I’ve been on quite a few cruises (17), and I always enjoy exploring the various ports. Sometimes, I book excursions through the cruise line. Other times, I book 3rd-party tours or just take public transportation to nearby sites. My daughter and I will be sailing on an MSC cruise around Norway this summer, and I’m blown away by the sky-high prices of the cruise ship excursions.
Cruise Ship Excursion vs. 3rd Party Excursion Prices
In the town of Flam, Norway, the main attraction is the scenic Flam Railway. It is rated one of the most beautiful train trips in the world. The cost of booking the train through MSC for me and my daughter combined is $244 USD.
However, if I book through the Norwaysbest.com site, the total price for the two of us is only $104. The train stops very close to the dock, so I see no reason to book directly with the cruise line in this situation.
The spectacular Stegastein Viewpoint excursion through MSC would cost us a combined $163.
On Norway’s Best website, I can book it for a total of $64.
In Nordfjordeid, we could book the Loen Skylift excursion through MSC for $310.
But, if I book directly through the Visit Nordfjordeid site, the price is $189 for the 2 of us.
Lastly, in Alesund, a Hjorundfjord Cruise booked through MSC costs $236.
If I book through Visit Norway website, my total cost is $121.
As you can see, we could save a lot of money (almost 50%) if we go with 3rd party companies for excursions.
Drawbacks of booking through 3rd party websites
Why doesn’t everyone book through 3rd party websites if the price is so much better? A few reasons:
- Cancellation policies: Usually, excursions booked through the cruise line have better cancellation policies. For example, if the cruise can’t dock at the port due to bad weather, the cruise line will refund your money. Not all 3rd party excursions have the same policy.
- Late arrival policy: If you’re on a cruise line excursion and you get back to the port late, the ship will wait for you. If you’re late from a 3rd party excursion, the ship will probably leave without you.
- Convenience: Many cruise ship excursions meet on the cruise ship and guide you from the ship to the bus/boat/train. With a 3rd party excursion, you usually have to find your way from the dock to the meeting point by yourself. There’s more “DIY” involved.
My Plan
I’m going to book 3rd party excursions in at least 2 of our ports for this cruise. We will be docked for 11 hours in each of these ports, which is plenty of time to accomplish what we want to on our own. If our schedule was tighter, I’d be more likely to stick to the cruise line’s excursion. And, in at least one port, we plan to book nothing at all! Alesund is a port stop we can easily navigate without any tour.
Do you stick with cruise ship excursions? Or, do you book 3rd party tours or explore on your own?
Aha! Glad it worked out.
I’m curious, how do you find what looks like a set of fairly obscure sites? The google?
I hadn’t realized that you had cruised so much. Have you looked into European river cruises? If so, any suggestions on how to save substantial amounts of money? My wife is interested in a Danube cruise and my slight researches have turned up some pretty steep prices.
@Christian I look on the boards of cruisecritic.com and in a few cruising Facebook groups for recommendations on outside excursions companies. 🙂
I’d love to do a European river cruise. My parents went on two of them and raved about the experience. River cruises are definitely very expensive. I haven’t figured out how to bring the price down. We won’t be doing one until my kids are a bit older and we can comfortably go on one just the two of us.
On our first Norway cruise, we tried to book the Flam Railway tickets on our own to save some money. I’m not sure if this is still the case, but in our case, the whole train was reserved for the cruise excursion, so our only option was to buy the shore excursion through the cruise line. Perhaps this has changed for the better?
@Naoyuki Interesting! Maybe it’s changed, because I can book tickets now for my date.
You’ve ignored the main reason for booking through 3rd parties – quality. Very easy to get a private or semi-private tour for the same price as (or even less than) the one that puts you on a bus with 50 other people and get to have a lot more say over aspects of the tour. Huge difference!
@David Great point! It’s nice to be on smaller tours.
We’ve been on a dozen cruises and only booked excursions through the ship twice (when the excursion was exclusive to the ship). We do make sure to plan to be back at the ship at least two hours before sail time – that way we have a buffer in case something goes wrong. There is obviously still a risk (we were sweating one time when our train back to the ship broke down en route in Florence) but we feel fairly confident in exploring on our own or sometimes booking third party.
@parents Getting back 2 hours before sounds like a reasonable buffer. Thanks for your input.
Sorry for missing the update – what happened with the itinerary change that wasn’t going to the fjords? (I’ve looked around the site a bit but don’t see anything about it.)
@Audrey I ended up booking another cruise with the same line on a different ship so that we’d still see the fjords. 🙂
Shore Ex Group is a partner of ours and they offer back to the ship guarantee. I have to say, if the cruise line has the excursion, i usually go thru them. I look to third party for more robust offerings.
@Harmony Thanks for chiming in. I know you’ve been on a lot of cruises and booked a lot of cruises for your clients.