Being on your own gives you maximum flexibility, but the price is you need to do the planning and choreograph your plans so that you are always back to the ship on time.  We have been doing this all over the the world and never (knock on wood) missed the ship.  If you are simply exploring an area near the port (such as in Kotor, Montenegro) than DIY is easy.  When you want to go some distance from the ship (such as from Livorno to Florence), than you need to be somewhat more careful with your planning to make sure you get back to the port (one tip is to allow yourself some extra time and never rely on the last train).  I should add that DIY can save you an awful lot of money.  Just consider a family of 4 who books a walking tour of Kotor.  They will likely spend about $200 to simply walk around a compact town that is within spitting distance of their ship.  They could do that same walk on their own for zero dollars!  In many ports, instead of paying hundreds of dollars for a guide and bus, one can use the local buses for a few dollars and download an app that will direct them on a local DIY tour.

 

Hope this helps the OP.  On any cruise you are going to find plenty of folks who do all three options (excursions, private tours, and DIY).  

Exactly. You can often find free audio apps and diy walks for many places. Rick Steves has some great ones on his website. 

 

Even with small groups, you need to have an agreement that none of you will be "that couple" who are always late, holding up the group. The ship excursions always seems to have that couple. Also, be honest wirh yourself if you have physical limitations. Most private groups assume you can keep up with the group. 

[ontheweb]

I once had an excursion cancelled by a cruise line because they said they could no longer vet the provider. IIRC, it was in Grand Caymans.

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Markanddonna said:

Exactly. You can often find free audio apps and diy walks for many places. Rick Steves has some great ones on his website. 

 

Even with small groups, you need to have an agreement that none of you will be "that couple" who are always late, holding up the group. The ship excursions always seems to have that couple. Also, be honest wirh yourself if you have physical limitations. Most private groups assume you can keep up with the group. 

We are big fans of Rick Steve's, but he is worthless when it comes to Asia, Africa, South America, etc.  For some reason, many folks assume that all cruisers only go to the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe.  There is a big part of the world beyond those places, and they become more of a challenge because of the lack of information such as what we can get from Rick Steves.

 

I think that that Asian market is about to explode with tourism, as folks have been closed out for several years Suddenly, most of the world is back in play (in terms or tourism) which is both exciting an a bigger challenge.

 

Hank

[horseymike]

Thanks everyone for your responses. They help a lot when making decisions about the best options available for excursions.

[sanger727]

I’ve never been on an unsatisfactory cruise excursion, but we haven’t been on many. We have been on many private/independent tours and found them great. I feel like I vet the company thoroughly enough with tripadvisor and this forum that I’m comfortable. The main benefit to a cruise ship excursion is that if they don’t meet basic expectations, you have some recourse to request money back from the cruise line.