What do you need to know about cruise excursions? — featuring Professor Melissa

0:00 hey everyone I'm Melissa a university Professor who loves to cruise and I love to talk ship today we're going to talk about Cruise excursions and everything you need to know about them so you can have the best experience possible and not waste your money so let's Jump Right In let's start with the basics what

0:17 exactly is a cruise Excursion a cruise Excursion is essentially a planned activity or tour that you can take when your cruise ship is docked in the port now of course you can get off the ship and just walk around but these are more structured activities and they can range from things like guided city tours

0:34 hiking snorkeling or cultural experiences even things like cooking classes or visiting historical landmarks excursions are usually offered by the cruise line or by independent companies and they provide a great way to make the most of your time at each destination so you basically have to decide when you

0:50 get off the cruise ship if you get off the cruise ship because staying on the ship is an option do you want to get off the ship and explore on your own do you want to book a cruise line Excursion or do you want to book an in independent Excursion instead of staying on the ship or wandering around aimlessly Cruise

1:05 excursions give you a chance to immerse yourself in that local culture try new things and check out sites that you probably otherwise wouldn't see a common question is do I need to actually book an Excursion or can I just wander around on my own again this is a big question I hear a lot and the answer is it depends

1:23 and it depends on what you want you can do whatever you want to do but if you're the type of person who likes a little more structure and guidance an Excursion might be more up your alley versus just getting off the ship and wandering around on the other hand if you're a seasoned traveler you like the freedom

1:37 you want to explore you like to walk you like to interact with people you might prefer to skip those organized tours whether they're with the cruise line or independent and just wander now depending on the cruise port some are designed to be more walkable some have beaches right at the Port so you don't

1:53 need an Excursion like Grand Turk and others you need an Excursion because there's not really much to see or do within walking to of the port so doing a little research on your cruise port destination before your cruise is important in making this decision you also want to look and see how far the

2:09 cruise terminal is to the city center because if it's far away it's again much more difficult to just get off and wander and have a good time if you decide to get off and wander things that you can do include hitting the shops getting a bite to eat getting a drink at a bar or sometimes visiting a beach if

2:24 it's nearby without having to sign up for an official Excursion however if your goal is to experience something specific like ziplining Through the Jungle or visiting an ancient ruin or diving into a shipwreck you probably want to book an Excursion to ensure that you get that opportunity but remember

2:40 even if you're just exploring out on your own you still want to make sure you plan ahead so you don't miss anything what's it like taking a cruise line Excursion full disclosure I personally do not like Cruise Line Excursions I do take them sometimes but they're not my favorite and I'll tell you why in a

2:57 moment but what they are Cruise Line Excursions are are those that are organized by the cruise line and that means they plan everything for you you'll typically meet as a group with other people on your ship at a designated time on the ship on that Port day or sometimes they'll have you

3:13 actually disembark the ship and meet somewhere in the cruise terminal area from there as a group you'll head out together with a tour guide to an Excursion site Cruise Line Excursions are great because they're super convenient they handle all the logistics for you from Transportation guides

3:27 tickets all that stuff you also have peace of mind of knowing that the cruise line is responsible for getting you back to the ship on time and more on that in a moment because it's a very important distinction but the downside the reason I don't like Cruise Line Excursions is because they start to feel a little bit

3:43 like a cattle call they feel like Group Travel because they are you're often put with a large group of people the schedule can be pretty rigid and say you get to a destination it's not really interesting to you you've seen it you've gotten your pictures you want to keep it moving you can't you're stuck with their

3:59 schedule and you can't move on until the group is ready to move on but if you like structure you like the ease of not having to worry about logistics and you are super anxious about the ship leaving without you and you want that peace of mind Cruise Line Excursions are a great option for you if you are a firsttime

4:17 cruiser or not very familiar with it or you haven't cruised for a long time booking a cruise line Excursion in my opinion is the way to go now let's break down the pros and cons of booking directly through the cruise line first the benefits convenience it's super convenient everything is done for you

4:32 once you look at the Excursion you decide you want to take it and you book it it's pretty much out of your hands the cruise line does everything from there you also have that huge Peace of Mind of knowing that the ship will not leave without you if your Excursion runs late if you miss that return to ship

4:46 time under any other circumstance it doesn't matter that ship will not wait for you the one exception is if you are on a cruise line sponsored Excursion and it runs late they will wait for you quick caveat if the Excursion is running really late hours late the ship might not wait for you but the cruise line

5:04 Bears the burden and responsibility of getting you to the next cruise port on their own dime there's also quality control excursions offered by the cruise line are vetted but I want to add a little asterisk to that so in theory you can expect a certain level of quality and professionalism but here's my little

5:22 caveat vetting is kind of a loose term you're not going to be scammed or anything like that and someone's not going to take your money and run they're vetted in that way but the Cruise Line Excursions don't really seem to do much vetting in terms of quality or customer experience so just because a cruise line

5:36 offers an Excursion that doesn't mean it's going to be a good one so you want to vet it yourself go online read reviews talk to other cruisers on social media groups and make sure it is a good Excursion before you book it here are the downsides to Cruise Line Excursions one is the cost Cruise Line Excursions

5:53 are often more expensive sometimes substantially more expensive than booking an Excursion independently a a lot of times you can on your own find literally the same exact excursions offered by the cruise line but doing it on your own and doing it at a much cheaper cost another downside is crowds

6:10 as I mentioned it does start to feel like you're being hurted like cattle you will be part of a larger group and that can make your experience A Little Less Pleasant and definitely less personalized and there's also less flexibility there are fewer options when it comes to choices if you're booking a

6:24 cruise line Excursion they can sell out kind of quickly and when you're on the Excursion itself you're on that fixed schedule so there's not that room for customizing your experience now let's talk about an independent Excursion and what that is like booking an independent Excursion means that you're not going

6:41 through the cruise line it means you're either on the day of the port visit you're booking an Excursion right there on site or you're going online in advance and booking an Excursion on your own you're doing this through a third party or independent company or a local tour guide and you're doing it on your

6:57 own that's what makes it independent now this option often is great because you have a lot of flexibility you have a lot more options it's cheaper and you have smaller group size for example if you book a private guide or a small group tour that's how I like to roll you get to customize the itinerary based on your

7:12 interest I love booking private guides and private drivers because I like to pack a lot in in one day I don't like being stuck with a big group if you have your own private guide or your private driver you can spend as much time at each Landmark as you want and you get to call the shots independent excursions

7:31 offer that flexibility if you go the private or small group route now just because it's an independent Excursion doesn't mean it's still not a cattle call there are still those that exist so before booking an independent Excursion make sure you inquire as to the group size because you might still have that

7:46 as an issue with independent excursions now a great thing about booking on your own if you do an independent Excursion they're almost always less expensive sometimes significantly less expensive than Cruise Line Excursions because you're cutting out the middleman now an independent urson does come with some

8:01 pretty substantial risks the most significant is that timing if your tour runs late and you miss that return to ship time and the ship departs without you you're so the ship is not going to wait for you you're going to be responsible for getting yourself to the next Port of Call and doing it on your

8:16 own dime so if you book an independent Excursion it's absolutely critical that you have great time management skills and you plan to return to the ship in my case I always come back two hours before the official return to ship time because I don't even ever want to cut it even kind of close if you do an independent

8:33 Excursion you're on your own so you make sure that you're on time now let's talk about the pros and cons of independent excursions just like Cruise Line Excursions independent Excursions have their own benefits and downsides first let's talk about the pros first is that lower cost as I mentioned independent

8:48 tours are often significantly more affordable than Cruise Line options you also have a much wider array of choices than those that are offered by the cruise line which are pretty limited you also have have a great degree of customization often you can tailor the tour to your specific needs and

9:04 interests and spend as much time where you want when you want and that is definitely the case if you book a private driver or a private guide if you don't go the private route you still benefit with an independent Excursion of generally having smaller groups in most cases but not all independent tours have

9:21 far fewer people making for a more pleasant and intimate experience now let's talk about the downside first is the big one the risk of missing the ship as I've mentioned a few times that cruise ship will not wait for you if your tour runs late most independent tour operators they know this they're

9:36 not going to cut it close they're going to schedule to return you back to the cruise terminal well in advance of your return to Shi time but ultimately the responsibility lies with you to get back on time if not you're on your own you also have trust and reliability if you do an independent Excursion you've got

9:52 to do a little bit more vetting because there's not vetting done by the cruise line you want to do research you want to make sure that you're booking with a reputable company and that the tour is worth the money you also have to invest time in more planning you may have to arrange something like Transportation or

10:05 other logistics which can be stressful if you're not a big traveler or you're not familiar with that particular Port area for example an independent Excursion might give you ziplining Through the Jungle but they don't include Transportation so the onus is on you to find your transportation to the

10:20 zipline location and that can be stressful now let's talk about how and when to book excursions for Cruise Line Excursions you can usually book directly through the cruise lines we website or the app it's super easy usually these are available even a year plus in advance once you book your cruise

10:35 they'll start trying to upsell you on excursions and it is a good idea if you want to do an Excursion through the cruise line to book that earlier rather than later why because as I've mentioned Cruise Line Excursions are pretty limited those popular excursions can sell out quickly and you don't want to

10:52 miss out I've personally had this happen I've gone on a wait list sometimes I've had luck getting in an Excursion sometimes not so there's Excursion that you really want to do book in advance and book as early as possible with Cruise Line Excursions you can technically book them on the ship even

11:08 sometimes the day of the Excursion or the night before but that's a big risk because at that point you're only going to get what's left over and those are usually not the hottest tickets in town they're usually the excursions that nobody else wanted so you can probably get a cruise line Excursion at that

11:21 point but it might not be one that you want manyi cruise lines also allow you to cancel or change your Excursion up to a certain point before you're sailing so you do have a little bit of flexibility and leeway if your plans are to change now if you're going the independent route there are a few ways to go about

11:36 doing it one you can research those independent tour providers online and book directly through them usually on their websites another is you can book through an Excursion company like viatur Shore trips or Trip Advisor I'll drop a couple of my links down in the description because these are the ones

11:51 that I recommend because they generally do somewhat vet these tour providers and they offer some sorts of guarantees now with these websites you you can actually go online research the Excursion I love them because you can check the ratings of other Cruisers and make sure that you're not going to buy an Excursion

12:08 that's a total dog now another option I don't recommend this is you can wait until you're at the port and book directly with the local operator so basically you get off the ship you get to the cruise terminal area it's bustling it's crowded there are almost always some local operators or at a

12:23 minimum drivers there with their signs offering to take you to the beach or to local destinations that are pop popular and you can make a game day decision if you want to actually go to any of those places you can haggle price often they'll only take cash sometimes they take card but that's a much riskier

12:40 Venture because you might not be able to do the Excursion that you want to do because it's sold out or unavailable you also haven't had the opportunity to vet these vendors and you could end up with a shady character who knows when it comes to timing just like with the Cruise Line Excursions booking early is

12:56 key especially for those really popular or specialized activities it's also important to consider your ship's itinerary and to do your research on Port locations before you get there why because not all Port locations really require an Excursion some of them are fantastic destinations for a free

13:14 beach day Grand Turk is a great example there's a lovely Beach right there right off the pier you don't need an Excursion the private islands like princess or carnivals or Hollands princess key or half moon key or perfect day at CoCo K which is Royal Caribbean's Private Island you really don't need an

13:33 Excursion for those locations because again it's a free beach day so do your research on the port destination I have lots of free Port guides for all of the big ports on my blog at Prof melissa.com so look at your itinerary examine those ports figure out which ones need an Excursion some of them do need an

13:50 Excursion coasta Maya Mexico but some do not you also want to evaluate how much time you're going to have at Port Grand Cayman has just one example is notorious for almost always being a super short call I've done calls there that had about 5 6 hours really to spend there so you don't want to book an Excursion

14:09 that's really far away or it's going to take too much time because again you don't want to cut it close when it comes to getting back to the ship and there you have it your ultimate guide to cruise excursions if you like what you've heard make sure you like comment and subscribe and always of course visit

14:23 my blog at Prof melissa.com for all kinds of great cruising information including free Port guides advice and everything else