Viator, the mega online resource for planning destination travel experiences, no long has their shore excursion website section aimed specifically at cruise passengers.
You can still book your cruise port shore excursion, but you’ll have to know the time of your ship’s arrival. Also, if your ship can’t make it into port and that stop is canceled, you need to be sure that you can get a refund.
Viator offers over 500 shore excursions in more than 80 of the most popular ports worldwide. On Viator, cruise passengers can locate and book shore excursions with savings up to 60% lower than what is offered by the cruise lines. Destinations include port around the world; from Juneau to Monaco and even Mykonos.
I guess that Viator removed the cruise-specific part of their site that was designed for the complex nature of shore excursion bookings.
Before Viator changed their website, all passengers needed to do is select the cruise line, ship name and departure date, and Viator instantly loaded the cruise ship’s itinerary and excursions that can specifically work for each port of call based on arrival and departure times, and availability.
Whether or not the pandemic was the reason for Viator to remove their very comprehensive shore excursion section, I don’t know. As I mentioned, you can still find and book your shore excursions on Viator. But before you do, compare their prices to your cruise line’s shore excursion price
I’m the editor and creator of CruiseMaven.com, a solo traveler cruising the world on waves and wheels, collecting recipes along the way. I hope my articles and photos entertain, advise and inspire you to travel the world without flying. Take a breath…stop for a local meal and a glass of wine along the way.
Sherry Laskin says
Hi Paul, thank you for your email. Yes, you are correct. Thank you for bringing this change to my attention. I’ve updated my article. I’ll bet that the pandemic had a lot to do with Viator removing their cruise tour search. To use Viator now, you’ll just have to know your port arrival and departure time and then find a tour that fits. Be sure to leave plenty of time (at least 2 hours) after the tour, before all-aboard time. Happy travels!
Sherry Laskin says
Hi Edward,
Sorry for my late reply. Thank you very much for your question. It turns out that Viator no longer has their cruise section on their website. I’ve updated my article just now. You can still choose your shore excursion based on your port, but it’s not how Viator used to do bookings for cruise passengers. Thank you very much for bringing this to my attention. Much appreciated.
Paul Ewing says
Sherry I think they must have discontinued this feature. I have looked all over the viator.com site for any way to search by cruise. I have looked in the menu and at all links on the home page and even the site map. If I go to their search bar and type in “shore excursions ” then I can see what is available.
Edward P Lyons says
How do I do this?
All passengers need to do is select the cruise line, ship name and departure date, and Viator will instantly load the cruise ship’s itinerary and present only those excursions that can specifically work for each port of call based on arrival and departure times, and availability.
Sherry Laskin says
Hi Deborah,
Thank you so much for reading my article and taking the time to point out that the link was broken! I’ve just fixed it and now it is working again. I think something happened when Viator merged with Trip Advisor and old links were replaced. Thank you again for pointing this out to me! I hope you find the new link helpful in planning your shore excursions.
deborah j trescott says
I just read your article. Tried many times going to the website http://www.shoreexcursions.viator.com you mentioned in your article and it keeps saying it can’t be reached??????
Sherry Laskin says
Hi Vicky,
Thanks for taking the time to send your question. Just go to Viator dot com. It’s VIATOR not VIATOURS. You can choose from hundreds of shore excursions based on location and arrival date.
Have a wonderful cruise!
Vicky Hartman says
I do not know how to get into your available excursions from a ship in Scandinavia. Please give me an E-mail or web site with the available excursions by Viatours from Holland America ship Rotterdam this September and October. Thank you, Vicky Hartman