I'm starting this thread initially as a tongue-in-cheek sort discussion but could this become reality!?!

The cruise line makes money booking excursions (of course). But, with more and more cruisers booking their own excursions privately (and not using the ship's excursions) is it not within the realm of possibility that the cruise lines will someday proclaim "booking private excursions is not allowed and anyone caught will NOT be allowed off the ship until we return to our home port".

We (many of us) used to bring our own liquor on board to have a cocktail in our cabin while dressing and before going out for the evening. The cruise line realized they were losing money soooo, it's now "illegal" to bring our own booze on board.

Are private excursions the next taboo?

I think that this is in the realm of possibility that the cruise lines will try to control excursions, as a matter of fact they try to discourage us from booking our own excursions already with threats of being left behind or getting ripped-off. The fact is we all know that if we book our own excursion we in fact are not guaranteed anything. I think that as long as it is a free world, they can't prevent us from doing whatever we want once we get off the ship and they would loose a great deal of business trying.IMO

Hello,

While I am a capitalist believer in free markets, the cruise industry is in a bind on the issue of passengers booking their own excursions. A very sizable number of passengers will be very angry if they mandate ship sponsored excursions. However, there have been many incidents where individual passengers have been terribly hurt physically and financially by making their own arrangements and the cruise line looks like the bad guys. The terrible bus accident in Chile is sadly the best example of this.

There seems to be no simple solution to this. My wife and I have done excursions on our own as well as ship sponsored excursions and there really is a measure of safety with ship sponsored excursion.

Fred

quote:

Originally posted by fruby:
...individual passengers have been terribly hurt physically and financially by making their own arrangements and the cruise line looks like the bad guys. The terrible bus accident in Chile is sadly the best example of this.

There seems to be no simple solution to this. My wife and I have done excursions on our own as well as ship sponsored excursions and there really is a measure of safety with ship sponsored excursion.
Fred

Fred, thank you for your input. But one has to admit there is no guarantee that the bus accident would not have happened on a ship-endorsed excursion.

On the other hand, consider the excursion (non ship-endorsed) that has some kind of mechanical mishap and is stranded on the road. The chances of the ship waiting for them are slim to none. But, if that same group is on a ship-endorsed excursion, you can bet the ship would wait (even for hours). I can attest to that - my excursion into Guatemala was caught in a horrific traffic jam - we were due back to the ship at 5pm but did not get back until after 9pm. Not only did the damship (HAL) wait for us, they held dinner for us as well.

I believe we will always have the free choice of using what ever excursion operator we want. I believe the cruise lines will do what they can to persuade their customers to use their sponsored excursions, but, I don't believe they would ever make it mandatory. In some cases it may be more save, convenient, or reliable to use the ships excursions. If they can convince us of that, then they'll get more business.
I think they know if they have too many restrictions they will lose a lot of their customers. They can control what takes place on their ship, but, they have no control off the ship.

Yeah, I think they won't mandate thier own excursions, but I wouldn't put it past them to tack on a surcharge!

Dave posted RCI's new policy on a different thread earlier. Note the following in the policy: Security may inspect containers (water bottles, soda bottles, mouthwash, luggage etc.) and will dispose of containers holding alcohol. Royal Caribbean's Guest Vacation Policy may be enforced, up to and including disembarkation, if a guest violates any alcohol policy! Wow, BIG BROTHER is watching more and more! What's next? Cavity searches?

RCI needs to be walking a fine line here.. They could "restrict" themselves into a lot less cruisers. Not that the alcohol rule is going to change many peoples minds about cruising, but some people are going to get mighty offended with the security people sticking their noses in their water bottles and soda and mouthwash. Regardless of if they have ever thought about smuggling booze aboard.

I'm reminded of those commercials (Sirrea Mist or Mountian Dew??) where the airline security guards take the drink and "sample" it.. then they are force to confiscate it.

That would make great business sense, they could not only improve thier alcohol sales, they could resell our confiscated alchohol! I wouldn't travel on that line if they did that, I always have at least one bottle of rum in my luggage. All of us (designated bottle smugglers) must stand together in a united front, We've got choices! We will go on! There's so many of us, we could all merely pitch in $5 a piece and start our own cruise line!!!

I'll send in my $5, where do I sign up?

I'll do better than the $5, I've got a bassboat we can use for our first ship.. What should we name it? The Binge Drinkers Barge?

Thanks for the bass boat offer. We could run ads with a slogan that starts with something like this...
" Get Drunk, Get Large, Come eat, and drink (your own booze) to your hearts content on Jim's Binge Drinker's Party Barge! "

Let's decide on where the boat will go... oh, it probably really wouldn't matter where it went.