Going Ashore - new Covid rules may change plans.

As cruise companies take their first tentative steps back to restarting one of the things that is going be very different is the way we go ashore - in order to be quite certain where everyone has been and who and what they have come into contact with,  some lines are insisting on organised and escorted shore excursions.

I must admit I’m finding this a bit hard to think about as I absolutely loathe coaches, queues, wandering around behind a tour guide or listening to one droning on in my earpiece!  On the other hand I’m so desperate to get back on board that I think in the short term it is maybe a price that I would be willing to pay!! 

MSC Grandiosa is cruising the Med with organised group excursions only

MCS was one of the first lines to get back to cruising and they are taking their shoreside operation VERY seriously - one family who wandered off and found their way back to the ship found themselves left behind! Read more about how MSC specifically are getting back to cruising HERE

A bit of virtual exploring helps plan your days ashore!

We have some cruises booked ahead for the end of 2021 and 2022 so I’ve decided to continue to plan for our days ashore as if we will have a free choice of what to do by then. If it eventually turns out that we will have to book an excursion then at least I will be prepared and be really clear on what I’d really like to see and do, even if it has to be in a group! Some research would help me have a better understanding of the cruise excursion descriptions too - they can sometimes be a little vague!

Research, research, research!

Once I’ve done my research and come up with some ideas and tentative plans then I think I will wait until much nearer the time before actually booking anything.

If you want to cover yourself, just in case organised tours are compulsory, then you could book one with the fallback plan of cancelling later if it turns out that you are able to do your own thing.

Think twice before booking an excursion too early…

Although this would guarantee that you definitely get a place on the excursion you want but you should bear in mind that any refunds due to cancellation would go onto your onboard account as a credit rather than being refunded to the card you paid them with.  This has caused real problems with cruise cancellations due to Covid with some people getting very upset that their transactions have ‘disappeared’, only showing up as unallocated credit on their customer account.

Make every day ashore matter!

So I am choosing to carry on researching as if I am able to do whatever I want because, for me, one of the best things about Cruising is the opportunity to go right to the heart of the places that you visit.  If you take time to find out a bit about every port before you actually get there, about the local culture, food, history and a few words of the language can make your visit a really fulfilling experience and less like living the old cruise joke …‘if it’s Monday it must be Rome”.

There is normally plenty of time after booking, for planning and research - so do some background reading, watch videos, ask in Facebook groups, anything you can, to learn about the places you will be visiting. Do this before you make a final decision about booking anything as FOMO tends to kick in - we get so scared of missing out that we grab the first thing we see!  So don’t just look at all the trips in your Cruise Personaliser and panic you are going to miss out, it may sound as if the best tours will sell out if you don’t book NOW but I’ve never known an excursion be full before the cruise actually begins! The Ships Excursions listed in your Cruise Personaliser are a good starting point for your investigations, but you also want to investigate other things to do and places to go. In reality the excursion listing only shows a few of the options available in any port.and in fact you could view it as a handy reference of all the busiest places locally - you might even choose to plan to avoid them!  

Why am I so set against  organised excursions? Well, often lasting only half a day so that cruisers can have lunch onboard, they can be a slow paced, whistle stop, expensive experience; three hours on a coach listening to facts, figures, local history… a few photo stops, and back to the ship!

To be fair I’m not actually against Ships Tours as such but sometimes in trying to show you everything they manage not to show you anything very memorable and if you book a half day tour at every port for a week it probably becomes quite hard to remember which place was which!! Obviously if we have no other option than to stay on board then I am just going to have to find a way of enjoying it . For me that will be by choosing small groups and more action, less history! To be fair even if everything is back to normal there are time that a Ships Tour is worth considering - if you are new to cruising, travelling solo maybe, the slightest bit nervous about being in an unfamiliar place or concerned about security or health issues, as they are a good introduction to the routine of disembarkation and make you feel more secure. There are alternatives though so there it is definitely worth at least looking at some of them…

We had a great day ashore with Viator in Kerala

One alternative to a ships excursion is to use one of the Independent Cruise Excursion companies, such as Viator or CruisingExcursions, who are starting to make an impact on the market. Independent excursion companies tend to offer the same ‘back to the ship’ guarantees as Ships Tours, because in reality if there was a traffic related incident affecting one, it would affect the other so they tend to work together!  You may even find they are offering  a package tailored to your ships itinerary - often there will be discounts if you bundle together tours at more than one destination.

and one in Laem Chabang which was a disaster!

These tours usually have very similar itineraries to the Ships Tours but are in small groups and tend to be cheaper - be sure to check carefully what is included in both - we have known the cheaper option to work out more expensive when add on the entrance tickets or lunch that aren't included - at that point they can become very poor value.  Our blog post HERE gives a good example of how things can sometimes go very wrong!

Edmundo our Cuban Driver and Guide

 Another option to investigate is a Private Tour - this will be in an even  smaller group so you will move at a quicker pace, see more and have a more individualised experience. You generally need at least four people to make this cost effective but if you are travelling solo or as a couple you can find others to share with through face book groups such as Cruise Addicts or Roll Call which is run by the Cruise Critic site. There needs to be a level of trust on all sides but it is a great way to make new friends on a cruise. Ask for recommendations online, look at Tripadvisor and Tours by Locals and don’t book anyone without good feedback. Most Private Tour companies or drivers used to dealing with cruises do not ask for payment in advance. Just beer in mind, if you are asked to pay upfront, that id the ship does not dock for some reason you could lose your money - a situation that wouldn’t arise with a Ships or Independent Tour who would always refund you. Also consider the ‘back to ship’ guarantee situation, there is no doubt that the ship would leave if you were the only person to be late back. Just bear in mind that these companies are well aware of that, so keep an eye on the time yourself and you should have no real reason to worry.

A DIY day ashore may call for local transport!

The fourth option, a DIY day, is a good choice if you’re fairly confident person, happy to explore a strange city without a guide. Maybe you know the port or just fancy doing something a bit different! There are loads of resources on line to help you plan a day ashore, there are many Facebook groups for specific regions or ports for example  talkExplore group has Cruise Port Profiles to download or check our free downloads here in the Bookshop. 

Cadiz or Havana?

I love planning to do different things and quite like to first identify one main focus for each port… a castle, walking the city walls, a cable car ride… then plan the rest of my day around that.  Sometimes we even think of a unifying theme for the whole cruise - a foodie cruise maybe with a focus on local markets, vineyards and restaurants - maybe even book in for a local cookery lesson?  We once had great fun searching out locations from various films on a cruise (Did you know that James Bond’s ‘Havana’ was actually Cadiz!) - something like that is fun to research, makes for great photos and might feel more ‘you’ that visiting a Cathedral.

A high speed ferry for Naples to Ischia

Before you start to plan, think about what you like to do and be honest with yourself, if you wouldn’t spend your leisure time at home visiting museums and historic monuments are you sure you want to start just because you’re on a cruise? There is no right or wrong when it comes to how you want to spend your time ashore - just because ‘EVERYONE’ if off to see Pompeii or Capri doesn’t mean that you can’t hop on a ferry and head off to Ischia in completely the opposite direction!

Cours Saleya Market , Nice

Its worth making an effort to search out the unusual and different, its a great way to make your cruise something special - a more individual experience - for me that often means a trip to a local market! Lets all keep our fingers crossed and hope that we are able to do exactly that very soon!

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and it has sparked some ideas as we slowly start to move back to normality! As always I love to hear your thoughts and it would be great if you commented below! There are also some small affiliate links there which help towards the running of the website - if you click through and buy anything from them it gives us a few pence but doesn’t cost you any extra! It’s a great help and thanks to all those who do!

Happy portExploring!

 Love 

Cathy 

xx

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