Shore Excursions..

[KeithnRita]

Just like John, we seldom book anything any more. We just head out on our own. If we do decide to book something it's usually with the cruise line spur of the moment.

[DebbieandJerry]

Price hasn't entered in to the picture, yet. We "study" the places where we are going well in advance and come up with our wish lists. Most times, we book excursions on our own. We have used "Shore Trips" and have been very pleased. We have used local taxi drivers. We have rented cars and/or jeeps and have created our own excursions.

We have also been returning to a lot of the same islands because there is so much to do and so little time when we are on the islands. Because we know that we will return (some day), we don't try to jam in a whole lot.

We have signed up for ship excursions, but usually do them at home before we leave. We use the ship excursions as the last possible avenue, after having exhausted all other areas and comparing prices.

[mercedes]

Price is never a factor. I book exclusively through the cruise line and I do tend to read a lot of reviews of the ports before I book.

[jbond]

It depends where we are visiting. If we are in a new environment, we usually book with the ship. If we've been there before, Caribbean and Mexican Riviera etc, we'll go it alone with ataxi or use a local tour. We have done local tours in the Med and other"historic" places and I've not always been happy with them. Sure you can customize where you go, but I have found that you usually get just a taxi driver and not a tour guide. We did an almost identical tour in Florence, one with the ship and the second with a private tour. No comparison. The ship's tour blew the private one out of the water.