Shore excursions
 

Having never cruised before except on escorted tours, we were wondering... do most people book their shore excursions ahead of time using Orbitz or another site, do they wait until aboard ship, or do they wait until docking at port? I can see cost savings by booking ahead, but waiting to that day to see weather and how tired one is before booking would be good as well.

We have never booked a shore excusrion with Orbitz and, in general, prefer not to use the ship's shore excursions--too many people on a bus, too much time waiting for everyone to use the restroom, too much time a shopping venues.

Depending on where we are, we have booked private tours in advance rented a car, negotiated with a cab driver when we got off the ship, or toured on our own using information I compiled from guideboooks and the Internet.

Absolutely in the same boat as abram. We often go directly to the local TI to arrange tours - tend to be very good and inexpensive. Often a guidebook will id good tours available through the TI and sometimes id show and go tours which can be great fun and a few Euro.

I agree with the other respondants. To get the best value etc. requires a bit of work. Usually you book a cruise well ahead of time so you have plenty of time for research. First, get a guide like Frommers Pirts of Call aqnd investigate the various ports to see if you can find enough interest to just get off the ship and look around. If not try to find a guide to take you where you want to go. This may be a bit of work. Start with the internet. Then look for reccommendations from travel sites like this one. If you can find a reliable driver you will have more control and, especially if you can assemble a small group, better prices. Best of all you can probably avoid half of your day in the city's biggest T shirt shop.

Join the roll call for your ship/cruise on cruisecritic.com. You can hook up with other people on your trip who are putting groups together for excursions.

Depending on the ports you are visiting, you can often (but not always) just hook up with folks leaving ship and find local guides, taxies, etc. to take you places. Try to read up and know ahead of time what you want to do in each port and how much it should cost. In some places, you can take trains, etc. and do everything yourself. In other places, it is better to have things arranged ahead of time. Again, joining the roll call can be helpful there too.

If you have a cruise booked already, post it here. There will no doubt be someone who can give more specific advice about your ports of call and how best to navigate them.

what are your ports?
To answer the ? we alsmost never do the ships excursions. You can do way better cost wise to do them on your own. I know some excellent tour guides in the Caribbean BTW, people I've used and can vouch for.

You can often get somethin gonce you get off as there are usually guides trying to sell their services on the docks. However you don't know them but chances are it will be fine. Conversely if you pre book with reputable people then you can be confident in the services you will get.

You can also book with the ship but look into their cancellation policy to be sure yiou are not charged if you decide to cancel, depending on how much notice they require.

We have done all - booked on the cruise exercusions, booked a tour on our own and then just gotten off and negotiated with a local taxi driver for an island tour, etc. For example there is a private beach in Cozumel that you can book for $40 a person I believe that is free lunch, unlmited soft drinks, chairs, umbrella, towels, water sports, etc that only allows a total of 50 people. Much better than the ship offered tour.
Snorkeling using costs the same either way and a lot islands like St. Thomas / St. John the tour operators are filled up and unavaiable due to cruise volume.
We cruised in February and booked one tour on board the day before using the self service kiosk because we wanted to make sure the next day was good weather before committing. In Key West we got off and did our own island tour. Things in Key West are marked up by the cruiseline for example a trolley tour with umlimited on / off was $59 pp on the ship and in Key West by the cruise dock it was $39 pp booking directly with them.
I hope some of this helps :)

Hey, my bf and I booked our first cruise. We are PADI (scuba) certified and want to do a diving excursion in Cozumel. Is this an excursion we dare plan by ourselves?

I love to cruise and I prefer the Caribbean a lot. I have always booked shore excursions with small companies that offer strictly family friendly private tours. The following are my favorite ports and the private companies I use:

Belize – http://belizetoursandexcursions.actionboysbelize.com - I love Belize most because there is so much to do and the prople are far more friendlier than other ports. On our last cruise we did zip line and cave tubing in Belize and it was a blast. The following is ourvideo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDU_VZN-vsA

Cozumel - http://www.cozumel-tours.com/private-tours.htm
Roatan - www.boddentours.com
www.chacchobentours.com
Ocho Rios - www.jamaica-tour.com
Panama - www.panamaprivatetours.com