Are cruise ship shore excursions worth booking? — featuring Zach the Traveling Man

0:00 So, picture this. You've just stepped off your cruise ship and a brand new destination you've never been to before. The sun is shining bright. A new destination is calling. But now, what do you do? Should you follow the crowd onto the big tour bus booked by the cruise line or head out with a local guide and

0:18 explore on your own? Hello everyone. My name is Zach. I am the traveling man. And in today's video, we're going to break down the pros and the cons of booking a cruise excursion through the cruise line versus booking something independently on your own with a third-party provider. And I'm going to

0:33 tell you which one I prefer and trust more after many, many years of cruising. So, let's start with the triedand-true option. That's booking directly through the cruise line. Now, there are several pros, several pluses for why you might want to do this. Number one, the biggest one is, and this is what the cruise line

0:49 sort of advertised to you, is that the ship waits for you. If your tour runs late, you're going to be covered. The ship literally will not leave until all of its booked excursions have returned. They're going to make sure that everyone that booked an excursion with them is back on that ship before they head out

1:04 of port that day. And this can be especially comforting to know in a foreign country. The comfort of knowing that you're surrounded by other people from your ship, all operated by the cruise line. Now, this is one of the areas where I will always book with the cruise line if I'm in a foreign country,

1:18 somewhere far from home that I've never been before because I want that comfortability. I want to know that I'm surrounded by people from my cruise ship and that we're going to get back on time and I'm not going to be stranded in a foreign country. The second pro to booking directly through the cruise line

1:31 is one-stop booking. There's no need to coordinate anything. You book on the cruise app or on the shore excursions desk once you get on the ship. It's very, very easy to do. A third reason to book through the cruise line is that the cruise line has trusted partners. They vet their vendors, which adds a layer of

1:47 trust and safety. Especially important if you're new to cruising and maybe never been on a cruise before and you don't know what to expect on a shore excursion. Well, there's comfort knowing that the cruise line has vetted who they're sending you on a tour with. Another pro to booking directly with the

2:01 cruise line is that you can use onboard credit. Some cruise lines will allow you to apply onboard credit directly to excursions. So, it can feel like you're actually saving money on short excursions. You're not having to pay anything additional, but of course, there are a few cons to booking short

2:15 excursions directly through the cruise line that we need to talk about. The first one is going to be the higher cost that you're going to pay. You're easily paying considerably more money than what the same tour might cost with an independent provider. And this is because you're paying for that ease,

2:29 that convenience, and that comfortability that we talked about. The second con is that short excursions booked through the cruise line can be so crowded and impersonal. Most excursions or groups with 30, 40, and sometimes even 50 plus people. You're herded around like cattle. Sometimes multiple

2:46 charter buses, and I'm talking like the big greyhound buses are going to be used for the same tour. I've had this happen a lot, especially over in Europe. You know, you'll go to your short excursion, they'll put you on a big Greyhound bus, and you're like, "Cool, this is our group for the day." It's a pretty large

2:59 group. It's 50 people. And then you pull up to the sites that you want to see and then four or five of those pull up and it's the same buses, the same tour group from the cruise line and they all get out. Everybody's trying to take the same picture at the same time. It's just not

3:12 ideal at all. And in addition to this, the cruise lines are more likely to have deals with third party vendors where they have to like they're obligated to take you to those third party vendors shops. And I've had this happen to me a couple times on shore excursions I booked to their cruise line over in

3:27 Turkey. you know, Turkey known for their rugs, their beautiful rugs that they create there. I don't know how many rug dealers, but basically what they are because that you get there and they really push those rugs on you, but I don't know how many of those places I've been taken to in Turkey on a short

3:40 excursion. And then a jewelry shop in Sicily. Actually, I went to Sicily for the first time and I wanted to go see Mount Etna. I have a great interest in volcanoes. So, I was like, I got to go see Mount Etna. So, we drive like halfway up Mount Etna. We don't even go all the way to the top on this short

3:54 excursion. We're not even there an hour and they're like, "All right, back on the bus. We got to go. We got to go. We got to go see other stuff. And literally, we went down the mountain, stopped at the nearest town at the foot of Mount Etna. I don't don't remember the name of the town. And went to a

4:06 jewelry shop where we stayed for like an hour and a half. We stayed at the jewelry shop longer than we did on Mount Etna. And the tour was all about Manetna. So, you're going to run into that a lot when you go with the cruise line. So, just keep that in mind. Another con is you're going to have a

4:20 generic experience. Sometimes it's just a basic bus tour or you're going to go to a cookie cutter beach. And of course, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's just not always special. And most of the time, there's just going to be too many people on these tours with the cruise lines to do anything meaningful

4:33 or extraordinary. So, you know, you might get to see one or two little things in an area or in your new destination. Whereas, if you went third party, you're going to get to see a lot more because it's going to be a smaller group. So, now let's switch over to talk about booking independent shore

4:47 excursions with a local guide or a third party company like Viator, like Shore Excursions Group, or Get Your Guide. These are just some examples. And personally, I like to work with Short Excursions Group. I've used them all around the world. They are my trusted, my go-to, and pretty much every cruise I

5:03 go on nowadays. I'm going to book at least one excursion or go on one excursion with Short Excursions Group. And I'm very happy to partner with them. And I'm actually going to put a link down in the description if you want to go check out some of the excursions that they offer. They make it so easy because

5:15 you simply go to their website. One of the first things you'll see on the website is to put in your cruise ship, the day that you're selling, and it'll do the rest for you because it's going to pull up your entire itinerary, and have port by port excursions that you can book directly through them. I really

5:29 like short excursions group, so I'm going to recommend them to you. But let's talk about the pros of booking independently through a third party. The biggest one being the lower prices. You can find the same tour or even better for much less money, sometimes even half the price of the version that the cruise

5:43 ship's going to offer. Another plus is you're going to be on much smaller groups. I've been on independent tours where there were just a few people and a tour guide, so maybe three or four people at most, compared to a massive group from the ship. Remember I was talking about those buses and buses just

5:57 full of people pulling up at sites. It's way more personal. You know, you can have one-on-one time with the tour guide. You can learn a lot more about a port call this way because you have such easy access to the tour guide. They're also likely going to tell you and show you more when you're in a smaller group.

6:12 It saves time. You don't have to file on and off a bus at every stop. You can see more of the place. So, that's one of the biggest perks besides saving money. I think just having a smaller group and having better access so that you can ask those questions to the tour guide. Another plus or benefit of booking on

6:27 your own is the unique options that you're going to have. I'm talking about things like private hikes, like food tours, local snorkeling spots. You'll find off the beaten path stuff. Again, the cruise lines typically have to offer excursions fit for many, many people. So, they have to make it things that are

6:44 pretty common. You know, the sites that are pretty common to a port you're going to see. Despite how good it is to book third party, there are some cons. Number one being the no ship guarantee. Meaning, if the tour runs late and you're not there and you didn't book with the cruise line, they will leave

7:00 without you. They're not going to wait like they would if you were on one of their shore excursions. And this has happened to people. It's real. You can find stories online and videos online about people's experiences. This is exactly why I go with the cruise lines when I'm in places far from home where I

7:12 might not be as comfortable finding my way to the ship at the next port of call. An example I can give you of being late to the port on a private excursion happened one time when I was visiting Aruba. Went with a third party, but when you go to Aruba, there's a lot of all-inclusive resorts there. So, a lot

7:26 of people go to Aruba to stay in those. So, a lot of the tours you go on might pick you up at the cruise ship, but then they're going to go over to the all-inclusives and pick those guests up, too. So, they might not be paying as close of attention to the cruise ship schedule. And this is exactly what

7:39 happened to me. I go on this excursion and I'm watching the clock and I'm noticing like, wow, we're this is pretty laxidasical. You know, we're taking our time today. And it got pretty late in the day, about an hour from when I was supposed to be back on the ship. And we were at the farthest end of Aruba. Had

7:52 just gotten to the beach for our time at the beach. And the tour guide's like, "Okay, we have an hour and a half here." And I'm like, "Wait a minute. How are we going to get back to the ship?" And they were like, "When are you supposed to be back at the ship?" And I'm like, "In an

8:02 hour." And they're like, "Get in the car now." And they put me in the car and drove me back to the ship. We got in terrible traffic and just barely made it back. I mean, they called the port officials and told them that I was running late. Gave them my name, my information, and the ship said, "You've

8:16 got 10 minutes to get here." And then we're leaving. And sure enough, I was one of the last people back on the ship. So, there you go. They're not going to wait on you if you are booked with a third party and you happen to miss the ship. Now, some third party short excursion vendors actually put money on

8:27 this. They're guaranteed that they'll get you back to the ship on time. and they actually claim that they'll give you considerably more than what you paid for the excursion if they don't. And that's just how they guarantee that they'll get you back on time. And I know Short Excursions Group does something

8:37 like that and that's why I continue to book with them. Now, the second con to booking a short excursion on your own is you got to do more research. You've got to do the vetting of the companies. The cruise lines aren't doing it for you. You've got to read reviews. You've got to communicate with the vendors to

8:52 schedule your place to buy your ticket and things. It takes a lot of effort to plan to go on excursions on your own. Another downside con of booking on your own is the potential for scams or no-shows. Now, this is very rare, but it does happen and can happen. And that's why I only use reputable platforms with

9:09 verified reviews and guarantees. I'm not going to just Google something and pick something random just because it pops up. I'm going to make sure I go again, Viator, Short Excursions Group, Get Your Guide, places like that, which I know are legit companies. So, that's my recommendation to you. If you're going

9:22 to book on your own, be very, very careful. Make sure you vet the company that you're going with. If you're leaning toward booking on your own, here are some cruise tested tips to do it safely and smartly. You want to stick to reputable sites, Viator, Short Excursions Group. Make sure that they

9:37 have more than just a handful of reviews. You know, I like to look for ones that have over aundred reviews at least. You also want to read the fine print of what you're buying. You want to look for guaranteed return times and refund policies, too, because you never know when you might have to cancel.

9:51 Something might come up. You might get sick over the course of your cruise and not get to go on your shore excursion. And also be sure to double check the pickup and drop off locations. This is very important. Again, you're not going with the cruise line, so you can't just wake up and show up in the theater with

10:04 your ticket ready to go. You're going to have to get off the ship and find it. And it may not always be close to the cruise port. A third tip is to give yourself buffer time. Book excursions that return to the port at least 90 minutes before the allboard time. Make sure you are absolutely certain that

10:21 you're going to be back before you ever even depart the ship. That's very important. That kind of goes into this next tip, which is communicate with your tour guide. Check with them before you even set off on the excursion. Make sure they know your ship schedule. Make sure they know exactly when you have to be

10:36 back. Very important that that's communicated. Carry the ship's contact information with you. This is because if anything at all happens to go wrong, you'll want to be able to reach the ship or the cruise line or the port agent and just let them know what's going on. Like in that example I gave you, and I had to

10:50 call the port agent to be like, "Hey, I'm running late. Don't let the ship leave." and they're like, "You got 10 minutes." So, make sure that you follow those safety tips. But the most important thing to remember is to book through a trusted source. Which one's better? Booking through the cruise line

11:04 or booking independently? Well, honestly, it all just depends. Again, if I'm going to be in a country, a foreign country, far away from home that I've never visited, and the port time is short, maybe I only have a few hours, I'm going to go with the cruise line. I'm going to go with that comfortability

11:19 again. But if I've got 6 to 8 hours in port and I want to find a more authentic or maybe even adventurous experience, well, I'm going to book it on my own to make sure that I can have the day that I really, really want in port. But really, at the end of the day, it all comes down

11:33 to your personal travel style and just how comfortable you are with the risk versus the reward. Now, I do want to hear from you. I'm interested. So, please drop me a comment down below and let me know. Do you book through the cruise line or do you like to do your own thing in port? Do you like to book

11:47 with a third party? Let me know. Also, what's been your best or even worst short excursion experience? I sort of shared mine that time. I was almost late. So, I'd like to hear you tell me about yours. So, sound off down in the comments. Also, be sure to go down below, hit that thumbs up button if you

12:02 enjoyed this video. Subscribe if you haven't already. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you on the next adventure.