Cruise Shore Excursions That Are A Huge Waste Of Time And Money

Choosing the right excursion can be hard! Read this list of cruise shore excursions that are not worth it!

When looking at the long list of shore excursions for your cruise, you can become overwhelmed on what to choose.

A beach day? Adventurous day? Historical day? There are SO many options!

How do you comb through the list to pick something you are really going to love and remember years down the road?

The first place you should start with are the shore excursions you should definitely NOT choose.

The worst feeling is waiting for your cruise, it finally happening, you being really excited and then the shore excursion you picked not living up to the hype.

No need to worry. Read this list of the top shore excursions you shouldn’t book to save your time and money. (A couple of them might surprise you!)

This post is all about shore excursions that are not worth it.

SHOPPING TOURS

Shopping tours may sound like a great way to find some authentic goods at local stores but that is usually not the case on these types of excursions.

The cruise line will most likely just take you to markets that you easily could’ve gone to on your own without paying them to escort you there.

They also will stop at some duty free and jewelry stores. These are also accessible to you without having to pay for an excursion.

These tours are not a great representation (usually) of all the port stop has to offer and leans more towards tourist and conventional stores.

If you want to find shops that are more unique then I would suggest asking the crew if they have any suggestions. They frequently go to these port stops and will have a greater knowledge for suggestions.

Just be sure to let them know you don’t want the typical options that most people might ask for.

Save your money and go shopping on your own instead of giving the cruise line money for this type of excursion because this is one of the shore excursions that are not worth it.

WALKING TOURS

Walking tours at a cruise port stop is another top shore excursion that is not worth the money.

This shore excursion consists of a guide taking you around the city to a few different stops. These could be historical, restaurants, shopping, food tastings, photo ops etc.

The first reason these types of shore excursions are not worth the money is because you might not want to do everything on the list but book it anyway because you think you’ll at least enjoy half of the day.

If you don’t want to go everywhere on the list, I wouldn’t suggest booking this.

The second reason is having to wait around for other people. Maybe you’re ready to go to the next spot but some other people aren’t. That could leave you waiting around in a location you’re finished with, wasting time on your port day.

The third reason is you can easily do this for free on your own because you are basically just paying them to transport you to each spot which you might able to get transportation cheaper on your own.

If you want to do this excursion, go for it.

I believe you will enjoy your day MUCH more if you spend a little time before your cruise doing the research on all of the spots you want to go, make a walking path that is the most efficient and enjoy all of the stops instead of just some of them.

It is not as overwhelming or scary to do it on your own as you think! I have done this several times and have always been happy that I have saved the money and I didn’t have to stop at certain places I had no interest in seeing.

BEACH BREAKS

Beach breaks are the #1 shore excursion that can be very misleading!

When you think of booking a beach break with a cruise line you might think about beautiful beaches, quiet relaxation and an exclusive experience.

Unfortunately this is not the case most of the time.

I have heard from COUNTLESS cruisers that they were unhappy with the beach break they booked through the cruise line.

Most of these beach breaks are very crowded with tons of chairs lined up for everyone that’s on the excursion, there may be vendors walking around trying to sell you stuff and the food is usually buffet style and not the best.

If it’s one with an open bar normally the drinks are not very strong as well.

You’d be better off doing the research for your port to see what the best beaches are. A taxi can take you there directly from the port.

Several areas also have beach clubs that are much more luxurious and what I would recommend the most.

This excursion definitely isn’t worth the money and you might be unhappy this is how you spent your port day.

LONG TRAVEL DAY FOR A SHORT TOUR

If you have never been on one of these tours you don’t know how exhausting they can be with such little pay out!

Sometimes there will be an excursion, usually historical, that sounds really awesome and is a great site to see.

Unfortunately, most of the time they aren’t close to the port you’re stopping at, at all. This leaves you to travel a very long way there and back just to go see what’re is being featured.

The reason this tour can be problematic is because outside factors can affect the time you do have at the event.

If it takes 3 hours of travel time there and back, that’s already 6 hours spent on a ferry, a bus or some other form of travel with a lot of other people.

Traffic can delay you even more if a wreck happens. Sometimes you are only scheduled 1-2 hours at the actual sight which might not be worth it to you in general if the travel time is high.

It can become worst though if something like bad traffic happens lowering your time even more at the tour.

Do your research before deciding to pick one of these excursions.

GLASS BOTTOM BOAT TOUR

This is another excursion that sounds really amazing but might not live up to the description.

A glass bottom tour or even the submarine tours seem like a great way to see some martine life!

The downside of actually taking an excursion like this is most of the time is you won’t see very much.

The water could be a bit cloudier than the picture showed so you might not see very many tropical fish. Some people have also mentioned they feel very motion sick on an excursion like this.

You can always test your luck and give it a try but I would suggest choosing a different option.

OVERALL THOUGHTS & TIPS

Whatever excursion you choose for your cruise you should always pick one that you think you’re going to love the most.

Sometimes you’re going to make the wrong decision and that’s okay but to minimize wasting your time and money doinngn the research on the shore excursions you’re interested in is ALWAYS worth it.

When I’m personally choosing what excursion I want to do at each port stop I do the same process every time.

First I look at the list of excursions for each port stop.

Next I read the descriptions of the ones that seem the most interesting to narrow it down to a top 3-5.

After narrowing down my options I go to either Youtube or TikTok and type in the exact name of the excursion I’m interested in.

Watching a real life example of an excursion is the perfect way to see if you’ll actually like it and gives you a better idea then just reading about it on the cruise line’s website.

This post was all about shore excursions that are not worth it.