Best Place to Book Excursions

[Sara]

What are our options for booking shore excursions? By "options" I mean where are the places aside from the cruiseline itself that are available to book through? I've found a few websites and I've also heard from other cruise veterans that bookings are available by "sellers" who wait for the ship to arrive at each port. What are pros and cons of not booking through the cruiseline itself? Any help greatly appreciated. (We are sailing on September 8 on Carnival Inspiration from New Orleans to Western Caribbean.)

[pat]

We just got back from a cruise with Princess thru Western Carribean (Grand Cayman, Costa Maya & Cozumel). I booked our own excursions for Grand Cayman & Cozumel. Found a lot of info thru internet, starting with ask.com for info by port. Travelnotes.com was also helpful. Both excursions went really well - stingray swim/snorkel in GC & jungle jeep tour in Cozumel. We used Princess excursion to Uvero beach for Costa Maya & it was a complete waste of money. Took a bus (picture Romancing the Stone) to a decent (not great) beach with free (but really cheap quality) drinks & not much more. Lunch = $6 cheeseburger/ $4 hot dogs; one shop; there were waverunners available. To answer your question Pros to me were cheaper, less crowded/more personal. Cons would be mild stress at getting back to the ship on time. All the companies we dealt with were reputable & used to dealing with cruisers so there was never any problem or question of getting back in time. I saw many people with signs for impromtu excursions at each port but I don't think I would have been comfortable with most of them. Hope this helps. Pat

[Donna]

Hi Sara,
There are a few independent shore excersion companies you can pre-book with, have heard good things about portpormotions:

http://www.portpromotions.com/

Also if you are going to be stopping in Grand Cayman Captain Marvins does a good tour to Sting Ray City:

http://www.captainmarvins.com/

One of the best excersions in the Western Caribbean is Sting Ray City, so I hope you get there and have a ball!