On shore….

[Lizzie67]

First off-thanks so much for those answering my questions. I’ve been cruising for 20 yrs but this is my first DCL. Having been on Cruise Critic since my first cruise, I know the same questions get asked. So it really does help us ‘freshman’ when you take the time.

Concerning shore excursions- I would say I’ve done about 90% of mine through independent local guides. If there was ever a question about a possible late return, I took the ship’s tour so they would wait for me, lol. Are there any bonuses to a DCL excursion as opposed to local operators? Not to be too critical but I always found the ship’s sponsored tours to be more ‘herding cattle’ and crowded. I get it- they have to move a lot of people. I was just wondering if there is a prevalence for this line that ship’s tours are way better or about the same.

Thanks again!

P.s. I have designated today as take-the-Christmas-decorations-down-day and there are about 9 million things I would rather be doing. UGH. I do NOT feel like the going up and down stairs a 100 times like I know I will have to. I’m staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllliiiiiiiinnnnnnnggg

 

[Clarkson U]

No advantage other than worryfree about ship waiting for you if late. I will say there always appear to be some excursions on DCL that can’t be found exactly somewhere else - almost like Disney had them made just for them.

Often times the same or similar excursion offered by Dcl is more expensive than booking in your own.

Enjoy!

 

[cmph]

The vast majority of the time, there is no advantage other than the feeling of security. Generally, the folks on this board who cruise regularly are going to think exactly the same way about that as the CC cruisers. Also, some of the time, the age-based restrictions are stricter for DCL than booking independently.

But, do read the excursion descriptions for exceptions to the rule, especially if you have kids in your party. There are some things that may skew a little more toward the kid-friendly Disney groups. Ex: on an Alaskan with extended family, we split 3 ways in Skagway, and the group with the little kids chose a DCL excursion that we never saw offered by another operator and would have been overly complicated to do self-guided with toddlers. (It involved puppies, panning for gold, and some kind of dress-up experience.)

 

[shosh1530]

Do DCL excursions have similar cancellation policies as independent tours? We are leaning toward booking independently for most things on our Alaskan cruise this summer and see most places offer refunds if cancelled before 14 days out. Is DCL similar? Would excursion costs be covered under the DCL trip insurance?

 

[auntlynne]

First off-thanks so much for those answering my questions. I’ve been cruising for 20 yrs but this is my first DCL. Having been on Cruise Critic since my first cruise, I know the same questions get asked. So it really does help us ‘freshman’ when you take the time.

Concerning shore excursions- I would say I’ve done about 90% of mine through independent local guides. If there was ever a question about a possible late return, I took the ship’s tour so they would wait for me, lol. Are there any bonuses to a DCL excursion as opposed to local operators? Not to be too critical but I always found the ship’s sponsored tours to be more ‘herding cattle’ and crowded. I get it- they have to move a lot of people. I was just wondering if there is a prevalence for this line that ship’s tours are way better or about the same.

Thanks again!

P.s. I have designated today as take-the-Christmas-decorations-down-day and there are about 9 million things I would rather be doing. UGH. I do NOT feel like the going up and down stairs a 100 times like I know I will have to. I’m staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllliiiiiiiinnnnnnnggg

Pretty much similar across all the major cruise lines. The biggest advantage being priority disembarkation / tendering.

The kid-friendly aspect, when offered, might be the biggest.

 

[anricat]

Just FYI, it's a common misconception that the "ship will wait." Yes it's more likely that they will wait, however, sometimes that isn't an option (tides, port scheduling, etc.) so there is never a guarantee. That said, if they can't wait, DCL will pay to get you back on the ship somehow. Just want to make sure we are clear that the ship can't always wait.

For our family, we almost always go for non-DCL sponsored excursions. The DCL-sponsored ones tend to be big and full of people, with a lot of waiting around. It's not always the case, but for the most part, we've found small, private group tours are a better fit for us. We've never even cut it close in making it back to the ship on time. A company won't be in business for long getting people back late. In fact, most of them seem more concerned than we are about getting back with plenty of time.

 

[auntlynne]

Do DCL excursions have similar cancellation policies as independent tours? We are leaning toward booking independently for most things on our Alaskan cruise this summer and see most places offer refunds if cancelled before 14 days out. Is DCL similar? Would excursion costs be covered under the DCL trip insurance?

Typically, you can cancel an excursion with Disney up to 3 days ahead - I think that is the excursion date for no charge (and possibly 3 days ahead of cruise for notifying them - you need to verify. That would typically only apply to 7-night cruises.)

 

[aliceinvunderland]

We have always done independent excursions and have always found them less expensive, less crowded (although we usually do private ones), and have never once been nervous about getting back to the ship on time. These tour operators depend on cruise customers and know that clients missing the ship would be disastrous for business. I’ve always had exceptional communication and customer service with the companies/guides we have chosen and their cancelation policy is usually either the same or better than the one with DCL.

 

[Geomom]

We've done a mix of on our own and DCL. For us, one of the good things about going thru DCL is that we use our Disney Visa rewards dollars to pay for our excursions (we save it up and then add the rewards card to our account on day 1.). There are some DCL exclusive port adventures (some with characters, etc.). For us it partly depends upon where we are, for the Baltic sea cruise we only did Stockholm on our own and went through DCL for the others. For Western Caribbean we did Grand Cayman on our own and did DCL excursions for Cozumel and Jamaica. For Alaska we did most ports on our own, but did book the DCL Ketchikan port adventure of Saxman Native village and Disney exclusive lumberjack show (it had a couple Disney elements the regular show doesn't have.)

 

[aliceinvunderland]

Duplicate post. Sorry!

 

[Flossbolna]

I agree with the previous posters: DCL excursions are like herding cattle as well. And while there are some excursions with special Disney touches, those you pay through the nose for. On our Norway cruise there was one in Ålesund where you went to an open air museum and met Anna and Elsa. Taking the public bus to the museum and museum entrance would have been under 15$. I think the excursion was 400$ per person.

 

[Cheburashka]

DCL excursions are almost always the same experience as other excursions.

 

[MomOTwins]

One advantage I didn’t see mentioned (though may have missed it) is that if the ship itinerary or schedule shifts you are not wasting precious vacation time trying to contact an independent vendor on crummy ship wifi and hoping for a refund. We have only sailed 6 times, but on two of those cruised we had medical emergencies that required us to divert the ship and delayed our arrival in the next scheduled port by a few hours, and on another cruise the order of our ports changed a few days before the cruise. We’ve also had one cruise that was cancelled two days before the cruise because of a hurricane. So maybe we are just unlucky but on more than half of our cruises I would have had to deal with making vendor rearrangements or losing a nonrefundable deposit, but because we had only booked excursions with disney, they rescheduled or cancelled for us and we weren’t out of pocket any money

 

[lanejudy]

Do DCL excursions have similar cancellation policies as independent tours?

Typically, you can cancel an excursion with Disney up to 3 days ahead - I think that is the excursion date for no charge (and possibly 3 days ahead of cruise for notifying them - you need to verify. That would typically only apply to 7-night cruises.)

Excursions booked through DCL can be cancelled up until 3 days prior to embarkation. You may be able to cancel onboard if another guest will take that slot. Another plus of booking through DCL is that you aren’t actually charged until onboard the cruise - not months in advance.

 

[vakamalua]

For Western Caribbean we did Grand Cayman on our own and did DCL excursions for Cozumel and Jamaica.

What did you do on your own in Grand Cayman?

 

[anricat]

DCL excursions are almost always the same experience as other excursions.

While they are definitely outside tour operators, they are decidedly not the same experience as other excursions. There are so many things we would not have been able to do through DCL that were absolutely amazing experiences.

 

[Geomom]

What did you do on your own in Grand Cayman?

We walked a couple blocks to the public bus depot, took yellow/west end bus #1 ($2.50 USD every time you get off the bus, masks required back in June, they're mini buses.). We took the bus to the Cayman Turtle Centre did the cheaper option for $29/person. After that we took a bus to Hell, looked at the geological formation, went in a couple of the shops there, bought postcards, went to the post office there to send ourselves a postcard from Hell. Walked to the gas station to catch another bus back to the bus depot. Buses come by every 10-15 minutes on this route. We had no issues with it, but lots of extra stops on the way back transporting locals to/from work, must have hit that time of day! Spent $30 in transportation for 4 people, and $120 for turtle center, so a nice cheap port adventure day!

 

[PrincessShmoo]

That said, if they can't wait, DCL will pay to get you back on the ship somehow.

DCL will get you to the ship, if you've booked a DCL excursion. If you're on an independent excursion and miss the ship, you're on your own to catch up with the ship.

 

[kiford]

One thing I've read about (never experienced directly because we always use DCL tours) is that some tour operators will not take guests from a cruise line (this is not exclusive to DCL) other than through the cruise line. I can only assume that this is due to needing to keep good relations with the cruise line and/or making higher margins from the cruise line.

Do DCL excursions have similar cancellation policies as independent tours?

You have to read excursion company's cancellation policies. If you can't/don't dock at a port or can't dock on time, DCL excursions will automatically be cancelled or updated without your intervention (aka you don't pay). Some non-DCL excursions might not - read your fine print before paying. Some might automatically refund you if the ship simply doesn't dock while others might require you to notify them within a certain amount of time.

Are there any bonuses to a DCL excursion as opposed to local operators?

You don't pay in advance for DCL and while they say you can't cancel or change within three days of sailing, in practice we've (and friends) have found that it is possible as long as they can find someone to take your place which is definitely probable for popular excursions. Non-DCL tours would be more likely to simply charge cancellation fees. And it's much easier to go to the Port Adventures desk than to contact a local tour operator directly at that late date.

Just FYI, it's a common misconception that the "ship will wait." Yes it's more likely that they will wait, however, sometimes that isn't an option (tides, port scheduling, etc.) so there is never a guarantee. That said, if they can't wait, DCL will pay to get you back on the ship somehow. Just want to make sure we are clear that the ship can't always wait.

Also, the operator on a DCL-tour would likely be in touch with DCL prior to getting back late so either would be able to hold for a few minutes if that's what's needed or would be able to start making arrangements before you get to the port.


Lastly, we find the biggest benefit is that I'm way too lazy to research and book independently if I don't need to. My only criteria is whether or not I think that the DCL-sponsored tour is good enough value for me. Not that I haven't done these things when doing a non cruise vacation, but laziness is worth money to me.

 

[luvmyfam444]

We have always done independent excursions and have always found them less expensive, less crowded (although we usually do private ones), and have never once been nervous about getting back to the ship on time. These tour operators depend on cruise customers and know that clients missing the ship would be disastrous for business. I’ve always had exceptional communication and customer service with the companies/guides we have chosen and their cancelation policy is usually either the same or better than the one with DCL.

how did you find the companies you used for your excursions?