Ship Shore Excursions - Are they ever good?

[Cruise or Lose!]

Thank you for taking my little vent in the spirit in which it was intended, dbh. I guess the only universal advice I would offer to fellow travellers is DO SOME RESEARCH before you go. Know what you want to see, and what to avoid. Know your personality and that of your travelling companions. Most of all, take time to smell the roses / tulips / what have you :)

[dbh62ark]

I guess the only universal advice I would offer to fellow travellers is DO SOME RESEARCH before you go. Know what you want to see, and what to avoid. Know your personality and that of your travelling companions. Most of all, take time to smell the roses / tulips / what have you :)

Yes, that would my advice too. I hope you have a great trip. :)

 

Donna

[Susan-M]

we're paying a lot of $ for this cruise and we want some protection. What is wrong with that?

 

 

There's nothing wrong with wanting protection.... it offers a lot of peace of mind. We trade off security for independence, but what works for us doesn't work for others and vice versa. Although we like to tour on our own in most ports, it doesn't work in every port.... that's why it's nice to have a choice of ship's tours, on your own, or with a private driver.

[thmpsn]

For those who feel that missing the ship won't happen, I'd like to relate a story. Hubby and I were in the airport to fly home from a Caribbean cruise we had just taken. Sitting next to me in the airport was a lady who had been on the same cruise as us. She said that in one of the ports she and her husband had agreed to share a taxi driver with another young couple from the ship. The cab driver gave them an excellent tour of the island, but upon returning to the ship, they found the ship had left. It seems that they had not taken into account that there had been a time zone change and failed to reset their watches and also just assumed the driver knew what time their ship sailed. Their were left standing on the dock without a passport or money. They had to charter a small airplane and do some fast talking to the island officials to get to the next island and be allowed to catch the ship. I asked this lady if this was her first cruise since it seemed like such a bad mistake in judgement. She replied that she had been on several cruises which I found amazing. This happened several years ago, but I will never forget it. We have been on 31 cruises and we know that by not using the ships tour, we run the risk of missing the ship. We have used private tour guides and have had wonderful tours. But we have used the ship's tours also and have on the majority been very satisfied. There have been occasions where our ship's tour was late getting back, but the ship was there waiting for us.

 

So I advise to "Never say never" because it can happen. As someone said, it is a personal choice. But one must be aware of the pros and cons of each option.

Karon

[ehogan]

I think a lot depends on how comfortable you are with the port and the timing. We usually do the shore excursions because I find it too stressful to worry about getting back to the ship on time. In Europe, especially, traffic can be a problem and since there is so much to see, the tours tend to be on the long side - if you get stuck in traffic on the way back you could miss the ship (this happened to two groups on our Med 2005 cruise). The ship waited about a half hour for one group, however normally they WILL leave without you unless you are on one of their tours. (The second group had to take an overnight train to meet us in Livorno).

 

We did do some things on our own in Europe - train to Pisa and train into Rome which worked out fine, but there were minor problems with each. I think one of the advantages of the ship tours is that very little time is wasted on planning and very little goes wrong with these tours. I know they are overpriced, but I would rather let someone else do the worrying and leave me to do the sightseeing.