We finally booked our Alaska cruise

(John*Sisker) wrote:

I would hope that we could disagree on
something without being disagreeable. Yet, for
those on Cruise Critic recommending a shore
excursion from anyone other than the cruise
line itself, that is all well and fine for some.
However, has anyone bothered to even check
on and/or verify if any of there private vendors
are actually licensed and insured? Of course it
doesn't matter if nothing happens, so why
worry about it - right! Unfortunately, I've seen
bad things happen to good people, when
simply trying to save a buck or two.

I don't know about anywhere else, but at least in St. Petersburg they
are licensed. At the time I was corresponding with Alla about the tour
our group was putting together, I remember the discussion over at
cruisecritic over the new licensing laws for tour guides in Russia. Also
our Alla guide, Viktoria (now the owner of spb-tours in St. Petersburg
and Berlin) confided to us that she had just finished jumping through
all the hoops the Russian bureaucracy had in front of her to get her
license, and would open the next year.

Without that license, the private tour operator cannot issue the
equivalent of a Russian visa. (Russia's law is that you must get a visa
with the exception of visiting in St. Petersburg for 72 hours or less
and using either a ship's tour or a tour by a licensed operator. They
are not supposed to let you out of their sight.

On Wed, 7 Apr 2010 12:16:21 -0400, (Jeff
Gersten) wrote:

(John*Sisker) wrote:

I would hope that we could disagree on
something without being disagreeable. Yet, for
those on Cruise Critic recommending a shore
excursion from anyone other than the cruise
line itself, that is all well and fine for some.

I don't know how different using a guide recommended by someone on an
internet board and getting off the ship and using a taxi driver or
going off on your own. I've done that in a bunch of places. If you
have a recommendation from someone else, I think that's a step up.

However, has anyone bothered to even check
on and/or verify if any of there private vendors
are actually licensed and insured? Of course it
doesn't matter if nothing happens, so why
worry about it - right! Unfortunately, I've seen
bad things happen to good people, when
simply trying to save a buck or two.

I've used private vendors when I was NOT saving a buck or two. A
private car and driver/tour guide is NOT inexpensive. Less expensive
than the ship's equivalent - about half in fact. But still not cheap.
And I do this when or because the ship's tours do not suit me.

Bad things can happen even when you do not use a private vendor or
indeed any vendor at all. You can miss the ship from mis-reading the
departure time. Who are you going to blame that on?

I don't know about anywhere else, but at least in St. Petersburg they
are licensed.

In some cases the government licenses guides. In most cases that
means that they are appropriately trained. I've used a licensed guide
in San Juan, Puerto Rico and it worked out excellently.

And also in St. Petersburg which as Jeff says the guides MUST be
licensed or you can't get off the ship.

At the time I was corresponding with Alla about the tour
our group was putting together, I remember the discussion over at
cruisecritic over the new licensing laws for tour guides in Russia. Also
our Alla guide, Viktoria (now the owner of spb-tours in St. Petersburg
and Berlin) confided to us that she had just finished jumping through
all the hoops the Russian bureaucracy had in front of her to get her
license, and would open the next year.

Without that license, the private tour operator cannot issue the
equivalent of a Russian visa. (Russia's law is that you must get a visa
with the exception of visiting in St. Petersburg for 72 hours or less
and using either a ship's tour or a tour by a licensed operator. They
are not supposed to let you out of their sight.

In article ,
wrote:

In some cases the government licenses guides. In most cases that
means that they are appropriately trained. I've used a licensed guide
in San Juan, Puerto Rico and it worked out excellently.

Governments licenses taxi drivers and guides. At any port you can find
someone at the end of the dock. If you are savvy you can pick out the
good ones. Licensed or unlicensed. I take a good look at them and their
vehicles. Never had a problem. Last December a bunch of us walked
outside the official area at Aruba and picked out a local driver who
would take our whole group to the beach. The official drivers were not
allowed to take us in one taxi. The driver we found took us to Palm
Beach and picked us up and returned us with a couple of stops we wanted
back to the dock. Both the driver and price were very good. Of course
it pays to know something about any port ahead of time to avoid any
pitfalls.

I don't advocate everyone do that. Depends on ones comfort level. I
have been traveling all over for 40 years. Someone who has not traveled
much should probably start out with the cruise line excursions.

--
Charles

Jeff,

I do agree with you about Russia, it is indeed very restrictive. In fact,
for our upcoming cruise to Northern Europe and the Baltic's, if we had opted
to stay on the ship heading for St. Petersburg, instead of getting off in
Copenhagen, we would have needed to get Visas.

John, to clarify lest someone be confused about the visa requirement,
I think you meant to say "we would have needed to get Visas to end our
cruise early in St. Petersbug instead of Copenhagen." (See Jeff's post
above explaining the 72-hour rule excepting cruise pax from usual visa
rules provided they tour with the ship's shore excursion group or
other approved operator.)

But not every port is like St. Petersburg. I wonder what one would encounter
with a guy on the pier in Mexico trying to sell someone a sightseeing trip,
but can barely speak English. Maybe the answer is, all vendors need to be
licensed and bonder, with required documents on display. That way, it would
help and benefit all travelers, whether they think they need it or not. Of
course, the catch-22 here is, then these private vendors would need to
charge more because of the licensing requirements, the very reason why some
opted for the private route to begin with.

John Sisker

John, again just to clarify, I think you left a sentence out in there,
as I'm sure you didn't intend to say that all tour sellers in other
countries who "barely speak English" are unlicensed or unbonded, or
imply the reverse, that all tour sellers in other countries who speak
fluent English are licensed and bonded. Also, I don't think you mean
to hang your hat on licensing, insurance, bonding, etc. as being the
gold standard in every instance, as requirements vary by country.

But I totally agree with you, a traveler should do his/her homework
and choose safe, reliable and reputable operators.

Diana Ball
Austin, TX

On Wed, 7 Apr 2010 16:25:10 -0700, "John Sisker"
wrote:

But not every port is like St. Petersburg. I wonder what one would encounter
with a guy on the pier in Mexico trying to sell someone a sightseeing trip,
but can barely speak English. Maybe the answer is, all vendors need to be

I don't think speaking English is any kind of guarantee and v.v. In
Santa Marta Colombia I went to the visitor's bureau at the end of the
dock and asked them how much a taxi driver to take us on a tour of the
city for an hour would be. They gave me the price and a driver. The
driver did not speak English, and I do not speak any Spanish. I had a
map (since it was HAL and not Celebrity the map actually had
information on it) and I showed him where I wanted to go, and we had a
nice tour of about 45 minutes and I saw the things I wanted to see at
my pace.

In Aruba, we checked on taxis but the rate was so exorbitant that we
rented a car instead and drove to the places we wanted to see. There
was one car left - a station wagon. Someone with a group was
negotiating to get it, but he wanted to keep the car later than the
rental agent wanted to rent it for. He went away to think about it
and by the time he got back, there were no cars left.

In San Andreas Colombia, the locals speak English and not Spanish. The
SHIP tour was by taxi - four to a cab. They said they had arranged
for the 'most reliable' drivers to do the tours, but said there would
be other taxis at the dock - obviously those who went on their own
would be left with the less reliable drivers!!

licensed and bonder, with required documents on display. That way, it would
help and benefit all travelers, whether they think they need it or not. Of
course, the catch-22 here is, then these private vendors would need to
charge more because of the licensing requirements, the very reason why some
opted for the private route to begin with.

I agree with Charles. If you know something about the port and
pitfalls, and depending on one's comfort level, you don't have to use
ship's tours.

Ship's tours often are more expensive then doing on your own, but not
always. They can be very good, or they can be definitely lacking. The
tours in St. Petersburg from the ship did not get early admission to
the Hermitage and most of the people that took those tours really
didn't get to see much because of the crowds and all of those people
expressed disappointment. The ships tours in Naples went to Pompeii
in the afternoon. I wanted to go in the morning before it got hot,
and before there were a lot of crowds.

wrote in part:

The tours in St. Petersburg from the ship did
not get early admission to the Hermitage and
most of the people that took those tours really
didn't get to see much because of the crowds
and all of those people expressed
disappointment.

Here's what I wrote in my review:

days 6 and 7 our Alla tour in St. Petersburg We finally met our last 2
from the roll call and our Alla tour group. We left the ship and cleared
customs as soon as the ship allowed us to leave. We found the Alla van
and our guide Viktoria and driver Boris. I would highly recommend a
private tour. We had flexibility.

Our guide, Viktoria, asked if there was anything we would like to add. I
mentioned I had heard the subway stations were interesting. She agreed.
We ended up seeing 3 subway stations, all with different art work and
unlike US stations, graffiti free, before proceeding to our first stop
at Catherine's Palace. Our 9 1/2 hours on day 1 and 7 hour on day 2 flew
by. We did run out of time to see the Choral Synagogue on day 1 that had
been added to our tour, but saw it the second day.

At one point, while we had photo opportunities, Viktoria disappeared.
She came back with flowers for us for our anniversary and also for Ron
and Deb for both an anniversary and a birthday. Later Alla gave everyone
a dvd of St. Petersburg.

We accomplished much of our Christmas shopping in one of the gift shops,
buying several nesting dolls. The shops offer booze and chocolate as you
enter.

I would recommend Alla to anyone. The other local tour groups also seem
to come highly recommended. I have since read on the CruiseCritic.com
Baltic board that our wonderful guide, Viktoria, has opened her own
agency, spb-tours, with tours in St. Petersburg and Berlin. I wish her
good luck with her new business, and I'm sure she will have an excellent
product.

Most everyone we spoke to who took Princess tours were also happy, but I
heard a few exceptions. One person told me his bus' air conditioning did
not work the second day. (It was 87 degrees that day and sunny.) We did
not have that worry being in an air-conditioned Mercedes van. After I
told one person that our guide had 18 years' experience. I was told he
had a guide who was 18 and answered one question by saying "Why would
you want to know that?". And one other person said that their guide was
bitter over the fall of Communism.

People thought we must have paid more than for Princess tours especially
having to pay for visas. But, the truth was we paid less, and, just as
they went into Russia on Princess tour visas, we went on Alla's group
visa.