Booking excursions outside of your cruise line
From the moment you book a cruise, your inbox gets flooded with excursion offers from the cruise line.
They make it seem like booking through them is the only safe option, and there's one specific advantage they always mention to justify their higher prices, but what cruise lines don't advertise is that you can book excursions through reputable third party companies that often cost less and provide similar guarantees.
TravelHost's Come Cruise With Me Editor in Chief Daniel Kline and his travel agent partner, Postcard Travel Planning's Dennis Post, recently revealed what cruise lines don't want you to know about booking excursions, including which companies they trust and how to avoid getting left behind in port in the video below.
A full transcript follows below.
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Why you should look past the cruise line for your excursions
Transcript:
Dan Kline: Hey there cruisers! I am Dan Kline, editor-in-chief at Travel Host. Next to me is Dennis Post, co-owner of our travel agent partner PostCard Travel Planning. We are going to tell you something today that the cruise lines maybe don't want you to know. Dennis, the second you book a cruise, you start getting bombarded with "book an excursion, book an excursion, book an excursion."
What is the one advantage of booking a cruise line excursion?
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Dennis Post: So, with the cruise line, if they delay and get back late, the ship was supposed to leave, they'll wait for you. That's the one big advantage.
Kline: And the reality is that's only semi true. They'll wait for a while. If it's too long, they will balance the expense of getting you to the next port versus the expense of staying in that port-
[Roller coaster noises]
What you hear above us is the Carnival Bolt roller coaster. Another thing you could experience on a day if other people are in port. But back to excursions. One of the things they don't tell you about is you can book excursions not through the cruise line.
So last time we were here, we used something called ResortPass. Now we don't get the money from ResortPass. There's this Resort for a Day. There's probably 17 others, but we looked and we found a nice place where you go. Had a beach, had some things to do. Food was included.
And Dennis is a travel agent. Could you help people book excursions not through the cruise line?
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Post: Yes, and we do have, depending on what country you go to, we've got one company that's worldwide and we got multiple companies that favor the Caribbean, or they may favor Europe and we can save you some money on it.
And then sometimes are higher end. They give you a little bit more and they get you back safe.
Kline: This is one of those things that you want to look at Yelp reviews. You want to go through a travel agent. You don't want to just do it on your own because you want the reputable company that's going to make every effort to not have you be late. Even if that means, you know, you pay to hug a sloth and you never got to hug a sloth. They're going to get you back in that ship.
They're going to give you some of your money back. You want to go through a travel agent. You want to go to reputable people.
I am Dan Kline. He is Dennis Post. Come cruise with us soon.
(The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.)
Make a free appointment with Come Cruise With Me's Travel Agent Partner, Postcard Travel, or email Amy Post at amypost@postcardtravelplanning.com or call or text her at 386-383-2472.
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This story was originally published May 30, 2026 at 7:27 AM.