What's a shore excursion you'll never do again?

[RCIfan1912]

14 hours ago, ScottD said:

I think people get carried away with this, especially since the port is brand new and really nice now. I get if you don't want to get out and wander the city, but at least check out the updated, MUCH nicer port 

I agree, we didn't get off the ship last summer but in February we will just to check out the new port. 

[loki007]

we were just in Italy on Celebrity and all our excursions were great except one....Castlemola and Taste of Sicily. It was a total disappointment. The tour guide was terrible. We spoke with some of the other guests after and everyone couldn't wait to be done. If ever in Messina, Sicily I highly recommend something else. We did get some pretty good tiramisu though. 

[Va4fam]

Although all excursions offer something unique and different, there are 2 that come to mind that I won't repeat:

(1) HoHo bus in Vancouver-the city is beautiful, the people are friendly, the weather was perfect.  The bus tour was expensive and horrible.  The first guide took us to Stanley Park and narrated the entire way....he got off at the stop and the next "guide" got on and never said a word.  We never knew what was coming up, what we were looking at, or when to get off.   

(2) Cave Tubing in Belize.  What could go wrong with a hike through the jungle and a gentle tube ride in giant bat-filled caves?   Let's start with the bus.  We took several small buses to connect with the large bus that would take us to our destination.   About 15 minutes into the trip, we heard a loud bang and smelled something burning.   We asked the guides if everything was ok, they said it was just the brakes burning.   As we went further from Belize City, the bus shook and rattled before the driver finally pulled to the side.   Yep, definitely a tire blow out.   Sat on the road with no a/c for over an hour before the little buses retrieved us and took us to the excursion.  The first family stepped off the bus and into a colony of fire ants....and needed to be evacuated back to the port.   Our hike and tube time were scenic but rushed, and the driver did his best Daytona 500 impression to get us back to port on time.   The guides had a good sense of humor and told us no charge for the "extra adventure."

 

[JBC]

19 hours ago, DunkelBierJay said:

I've done third party a few times, and it's always better.

This.  I don't do any excursions thru Royal anymore, the 3rd party ones are always better and always cheaper.  Just do your research (read reviews and such) to make sure you are getting a reputable operator, and allow yourself enough of a buffer for the all aboard time and you will be fine.  No reputable 3rd party excursion operator will let you miss your ship as the reviews that would come from this would kill them.  

[OCSC Mike]

57 minutes ago, JBC said:

This.  I don't do any excursions thru Royal anymore, the 3rd party ones are always better and always cheaper.  Just do your research (read reviews and such) to make sure you are getting a reputable operator, and allow yourself enough of a buffer for the all aboard time and you will be fine.  No reputable 3rd party excursion operator will let you miss your ship as the reviews that would come from this would kill them.  

Very well put. Agree with everything you wrote. The website of my favorite St Martin excursion even says “We’ve never let anyone be late or else we wouldn’t have a 5.0 on TripAdvisor.”

[PatsFanBrian]

In June, 2022, we had an unplanned stop in the Dominican due to tropical weather.  We quickly picked an excursion with the intent of just relaxing on a beach.  We booked the Biyahibe Beach Break.  They took us to a resort for the afternoon, about a 35-40 minute trip.  The resort was a bit in need of repair.  The worst issue was the beach was unusable.  The rocks and coral were unpassable even with water shoes.  Very few people went in the water.  We decided to go to the pool which was just OK.  The pool needed some TLC but was passable.  They were short staffed at the pool bar, it was near impossible to get a bartender to take an order.  For food, all they had was burgers and hot dogs, all of which were left to sit there.  Not very appetizing at all.  It really felt like a waste of a day and money, we would have been better off staying on the ship.  I would strongly discourage anyone from booking that if they stop at the Dominican.

[TimeRacer]

Chichen Itza from Cozumel. The ferry got me. Yes, it is a long day, and the ruins were amazing, but I feel like it's a "Been there, done that" type of thing. That, and I still have nightmares about that ferry. I've never gotten sick on a ferry before that trip, and to then hop right into a bus was a bit much for me.

I don't regret doing it, we loved it overall, but definitely won't do again if/when we go back to the Western Caribbean. 

[LCWind]

The trip to Hell excursion in Grand Cayman.  Overhyped, dated, creepy.  The stops the tour makes are to shops to entice you to buy. Not worth it imho.

[WAYNO]

Because of our experiences, there are 3 places I vowed to never return.  Puerto Rico, USVI, and Nassau.  And in these 3 cases, tours that might have been okay were not, just because the tour guides hated their jobs and hated cruisers.

Very recently, I returned to USVI through no choice of my own, and now, just because we had a tremendous tour guide the second time around, USVI has been elevated to one of my all time favorite destinations.

Point is, a poor tour guide can go a long way in making a tour destination not so nice. 

 

[steverk]

2 hours ago, LCWind said:

The trip to Hell excursion in Grand Cayman.  Overhyped, dated, creepy.  The stops the tour makes are to shops to entice you to buy. Not worth it imho.

I've never been to Hell Grand Cayman.  I've been to Hell Michigan though. Does that count?

[tonyfsu21]

2 hours ago, TimeRacer said:

Chichen Itza from Cozumel. The ferry got me. Yes, it is a long day, and the ruins were amazing, but I feel like it's a "Been there, done that" type of thing. That, and I still have nightmares about that ferry. I've never gotten sick on a ferry before that trip, and to then hop right into a bus was a bit much for me.

I don't regret doing it, we loved it overall, but definitely won't do again if/when we go back to the Western Caribbean. 

This one I personally don’t understand. The ship takes you to the island of Cozumel with excellent beaches, great diving and snorkeling, food and beach clubs and you go out of your way to take a puke ferry back to the mainland? Why???????

[Villageidiot]

21 hours ago, TimeRacer said:

Chichen Itza from Cozumel. The ferry got me. Yes, it is a long day, and the ruins were amazing, but I feel like it's a "Been there, done that" type of thing. That, and I still have nightmares about that ferry. I've never gotten sick on a ferry before that trip, and to then hop right into a bus was a bit much for me.

I don't regret doing it, we loved it overall, but definitely won't do again if/when we go back to the Western Caribbean. 

Same feelings about this excursion. We did this in February without the sickness on the ferry. It was very rushed as you stated. About 45 - 60 minutes at the ruins. The ruins are worth seeing but if you can do this while on  a land vacation you will have hours at the ruins to explore. Made it back to the ship right at all aboard. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

We did Chichen Itza a few months ago when calling at Progresso (MX) and while it's still a long bus ride to get there, you don't have the added insult of a topsy turvy ferry ride on top of the long drive.  For us, it was an incredible excursion as Chichen Itza is one of those sites that you learned about in 6th grade and thought you would never see in person.  IF you really want to see Chichen Itza but want to avoid the ferry ride, go there from Progresso or Costa Maya.

[Mturk]

Sorrento & Amalfi Coast by Motor Launch

In theory this should have been a no-brainer spectacular excursion. However, it turned out to be an excruciatingly long and tiresome day. In short, RC tried to pack too much into the day for sites that were too geographically dispersed to be properly enjoyed. We ended up spending most of the day on the bus instead of enjoying any of the locations we went to. We first went to a limoncello facility for an unscheduled stop along with several other buses from different cruise ships. Then we continued into Sorrento for another unscheduled stop at a furniture shop and then free time. We then went for lunch at a local restaurant where the food can best be described as bland. On top of that, my son asked for olive oil to mix with balsamic vinegar to dip his bread and was told that it wasn't included with the meal! After lunch back to the bus for an hour and a half bus ride to the port in Salerno to catch a ferry to Amalfi. We had an hour in Amalfi before heading back to the ferry and another bus ride back to the ship. We complained to shore excursions along with a few other families and did receive some compensation for our trouble. 

[DJnKy]

On 10/11/2023 at 3:48 PM, LCWind said:

The trip to Hell excursion in Grand Cayman.  Overhyped, dated, creepy.  The stops the tour makes are to shops to entice you to buy. Not worth it imho.

And BORING.
Never planned to go to Hell and don't plan to go there again. 

[letscruise]

On 10/10/2023 at 9:37 AM, RCIfan1912 said:

As amazing and incredible Peggy's cove is I don't think we would do that excursion again. It was a super long bus ride and holy cow was it crowded. We were very late getting back to the ship but I will say this, it was a double excursion though. It was Peggy's cove and the Titanic cemetery together. That made it too long. Maybe next time we will just do Peggy's cove. 

I absolutely agree with this one!  In fact, it's one of the recent excursions, to include the Pirate Museum & Sky Ride in St. Thomas, that has made me now vow to only do private drivers and avoid RCL/organized excursions going forward.  We just don't well in a large group environment, forced time at places, etc.  When I want to leave, I want to leave....if I want to go back to the ship after only spending half my time somewhere, I want to be able to do that.  

With respect to Peggy's Cove, we could have definitely shortened the time spent at the Titanic cemetery to be able to spend more than the 30 minutes we were allotted at Peggy's Cove (an hour would have been much better though our bus broke down, so that probably cut into our time).  

In all, I think all of the excursions are too long and while I'm on one, I can't stop thinking about how I'd much prefer to be back on the ship.   

[Fuzzywuzzy]

On 10/9/2023 at 11:21 PM, Bowen said:

Perfectly said. Same.

Interesting how that statement pops up so many times on the boards. Including several from me.

[MLH]

On 10/10/2023 at 5:20 AM, Bazza said:

I would throw a warning around the phrase 'Small group' as not sure RCI's definition of 'small' is the same as other people's!!

Booked the 'small group' on Explorer for Dubrovnik, which was cable car and guided tour of old town. Expected a small van/minibus and about 10 to 12 people, hoped to be getting off first and reduced waiting times etc etc. Ended up on a full size coach with about 25 people. We were 2nd or 3rd bus to the cable car so waited about 20-30 minutes to go up - not a major problem and well worth it for the views, but not quite the small group experience you would hope for!

Was a decent tour, but for about $100 each not what we expected based on the description.

If go to Dubrovnik again will just get local bus or taxi to old town and pay to do the walls as there was not enough time to do that with our 'free time' on the group tour.

We did got into a taxi and he offered the a city tour including going up the mountain for 55 Euro total.

[MLH]

The Margaritaville Catamaran tour.  Very very loud and then they forced you to go to Margartiville at the Falmouth tour.  When we refused to go in, they blocked the way back to the boat.

 

We also did a Royal snorkeling tour in Aruba which was dangerous.  People were crying in the water and couldnt get back into the boat due to people coming off.  The water was very rough.  The tour guide said dont go in front of the boat as the current will take you away. Was supposed to see a sunken boat but the water was so dark you couldn't see anything.

[Jax]

Plane Spotting in Maho Beach, St Maarten. Our first visit there in December 2021 met or exceeded expectations. The following year (December 2022) the beach was badly eroded resulting in a very steep drop off, essentially dividing the small beach area.  It was dangerous and made capturing plane spotting with your camera difficult.  The excursion was oversold, the drive to Maho Beach was delayed when the driver rimmed a curb and had to stop to do a repair to the tire, the bathrooms are very basic and they now charge to use them, the guide with the bus company talked about irrelevant facts and the bus was late picking us up. Our genie spoke to the shore excursion team and 50% was refunded. The shore excursion manager called me to discuss and promised these items would be addressed with the tour operator so it’s possible some of the deficiencies have been addressed.  Disappointing because the plane spotting experience was a highlight.  

[Colombia20102018]

On 10/11/2023 at 3:27 AM, Va4fam said:

(2) Cave Tubing in Belize.  What could go wrong with a hike through the jungle and a gentle tube ride in giant bat-filled caves?   Let's start with the bus.  We took several small buses to connect with the large bus that would take us to our destination.   About 15 minutes into the trip, we heard a loud bang and smelled something burning.   We asked the guides if everything was ok, they said it was just the brakes burning.   As we went further from Belize City, the bus shook and rattled before the driver finally pulled to the side.   Yep, definitely a tire blow out.   Sat on the road with no a/c for over an hour before the little buses retrieved us and took us to the excursion.  The first family stepped off the bus and into a colony of fire ants....and needed to be evacuated back to the port.   Our hike and tube time were scenic but rushed, and the driver did his best Daytona 500 impression to get us back to port on time.   The guides had a good sense of humor and told us no charge for the "extra adventure."

I booked this excursion with a third party. It was a fantastic day and I also remember the driver going really fast back to port. 

[billdauterive]

Little French Key on Roatan.

They don't have a limit on the amount of visitors so we couldn't find any chairs anywhere on the island.  The bars were at least 3-4 people deep so we couldn't get any drinks or food.  The water was the most crowed I've ever seen (even worse than the pool at perfect day).  We only stayed about an hour before giving up and just going back to the ship.  Granted this was pre-covid so maybe they now have a limit and it's better, but personally I will never go back find out.