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General Shore Excursion Questions?


FManke

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The shore excursions that are offered by RC, are not run by them, correct? They are just contracted by RC and provides RC guests the ability to get the first bookings on them? Is there any way to find out the actual name of the excursion companies providing the service? What are the pros and cons of booking through RC and booking directly through a private excursion company?

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Guest toodle68

The biggest (huge) pro with going through RC is that they will not leave you behind.. 

The con of using a none RC company is that if you are late, the ship will leave without you and the 3rd party company will likely not care..

For trips where this is a possibility.. like an 7-8 hour trek to a ruin, it is somewhat important.

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On the flip side to Toodle's reply, the outfits that handle the cruise-booked excursions tend to be more crowded. For things like snorkeling excursions or other outings that go to some location, they also seem to go to the same spot as all the excursions for the other cruise ships in port that day. So you could be expecting to swim with a group of 20 or 30 and instead find over a hundred people all jockeying to see the same small patch of fish. This was by far the most common complaint about almost every snorkeling expedition review I've read on TripAdvisor that was booked through a cruise. The third-party outfits that only book privately all had better ratings for going to more secluded areas and/or more scenic spots since they're carrying a smaller group, and I didn't find any negative reviews about missing or nearly missing their departure.

Also, Matt has pointed out in the past that the outside third party shops all have a vested interest in getting you back on time, or their reputation suffers (and depending on their policy, they could be on the hook to get you back to your ship). So as long as things all go normally, you'll be fine. BUT, you'll definitely be in trouble if something like a traffic jam or mechanical breakdown leaves you late and the outfit you booked with doesn't have a policy covering getting you back to your ship, so read the fine print carefully.

If you'd rather book through Royal for the safety of them waiting for you, but want to have more freedom on where you go / what you do, check out the new Private Journeys option they've recently set up. Matt just did a whole podcast episode about it last week, well as writing a blog post:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/podcast/episode-194-private-journeys-shore-excursion

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/04/19/private-journeys-royal-caribbean-blog-podcast

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2017/02/28/review-royal-caribbeans-private-journeys-shore-excursion-curacao

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For St. Maarten, take a look at Soualiga Destinations all-day speedboat tour, with Captain Bob. Just booked this for our cruise on Freedom next March/April. it's the #1 excursion in St. Maarten and very reasonably priced compared to the other snorkeling options. The only caveat with this outing is that they return by 4 PM, so it's geared to ships departing at 5, where the "all aboard" time is 4:30. But you get 3 snorkeling stops, lunch in a cafe, and a full circuit of the island. And the dock is a 15-20 minute walk from the ship.

Soualiga Destinations - Most Popular Tour

If that doesn't work with the time your ship is in port, I also got this suggestion for Random Wind from @bcarney. Only one snorkeling stop (in one of the same areas that Capt. Bob goes to); but it's an actual sailing ship rather than a speedboat, with a full meal cooked on board and a trapeze swing off the ship into the water at the second stop. They're a bit further away and will require taking a cab there and back.

Random Wind - Paradise Day Sail - a sailing excursion along the coast of Sint Maarten - Saint Martin

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Just to clarify, none of the cruise line guaranty to wait for you. They guaranty that you'll get back to the ship, which most of the big, independent turns will guaranty, too. However, if the ship can wait, they will for their own excursions but not for independent ones. That said, for any excursion with lots of parts or lots of travel, I'd opt for a Royal excursion out of comfort. 

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15 hours ago, DocLC said:

Just to clarify, none of the cruise line guaranty to wait for you. They guaranty that you'll get back to the ship, which most of the big, independent turns will guaranty, too. However, if the ship can wait, they will for their own excursions but not for independent ones. That said, for any excursion with lots of parts or lots of travel, I'd opt for a Royal excursion out of comfort. 

I booked ours through RC because it was easy and I didn't know what the heck I was doing in the first place.

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Does anyone know if RC has left a bus load of people on a independent excursion because they were late?  I would not personally take the chance but it would interesting to know how many times it has happened.   I have seen them leave some individuals on the pier for being late but that was probably due to too much tequila (ta kill ya) at Carlos n Charlies or Senor Frogs

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I would think Royal would be more inclined to wait if 40 or 50 people were missing than one or two, but there are a lot of logistics with leaving late and extra port expenses. In addition, fuel costs are higher if they have to increase speeds to reach the next port. 

The largest number I've seen left at a port is 8 and that was after nearly an hour wait. 

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On one of my cruises, the port stop was Belize, which uses tenders to get people to and from the ship, we waited about an 30 minutes and then you could feel the ship starting to move, then it slows down to a crawl and low and behold here comes a tender with 16-20 people on it. I don't know if the ship ever came to a complete stop, but they opened the door back up and secured the tender and let the people back on,,, all the while being chorused by many 100 of people watching from the sail away party.

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They used to do something similar for visiting Tulum in the mid '90s. The ship would do or slow of the peninsula, you'd board a boat, and then go to Tulum taking the ferry back to Cozumel. Perhaps with the faster ferries, this isn't needed any longer. 

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Few excursions are actually run by Royal Caribbean. Nearly all are third parties that RC has partnered with to operate the tour. 

The only exceptions are a few that are in Labadee or CocoCay, but any of the excursions on/around the ocean are third parties as well.

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