Advantages of Taking Ship Excursions

For one, you won't get left behind!

Advantages of Booking Through
Your Ship Excursion Desk

Although there are many good reasons to plan cruise excursions on your own, booking through your ship's cruise excursion desk have some significant advantages.

Who Goes Ashore First? If you are on a mega-ship anchored offshore, you may be delayed in reaching land if you are not part of a scheduled tour. Tour members get priority in going ashore.

Cruise Passengers Receive Priority For Tours On an island with a limited number of tours (or tour vehicles), cruise ship passengers receive priority over those who show up at the gangplank looking for a bargain. All island tours could be fully booked days before.

Safety and Security If you book a tour through your cruise excursion desk, you can be assured of a spot on a popular tour. Especially if you claim it when you book your cruise. It's more risky to book it once you go aboard, when you may have to wait in a line with other passengers.

Most importantly, if your cruise tour is delayed and arrives back at the ship after its scheduled departure, the ship will still wait for you.

No captain likes to leave a passenger behind, but no single passenger is worth delaying a ship's schedule. That's a risk for anyone touring on their own. If you don't arrive back at the ship at departure time, you may be left behind.

And it will be up to you to find a way of traveling to the next available port to rejoin the ship. Depending on airline schedules, there could be a considerable delay. And quite an expense since you won't have any advance purchase.

On the other hand, no ship captain will leave behind a group of passengers who are taking a ship-sponsored tour.

I've seen a ship wait as long as 2 hours for a bus of fellow passengers. No reason for the delay ever was given.

We still arrived at our next port exactly on time. The ship simply traveled faster through the night.

In the meantime, consider what you may want to book and how to book them based on these 63 of the Caribbean's most popular tours.

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