A flat tire. A medical situation. A shift that runs overtime. Any of these delays could prevent a shore excursion operator from returning guests to a port of call on time and risk the ship leaving without them.
This is what happened last month when a group of eight missed the last offer to the The Norwegian dawn during a 21-day cruise on the coast of Africa.
While in the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, an independent tour took place late, which led the guide to return the guests to the port after 3 pm all-aboard time. Despite the tour operator’s attempts to convince the captain to return the offer, the ship left without them.
Passengers traveled through more than half a dozen countries hoping to meet the ship during a port call in Banjul, The Gambia. This call was canceled due to weather, so the group eventually rejoined the ship in Dakar, Senegal, seven days after being left behind.
The event caused a flurry of media attention, but travel advisors and consortium leaders said they are still confident of working with independent retailers.
“In their contract, they have to guarantee they’ll get everyone back on time,” said Pam Jarvis, director of cruise programs for the Travel Leaders Network. “We will not work with them if they say: “Well, we will try”. That will not work for us, I can say, hand on heart, I don’t think we have ever had anyone.
Travel advisors have long worked with independent operators, those who claim to guarantee the guest’s return to the ship on time or cover the guest’s expenses if they have to meet the ship at the next port stopover
It is a policy that does not differ from that of most cruise excursions: They also guarantee that the ship will not leave guests, or if necessary, that the cruise line will do for them to reach the next port.
The difference is that most cruise lines don’t charge commissions on third-party tours, and guests often seek higher-quality experiences than the cruise lines offer, said Tom Baker, president of Cruise Center in Houston.
“Most of my clients don’t like organized cruises and expensive trips, so the argument that this is the only way to go is BS,” he said by email, adding that books with vendors including Abercrombie & Kent, Shore Excursions Group, well-known guides and destination management companies.
“My salesmen were never late for a ship and the customers made their departures on time.”
To avoid potential problems, the verification of excursion suppliers is ongoing, both by the agencies and their consortia or guests, making it easier for members to book third-party excursions with verified suppliers.
Once cruising restarted during the pandemic, Jarvis said, Travel Leaders vetted new and previous excursion vendors for their Distinctive Voyages product.
The Travel Leaders hosted panels of their executives to discuss vendors, who were also interviewed and evaluated, before ultimately partnering with Ground Excursion Group and Delivery project.
Venture Ashore, which launched in 2022, is a mashup of the reincarnated ShoreTrips, one of the most popular independent excursion companies before it folded in the early days of the pandemic, and Cruising Excursions in the UK are were purchased by Hornblower. Group. Venture Ashore said it has partnerships with several agency groups, including Ensemble and Nexion.
Rinat Glinert, COO of Venture Ashore, said the brand has a back-to-ship guarantee and takes into consideration port conditions, holidays, traffic and ship arrivals and departures during the initial planning of experiences. On the day of the tour, the guides are in contact with Venture Ashore to communicate about the weather and other conditions.
“We operate in more than 500 destinations. We bring tens of thousands of people every year. We never let anyone down, and I think that really speaks of the work we put into it in advance. That’s why customers come to us. ” said Glinert.
John Chernesky, Norwegian Cruise Line’s senior vice president of sales, said that if one of the excursions booked through the line is delayed, “we will do our best to wait for the group to return, within reason, as there are a number of factors that determine our departure time, including the ability to deliver the planned itinerary that our guests expect.”
This higher probability of a ship waiting for reserved guests on its excursions leads some advisors to favor those tours, at least in regions where the advisor lacks relationships with local vendors.
This is the case of Valerie Scope, owner and travel consultant of Sea Our Travel Style in the West Palm Beach area. He focuses on cruises in the Caribbean, Mexico and Alaska, and uses Shore Excursions Group and other independent vendors with whom he has built a relationship. But if he is booking a client in Europe, Australia or New Zealand, where he has no experience with the operators, he will recommend the guest to take excursions offered by the cruise line.
“I can’t verify everything when I book the trip,” he said of the quality of the guest experience and guarantee that customers will be returned to the building on time.
In the weeks following the NCL incident, he expected his customers to raise concerns about third-party tours returning them to a ship on time, but none brought them up, he said.
“Maybe people will argue about it, but not necessarily with me,” he said. “I expected it to come, but nothing did.”
