Cruise Ship Shore Excursions - Snorkeling?

Question

My husband and I are going on a cruise to the Bahamas (Freeport & Nassau) in a few weeks, so I just wanted to know whether it would be better to book a snorkeling tour through the ship, find one online, or just go on our own?

Answer 1

The best thing to do is to book the shore excursions in advance throughe youre cruise line web page. Thus you dont risk that its fully booked or anything. But you could ofc search the web and see if some other companys offer the same experience but to a lower price. But then you need a good time before the ship leaves to be sure you get aboard. But I would go with the cls shore excursions. Johan.

Answer 2

I just did my first cruise Carnival Ecstasy to Cozumel and Progreso in Apr. It was great fun overall. After reading the reviews from Cruisecritics.com, I ended up going on my own and I did pretty good. Its all about you do the research and make your own decision.

Costwise, shore excursions by ships happens to cost 2-3 times higher than you doit yourself. I would recommend searching in the web for the place you are going, you should be able to find a best place for good deal. Don't worry you will always come on time because the places won't be too far so plan such way to be just 30 min drive and don't go too far.

vijai

Answer 3

Choosing between cruise excursion and going on your own is your comfort level, mostly.  On-your-own will almost always be cheaper and less crowded and if you're late getting back, you're also on your own!!

Cruisecritic.com has lots of feedback and advice about shore excursions.  Click on "Boards" at the top of the page, then "Ports of Call".  You might also want to check "Snorkeling", etc.

Answer 4

book it through the ship. in the bahams once you get away from the cruise ship scheduled events it is easy to get ripped off.

Answer 5

The advantage of booking a shore excursion with the ship is it's stress free and you are guaranteed to get back to the ship on time. I've seen plenty of people miss their ship coming back from shore. and that could be rather costly. Now if you are only going to be gone for say 3 hours and have  a lot of time to get back, then you can usually find a company right at the pier ready to take you snorkeling. Those companies are usually pretty good.

Answer 6

ALWAYS book through the ship because they only select what is the best.  If you try on your own you may get lost or not make it back to your ship on time.  If you book with the ship it gives you plenty of time to snorkle and shop afterwards.

Also if you book on your own some places may not be able to bring you back to your ship.