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View Poll Results: Shore Excursions, Official, Independent, None at all?
With the Cruise Line 7 33.33%
Use independent tour companies 10 47.62%
Don't book shore excursions at all 4 19.05%
Voters: 21. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 31 Jan 18, 06:30 PM  
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#1
jontybfc
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Shore Excursions

We've just booked a Disney Cruise for Easter next year. We've been looking at the shore excursions and they sound great but from looking at tips, people say its best to book them independently as it's a lot cheaper.

What are peoples thoughts on this?
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Old 1 Feb 18, 08:55 PM  
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stecee
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We have done an odd one with the cruise line but generally go with independant companies.
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Edited at 08:56 PM.
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Old 2 Feb 18, 08:35 AM  
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Always independent.
Make sure you do your research, check their reviews out and discard the top and bottom 10% of them.

Our rule is to always be back at the ship 2 hours before All Aboard time and we always have a plan B.
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Old 8 Feb 18, 10:54 AM  
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Omega1
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Our preference is to do our own thing and always have a plan B (as Bats says) for getting back to the ship if things go wrong. Doing our own thing means researching what we want to see/do and how to get there by public transport or taxi.
Some ports are badly served by public transport and a taxi might be too expensive so a private tour is the best way to go. I use Cruisecritic and Tripadviser for recommended companies. Cruisecritic roll call groups often have private tours. Last week I organised a trip for a Cruisecritic group of 14 with a private guide in Costa Rica - we had a great time with a lovely group of people.
Our last resort is a ship tour where no other option is available eg the only way off the ship on a partial transit of the Panama Canal is to go on a ship trip and we wanted to see Panama City.
Sometimes we have quite a bit of OBC and use it up on a ship trip.
Our aversion to ship tours mainly centre on cost (they are usually very expensive); we don't like being herded in large groups; they move at the pace of the slowest. A recent example was in Cartagena, Colombia- I downloaded a comprehensive walking tour of the old city and we got a taxi from the port for $5pp each way. The ship's guided walking tour (in groups of 30) was $50pp. JMO!
The website Whatsinport is very useful.
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Old 8 Feb 18, 01:15 PM  
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Originally Posted by Omega1 View Post
Our preference is to do our own thing and always have a plan B (as Bats says) for getting back to the ship if things go wrong. Doing our own thing means researching what we want to see/do and how to get there by public transport or taxi.
Some ports are badly served by public transport and a taxi might be too expensive so a private tour is the best way to go. I use Cruisecritic and Tripadviser for recommended companies. Cruisecritic roll call groups often have private tours. Last week I organised a trip for a Cruisecritic group of 14 with a private guide in Costa Rica - we had a great time with a lovely group of people.
Our last resort is a ship tour where no other option is available eg the only way off the ship on a partial transit of the Panama Canal is to go on a ship trip and we wanted to see Panama City.
Sometimes we have quite a bit of OBC and use it up on a ship trip.
Our aversion to ship tours mainly centre on cost (they are usually very expensive); we don't like being herded in large groups; they move at the pace of the slowest. A recent example was in Cartagena, Colombia- I downloaded a comprehensive walking tour of the old city and we got a taxi from the port for $5pp each way. The ship's guided walking tour (in groups of 30) was $50pp. JMO!
The website Whatsinport is very useful.
We're on a PC cruise in April ... please tell me all!

Joa
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Old 8 Feb 18, 02:31 PM  
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Originally Posted by Bats View Post
We're on a PC cruise in April ... please tell me all!

Joa
Hi - are you doing a full transit? We were on the Caribbean Princess and did a partial transit ie the ship goes through the first set of locks from the Caribbean side into Gatun Lake. People going on ship tours are tendered to the Gatun Lake Yacht Club to the tour buses. The ship then goes back through the locks and docks at Cristobal or Colon where it picks up passengers who went on tours.
There are now two sets of locks on the canal - the newer bigger locks opened in 2016 and can obviously accommodate much larger ships. These are the locks we used. I prefer the old locks which have little train engines (mules) running at the side of the ships to keep them in position. Just my quirky preference.
We entered the first lock at 6.15am and it took about 2 hours to get to Gatun Lake. A full transit takes about 9 or 10 hours. Cruise ships usually have a live commentary of what's going on.
We did a tour to 'Old Panama' - there are three Panamas, the first a Spanish community sacked by the pirate Henry Morgan; the second is the old city with beautiful old colonial buildings and then modern Panama with its shiny skyscrapers.
The history of the canal is fascinating, from early French attempts to the US success after overcoming the main challenge of combatting malaria and yellow fever. Ships have to pay the fee for using the canal in cash (US$) - it cost the Caribbean Princess $556000 to do the partial transit. The cheapest transit was 86 cents by a swimmer.
It's a fascinating experience.

Edited at 02:34 PM.
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Old 8 Feb 18, 04:16 PM  
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Bats
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Originally Posted by Omega1 View Post
Hi - are you doing a full transit? We were on the Caribbean Princess and did a partial transit ie the ship goes through the first set of locks from the Caribbean side into Gatun Lake. People going on ship tours are tendered to the Gatun Lake Yacht Club to the tour buses. The ship then goes back through the locks and docks at Cristobal or Colon where it picks up passengers who went on tours.
There are now two sets of locks on the canal - the newer bigger locks opened in 2016 and can obviously accommodate much larger ships. These are the locks we used. I prefer the old locks which have little train engines (mules) running at the side of the ships to keep them in position. Just my quirky preference.
We entered the first lock at 6.15am and it took about 2 hours to get to Gatun Lake. A full transit takes about 9 or 10 hours. Cruise ships usually have a live commentary of what's going on.
We did a tour to 'Old Panama' - there are three Panamas, the first a Spanish community sacked by the pirate Henry Morgan; the second is the old city with beautiful old colonial buildings and then modern Panama with its shiny skyscrapers.
The history of the canal is fascinating, from early French attempts to the US success after overcoming the main challenge of combatting malaria and yellow fever. Ships have to pay the fee for using the canal in cash (US$) - it cost the Caribbean Princess $556000 to do the partial transit. The cheapest transit was 86 cents by a swimmer.
It's a fascinating experience.
We're going all the way through! From Florida through to California with some stops in Colombia, Costa Rica and Mexico on the way.
I'm keen to see the locks and how they work as we have a narrowboat so already do locks, albeit a very different scale! The sheer simplicity of it is fascinating to me so I'm really excited about that day.

I'm not sure about the ports though. Normally I have private tours and all kinds but this one .. nothing!
Sorry, I've derailed this thread!

Joa
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Old 19 Feb 18, 08:10 PM  
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We do the Disney ones because they totally look after you from start to finish. We were supposed to go to a pirate ship for swimming and BBQ lunch in Grand Cayman. Weather hadn't been too good. We hung around watching cartoons when we get the shout to head for the tender. Getting on board and spotting the pilot was in a Sou-Wester outfit should have told us something. As we turned away from the ship a squall hit us. Despite holding up towels we were drenched. When we reached the dock at Grand Cayman Disney staff were waiting with warm towels and hot chocolate. Full refund without any quibbles.
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Old 7 Mar 18, 12:22 PM  
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We generally do a mixture of ships own, local company (usually if we've joined a group and shared transport etc), and on our own depending on how comfortable we are in that place and how easy it is.
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