Cruise Question...

Anyone gone...?

Anyone gone on excursions? Would you suggest booking them ahead of time? Or are there really sufficient accomodations when you disembark???

We just got back from our Princess 7 day Eastern Caribbean cruise.
We didn't book any excursions ahead of time; we did it when we got on the ship. We actually only did one excursion too. I've heard that it's pretty easy to book excursions outside of the ones that the cruise offers.

I've gone on 6

I've found that it's sometimes better NOT to book excursions!!

Sometimes choosing an excursion w/ a local once you get there is a MUCH better experience.

Go w/ your gut though - don't walk into any sketchy situations.

We're going in a few weeks and are going to do most of the travelling on our own. The excursions, at least on Celebrity, are really overpriced.

They publish guidebooks about specific cruising destinations (eg Mediterranean by Cruise Ship) that provide the more 'local' scene for excursions and very specific info on 'this is where you dock, this is how to walk to the bus', etc.

I'd check into one of those first and then decide if you want to do the cruiseline's excursions.

It's soon, right?

been on 3

went on excursions, look the first day for what you want and then book it, the good ones go fast!

We booked an excursionin advance for allof the 5 stops on our cruise.

DH is a bit of a 'preparer'

Our first excursion was cancelled due to lack of participation & we were abel to book a new one prety easily, that morning , for teh afternoon.

I liked picking in advace, b/c sometiems it take us a whiel to make a decision. We did a couple fo morning excursions, which were good, b/c then we could explore on our own. We did that in St. Martin & Barbados.
I found that if we took an afternoon excursion, we didn't really get out in time to explore & be back in time.

easy to book on the ship but if its already sold out, your out of luck.. i would plan them early (i wish we would of cause all the things we wanted were gone - underwater motorized helet dive grr...._)

also...when you get to a port... you can normally find a cab driving to take you around the islands for alot less then some road siteing seeing tours.

oh, and too many tours can be a bad thing cause you have to get thier at a certain time and what not...kinda limits what you can do

Tours are a mixed bag - I do them on all the cruises I go on (I have been on 11 - celebrity, and NCL). My vote is book in advance if you can. This is what I have learned:

You probably want to book them in advance if:
1) you have your heart set on something
2) it is a popular island or tour
3) you are going during a busy time of the year

There was a time that you could not book in advance and I was often closed out of popular tours. Remember some of these tours take anywhere from 20-50 people - so once they are full you are waitlisted and unless someone cancels you won't get in.

If you don't care whether you take a tour or not you can hold off. Some lines you have to pay for the tour when you book it (RCCL/Celebrity) others like Princess you book in advance but the charge is added to your shipboard account.

These are the reasons that I personally prefer to take a ship tour:
1) If something happens and the tour is delayed the ship WILL NOT leave without you.
2) It is already arranged so you have NO worries or ANY work to do you simply have your tickets delivered to your room and you walk to the dock to the person holding the sign and it as simple as that
3) convience convience convience
4) IF per chance your ship does not make one of the islands you get your money back. Itineraries VERY often change and an island can be dropped/delayed/shortened at ANY time - and this happens more than not. If you book thru the ship you simply get your money back. If you book on your own many places have you have to leave a deposit and you are OUT of that money -
5) I don't have to research the companies and make sure that they are credible and reliable.
6) Don't have to travel to get to the tour

Reasons to book on your own:
1) Often the price is cheaper
2) You can make your own schedule with some of them -
3) some let you customize what you want to do (others don't).