If you’ve planned a cruise before, you know a lot of times, the excursions are one of the main reasons to plan your vacation. Whether it’s seeing something you wouldn’t get to on your own, a reason to try something new for the first time, or just the ease and security of being with a tour group, cruise excursions can really make your trip something special. If you have been on cruises before, you probably already have things you look for or look to avoid as you pick your excursions. If this is your first cruise, here are a few things to consider as you get ready to make your picks and start to plan.
Early in the planning process –
This is a great reason to have a pre-cruise planning dinner with your travel companions. Look ahead to the excursions your cruise line has listed for
each port. Talk through what everyone in the group is interested in seeing and which excursions sound best. This is also a great time to discuss if the plan is for everyone to go on the same excursions or if smaller groups can break off for something they are more interested in. This is personal to your group, but if this is your first time traveling together or taking a cruise together, get this worked out before you need to book excursions. This makes booking easier and the cruise easier in general. Whichever way you go, as you’re making final payments is not the time to figure out you all have very different ideas of how the trip will playout. You also want to plan the excursion you’re interested in before they become available for you to book. Don’t assume they will be available if you wait a few weeks (in some cases days), after booking opens. Of course, some will. But if something is very popular, they can and will fill up. Be clear on when excursions become available for your cruise – usually 90 to 120 days out. Most likely, you will need to have your trip paid in full as well, not just a deposit. That might vary depending on the cruise line, so check yours for details.
Getting into the details of your excursions –
As you’re making your final picks, read the full description of each excursion you’re interested in to make sure you are clear on all the details. This way you don’t have any unwanted surprises along the way.
- Get a sense of the time it takes to get to the destination. For our upcoming cruise we have some excursions that we just need to walk from the pier to our first stop. But in Casablanca, if you want to go to Marrakech, you need to plan on 3.5 hours of driving each way. As with everything, it’s just deciding if it’s worth it to you. If you know this is your one opportunity to see Marrakech and you have always wanted to go, the time on the bus is no issue for you. For someone else, the 12.5 hour day, 7 of them on a bus is a no-go.
- Know before you pack if any location you’re visiting has a dress code. In most religious sights, shoulders and knees covered is pretty standard (for men & women). In some locations in the Caribbean, camouflage clothing of any type is restricted or illegal to wear. Other locations you will be expected to remove your shoes. Exceptions are not made because you are part of a tour group. As one of the reasons to travel is to fully experience other parts of the world, we should want to respect the local customs of the area we have chosen to visit.
- If you or anyone you’re traveling with is prone to motion sickness, be clear on how you’re getting to your destination. We’re not talking about the obvious “tour of the islands by helicopter”. It’s the 30 minute ride on “winding and bumpy” roads that will get you. Or you’re good on the ship, but the small boat taking you to an ancient island by Mykonos crossing the choppy waters that you might turn you a little green. We’re not saying to skip these, just know what you’re getting into so you can plan ahead and enjoy it.
- Be clear on how accessible the tour is. Sometimes there is limited access, sometimes there is no access at all for a wheelchair. Unfortunately, ancient sites can be in areas where it’s not possible to build in access. While your cruise ship will be accommodating, it might not be possible in all locations. Most cruise ships will offer something for everyone at each port. Look through all the options or reach out to your cruise line to better understand the options.
- As people who have been known to get hangry, we check if there will be food available during a tour or if there will be free time to stop and try some local treats. Sometimes, you don’t get either. If you tend toward the hangry side, just plan ahead to bring something or time out your pre/post tour meals. This might seem so basic, but if your tour goes over lunch, it’s easy to assume there will be something, anything…right? Just know going into it.
A few things now that you’re on the cruise –
- There are plenty of pier runner videos out there. Don’t become one. This should be a basic concept to grasp – if the ship says it’s going to leave at 5:00pm, they are leaving at 5:00pm. If you are on a private tour or have walked off the ship into town, they have no obligation to wait for you. None. There is no special circumstance to change this. So be clear on when your ship is leaving and what the current time is on the ship. Some ships change time depending on the local time, others don’t. Just be clear on what time your ship is going by. You will be responsible for meeting the ship at the next port or getting yourself home. Neither one will be easy or cheap, so don’t chance it.
- Be prepared with a tip for your tour guide. Yes, tipping culture in the U.S. is kind of out of control. And after paying for your excursion (included in your cruise price or an add on) you might feel like you’ve already paid enough, but it is always appreciated by the tour guides when their work is recognized. Of course, it’s not required, just a nice thing to do. Also, think about the bus driver too. Sometimes there are intense drives or parking situations when your bus driver should absolutely be recognized. We’ve been on plenty of tours when we had drives we thought would be difficult in a car, let alone a huge bus. And many parking situations that we had no idea how the bus driver would be able to maneuver, but they did.
- No matter what cruise line you are on, things can go wrong on an excursion. Some of it is out of everyone’s control – weather, construction, traffic, protest, you name it, things can happen. But sometimes things happen that the tour guide has control over or just general miscommunication. When we took a tour in Boston, the tour guide made a choice to show us an area not listed on the tour that prevented us from going to the area that was listed. The North End was meant to be our last stop and was definitely part of why we chose our excursion. We still had a good day, just not all of what we planned on. Our advice is, take it to those on the ship, they are the ones who can do something about it – if there is anything to be done. On Crystal, there is almost always someone from the ship (crew, speaker, etc) with you during the tour. First, make sure they know the situation. Most likely they are aware but talk it through with them. Then bring it to concierge or the shore excursion team. That is who can help you – not social media, not reaching out to the general customer service of the cruise line. We say this because it’s surprising how many people take ship issues to people not on the ship, when they are still cruising. If you really want action to be taken, talk directly to the people who can help you.
With a little planning, your excursions will give you a great experience in a place you’ve never visited or a new perspective on a location you’ve been to many times before.
