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5 Cruise Excursion Mistakes That Can Ruin Your Cruise
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Jul 19, 2024
I look at 5 biggest mistakes that cruise passengers make with cruise excursions, often ruining not only their time in port but putting a huge dampener on their total cruise. For bonus & exclusive content (including videos, articles, eBooks and more) become a channel member or patron: --------------------------------------------------- * Patreon Patron: https://www.patreon.com/tipsfortravellers * YouTube Channel Member: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_qE-Obs2ocdmPXY0TIU-cw/join Check out my cruise-themed T-shirts and products: --------------------------------------------------- * T-Shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore * Mugs, notebooks, hoodies etc: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/tipsfortravellers?ref_id=22354 My social media: --------------------------------------------------- * Blog: https://www.tipsfortravellers.com * Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/garybembridge * Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tipsfortravellers * Instagram: http://www.instgram.com/garybembridge * LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bembridge
View Video Transcript
0:00
Excursions are one of the biggest extra costs when we go on a cruise vacation
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so it never ceases to amaze me the bizarre choices and things that I see my fellow
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cruisers doing when planning, booking or going on them. So stick around to hear about the
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five most remarkable errors that I've seen and what they should have been doing
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instead so you, of course, can avoid them. Welcome aboard, I'm Gary Bembridge
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making it easy to get cruising right every time, including on cruise excursions. The first mistake I see
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is cruisers not researching the port before going, so they can decide what the very, very best things
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to see or do in them are. So if you don't, you're relying on what the cruise line is offering
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and you're assuming that they include always the must and the absolute best see places
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However, I've learned that may not always be the case, because of course, lines have to rely on
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whatever capacity their specific tour operator partner has available when that ship is calling
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into port. It doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to take you to see the very best things
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They will just offer you what it makes sense to provide. So you may be missing out in a particular
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cruise port. But also, by researching the port, you will know if you should even do an excursion
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or whether you should self-explore and more on that topic later. Now, my go-to for research in cruise
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ports is a site called what's in port.com. Because they have coverage of even the most obscure ports
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me where the ship is going to be docking, what's with an easy access, how easy it is to explore
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safety issues, public transport options, the key sites to sea and on and on and on
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Another critical thing that I always check by port, by port, close to the time is the weather
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so it can be prepared because of course it chops and changes. So for example, on my recent
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Regent Seventh seas cruise to Japan, I could see that really heavy rain was forecast when we were going to be in Tokyo
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So I actually just packed an umbrella and a bit of a raincoat into my suitcase. And so unlike my photo guests that were getting really wet or having to stay on the bus to avoid the rain
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I could still get out and see the Imperial Palace, the Meiji Shrine, the Hamara Keodo Gardens
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and it was in relative comfort because I was prepared. However, this next mistake is something I see creating more problems when it comes to excursions than anything else
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And that quite simply is not checking the fine print in the excursion details and terms
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This was the cause of pretty much all of the issues on excursions that I saw on recent cruises
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And there are actually surprisingly five things that you absolutely need to check First of all check the activity or fitness level required All cruise lines classify excursions So for example on that recent region Japan cruise I was talking about they had three clear distinct categories that each tour was rated against
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with descriptions of like the amount of walking, steps, standing time, and other kind of physical considerations
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However, still, on many excursions I went to on that trip, I saw people really struggling because they hadn't checked the fitness and mobility
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So, for example, we went to visit the Kuzuzan Tishugu Shrine in Shemuzu
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These had really steep stone steps that just many people could not cope with
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The cruise before that, I was in French Polynesia and I booked a cycling tour, which included
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a ride-up to a mountain viewpoint. However, people just hadn't read the fitness and ability detail
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So some ended up having to wait at the bottom of the mountain because they just couldn't do it
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while most of us spent half of the excursion time up on the mountain viewpoint
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I went to the Rurgaardo Caves in Cochi. It had really steep climbs, it had tight spaces
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it had a total of 800 steps, which people, when they got there realized they just couldn't do it
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So the head is set outside while we spent an hour or so in the caves
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Also check the activity levels for weight and height or age limits
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on the day. There can also be high restrictions for thrill rides like zip lining, perhaps age
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restrictions for alcohol drinking related tours. Next, look in the fine print for details of the
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distance from the port and how long are you going to spend on the bus. So for example, also on that
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region Japan cruise, the tour to Kyoto from Kobe, where we docked, had one and a half hours
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on the bus there and one and a half hours back. Now people seemed shocked when we set off to learn
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this because they had not read the fine print. Thirdly, and one I slipped up on my last Caribbean
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cruise is to check the detail of exactly what is going to happen on the excursion and the time
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allocated for each activity. So on that trip, I booked a beach break in St. Lucia. Now, if I'd read
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the detail properly, I would have realized that we were going to spend almost half of that time
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doing a shop excursion at a center with chocolate making, candle making, t-shirts, green
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printing and other shopping stuff. Instead of all the time. at the beach. Fourthly, check what is and is not included. So for example on that
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region Japan cruise I've been talking about in many places the excursion covered
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our entry into the grounds but not to go inside the attractions or buildings
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within them So in that Kyoto excursion I mentioned earlier it got me into the Nijo Castle grounds but touring the actual castle itself I personally had to then pay for in addition to the excursion entry fees
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Now, if the tour is over lunchtime, also check if a meal is or is not included. So again
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on that Kyoto tour, it was included in a local resort, but on others I went on over meal times
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it was not included. So important that you check what is and isn't included. Also check in
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the fine print for any dress coat. So, for example, When I was in Cairo at the start of my Nile River cruise this year, we had to have our shoulders
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and knees covered on the day that we were visiting a mosque. Active excursions, like, say, going on
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an ATV tour, may require you to have closed shoes, so always check fine print for dress code
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There is another thing that I see cruisers repeatedly getting wrong, and it affects their bank balance
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badly. Your most expensive excursion options will usually be booking the cruise line ones because they
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mark them up to make a profit on the tours their local providers run in the cruise lines name. So they're
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all going to make a markup a profit. So this is why I do these quick checks before finally
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booking a cruise line excursion. So first of all, I check if I can book the activity direct and if so
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for less, which is pretty much always is. For example, I absolutely love doing the Y-pass and
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Yukon train in Skagway, Alaska. I love it. And I always book that direct for way less money
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than if I was doing it as a cruise line excursion. I go in, by the way, months and months before
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because it does sell out. So getting in early is key if you're booking direct with the
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attraction or the provider. Another is I never book hop-on-hop-off buses through the
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cruise line. For example, this summer, I was on a Norwegian Viva cruise that stopped in Barcelona
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Now, the cruise line was selling the hop-on-hop-off bus for over 70 euros. It's about 75 US
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dollars, but I could buy a hop-on-hop-of day pass for just 35 euros at the booth in the terminal
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The other thing I always do is compare with independent alternatives like venture ashore.com
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shore excursionsgroup.com. And now the second, by the way, makes a lot of their guarantee that
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they promise to get me back to the ship on time and if they don't they will cover the cost
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of getting me to rejoin the ship at the next port. But whatever route you go, this next mistake
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I unfortunately have seen too many times mess up people's trips. Most cruisers seem to wait
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until just before the cruise or once they're on board to book excursions, hence the long
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lines at the shore excursions desk on embarkation day This is a terrible idea for a couple of reasons First of all most cruise lines have a pretty good cancellation policy usually the ability to cancel 48 hours before an
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excursion with no penalty. So I always go in early and I book excursions as soon as they are available
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in my cruise plan online to make sure I get the ones I want from the cruise line knowing I can tweak
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once I'm on the trip or even cancel them. I've been on so many cruises where people have gone on
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what is a trip of a lifetime and missed out on the key excursions they wanted to do
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One that rarely sticks in my mind was on a South American trip on Holland America last year
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with a highlight was going to see penguins in the Falklands, which for most people was going to be the only cruise they'll ever go on in their lifetime
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to see penguins in their natural environment. But I met way too many people that had waited until they got on board to try and book that excursion
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but it was sold out. I had booked months and months ahead, and I got to go on the cruise
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excursion and I got to see the penguins. So I put in my diary, the day excursions are going to be
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open and then I go in and lock them in for all my cruises. However, once cruisers have the
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excursions booked, there are a couple of mistakes I keep seeing people do once they actually
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go on them. On every trip, I always see people traveling with friends or family really annoyed
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that they're put on different buses or groups. Now, it's so easy because all you literally need to do
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is check-in at the same time with all the group together to be on the same bus
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The next one drives me crazy, which is passengers not paying attention to nor respecting meet-up times
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especially if there's free time to go off and do stuff on a tour. The tours end up going at the pace of the slowest person
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Now, for example, on an excursion in Pisa, Italy, this summer, on each site we were given free time
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but every time a family always came back late, reducing the time you had to explore other attractions
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The guide kept saying they needed to watch it because he would have to leave them behind if they were late at the last stop
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because he had to get us back to the ship at a set time because it was quite some distance away
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On the last stop, 25 minutes off from the meantime, they were not back and so we left without them
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Now they did eventually get back to the ship before the ship departed by having to catch a taxi at their own
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great expense. Now there is another huge mistake I see around deciding whether to self-explore
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use independent tours or stick with the cruise line and there are four times that I will always go
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with the cruise line over any option. Now I talk about that and what they are in this video
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starting with the one thing that most people completely overlook. See you over there
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