Cruise Tips: Ports & Excursions

One of the most amazing parts of cruising is being able to visit multiple ports in a single vacation!  Here are some cruise tips to make the best of your ports & excursions.

There are five options of what to do while visiting a port:

1. Book a shore excursion through your cruise line (this can be pre-booked online or while you are on the cruise ship)
2. Book online with an outside vendor
3. Walk off the ship and hire one of the local tour guides in the port
4. Explore the port on your own
5. Stay on the ship

While some of you may want to stay on board and enjoy and empty ship… these tips will help everyone else enjoy their day in port.

Pre-book through your cruise line

If you want to book through your cruise line, do it online before your leave for your cruise.  There are several reasons to do this.

1.  Some popular excursion book up quickly so if you wait until you are on board you will miss out.
2.  You can research the excursion better.  Online, there is a rating system and reviews from cruisers who have done this exact excursion! Also, you can read other reviews online (Cruise Critic, Trip Adviser, etc) and look for videos on YouTube.  To me a video really lets me know if I will enjoy it or not.
3.  Price protection – Carnival offers a price guarantee where if you find the SAME excursion for less online, they will price match it 110%.  And this does work, I have done it before.  It has to be the exact same description so read the details.

Isla Pasion, Cozumel

Pre-book with outside vendor

There are many reasons to do this, but price is a big one.  Check online before leaving to book excursions for way less than through the ship.  Each cruise line builds in a little for themselves as a referral fee for organizing the excursion.  So if you book direct with the local vendors, you may save substantially!

Another reason is that not everything is offered through the cruise line.  Example: we were going to Montego Bay and wanted to go to an all-inclusive resort.  so we began searching with Carnival what was available and then we looked to see what other resorts were in the area.  We found Suncape Splash and loved it… but Carnival didn’t offer an excursion there.  So we booked with resortforaday.com for a day pass to the resort with round trip transportation.  It was a wonderful experience!

However, if you are wanting to go a long way from port, I would be wary of this option as there is no guarantee the ship will wait for you!

Do your research!

If you book outside the cruise line then do your research and be sure to book with a reputable company!  Read their reviews on Trip Adviser.  Email them and see how long it takes to get a reply.  Do they have a money back guarantee if the ship cannot stop in that port?  I make sure I am comfortable with a company before booking an excursion with them.

Goff’s Caye, Belize

New to cruising and need more info?

If you are new to cruising, and did not pre-book excursions, attend the informational talk on board.  The cruise director and members of the shore excursions desk staff will be there to present excursion options available and give you details, and sometimes pictures.  Also, these people have been on many of the excursions they are describing so have first hand knowledge. Ask questions!!!

Bring a bag ashore

Take a small bag/backpack ashore with water, small first aid kit with medications, sunscreen, bug repellent, hand sanitizer, rain poncho and travel toilet paper… in addition to your camera, etc.  Bring what you will need with you when you get off the ship.  Depending on what port you are going into and what you are doing this may vary.  If you are heading to an all inclusive resort you don’t need to bring water a long.  But if your heading up into the jungle to zipline, you may have a long bus ride and want to bring some snacks in addition to that water.

Behold our speedboat!

Doesn’t this look like fun? Twister Boat in Cozumel

Bring your newsletter

Always take the daily newsletter with you when going ashore. This will have the details for the ship’s local port agent who is in constant contact with the ship – call in case of emergency or delay getting back on board.  This is one of those things you hope you will never need!  But if you are not going on a ship organized excursion, you better be safe and take it with you!

Wear a watch!!!

Take a regular watch off the ship and make sure it is set to the SHIP’s time!  Many cell phones will readjust their time to the nearest cell tower.  Local time and ship time may not be the same.  It would be terrible to miss your ship because you thought it was the wrong time!!!

Feed the fishies

If you are going snorkeling, grab some cereal from the buffet to feed the fish.  I am thinking along the line of Cheerios here…

Snorkeling the Belize Barrier Reef

Invest in good water shoes

Water shoes are a great idea! Some excursions require them and some beaches can be rocky.  I have been on beaches where I could barely walk because there were so many rocks and small seashells in the sand.  On these times, I WISH I had water shoes on… Never again, they go with me now.

Also, many of the more daring activities on board (ropes course, rock wall, etc) require closed toe shoes and water shoes usually have good grip on them.

I hope you find these tips helpful!  Be sure to check out our other posts for: what to do before your cruise; extras to pack; what to do after boarding; food and drinks; shopping; tips & gratuities and activities not to miss on a Carnival cruise.

If you want all 101 Cruise Tips, click here:

Want to see these tips live:  Here is the video:

Want more cruising posts?  Here is our full list.

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Thanks,

Alisa

EECC Travels