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Shore excursions- Who do you book them with?


constable145

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16 minutes ago, Va4fam said:

We have booked numerous excursions through Viator.   Just make sure your tour times coincide with your time in port.   

It might be helpful if you share where you are going as some ports have more options than others.

My family and I had a great time at Playa Mia in Cozumel a few years ago.

 

We are on the Liberty next week- in Cozumel one week today.

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In most circumstances, you can get a better excursion, for a better price by booking privately vs through Royal.  A little port specific research in this section of the website can get you started.

The circumstances that would have me book thought Royal are

1. The destination is very far from the port - example would be some of the European stops (Florence) or the mainland excursions in Cozumel that require the ferry.  The risk of travel delays makes me want the assurance that the ship will wait.

2. Tender ports - The Royal excursions get to get off the ship first - this means that unless you have some type of priority for the tenders (like being in a suite), it is hard to be sure how long you will wait to get ashore. 

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We have used Viator, local transportation, and Royal excursions.  When I need to travel an hour or more, I prefer Royal.  I also prefer Royal on the last port call unless it is somewhere that is safe and easy for local transportation (e.g., Cozumel).  Since our TA is affiliated with AAA, they frequently send us emails about helping us book with third parties.

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We have used Royal on all excursions except one time, you pay a little more, but they guarantee you getting back on board, if a bus was to break down or something happens and you use Royal, they will know about it and wait, if on a private tour, and something happens, you might miss the ship, for us, ill pay a little xtra for that peace of mind.

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Did a successful booking from the site Shoreexcursioneer.com for the resort we went to in Curacao.

I like that they only require a deposit up front and before fully taking the money they verify that there is indeed space for you on the trip.

It was the only non-royal excursion we've ever done but it was a great first time experience.

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On 9/13/2022 at 11:46 PM, CanHardlyWait said:

Did you book that with Royal in the past? Considering it for my May trip.

We went to Playa Mia last week, booked through Royal. It was really good overall and we would go back.

The buffet food was ok, not great, and they didn't have labels... so with the language barrier we didn't know what alot of it was. Not good for picky eaters, lol.

If you aren't big drinkers, I'd suggest doing the regular Beach Break and just ordering food/drinks off the menu for more options. That's what we'll do next time.

If you get the deluxe package and want a waiter to get your drinks, I suggest tipping when you order. Otherwise it seems like you need to go get your own. They're more interested in helping paying customers than all-inclusive people, IMO. 

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