SHORE EXCURSIONS
there are alot of great opportunities cruising to see places and do things that you wouldn’t normally have access to.
when you get off the ship and do stuff its usually called a shore excursion, there are a few different ways of doing this.
through the ship, this is the least work, least risk, most expensive and alot of times waste more time
book an excursion through the locals, this will be less expensive and some will have transportation from the port, some you will need to get to by taxi,– the other way you can do this is as you get off the ship there will be locals selling alot of different excursions similar or same as what you would get on the ship.
all on your own, this will save you the most, will be more work in research, and its up to you to make sure you are back to the ship in time.
the problem with ship excursions is first you will be traveling in a herd (large group) second, there is usually a bit of time planned in for shopping stops (shopping is good, but if you only want to spend ten minutes doing it then you are waiting an hour for everyone else), third, whatever activity your doing you are most likely to get less time doing it because of the group size. the advantage to booking with locals is usually you can get a little more direct to the point and smaller groups,
so some examples,
looking at ziplining in Puerto Vallarta, Princess, Carnival and Norwegian are the main ones that go there, they all sell the same zipline tour (Vallarta Adventures) Princess is $139, Carnival is $109, Norwegian is $119, and you can try to get the trip on Vallarta Adventure site for $99 with some discount options, they do push you to book through the cruse lines if they know you are coming in on a cruise, most of their time slots for the days in port will show sold out, but some times if you book far enough ahead you can catch a spot or do one of their other tours that include ziplining, you will need to take a 10 min. taxi to their office location(they have a second location about 25 min away) the biggest advantage to booking on your own is you can offset your time a little to miss the bigger groups from the ships, there are also cheaper options for ziplining, there are a couple other locations $54-$67 ( Vallarta Adventures does offer more to do at their site and include some, waterslide, mule rides, UTV rides etc.) but if you are looking for the basic zipline at a great price you can do the Indio Canopy Tour for about $27 each with the 2 for 1 special (the one we did while we were there, great zipline! and they pick up from the port)
Chacchoben Mayan ruins in Costa Maya, looking at Princess and Royal Caribbean, an excursion through the ship on Princess is $89, Royal Caribbean $94 or you can go with a local tour for $55, when we went in 2014 we took the little open air shuttle ($3) that took you a couple miles to a shop and beach area, from there we took a taxi to Chacchoben, it cost about $5 each to get in the park, there were 6 of us (we made a little group out of some friends we made on the ship) the taxi was about $120 round trip and he waited there a couple hours and took us back to the ship, so it cost us about $25 each, we did not have a guided tour, and didn’t really want one, but could have paid for one at the park if we wanted. a taxi for 1-4 would have been about $80, so if there are just 2 of you the local tour may do just as well for you.
snorkeling, you may find a snorkeling trip through the ship for 80-100+, find a local place you can book through for 60-70 or find snorkel spots accessible from beaches and take taxis for $20+/-, giving yourself alot more flexibility.
there are different things to look at with excursions, you may find something you want to do through the ship that may not be available any other way, and you just have to go with them, but usually you can find something similar, or there is something you want to do that is not even available through the ship and you have to find it locally ( like SNUBA in Nassau, Bahamas- through the RC ship they combine it with entrance to Atlantis making it $240, or you go through Stewarts Dive Shop for $117)
things to watch for when you are going at it on your own, if you don’t know what to expect to pay for a taxi you may get charged more than normal because you are a tourist, also catching a taxi right next to the ship in some areas (not all) will cost you more, if you don’t know where you want to go and ask a taxi driver to take you to a good snorkel spot or beach or restaurant you may end up at some place that is mediocre because some of the locals try to help each other out, they may even get a kickback for how many people a taxi driver gets to their location, one place (Cozumel,MX) a taxi driver talked us out of going to a place i had looked into for snorkeling and said he knew of a better place, it ended up being right next to a restaurant/bar and the snorkeling was just ok, so if you are driving around in a taxi headed to where you want to go and the driver said he has a “friend” that has a great shop for shopping, or has the best place to eat, etc. usually its somebody they are trying to push business to, though some taxi drivers can be very helpful.
but on the same note if you need some info on good things to do, see, or eat the locals are a great resource, just be careful where you ask as to whether they may be trying to push business to someone they know or are just trying to help you out.
money, usually you will not have to exchange money to local currencies, cruise ports are use to people coming in with only US currency and will usually have change, just try to be aware of the exchange rate, you may take a small hit not having local currency but not too much, if you are staying somewhere a few days or more you will do better with the local currency.