It seems like a lot of shore excursions look incredible from the comfort of your couch as you're scrolling through ideas.
I think a lot of people hunt for that amazing tour when they look through Instagram or TikTok, and it's easy for photos of these places to look incredible.
I've been fortunate enough to take Royal Caribbean cruises all over the world, including Europe and the Caribbean.
I usually have good luck with finding tours that match up to my expectations, thanks to a lot of research and reading others experiences.
Unfortunately, a few of shore excursions turned out to be duds, because they didn't deliver on the beauty and splendor I expected.
Norwegian glaciers were tiny
On my first cruise to the Norwegian fjords, I was determined to see as much natural beauty as possible, and this took me on a tour to visit a glacier.
I had seen glaciers on my Alaska cruises, so I couldn't wait to see even more here.
Briksdal Glacier (Briksdalsbreen) was the top glacier recommended to see while in Olden, Norway.
I took an hour-long hike and felt disappointed when I reached the viewing point. The reality is this glacier is difficult to see because it's retreated so much.
Unlike Mendenhall Glacier, I found this one to be quite small and I was let down after the hike required to get there.
The lesson in Norway is focus on the fjords, which are fantastic, and save the glaciers for Alaska.
Private island had no shade and no facilities
A private island with no residents and no crowds seems like it should be the perfect kind of Caribbean beach day, but I was happy to go back to the ship when it was time.
When we visited Belize for the first time, I read reviews about this great little island to visit called Goff's Caye.
It's only 1.2 acres of sand, and you need to take a boat to access it.
When we arrived, it was very much a tiny, secluded island. While a tropical oasis like this might seem lovely, I quickly realized having some level of amenities matters more than I thought.
The beach had very little shade, provided only by the few trees on the island. A BBQ lunch was available to purchase, but it was a limited and rather uninspired meal.
The truth is this excursion is meant as a backdrop for snorkeling, which I didn't care for. I prefer going to a beach for the above water experience.
Oversold beach excursion in Jamaica
Perhaps the worst excursion I've ever taken was to Blue Waters Beach Escape in Falmouth, Jamaica.
The problem with this excursion is it's your typical oversold, under delivering beach day.
Booked through Royal Caribbean, there was a short bus ride to the beach where we arrived and saw many other buses of tourists beat us there first.
The staff assigned guests chairs, and we managed to get one of the last ones. People behind us had to settle for beach chair mats until chairs were freed up by departing guests.
The food was described as, "unlimited food (jerk chicken, pasta) served up by 5-star chefs". While I'm not a food critic by any means, it certainly was not five-star level food.
Another excursion pet peeve of mine is "free wifi" that is only available in one area and in this case, it was so overused by guests that it became useless.
This might have been a great excursion had it not been oversold to the point that it became frustratingly crowded.
Bermuda beach
A lesson in not taking the easy route is my experience in Bermuda.
We had hit a homerun with going on a sunset yacht tour the night before, so we decided to take it easy and walk to the Snorkel Park Beach Club that is a few minutes away from where Royal Caribbean ships dock in Bermuda.
While it was convenient, that's where the accolades end.
Two chairs and umbrella cost $75, and that doesn't include any food or drink.
Then there's the sand, which is about as coarse and hard as you'll ever find. This is a man-made beach purpose built for cruise tourists. I've heard it was built on a former garbage dump, but I'm not sure if that's actually true.
Admittedly, we went there out of laziness, but we should have put in a bit more effort for a substantially better beach.
