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A word of the wise from someone who has been on a number of cruises. The advantage of booking through the cruiseline you are traveling with is they will not leave for the excursion until you are with them and will ensure you get back on the ship. They have contracts with the cruiselines and will make sure you are on the tour and get back in time to board your ship. If you go with an indepedent carrier this is not guarenteed. This has never happened to me but I know of a few instances where people have not made it back in time and missed the ship's departure for the next port of call. That can be a real mess so just be careful!
I have personally done excursions both through the cruiseline as well as independent companies - although my experiences are all in Europe and the Carribean.
You have a point, but that has already been pointed out here about the biggest advantage of booking via the cruise line itself. I guess you didn't take time to read the other responses.
...also cruisecritic.com forum is useful if you become a member you can in many times look up your cruise and organize an excursion with a private company with fellow members on the same cruise and split the cost (look in the "rollcall" subforum), usually saving an incredible amount of money in the process. No crazy moderators in those forums to worry about either.
...also cruisecritic.com forum is useful if you become a member you can in many times look up your cruise and organize an excursion with a private company with fellow members on the same cruise and split the cost (look in the "rollcall" subforum), usually saving an incredible amount of money in the process. No crazy moderators in those forums to worry about either.
I was about to make the same suggestion: we are doing this for our Dec cruise. I have already started looking for tours in Cartagena, and St Maarten. If you get about 8 or more people, the cost goes down and what a great way to get to know your fellow cruisers. We have made longtime friends this way.
We always book our excursions ourselves through advice usually found on Cruise Critic. It is so much more enjoyable to tour with a group of 6 or 8 than a group of 60 from the ship. We travel in a group of 4 and have often shared our tour with two or four others we connected with on CC.
We always book our excursions ourselves through advice usually found on Cruise Critic. It is so much more enjoyable to tour with a group of 6 or 8 than a group of 60 from the ship. We travel in a group of 4 and have often shared our tour with two or four others we connected with on CC.
Do you ever go to roll call on CruiseCritic and team up with some of your roll call people? We do this a lot.
Do you ever go to roll call on CruiseCritic and team up with some of your roll call people? We do this a lot.
Yes, we have done this a few times.
We were able to do a private tour with our Cruise Critic buddies that was outstanding and a lot cheaper than if we had done it with the ship.
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