Independent Tours for Excursions

[dlsOH]

Hello!  We’re first time cruisers sailing on the Vision of the Seas next May on a 12 day European cruise. I’ve read so many positive posts regarding tour companies offering excursions at prices well below the ship’s price but one thing holding us back is the worry of not making it back before the ship sails. Anyone have any advice on this? Are our fears unfounded?  Thank you!

[4ensic]

I've done non-Royal tours and saved a lot of cash over the years.  Missing the ship is low probability, but severe effect - especially where there will be some sea days after your excursion.

If the problem is a traffic jam , chances are that the Royal excursion contractors will be  sitting in traffic also (the odds of this decrease if your excursion isn't also offered by Royal).

But 2 years ago some friends had an experience that makes me lean toward paying the "Royal Tax" and booking through the ship.  We were on a T/A that made stops in the Caribbean before the leg to Southampton.  Our last port before a string of sea days was St. Maarten.  Friends took the double decker bus tour around the island.  They were returning to the ship and saw police and an ambulance responding in the other direction.  A couple of minutes later, more police and fire equipment.  Then the bus slowed to a stop and sat there.  Yes, it had leaked out all the oil onto the roadway and caused a string of traffic collisions before seizing up.  It took over three hours before the tour company could get buses out to return the folks on tour (partly because they were located behind the crashes and ensuing traffic jam).

The ship patiently waited.  Friends might have spent an extra $25 a person, but spending at least one night on the island, missing the rest of the cruise, and paying walk-up rates for  1 way international tickets home would run more than that. (Though travel insurance might have helped out).

If you take private tours, be sure to take your passport, credit card and local port contact # for the ship.  And if you buy travel insurance, check the policy before buying to see how it handles this situation.

[melski94]

It is a trade off and it is up to you to decide how comfortable you feel.  We've done many independent tours.  I especially like hiring my own driver and doing exactly what we want and then have control over the return time.  We like having at least 90 minutes-2 hours before all aboard time.  Yes things can happen like @4ensic mentioned but we don't like huge group tours where so much of your time is spent waiting so we are willing to take the risk. 

[Matt]

11 hours ago, dlsOH said:

one thing holding us back is the worry of not making it back before the ship sails

If you plan to return to the ship 3 or more hours before the all aboard time, that pretty much protects you against any kind of travel delay.

[Stephanie]

We have done both.  In Alaska, I booked through local tour companies.  And, in the Caribbean, we've caught tours once we were on shore.  Particularly in the Caribbean, the islanders live solely on tourism.  Everyone knows all of the ship's schedules and can pretty well recite them to you by heart.  Because they rely so heavily on the cruises for their livelihood, they do everything they can to get you back to the ship on time.

That said, for our upcoming European sailing, I booked all of our tours through Royal.  Foreign countries, foreign languages and countries who are not solely reliant on tourism for their economy ... I wasn't willing to take the risk.

[jticarruthers]

Generally I prefer to take a ships tour my first time in a new port, rather be safe than sorry.

Sometimes if I do my research and feel comfortable with the port/area/excursion in question I break that rule.

Usually once I have been to a place once I am more comfortable deciding whether to take the risk on being able to get myself back to the ship if "something happens".

Things you might consider ...

Is the private excursion you are considering going to involve travelling away from the ship?

There's a big difference between taking a private tour to one of the ruins sites in Cozumel (which would involve a taxi to the ferry pier, a ferry to the mainland, a car/bus/taxi to the ruins and then doing it all in reverse to get back, potentially 2+ hours of travel each way) and doing a private visit to one of the beach resorts in Cozumel (5 minute taxi ride each way).

How close are you cutting it?

If you are booking an excursion that is expected to get back 2-3 hours before all aboard, there is some time to play with in the event of a problem ... if you are due to get back 15 minutes before all aboard, you are asking to get left behind.

What are the travel options?

If you are going to an island with basically one main road then an accident on that road means you are in trouble. If you are going to somewhere with a more robust road network, then you can probably work around a traffic problem.

Similarly if there are plentiful options in the way of taxis/buses/trains/donkey carts then you can probably "jump ship" and get an alternate ride if your donkey comes up lame. If the only game in town is the donkey you rode in on and it runs away ... you don't have options.

Some of the best tours we have done have been the independent/local options ... but you need to be comfortable. If you spend the whole tour stressing over whether you are going to miss the boat then you aren't enjoying it and getting your moneys worth so just book the official version and don't stress.

[dlsOH]

Thanks so much for the advice!  It sounds like we should play it safe and stick with the ship’s trips especially with the cities further away from where we dock such as Rome. Closer locations it may be feasible to book local and plan to be back sooner. Appreciate the feedback!

[jticarruthers]

For Rome, our cruise had an option to take a train into Rome from the ship (excursion organized by the ship, included the private train to/from Rome) and then do the self-guided tours from there. It was a good mix of being confident that we would get to and from Rome without issue but still allowed us to tour Rome "on our own" without being tied into a specific group for the whole day.

[redgrapes2]

We used Rome Private Excursions for three ports last June: La Spezia to Pisa/Florence, Naples to Positano/Pompeii and Civitavecchia to Rome.  Excellent experiences all around on our timeline and flexibility, would definitely recommend.  One thing I will say about booking privately (not with RC) is to check reviews on other websites here, Trip Advisor, etc.  These private companies know one miss posted on social media would be the death of their business, they take that extremely seriously!

[dlsOH]

On 9/13/2018 at 7:39 AM, jticarruthers said:

For Rome, our cruise had an option to take a train into Rome from the ship (excursion organized by the ship, included the private train to/from Rome) and then do the self-guided tours from there. It was a good mix of being confident that we would get to and from Rome without issue but still allowed us to tour Rome "on our own" without being tied into a specific group for the whole day.

That is excellent advice! We just booked the ship’s excursion to Rome and back. Now the fun begins to plan our day there. Thank you!

[dlsOH]

On 9/13/2018 at 6:46 PM, redgrapes2 said:

We used Rome Private Excursions for three ports last June: La Spezia to Pisa/Florence, Naples to Positano/Pompeii and Civitavecchia to Rome.  Excellent experiences all around on our timeline and flexibility, would definitely recommend.  One thing I will say about booking privately (not with RC) is to check reviews on other websites here, Trip Advisor, etc.  These private companies know one miss posted on social media would be the death of their business, they take that extremely seriously!

Thank you!  We’re looking at Viator and others to compare tours. The reviews will be key in our decision.