It’s an odd thing about cruising that many of the highlights are not on board, but on shore! Well, that’s fine: relaxing nights on the ship, good food and friends and all that, then shopping and sightseeing and excursions in each new port of call. But making sure those ports of call live up to their promise is not as easy as you might expect, and many passengers have experiences they’d prefer to forget!
Cruise Ship Docking at St Thomas
After a long time thinking about the shore excursion marketplace, Viator now offers a very diverse and rapidly growing range of shore excursions as an alternative to the cruise line offerings. Here are some of the reasons you might want to consider us, next time you cruise:
Don’t be taken for granted!
As a passenger you are a captive market, and the cruise lines do tend to charge premium prices for a limited range of shore excursions. You can, on the one hand, rush to the sign-ups on board, get your name down for whatever’s left, pay full price (or more!), and then get treated like the people who bought the cheap seats when you’re on shore. Well, you wanted to do this excursion, and you had no choice, right?
Wrong! Your alternative is to check out Viator’s offerings in your ports of call before you leave home. You’ll find an extensive product range, reviews by actual customers like you, and excellent pricing.
Don’t be one of the crowd!
Relax as the rest of the herd race off, sheep-like, when you reach port. Your personal driver and tour guide await you, and you can take a little more time about everything. As Dee explained in her review of our Grand Cayman Shore Excursion: West Bay Sightseeing Tour:
“This was the trip of the a lifetime!!! The tour consisted of my family and another couple, therefore we didn’t feel rushed. We could ask as many questions as we wanted. Leonardo was very knowledgeable and made our tour run. For this reason we are glad that we booked our shore excursion independently.”
And here’s the big payoff: tonight, over dinner, when your fellow diners note that they didn’t see you on shore today, you can let slip that “We took a private tour that we arranged a few weeks ago…” One-upmanship works best when you are actually on a ship, don’t you know?
Just relax!
One of the concerns cruise passengers often have about “3rd-party” shore excursions is that they’ll get left behind as their ship leaves port. Really? Look, it just doesn’t happen. All our operators are tuned-in to the comings and goings of the cruise ships, and will always have you back in port on time. And just in case you still don’t believe me, Viator shore excursions come with a Worry-Free Guarantee:
We will ensure your timely return to port for this activity. In the rare event your ship has departed, we will arrange for transportation to the next port-of-call. See our terms and conditions for full details.
And also: if you booked a shore excursion for Monday and for some reason you don’t arrive in that port until Tuesday, don’t worry, we already know. We’ll be there!
Finally…
We also do transfers, to and from airports, hotels and your cruise ship. In places like Rome, (where making your way to Civitavecchia from the city is such a hassle that passengers worry about it for weeks in advance) our Private Transfer is a Godsend. As SylviaIan C states in their review:
“I was very impressed with this transfer. The driver arrived early. It was a nice car – black Mercedes. He was very professional and very handsome. I arrived at the port ahead of schedule. I would not hesitate to use this service again.”
Viator transfers are available in many cities around the world; browse our site for all the details.
-Rod Cuthbert
