Should you book a ship-sponsored or independent shore excursion on a cruise?
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You don't have time to get acclimated to the area, your home base is typically outside the main tourist area and you have a hard stop to your sightseeing day -- That ship won't wait if you get lost and return late to the cruise port. Is it better to book shore excursions through your cruise ship, or should you arrange port activities on your own, independently of your cruise line? That question is one of the most commonly asked by cruise travelers, and it doesn't have an easy answer. It all depends -- not just on circumstances but also on the ports of call and the travelers' own penchant (or lack thereof) for independent travel. If you're cruising with a large group of friends or family, it may be more cost-effective for you to hire a tour guide, rent a car or van, or take a taxi tour than to book sightseeing excursions through the cruise line. You'll have more control over where you go and the timing of the day -- and you already know that you'll like the other people on your tour!
Ship-sponsored tours might offer less physical activity
Independent-minded folks who want the ease of being transported without concern about missing the ship can book cruise line-provided transportation with freedom to explore as they choose in port. Travelers who want a more guided experience can book a variety of city tours and activities. Most cruisers also have a travel budget and can't just book the most expensive tour in every port. Decide how much you want to spend and then portion it out among full-day and half-day tours and independent sightseeing. Prioritize your tour dollars for places where you're docked far from a city or if the excursion you're interested in is harder (or more expensive) to recreate on your own. Cruise Critic spoke with Melissa Witsoe, a product manager for Windstar, whose job it is to shape one-of-a-kind shore tours in the Mediterranean and Asia.
Prioritize the ports of call that drew you to the itinerary.
There's often a restaurant or boutique stop, as well as one or two other highlights. Sure, I took a few other Viator tours that were okay, but only one of them (in Japan) was better than "average". I will no longer take Viator tours because I think the local agencies who participate are probably the ones who don't get recommendations by word of mouth (because they are nothing great). Same here, we haven't used Viator for excursions but we have used them for tours in Europe and have never had a problem.
You'll optimize a short stay in port
Small-group or private tours, on the other hand, tend to be pricier than large-group cruise ship excursions. Tour buses stick to the tourist hot spots to accommodate the general interests of first-time visitors. If you've already visited a cruise port before or prefer less-crowded or gimmicky options, you might need to ditch the ship-sponsored tour for a private guide or explore on your own.
I have been on 77 cruises in my life and have usually booked all my shore excursions with local companies by myself. Not only have I never had a problem this way, I find their rates to be much less than Viators who adds on a healthy profit to all their bookings. Saving money is always a consideration, especially when you're traveling with several people in your group or are looking at flightseeing tours or other pricy expeditions that cost hundreds of dollars a person. For the most part, cruise lines do charge more than non-cruise-related tour operators for the same (or similar) outing. If you trust the company and feel confident that you won't miss the ship, it certainly makes sense to pay less by booking an excursion independently that could cost you more onboard. Knowing which are small-group or large-group tours can help cruisers be smart about advance tour bookings.
We used them in Italy this summer, both for tours while on the land portion of our vacation, and the ship portion. While they are sort of a consolidator/wholesaler, we did find it difficult to locate specific tours outside of Viator online, so we were fine with using them. We did also find non-Viator tours for some portions, which were also good.
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Independent tours take smaller groups
This time I asked Viators for not only a refund, but they could forget their worthless coupons and to come up with a way to reimburse us at least $200 in cash for the 2 wasted days we counted on them. I even suggested they tell these vendors to pay this fee if they wanted to keep the Viator's relationship.They said they wouldn't do that, and still haven't sent us the replacement coupons we used in Punta Cana. I want them so I can use graphics to explain to other cruise passengers what a waste of time and money you'd be experiencing using Viators.
This advice won't help you pick a good excursion -- but your feedback can help future cruisers have a better onshore experience. For example, Witsoe says that when passengers aren't happy with an excursion, it's usually because of the guide. She encourages passengers to report back, good or bad, to help cruise lines fine tune their tour offerings and to request only the best guides. Consider booking cruise line shore excursions in smaller, more offbeat ports on itineraries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America. Limited tourism infrastructure might present obstacles with transportation or quality tour guide alternatives, so a cruise line tour guarantees you'll make good use of your sightseeing time, rather than struggling with logistics.
In addition to the highlights tour, the roster for a given port could include culinary tours, historical tours, walking tours and active tours. The key is to diversify options for passengers, who might be a mix of first timers and repeat visitors with varying interests and abilities. However, you'll get better value for your money when you can customize the tour to your preferences or spend more time sightseeing and less time waiting around for other people in your group. If you can get together a group of eight or 10 people, you can split the costs to make a private tour more affordable per person.
Most cruise lines allow travelers to book online in advance, but check your cruise line's cancellation policy before booking to determine when (or if) you can cancel a tour and get a full refund. For cruisers deciding whether to spend their vacation dollars on a cruise-sponsored shore tour, the key is to assess the value of the tour and not just its cost. Sure, you could perhaps arrange your own transportation or guide, but could you put together the same compelling package for less money? And, is the time you spend creating your own tour worth it, when you have a tour that was carefully put together by a cruise line's professionals? Exploring a port of call on a one-day visit to a foreign place is surprisingly different from spending a week in a hotel.
While cruise lines offer tours that include transportation and a day pass to a beach or resort, it really is more cost-effective to hop into a "safari bus" or taxi for the ride to the beach. Major tourist beaches, such as St. Thomas' Magens Bay and Grand Cayman's Seven Beach, offer services (including eateries and water toy rentals), and cab/van drivers flock there so it's easy to find a ride back to the ship. If you're setting out on your town to an off-the-track beach, make sure you have return transportation. Sometimes ports propose access to more than one regional diversion or locale of interest, which can be spread out over considerable distances. Avoid the logistical challenges of visiting multiple attractions on your own by booking a ship-sponsored tour.
On one visit to Grand Cayman, high winds forced the ship's tender boats to shuttle passengers to a different pier than originally planned. Thankfully, my plans were fluid — take a taxi to Seven Mile Beach — but had I booked an independent tour, I might have missed the scheduled pickup time due to the new arrival location. Guests who booked a ship's tour were simply picked up at the new arrival point.
We blew off the ship's breakfast that morning so we could get the first tender to town, waited a 1/2 hour for a shuttle bus to take us to the meeting spot, and again no show from this other vendor...and for the same excuse! They had prior commitments with another cruise ship passengers and didn't know how to reach us, even though we communicated at least 3 times the last few weeks via the same email address. My independent cruise excursion in Havana was memorable because I did the research and booked a guide who earned top ratings on TripAdvisor. But some folks end up disappointed because they book with an unknown company only for the excursion to not live up to their expectations. While I love straying from the port and getting away from the hustle and bustle, independent travel can stress me out. On my own, I constantly check the time or fret that the taxi will get a flat tire and I'll miss the ship.
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