Cost of cruise excursions onboard.

[Centurions]

Hi all.

 

As new cruisers with P&O we would like a little information on purchasing excursions.

 

We have a cruise booked on Arvia in March in the Caribbean 

 

Having checked out prices of independent vendors online, some of the P&O trips seem to be good value, however my questions are;

 

Are the trips more expensive when booking onboard?

 

And will there be any trips left to book onboard?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated 

[gsmt47471015]

As you are new to P and O you will miss out on the pre booking discount so the price if booking onboard will be the same , if you wait to book whilst on board you may run the risk of your choices not been available as the popular trips are usually full before the ship sails, if you have an idea of what trips you wish to go on and are happy with the price the best option would be to pre book , over the last few years the prices between independent and ships excursions has narrowed considerably.

Whatever you decide have have a great cruise 😎

[Centurions]

1 hour ago, gsmt47471015 said:

As you are new to P and O you will miss out on the pre booking discount so the price if booking onboard will be the same , if you wait to book whilst on board you may run the risk of your choices not been available as the popular trips are usually full before the ship sails, if you have an idea of what trips you wish to go on and are happy with the price the best option would be to pre book , over the last few years the prices between independent and ships excursions has narrowed considerably.

Whatever you decide have have a great cruise 😎

Many thanks for your best wishes. 

[Gettingwarmer]

I would agree with the above but would add that excursion prices can go up if they are popular so if you are agreed what you want book now. However in the Caribbean there are usually lots of independent vying for your trade at the ports. Lots of cruisers do this and If you are happy to do  this then fine. 

[Centurions]

We have some OBC so we're happy to take our chances, or as suggested use local vendors.

On another point, is there a desk onboard to book future cruises and, if so are there any benefits in doing so.

Again many thanks for your help.

[Gettingwarmer]

5 minutes ago, Centurions said:

We have some OBC so we're happy to take our chances, or as suggested use local vendors.

On another point, is there a desk onboard to book future cruises and, if so are there any benefits in doing so.

Again many thanks for your help.

Yes there is a Future Cruise desk on board. The deposits are small £50, £100 or £150 depending on the length of the cruise. There are also different offers of OBC etc but these change. 

[david63]

I seem to recall that excursions when booked on board are about 5% more expensive than if they are pre booked.

[jeanlyon]

Have you also looked into doing it yourself when ashore.  We never do excursions, just DIY wherever we go.

[pete14]

I think booking prior to departure has a small discount but not huge. Trips do sell out, especially those that cannot take large numbers and it may not be possible to put on more. If comparing P&O trips with independents, P&O use reputable companies to operate their excursions which lessens the chance of you booking with a ‘rogue operator’ whose attitude to health and safety may be questionable. If your P&O trip returns late for any reason, the ship will wait for you. If an independent tour operator/ taxi is delayed, you may get back in time to see the ship disappearing into the distance. My advice is to stick with the P and O trip, book in advance, especially for popular activities that may sell out quickly and enjoy whatever you choose.

[Josy1953]

We always book any trips that we intend to take before boarding and have never used independent operators because on our first cruise a man and his daughter were left behind in Cozumel and they had to make their own arrangements to fly to the next port.  The wife/mother was walking around the ship complaining bitterly.  On another cruise a man strolled down the road to the ship as it pulled away from the dock in Lisbon, the ship left the port and stopped outside the port, the pilot boat brought the man out to the ship and those of us with balconies on the side where the pilot boat came to stood cheering him as he climbed a rope ladder.

I suppose it is up to the captain to decide how these situations are handled.

The ships involved were Carnival Holiday in the Cozumel and Canberra in Lisbon.

 

[gsmt47471015]

We have seen this on  three different occasions the idea of missing the ship is never intentional, however one incident last year highlighted how things can go awry, we joined a few other couple's on the quayside to visit a beach via minibus and arranged a return  pick up time , driver duly arrived and as we set off the minibus broke down ,never to start again, eventually (Caribbean time) a replacement arrived and we got back with half an hour to spare, having original allowed 3 hours to get back and have a drink portside before boarding

 

[Selbourne]

2 hours ago, Josy1953 said:

the pilot boat brought the man out to the ship and those of us with balconies on the side where the pilot boat came to stood cheering him as he climbed a rope ladder.

I can’t imagine them doing that any more. Highly dangerous, even for pilots who are trained in doing it. 

[doog442]

 

20 hours ago, Centurions said:

Hi all.

 

As new cruisers with P&O we would like a little information on purchasing excursions.

 

We have a cruise booked on Arvia in March in the Caribbean 

 

Having checked out prices of independent vendors online, some of the P&O trips seem to be good value, however my questions are;

 

Are the trips more expensive when booking onboard?

 

And will there be any trips left to book onboard?

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated 

 

You're right some of them are good value (we're doing the Caribbean in Jan). I say good value as we're frequent visitors to the Caribbean and taxi prices have shot up. We've also seen some of the vehicles used and so called 'operators' at the usual tourist traps so need to use a degree of caution.

 

I've booked two P&O tours so far (Tortola and St Lucia), two Independents with a decent rep (St Maarten & St Kitts), will use our usual taxi service in Antigua (Petes Taxis). Nothing yet planned for La Romana, Martinique (may do Botanical Gardens) or Barbados, just looking at those now. 

 

As we're a couple of months ahead of you I can tell you that a few tours are already showing sold out on the P&O website, so yes book in advance. If you change your mind on a tour and want to go elsewhere you can cancel it and get an immediate refund.

[Clodia]

I am now wary of the " on your own" P and O tours where a bus takes you to a town or beach and picks you up at a pre arranged time to return to the ship. I booked 2 of these in the Canaries on my recent Iona cruise. Both pick up buses were late, leaving people waiting with no seats or shade. One was just late because of traffic,  the other broke down and it was nearly an hour before a replacement was sent. The only good thing was that the ship waited for us. But the shine was taken off 2 otherwise enjoyable days out by a hot, tiring wait with nowhere to sit and no shade. I shan't  do it again. 

[Interestedcruisefan]

Never done the P and O tours

 

But we organise entire Holidays for clients so sorting out our own excursions is second nature

 

Sometimes in advance and sometimes just with operators at the port

 

We remove the risk of missing the ship by normally leaving the ship early and planning to be back a good 2 or 3 hours before the ship is due to leave

 

Nice to be back on the ship mid afternoon as well

 

One tip for anyone stopping at Martinique is that visiting one of the islands on ferries immediately next to the ship are really popular and big queues are there for the ferries as a result

 

I particularly suggest early disembarkations on those days to avoid the big queues if you want to visit one of the islands

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by Interestedcruisefan

[Selbourne]

We tend not to book excursions anymore as my wife can now only do the wheelchair accessible ones, which are few and far between and very expensive. 
 

However, for our 65 night Caribbean cruise I have booked quite a few excursions as a solo, with the idea that my wife and I will explore the port together for part of the day and then I will get to see more of the island whilst my wife stays on the ship reading on our balcony (which suits her). We had contemplated taxi tours but my wife wasn’t keen, so as a solo the P&O tour is probably more cost effective and obviously removes any risks, however slight they may be. 
 

As for price, I managed to make a few bookings during the Black Friday offer (a couple that I’d booked before I simply cancelled and re-booked) and obviously the 10% loyalty discount helps, but I’ve been keeping an eye on them since and a couple that I wanted to do that were fully booked have since become available, so I’ve nabbed them, and another has dropped in price since I booked (regular, not promotional price) so I cancelled and re-booked that one also.

[CaptainPedantic]

Just back from a fabulous Caribbean cruise on Britannia, and despite normally preferring DIY, we booked more P&O excursions than we would have done previously. Mostly snorkelling / catamaran trips.

We found the prices to be reasonable - similar to what was available independently - and most of the trips were brilliant, well-organised and good value. A few were sold out before we embarked, and I did notice some of the prices had increased onboard slightly (but not all). If there's a specific excursion you want to do, I would recommend booking now to avoid disappointment.

I'm sure we could have done the same with independent vendors - and without P&O taking their cut therefore helping the islands more - but the added security of getting back to the ship, especially for the longer trips, was a big plus for us. On the negative side, we did have a couple of trips cancelled at short notice (including Barbados on our last day 😞) and we did sometimes feel herded around to meet a schedule (e.g. only having 45 mins on the beach in Curacao was a shame) but then that could happen with independent tours too.

We heard from plenty of people who had great trips with independent vendors and also lots of people who did their own thing, and I can't remember hearing anything particularly negative about any of them.

 

 

[Selbourne]

23 minutes ago, CaptainPedantic said:

Just back from a fabulous Caribbean cruise on Britannia, and despite normally preferring DIY, we booked more P&O excursions than we would have done previously. Mostly snorkelling / catamaran trips.

We found the prices to be reasonable - similar to what was available independently - and most of the trips were brilliant, well-organised and good value. A few were sold out before we embarked, and I did notice some of the prices had increased onboard slightly (but not all). If there's a specific excursion you want to do, I would recommend booking now to avoid disappointment.

I'm sure we could have done the same with independent vendors - and without P&O taking their cut therefore helping the islands more - but the added security of getting back to the ship, especially for the longer trips, was a big plus for us. On the negative side, we did have a couple of trips cancelled at short notice (including Barbados on our last day 😞) and we did sometimes feel herded around to meet a schedule (e.g. only having 45 mins on the beach in Curacao was a shame) but then that could happen with independent tours too.

We heard from plenty of people who had great trips with independent vendors and also lots of people who did their own thing, and I can't remember hearing anything particularly negative about any of them.

 

 

This is great to hear. We stopped doing P&O excursions once my wife became a full time wheelchair user and tend to DIY. My wife is just happy to spend a couple of hours ashore to see the port and then return to the ship. However, for our upcoming Caribbean cruise I am doing quite a few half day P&O tours on my own, as I want to see more of each island than just the port, and we shall take a look around the port together for the other half day. We contemplated taxi tours etc but my wife wasn’t keen. I’m not interested in beaches or water activities, so my trips are more sightseeing ones. 

[jeanlyon]

On 12/10/2023 at 11:56 AM, Interestedcruisefan said:

Never done the P and O tours

 

But we organise entire Holidays for clients so sorting out our own excursions is second nature

 

Sometimes in advance and sometimes just with operators at the port

 

We remove the risk of missing the ship by normally leaving the ship early and planning to be back a good 2 or 3 hours before the ship is due to leave

 

Nice to be back on the ship mid afternoon as well

 

One tip for anyone stopping at Martinique is that visiting one of the islands on ferries immediately next to the ship are really popular and big queues are there for the ferries as a result

 

I particularly suggest early disembarkations on those days to avoid the big queues if you want to visit one of the islands

 

Exactly what we do.  One time we went to Taormina from Messina.  Walked down to the train station, 6 Euros to Giardini Naxos, then 1.5 Euro on the bus up to Taormina.  Had a good wander round, super lunch in a little cafe, then the same route back.  I think we left the ship about 0845 and were back on board by 3.30.   Super day and cost peanuts.