Excursion

[Red Rox]

I have always enjoyed planning and looking forward to our vacations. It's half the fun and lasts even longer than the trip. Since I found cruisecritic I've learned so much that I feel confident making plans and booking excursions independently, especially in Alaska. I might not feel quite the same when we focus on Aus/NZ next year, but between what I've learned here at CC and elsewhere, I know that we'll be safe and we'll be saving $$ on our cruise/tour this summer.

Probably the best change I made was deleting the NHT at Denali and booking our own shuttle bus to go farther inside the park than Princess would take us. Can't wait!

[CanCanCase]

...Just out of curiosity, what happens with an independent booking if the tour must be cancelled ahead of time? How do they notify you if you're on your cruise? Do they wait until you dock and then tell you your tour is cancelled? If something happens with a tour through NCL, and they know a couple days ahead of time, they can notify you right away so you can get a new tour. What happens with independent tours?? Just curious. :)

 

I'm only speaking for MY company here, but I'll always do whatever I can to get you re-booked on the same tour with another vendor. All of us smaller operators are reasonably well "networked" with one another, and anytime I can't accomodate a tour (for any reason) I want to get the customer steered onto another tour.

 

Most of the smaller tour operators plan to run every day of the season, so an "outage" that's weather or mechanical in nature is usually only discovered the day of a tour. Most of us base our business on less than 100 days of operation each year, so to break down or cancel tours for even 1 day is a noticible percentage. I've seen boat operators walk on water and pay 100 times what something is worth just to get it fixed within a day.

 

Also, carrying a mobile phone to check messages once per day is helpful for some. I've relayed messages about time changes via house sitters before, and if it's a real emergency we've got a few ways of contacting you on the ship...

 

-Case

[critterchick]

We decide what we want to do and then research both the ship and independent offerings. Some excursions are captive to the cruiselines - the America's Cup yacht races in St. Maarten or the snorkelling in Ketchikan, so if you want to do them, you have to book through the ship. Others are offered both ways, and the amount of savings plus the smaller groups can make booking independently an excellent choice.

 

We always give a cellphone number to the tour operator. In Alaska, we can check at each port if we're really concerned about cancellation (we're not). We also find out in advance what the cancellation policy is. I did read a review of a British Isles cruise by somebody who had booked all independents, and knew that one of them was non-refundable. She still saved a ton of money over booking through the ship, all with Cruise-Critic-recommended operators.

 

So do your research carefully, come here for experiences/advice, and have a great time!