Here are the benefits of booking your onshore excursions via the cruise company.
Cruise operated shore excursions have priority when disembarking the ship. Skip the queues and head straight for the adventure when you’ve booked in advance.
Set and forget: From the moment the ship arrives in port, all the work is done for you, often including your lunch. You may pay extra for this luxury, but for many passengers, especially when travelling in a foreign country, potentially with a foreign language, you just want all the hard work to be done for you.
Cruise lines take responsibility
If the local operators are experiencing difficulties in any way, then the cruise line takes responsibility and organises an alternative arrangement. For example if the bus breaks down, or if there’s a public holiday etc, your itinerary will go ahead without delay and you don’t have to foot the bill.
There’s a certain reassurance in knowing the excursion has come with the official recommendation of the cruise line.
There are some experiences you simply couldn’t coordinate without the cruise line. An Alaskan shore excursion for example may combine several elements that all require perfectly curated meeting times and locations. It could be the floatplane that lands on the lake that takes you to the rainforest. Then the hike to see the black bears catching salmon that meets up with the tender and takes you back to the ship.
Using experts in their field
Often with adventure or expedition cruises, the lines hire staff who are experts in their field, with local knowledge also. Expedition leaders can be highly qualified glaciologists, marine biologist or polar region specialists. Finding these guys just hanging out in the private taxi queue is highly unlikely.
If the ship is late or has to skip a port, and you miss a shore excursion, the line will fully refund you.
It’s your last shore excursion! If so, the line will arrange for your luggage to be transported along with you to the airport, rather than you returning to the ship.
You don’t have to worry about having the local currency in your wallet, or a phone that works in the region to call your tour guide. There’s no stress about where to meet and when, and ensuring the local guide knows that you need to be back on time.
The benefits of booking onshore excursions privately
Though fewer in number, some passengers may argue the value of the benefits of choosing your own shore excursions are far greater.
Many passengers prefer to visit a new destination in its entirety and that means hanging out with the locals. You’re more likely to meet and mingle with the ‘real deal’ when you simply wing it. Hit the ground like a local.
You could save a bundle if you do your homework, or even just a little bartering. The cruise lines raise prices to cover extra insurance costs. If you’re prepared to go it alone then you’re also more likely to score a bargain.
Off the beaten track experiences can be worth their weight in gold. For many travellers, it’s about being outside your comfort zone, going where the wind takes you, making new friends at chance encounters and just soaking in the natural ambience of a new world. This often can’t be created or manufactured in an organised tour.
Having worked for a cruise ship tour provider, I can say quite categorically the ship WILL NOT wait for any tour operator, INCLUDING those supplied by the ship. Saying they will wait is an urban myth, perpetuated I suspect by the cruise ships themselves. Certainly where I worked out of, the port charges for a ship overstay are astronomical. It’s cheaper to leave on time. Conversely, if we came back to the ship even 20 minutes early, we were roasted, even if the pax were happy.
A completely bias article. With the money I have saved over the years I could afford to do a half world cruise. I have yet to miss a ship departure while doing private tours. I recall an organised ship tour in Bora Bora where the 4×4 tour had a vehicle rollover injuring passengers. I wonder how well some of these ship tour operators are inspected by the cruise lines.
This article is somewhat biased in favour of cruise excursions, whereas the reality is that private tours (if chosen well) provide a far better, cheaper and more enjoyable experience. We have completed around 10 cruises now and always choose private tours except where practicality prevents that option. Reputable providers know full well the importance of returning to the ship on time, and their business reputation depends on it.
We have seen so much more of the world travelling in small vehicles rather than 40 person bulk carriers of ship’s herds. We go where we want to without the hassle of waiting for those huge groups to be mustered, and we avoid the inevitable commercial visits designed to add more profit to the company than anything else.
Private tours need to be chosen carefully, and their past performance checked for reliability etc. However, provided that sensible research is conducted, you’ll get far more bang for your buck going independently.
Yes I agree I have done 27 cruises and the majority of excursions have been private with no problems at all and this has been all around the world. In Russia we had 8 in a van prebook before we left home it was fantastic we got to see a lot more places than if we were in a big group from the ship. If your sensible it’s fine if you miss the ship 9 times out 10 it’s your fault, for the people that do private tour’s it’s their lively hood so they will do the right thing. The complaints I hear a lot about ship tour’s is they are a rip off and older and younger people together don’t always mix well in the sense of they abilities and this can be frustrating as you feel your looking time,it would be better if they gave people more options if the ship is your preferred way to go.
Starting cruising at an early age before there were so many cruise ships too choose from we mainly sail Princess now and one reason we do private shore excursions is that we find that cruise line prices too be far too expensive.