FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CruiseCompete Adds Versatile Shore Excursion Booking Tool
12 Reasons to Book Your Shore Trips With CruiseCompete Before You Go on Your Cruise
DETROIT (Sept. 30, 2011) –Travel technology just keeps getting better and better. The cruise travel experts at CruiseCompete now provide a service where consumers simply select a cruise ship and sailing date to see the excursion options tailored to that specific cruise. They then have the option to purchase those excursions and, in most cases, qualify for discounted packages if they opt to book more than one excursion at a time. What’s more, CruiseCompete’s shore excursions come with a full guarantee.
“When taking a cruise, plan your shore excursions carefully,” says Bob Levinstein, CEO of CruiseCompete. Levinstein knows the ins and outs of cruising with children, and says the child-favorite excursion “Swimming with the Dolphins” consistently sells out.
After several failed attempts to book this sought-after excursion through the cruise line – and dealing with his disappointed children – Levinstein spoke with other travelers and discovered a well-kept secret. To get the excursion they wanted, successful vacationers had booked early through an excursions company, avoiding the disappointment of sold-out cruise line excursions while paying less and receiving a higher-quality experience.
Thinking of incorporating shore excursions into your next cruise? Take advantage of CruiseCompete’s shore excursion booking tool, which matches available excursions to a specific cruise.
Following are the top 12 reasons why savvy travelers are booking shore excursions through CruiseCompete:
1. The same excursions, with better pricing. Cruise lines generally mark up their shore excursions by 30 to 50%. CruiseCompete offers the same excursions, so why pay more for the same experience? If you are not completely satisfied with your excursion for any reason, CruiseCompete provides a full refund.
2. A phone number to call for assistance. Have questions regarding a specific tour? You can call and speak with CruiseCompete’s shore excursions experts directly at 1-866-578-7508 (toll-free).
3. Additional trips are seriously discounted. If you intend to purchase all of your shore trips individually, the cost may be prohibitive. However, if you purchase cruise shore excursions as a bundle, there are huge price advantages…and you get to take them all!
4. Consumer reviews. Independent tours often provide reviews that will give you the real lowdown before you buy. As an example, CruiseCompete's shore trips for NCL’s Pride of America itinerary to Hawaii shows reviews and bundled pricing.
Here are some great additional excursion options:
A very popular excursion in Rome – Skip the Line: Vatican Museums Walking Tour includes the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms and St Peter's Basilica – gets Five Stars, based on 6,360 reviews.
Princess’s Ruby Dream has a large number of excursions, with bundling options, on their October 7, 2011, departure.
Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas has many hot tours for its October 29, 2011, departure, with bundles that let you see more of the Caribbean!
5. Personalized attention and appreciation. Unlike the cruise line tours that routinely travel with more than 50 people per tour, the average tour size booked through CruiseCompete is only 12 people. This translates to far more personalized, relaxed and enjoyable experience.
6. Private shore excursions. CruiseCompete’s shore excursions experts can book an exclusive tour…designed by you. No need to visit crowded, undesirable locations; you can choose the locations and activities that interest you the most.
7. Excursions that are easy to find upon leaving the ship…No wandering around, lost: CruiseCompete provides detailed information for your excursion: How to spot the excursion’s local representatives (where they’ll be standing, what they will be wearing, what sign they will be holding) plus the tour operator’s local telephone number and CruiseCompete’s 24/7 emergency hotline.
8. Quality of experience. The cruise lines have traditionally had somewhat of a captive audience; as such, the quality of excursions among many lines has been steadily declining. They also tend to be overcrowded and commercialized. (Some excursions include "shopping" stops – where passengers are herded off the buses and forced to mill around in souvenir shops – and the cruise line gets a cut of everything they buy!)
CruiseCompete’s tours tend be much smaller and more personalized, and may go to unique places further from the beaten path – places not able to accommodate the larger cruise line tours.
9. Credit cards. You can use your credit card when purchasing CruiseCompete’s shore excursions in advance. It’s always a good idea to have that written record of expenditures.
10. Exclusive advantages, no more! There used to be two exclusive advantages to cruise line excursions: guaranteed return to your ship, and a full automatic refund if your excursion was cancelled because the ship missed the port. However, this is no longer true; CruiseCompete’s shore excursions deal with both these issues, and they actually give a guarantee.
11. Time is on your side. Timeliness is generally presented as a big benefit to booking an excursion through the cruise line. This is a case of much ado about nothing; it's simply not that difficult for a company to plan an excursion that gets you back to your ship with time to spare: the tour operator just needs to look at the clock. However, in the very unlikely event that an excursion booked through CruiseCompete were to get back late and miss the ship, you will be paid for your accommodations, meals, and transportation to the next port of call, and paid an additional $500 per customer for the inconvenience.
12. Weather permitting. Weather can be one of those “unforeseen circumstances.” There’s no controlling inclement weather and/or changes to itineraries due to its effects. But again, this is a non-issue…if an excursion is missed due to weather issues, passengers receive a full refund.
To find out more about booking an independent shore excursion, please call 1-866-578-7508 (toll-free) or visit CruiseCompete’s Shore Excursions.
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About CruiseCompete:
CruiseCompete continues to garner the highest praise from the media for its revolutionary premise that free-market competition provides the best pricing options for consumers.
The New York Times says "…independent travel agents compete to offer you the best deal," and follows similar praise from Kiplinger’s, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. The Street says "Score Luxury Cruises at Bargain Prices."
Since 2003, over 1,700 cruise experts have provided 8.5 million quotes in response to over 2 million consumer quote requests.
For more information, please visit CruiseCompete.com or Cruise Compete Groups. CruiseCompete is an Iowa limited liability company and is not a travel agency or owned by a travel agency.
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Media Contact:
Heidi M. Allison
Allison and Taylor Inc.
+1-248-651-4491 office
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