What do you need to know about cruise shore excursions? — featuring Royal Caribbean Blog

0:00 Going on a cruise is just as fun on board the ship as it is off the ship. And shore excursions are a critical part of the cruise experience. So, how do you pick a good shore excursion? How do you know which one is the right choice for you? Today, I'm sharing what you need to know about picking a great shore

0:16 excursion for your cruise. Here we go. [music] Hey everyone, it's Matt from Royal Caribbean blog.com and today we're talking all about shore excursions. Shore excursions are a major part of any Royal Caribbean cruise because a large part of your overall vacation is exploring the ports of call you will

0:39 visit. You've just a few hours at each stop, but it should be enough to get a taste of what the city or country that you're visiting has to offer. The concern that a lot of people have is figuring out what the best options are to choose from and which ones are good and which are definitely a mistake. The

0:53 way to be assured that you have the most options to pick and find the right one for you is definitely do your research ahead of time before you get on your cruise. Many of your fellow passengers won't really do that if anything in terms of researching and will rely purely on information that the cruise

1:08 line provides them. In fact, most will just wait to get on board the ship and then decide to book something. Not only is this a mistake because they can make a bad decision, but they're also wasting time on the cruise from doing fun activities and trying to figure out what a good tour would be. So, I want to

1:22 explore what you need to know so you can research the ports and properly make all the reservations in advance, leaving you with more time on board the ship to really do what you want to be doing, which of course is having a fun time. So, let's start off with learning about the basics. On any cruise you go to,

1:37 your cruise ship is going to stop at various ports of calls. You don't have to book a shore excursion. You don't even have to get off the ship if you don't want to, although most people do elect to do so. You have a choice of either booking a tour through the cruise line or booking a tour on your own. Of

1:50 course, the exception is a private island like Perfect Day Coco Key or Lobed, but we're talking about places like Nassau, Cosml, Ketchacan, Rome, etc. So, it's up to you if you want to book something on your own or through the cruise line. There are advantages and disadvantages to doing both. If you

2:05 pick an excursion through the cruise line, then you're getting group activities managed by local companies in each port that Royal Equipment has vetted and will stand by. Royal equipment also guarantees that if you take one of its shore excursions, they'll ensure that you don't miss the

2:18 ship if you're delayed on the tour, even if the ship was slated to leave, the ship will wait for your group to return or provide transportation for your group to meet up at the next port. Furthermore, if your ship cannot dock at a port for any reason, any excursions you have booked through the cruise line

2:33 will be refunded completely. The prices you see for a Royal Caribbean shore excursion are set in stone and they're not negotiable. The full cost of the shore excursion will be due upon booking. And if you were to book a Royal Caribbean shore excursion on board your ship, you could use onboard credit to

2:44 pay for it. The price of a shore excursion will be no less expensive if you pre- purchase it online. Although sometimes there are occasionally a sale before the cruise, but pretty much they're the same all around. Not to mention pre- purchasing before your cruise will guard against tour being

2:57 sold out. So, let's review the pros. Easy to find and learn about, guaranteed return to the ship, and fully refundable if your ships get support. The negatives to booking with the cruise line are they tend to be a little more expensive than thirdparty shore excursions. These are going to be group tours, which means

3:11 tours will move at the slowest person in the group space, and of course, there are limited offerings. Now, alternatively, you could book a shore excursion on your own or through a third party. And third-party excursions are essentially any tour or activity that you do on your own, not sold to you by

3:25 the cruise line. This could be a group tour, an individual tour. Heck, it could even be you taking a taxi somewhere and doing something on your own. With third party excursions, you're responsible for planning all aspects of the tour. So, you're going to need to find a company or person, negotiate the rate, and then

3:40 find them in port and ensure you return on time. The policies of what happens if your ship cannot dock at the port and refunds can vary from guide to guide. Most, if not all, will offer a refund policy if your ship is unable to dock there, but it's definitely something to look into before you book. Prices for

3:55 thirdparty excursions can sometimes be negotiated depending on the excursion in the guide. Some excursions will require full payment at the time of booking, but many will require just a deposit to hold your spot with full payment prior to the tour actually beginning. Third-party excursions are far less limited than

4:10 what Real Crane offers, and you can price shop among many competing companies to find the right tour for you. So, let's review the advantages of booking on your own. Far greater variety of choices. There tends to be less expensive than Royal Caribbean's tours, and there's also the possibility of

4:24 personalization and more efficient with your time. The downsides of booking a tour on your own is you're responsible for getting back to the ship on time. It requires more leg work to learn about what everything is in terms of the tour itself, and you must handle any financial dealings, including

4:39 cancellations. All right, so now you understand the basics. Now, how do you pick a tour? But let's start with Royal Caribbean's excursions because they're a really good starting point because they're simple to find and give you a basis up to compare to for every tour later on. To find any shore excursion

4:52 available for your cruise, all you have to do is go on realm's website, log into the my cruises section, and then visit the cruise planner. Shore excursions are divided up by the port you're visiting, and then further categorized by the type of activity like culture, culinary, family, sightseeing, etc. You can go

5:08 through each port and look at the various options to choose from. In addition to deciding if any of these tours look appealing, you should also consider the following aspects of shore excursions in themselves. Number one, what is the cost? Adult versus kids. Sometimes the price does differ. Number

5:21 two, the duration. Is this tour a few hours, a half day, a full day? And of course, physical and age limitations. Be very sure to read the descriptions of any tour that sounds interesting from all aspects of the excursion. Oftentimes, the main activity is accompanied with smaller activities such

5:37 as a zipline adventure, also including a beach break or lunch. Now that you have an idea of what Royal Caribbean is offering, let's look at thirdparty shore excursions. Whereas Royal Caribbean's excursions are nicely laid out for you and easy to find, thirdparty excursions require a little more effort on your

5:51 part to discover them. Between your initial port research and looking at Royal Caribbean shore excursions, you probably have a good idea of what each port offers, but there's still plenty more to discover. There are two really good resources I always go to when I want to find shore excursion ideas. So,

6:05 let's start with number one, Trip Adviser. Trip Adviser is a user submitted review site that lists for hotels, activities, restaurants, and more. I find it to be a really good means of discovering popular activities as well as activities that float under the radar. For each port, just do a

6:20 quick internet search for the port name and Trip Adviser. So, if you're visiting Cosml, then you search for Cosmo Trip Adviser. The first result back should be Trip Advisor's page on Cosml and you can go through there and find some of the options that are available. Click around, look for activities to mention.

6:33 You may find beaches, buildings, restaurants, or other cultural spots listed with reviews and photos from other people that have been there. Read the reviews for insight into what the activity offers and what people left reviews of in terms of what they liked and didn't like about it. In most cases,

6:48 you're going to find not a vendor here necessarily, but you will discover the places you maybe want to visit. And from that point, you can jump off and start googling around. The other really good resource is a shameless plug for our message boards over at roller cobblog.com because we have a dedicated

7:02 shore excursion forum just for people looking for tours. Message boards are admittedly a little tricky to browse, but they're a wealth of knowledge. What's great about the message board is you'll not only find a list of things to do, but also activities focus on what cruise passengers you'll be interested

7:15 in, and oftentimes there are recommendations for which guides or companies to work with. So whereas Trip Adviser gives you an idea of what's popular to do, it isn't necessarily catered towards or geared for cruise passengers, but message boards can further whittle that down. Reading

7:30 through the various forums for each port you'll be visiting and read what others have to say. You might even be inclined to sign up for the message boards and post your own question to get a more personalized answer. Like Trip Adviser, your goal here is to narrow down the activities that you want to do in each

7:43 port and based on basically other people's advice, descriptions, and photos you run across. If you find individual companies at this stage, that's great. Now, if you haven't found a particular company to work with, but you have kind of an idea of what you want to do, well, the next step is go

7:56 back to the internet, of course, and search for the activity plus the place you're looking to do it in. So, as an example, Cosmemell beaches, New York landmark tour, St. Thomas guided tour. You're going to find a lot of listings for the kinds of tours you're going to be looking for. If your search comes

8:10 back with too many results or they're just too vague, try adding more keywords like cosml paradise beach, New York Midtown tour bus, St. Thomas private tour. And then for each operator you find that looks promising, consider a couple of questions. And I would reach out to them before you book anything to

8:25 ask them some basic questions like, is the price the same for adults and kids? What happens if the ship can't dock here? What's the cancellation policy? And possibly, would you be willing to accept this amount of money instead? if the price of course you're looking to negotiate. You want to ask as many

8:41 questions as possible to consider which one is going to be the best fit for your group. The worst thing that'll happen is they'll say no. But often times these people and companies want your business quite a bit and they're going to work with you. Now I know what some of you are thinking. Well Matt, should I book

8:54 my tour on my own or should I go through the cruise line? And to be honest, it really depends on the port and the person that we're talking about. Booking the excursion for you and your group is now a matter of weighing the pros and cons that we talked about earlier. and decisions like to book with the cruise

9:05 line or not is going to really vary from person to person and port to port. I think in the end the decision can come down to your particular comfort level with booking on your own versus Royal Caribbean. And don't forget, you don't have to make a decision right away, but the longer you wait, the greater the

9:20 risk the shore excursion you want is going to sold out. This is especially true of Royal Caribbean's excursions. But of course, the nice thing about Royal Caribbean's excursions are they're cancelable. So, if you book it today and you're many months out before your cruise and then next month or next week

9:33 or an hour from now you decide, you know, I don't really want to book that tour anymore, it's actually really easy to cancel that through Royal Caribbean's website, get a full refund. So, there's no penalty for cancelling shore excursion plans through Royal Caribbean. My other bit of advice is you should

9:46 treat each port individually and not be concerned with if you're going to book something on your own or go with Royal Caribbean across every single port you're visiting. Often times, I will mix and match depending on the port, what I'm looking to do, and my comfort level. like if I've been there before or other

9:59 things I may have heard about this particular place we're going. When you get on the ship and it's time to go on your tour, if you booked it through Royal Caribbean, you'll get a ticket for that tour in your cabin waiting for you, letting you know what time and where to report to for that tour. If you booked

10:12 your excursion on your own, you should have some instructions from the provider and the operator to let you know where to go, what time to meet, who to look for, etc. A couple other important things to know about shore excursions in general and that is you probably do need to tip during most shore excursions. If

10:28 your tour has a guide or a driver or both, it's fairly customary to tip your tour guides at the end of each tour. The exceptions would be that if you're visiting a country that doesn't have a tipping culture like Japan or if it's already included in the price of your tour and it'll stipulate that. Another

10:43 secret I think for anybody who's traveling with families and looking to do a tour is look at the times and consider lunch. With children, it's really hard to power through lunch and keep smiles the entire time. So look to see if a meal is included with your tour. And if it's not, maybe try to

10:58 arrange a time that's more conducive so that way your kids can either eat right before or right after. And if at all possible, you always want to feed your kids beforehand because it's better to go on a full stomach than end up on an empty stomach. I think the single most important thing you can do in terms of

11:12 researching any tour is to read and learn as much about the tour in terms of what's going to happen during the excursion as you can. The best tours that I've ever been on are the ones in which I go on the tour because I know what to expect and it actually matches up with that. There's no surprises, no

11:28 weird stops I wasn't anticipating or longer times on a bus or a taxi or what have you. And lastly, in all ports, you can usually walk off the ship and do your own thing. For some people, it may just simply mean walking off the ship and going to a local bar or a restaurant and just window shopping. Not doing a

11:43 tour in the sense of, "Hey, I'm going to do an activity together that's organized rather just getting off the ship and exploring." You can do that. Something that a lot of people that have cruised before do a lot. The thing is, if it's your first time visiting a particular port, I think it's to your advantage to

11:58 do an organized tour and then save the walking on your own kind of things for other cruises in which you come back again. So, there you have a look at how to pick the perfect shore excursion for your Royal Caribbean cruise. I hope these tips really do help you out in picking the right option for you. If you

12:12 do the research ahead of time, I think you're going to end up with a great tour and it just requires a little bit of work before your cruise while you're not on vacation. So, that way when you are on the cruise, you'll have a great time exploring and enjoying all the fun these places have to offer. Let me know in the

12:25 comments below your best shore excursion tip. I want to see as many as possible cuz maybe we'll do a video based purely on our viewers shore excursion tips. I think there's some really good ones that are out there. I can't wait to read them. While you're down there, hit the like button. It really does help us out

12:39 when you hit that like button, subscribe to our channel, and turn on your notifications. That way, YouTube lets you know we have a brand new video to share. This has been Matt from realblog.com, and we'll talk again real soon.