Private tours vs Princess tours?

[Momma Mojito]

How many of you take private tours instead of the Princess Tours? Have you been satisfied with the private tours.? Are there any special Caribbean tours that you would recommend? Thanks

[iancal]

We take private tours. THey are usually much less crowded, better, and of course often cheaper.

[Toto2Kansas]

How many of you take private tours instead of the Princess Tours.

 

We arrange private tours whenever possible, especially for non-Caribbean ports. Some of the caribbean ports have things like catamaran excursions tied up through the cruise lines, and we are unable to book them privately. When this happens, we are forced to book through the cruise line.

 

But ports such in Europe, Africa (Egypt), Australia, Tahiti, Hawaii we have usually been able to find much better tours, at a more reasonable rate on our own.

[Colo Cruiser]

Mostly private. :)

[dbdave]

We book private tours when possible, we think they are usually better and more reasonably priced. If you are going to book private, do your homework. Check out the ports of call boards for opinions of the different providers and remember that the ship will not wait on you if you don't make it back in time for embarkation. The tour operators know this and will go out of their way to make sure you are back in time. Good luck!

[Andee]

In the Caribbean, we just negotiate withg a cab driver when we get off the ship to take us to the places I have researched. That has always worked out very well for us.

[Times Prince]

How many of you take private tours instead of the Princess Tours? Have you been satisfied with the private tours.? Are there any special Caribbean tours that you would recommend? Thanks

We use a mix of Princess Excursions along with "do it yourself" excursions. We like snorkeling so in the Caribbean we will tend to research beaches beforehand and then take a taxi. On some islands the cab drivers will stick around and drive you back as well, all for a flat fee.

 

If the excursion is really long (e.g. Tulum out of Cozumel) we will always take the ship's excursion as they pretty much guarantee the ship won't leave if the excursion is late coming back (e.g. having had a bus problem).

We also tend to stick to ship's tours in countries where we don't speak the language. It's a safety factor thing for us - maybe we're just not that adventurous.

 

Check out the Ports of Call section - there are good and not so good private tours, and you can research your exact itinerary.

[Teetype]

How many of you take private tours instead of the Princess Tours? Have you been satisfied with the private tours.? Are there any special Caribbean tours that you would recommend? Thanks

 

Hi There:

 

Last year in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, we booked a boat trip around Land's End through the cruise line. It wasn't expensive, about $35.00/pp as I recall. But we spent almost the entire time not being able to get scenic pics because the guys running it lined up passengers by two along the scenic side of the boat to take pictures of them which they then tried to sell back to them. I loved what scenery I could see, it's spectacular! But paying to be treated this way was galling.

 

When we got back we ran into several couples who arranged their private tours and never ran into this problem. They got a MUCH better tour at 1/3 the price.

 

There are usually plenty of private tour companies listed on the web all over the world, in every port. Many of them take reservations ahead of time and give loads of info on what's available.

 

Cheers!

Tee

[caribbeanboy]

When we were in ocho rios on the Caribbean Princess on of the guys who drive the busses with the passengers who bought their tour thru Princess asked us if we wanted to do the tour for only $20 per person, b/c he had some open seats.

[Tak8]

I do both private and Princess excursions. If the port times are short, I tend to use Princess. Generally, I have been happier with the private tours. Use the port of calls board to help in finding good tours.

[woodofpine]

The 'bang for the buck' of less crowded (often less expensive) private excursions makes them attractive. I've also rented cars and toured on my own on Antigua, Barbados, and Grand Cayman.

 

As other suggested, check ports of call... Operators and guides I can endorse from personal experience,

 

Antigua - Adventure Antigua (Elie Fuller)

 

Belize - Coral Breeze

 

Barbados - 'Cool Runnings' (they no longer take cruise pax; CR doesn't charge in advance, cruisers have proven unreliable [how 'bout THAT for a flip]), alternatively try 'Silver Moon'; these are catamaran snorkle excursions with lunch.

 

Costa Maya - Native Choice (David and Ivan) for guiding to Chacchoben ruins.

 

Grand Cayman - Captain Marvin (Stingray City)

 

St. Lucia - Herod Stanislas (all inclusive touring)

 

Tortola - Patouche

[shofer]

We did a mix of ship's excursions and private when we did the Coral Princess for the Panama Canal last year. First time we had ever tried private and will most likely do it again. We used Barrett's Adventures in Montego Bay. They also service Ochos Rios and offer several fun excursions.

 

We opted for a 5 hr private tour for $35/pp and were very pleased w/our driver, Chester. He took us to Rose Hall and then to the White Witch Country club where we could see how the "other" (rich) half lived and all over the area. We even stopped for an authentic jerk lunch w/the locals which was delicious.

 

In Cost Rica, we used Charlie Soto's okeydokey tours for a six hour private tour for $49/pp which was 1/2 of the cost of the ship's tour to any one of the several destinations we traveled. Never felt threatened or unsafe at any time and we got back to the ship with plenty of time to spare.

[ellbon]

I use private more and more. longer tours for less money. I do book thru the ship if it really gives me what i want...

[cruiseryyc]

Guess I'm in the minority - we do ship's tours, probably just because its easier, we don't have to do research and private bookings. Have always enjoyed the ship's tours and find them good value for the money.

[RickSue]

We do a mix of both. If we're not sure of the safety of the port we go with the ship, or if we know we'll be short on time. That way they will wait for us if something happens. We've done Captain Marvins privately out of Grand Caymon - they are FANTASTIC. We've also done the Atlantis Submarines. They are the ones that go 100 ft down and out to the continental shelf. I think that was in Cozumel? and I think we booked that one on our own too. ...... a very good tour, kind of expensive but well worth it. They are US Coast Guard certified so that helped with the anxiety.

[jpg1747]

As fearless as I am about traveling and cruising solo, I always use the ship's tours because I want to make sure I get back to the ship before it leaves. If I'm just walking around, like in San Juan, I go by myself.

[Pam in CA]

I do a mixture, i.e., sometimes I arrange private tours, more often, I do ship's tours. If I'm in a country I'm unfamiliar with, the language is unintelligible to me, and am not certain of the traffic, etc., I'll book a ship's tour. On my Sapphire Sydney to LA cruise, I had mostly independent tours but they were arranged by other people. On my recent Baltic cruise, we had private tours in St. Petersburg (two days) and to Berlin but otherwise, took Princess tours.

[hubofhockey]

Ship excursions, in general, cost more and are overcrowded. Even before I book any cruise, I go to the ports of call boards here and look for the highly recommended private independent excursions because I know those will be the highlights of my vacation. I have never had a bad private/independent or do-it-yourself (Costa Maya, The Baths) excursion. But I have had a couple not so great ones with cruiselines. I don't know why anybody would ever take a ship excursion to a beach. Where is the value added on that one?

[Floflegs]

Almost all private but usually shared with folk from the roll call. If time was short I would use a ship's tour.

[ssbeagle]

Depends on where we are whether or not we will do a private tour or no tour at all but go around on our own. If it's the last port of the cruise and a full day tour, we will take the ship's tour since the ship won't leave until all their tours are back on board. But if you are late returning from a private tour they won't wait at all.

[monakayk]

We have taken several private tours. We like them much better. Not only price is cheaper...but less crowded and tour guides do a better job! Their livelihood depends on good reviews from cruisers/customers since having the cruise ship's excursions is tough competition for them...they really try VERY hard to do a good job and give a great tour!

[teddi1934]

On our most recent cruise to Hawaii, when at Kona, where we had lived, we knew exactly where we wanted to go for lunch Huggo's. So we snagged a taxi for the very short ride, but when time to return, no taxi would come so we walked very quickly back to the pier.

On same trip we went asore at Lahina, tendered, did as we wanted and retendered to sip, shortly after our return the wind came up and all tendereing was stopped. People especially those off on independant tours had an awful time getting back, the sea was very rough and some tenders were unable to dock for a long time so the boats just bounced around out there. We watched safely from our balcony.

On an independant tour in Hatti the car ran out of gas and the driver bribed a friend to get us back to the pier along with a load of chickens.

So, stick with the ship, what price comfort.

[ellbon]

Antigua - Adventure Antigua (Elie Fuller) Eli Echo Tour

 

Belize - Coral Breeze

 

Barbados - 'Cool Runnings' (they no longer take cruise pax; CR doesn't charge in advance, cruisers have proven unreliable [how 'bout THAT for a flip]), alternatively try 'Silver Moon'; these are catamaran snorkle excursions with lunch. used CR.. one of the last times they wil use cruise people. great day..

 

Costa Maya - Native Choice (David and Ivan) for guiding to Chacchoben ruins. look at Island market Ltd.. not booking yet

 

Grand Cayman - Captain Marvin (Stingray City)

 

St. Lucia - Herod Stanislas (all inclusive touring) COSOL for tours, food and rum and fun

 

Tortola - Patouche

heard good things

[janetz]

We have found two great guys to tour with. One in San Juan, Victor at Countryside Tours. In St.Marten, Bernard of Bernards tours. You can find contact info on the ports of call board. ;)

[RASHOPPER2]

We Almost Always Do Private Tours. I Look On The Ports Of Call Boards And Find The Names Of Well Recommended Tour Guides. After I Have Gotten In Touch With Them, And Set The Date And Price, I Go On The Roll Call On My Sailing. I Have Always Gotten People On The Ship Who Are Interested In Sharing The Tour. The Result - Fewer People, See More And Pay Less.