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Want to understand the ins and outs of cruise shore excursions? This post will discuss the pros and cons of booking with the cruise line or a third party company, how to choose the best shore excursion for you, and other generalized tips and products to make your cruise vacation easier!
When going on a cruise you may be wondering:
How do I book a shore excursion? What are the best shore excursion companies? Is it cheaper to book excursions in advance?
This article is going to go over many helpful tips you may not have considered when thinking about what shore excursion to book for your cruise vacation.
This post is all about shore excursions.
When it comes to choosing the right cruise shore excursion for you, you first need to decide if you are going to book through the cruise line or a third party company.
This choice is very important and both have pros and cons I will list to help you decide which is the better fit for you or your group.
Booking with the cruise line
Pros:
#1
The top pro of booking directly with the cruise line is it’s guaranteed that you will not be left at the port if your shore excursion is running late for any reason.
It really is common due to weather, transportation, docking issues, or any other reason that your excursion may start late and in turn, may possibly end late.
You don’t want to be the person who misses the ship entirely by not booking with the cruise line or end up being a dock runner trying to make it back right before all aboard.
#2
It’s easy. Choosing a shore excursion through the cruise line is definitely the easiest way to do it because once your cruise is booked either on the cruise line’s website or app, you can look at a list of excursions they are offering for each port stop and choose from there.
It keeps one more thing to do with your cruise all in the same area as booking so you can find the information you need faster.
#3
You’ll get your shore excursion tickets either left in your room on the first day or the night before that excursion so you don’t have to worry about loading those excursion reservation emails, having to print tickets out yourself etc. It’s all done for you!
Cons:
#1
The con I hear the most when polling people on if they book with the cruise line or not is the price.
Booking third party is usually the cheaper option between the two because there’s not another middle man aka the cruise line who needs to make somewhat of a profit off of the excursion too.
Side note: Although the cruise line is more expensive they may have sales before your cruise begins which would change the cost vs. a third party is usually a set price.
If you do book through the cruise line keep an eye on the price of your excursions because they may go on sale for less than you paid and you can cancel and rebook to save the difference in cost.
#2
Group size. It is common with cruise line excursions for there to be more people in your group.
This might not be ideal for everyone. Me personally, I like smaller groups as crowds can be overwhelming and take away from the experience for me.
I’ve had several seasoned cruisers discuss with me that they exclusively book with third pary companies because they’ve had a lot of excursions that only have about 10 people vs you may have 50-100+ on the same type of excursion with the cruise line.
#3
Another reason to book with a third party company and really the only reason I do at this point is the cruise line not offering the excursion you want.
While cruise lines do offer several choices for each port stop, they don’t offer every option at that location. You can find a few other options if you look outside of the cruise line with other companies.
An example I personally do all the time is booking a beach club while in Cozumel, Mexico. These beach clubs are never offered with the cruise line but are insanely popular choices.
@yourstrulychelsea What’s your favorite beach club? Leave me a comment! #greenscreenvideo #cruise #cruisetok #cruisetiktok #cruisingcontent #cruisecontent #cruiseship #beachclub #mexicobeachclub #vacation #travel #travelplanner #travelmusthaves #cruisetips
♬ original sound – CHELSEA CRUISES
Booking with a third party company
Pros:
#1
Basically the same as what I listed above in the cruise line con option: Lower price, smaller group size, more variety.
#2
Some people I have polled also have said they enjoy the experience of the excursions they have booked with a third party company more than the same excursion they have done in the past with the cruise line.
Everything is personal preference at the end of the day, no matter what you pick you are still on a vacation and will most likely have an amazing time.
Cons:
#1
As I mentioned in the cruise line’s pros, a con to booking with a third party is no guarantee that the cruise ship will wait for you if your excursion and/or you are late getting back.
If you end up missing your ship you will be responsible for your own transportation to get back home. You also may not have the belongings you need to get home such as your passport if you left them on the ship.
#2
It takes more time to research and find the right option for you.
You will need to make sure that the company you’re booking with isn’t a scam. You’ll also need to make sure they are going to refund you if your ship can’t dock or docks too late for your excursion.
These aren’t necessarily bad things since you can get more bang for your buck booking third party, just more work like I said.
Additional notes:
If it is your first cruise ever, regardless of the list above, I would book with the cruise line. If you are not a seasoned cruiser I would not risk coordinating with a third party company.
You would have to make sure you find one that is reputable and have the correct times that match ship time for your tour so you do not arrive back at port later than all aboard and end up getting left behind. That might be stressful for anyone who has not taken a cruise before and hasn’t experienced a port day.
From having your tickets, arriving to your meeting point and making sure everything goes smoothly, this is something I would do for the first time with the cruise line since there are tons of staff around at all times that can help you and answer any question you may have if you booked with them.
@yourstrulychelsea Have you been to Coco Beach Club?? Let me know in the comments! #cruise #cruisingcontent #cruisetiktok #cruisingtok #royalcaribbean #perfectdaycococay #cococay #cruiseship
♬ A tropical house that feels Summer vibes – Roa
Tips on choosing a shore excursion:
It can be very overwhelming when looking at all of the options for each port stop on your cruise. Like I listed above, decide if you want to book with the cruise line or a third party company. After you make that decision look at all of your options and narrow it down to a top three.
My biggest tip after narrowing down your options is to type that exact excursion name into YouTube. Now days so many people are vlogging their cruise vacation experiences. You might be able to find just one video of the excursion but many times there will be a few you can watch.
I highly recommend doing this because sometimes an excursion can sound really good on paper and then you watch a video of someone actually on the excursion and it doesn’t end up interesting you as much as you thought it would. That is what I do every time before deciding on which shore excursion to do.
Generalized tips:
- After you choose an excursion make a list of everything you may need to bring with you for the excursion. For example, if you’re going on a ruins tour some top things you’ll want to bring are:
1.
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Other items you may need: water, snacks, sunglasses, medicines, small fan.
2. Book your excursion before you go on your cruise. There are several reasons this is imporant!
The first reason to book your shore excursion before your cruise starts is to save money. Like I have mentioned above, if you’re booking with the cruise line they often run sales on excursions all the way up until a couple days before your cruise. Take advantage of those savings instead of waiting to book once on the ship.
Another reason to book before your cruise is so the excursion you want to do the most isn’t sold out. Extremely popular excursions will sell out and you never know when. If you think you should just wait to book once you get on board or in port (if possible) you may get the rude awakening the one you really wanted to do is completely full.
The way to avoid this is once you have chosen the excursion and you have the money for it is to book it.
This post was all about cruise shore excursions and what to consider when booking them.
