F.A.Q.

General
Shore Excursions Center is a direct tour & activity supplier and NOT a third-party reseller like Viator, GetYourGuide, ShoreTrips or Shore Excursions Group. We actually supply all our Baltic tours to OTAs who then resell them at much higher markup. We have our own top-notch experienced guides, our own transport will full insurance coverage, and our own direct museum contracts to provide fast-track admissions while minimize waiting times. Our main priority is to provide the same high quality experiences but at lower prices by cutting out the intermediary.

Our prices are lower than cruise lines by up to 40% and lower than third-party resellers, too! When you book with us, you get the best prices directly from the supplier, not a third-party reseller who has added up to 60% margin to the actual tour cost to compensate for their advertising costs and profit. Also, unlike resellers, our tour prices include reseller taxes & tour operator taxes. Shore Excursions Center has the advantage of only paying taxes once because we are a tour operator platform. Because of this, we are legally able to make our prices lower.

No. It's a myth. Cruise Lines want you to believe this so that you will buy their higher-priced tours. We are specialists at this and have been operating shore excursions for more than 15 years. We have never had this happen. We always get our clients back to the ship on time. 100% guaranteed. In the unlikely event of this ever happening, we will transport our clients to the next port of call at our own expense.

First of all, try resetting your password. It is easy to do it by clicking the reset password link in the login section.

If that does not help, please verify that you are entering the correct email address. In many cases this is the most common reason for login issues.

If nothing works, please send us an email to support@shoreexcursionscenter.com and let us know about the issue. We will certainly help!

In the extremely unlikely case of anyone booked on our tours missing the ship, through no fault or action of their own, we will get those clients back to their ship in the next port of call at our own expense. No tricks. 

If the ship misses the port, or is delayed so that you are no longer able to take your tour, you will receive a full refund. Subject to ship itinerary verification. For instant refunds clients nmust provide an official letter from cruise line confirming the ship had missed a specific port of call or way delayed by a certain time (both, the  scheduled arrival time and the actual time, must be present in the document).

Yes, we can provide itinerary customizations upon request.

Reservations
That’s easy! Choose the destination, select the tour you want, enter the number of group participants, and find out the price. Hit the "Add to Cart" button and then proceed to secure checkout. We highly recommend creating an account with Shore Excursions Center so that you can easily access all your tour documents, like Tour Confirmation, Vouchers and Payment Receipts. It’s also easy to make any changes right from your account.
In order to guarantee seat availability we recommend you book with us AT LEAST 2 weeks before starting your cruise. Join-in tours are very popular and tend to sell out, so it's really best to book them as soon as you have secured your cabins to avoid the disappointment that comes from losing your desired tours.

Depending on the tour chosen, we recommend to secure your tour arrangements as soon as you are ready to make a commitment. When you are booking a walking tour only, without any admissions that need to be secured in advance, it’s OK to book your tour 7+ days in advance. However, when your tour involves visiting highly popular museums that tend to sell out, we recommend booking at least 45 days in advance.

As much as we would love to have you on our tours, we have to set certain reservation deadlines. For example, cut-off time for bookings of shore excursions in metropolitan Saint Petersburg, Russia is 96 hours (4 days) due to the immigration regulations for visa-free paperwork submission. All other European destinations have a 48 hour cut-off time for all bookings. In very rare cases of last minute client cancellations we might be able to accommodate last minute tour requests, but this is not guaranteed. Please inquire with our Shore Excursions experts.

To request changes or cancellation, please submit a request by clicking the approprivate button in the Bookings tab by the tour you wish to change/cancel.

We highly recommend to pay attention to cancellation and changes policy

Financial

Tips are optional and are not included in the tour price. However, it is expected you will tip your guide and/or driver at the end of the tour if you have enjoyed your tour experience. Recommended tip amount is 15% of your tour price, split 10% to the guide and 5% to the driver. However, the final amount is entirely up to you.

Yes, all tours are fully refundable if the ship doesn’t come into port due to force majeure or weather conditions.

There are two main reasons why the payment might not be going through.

1) The cardholder's bank is seeing the transaction and declining it.

What to do: Plese call the cardholder's bank and inform them about the transaction originating from Russia (as we are registered in and banking with a Russian Standard Bank JSC). Once the cardholder's bank approves the transaction, most likely it will go through.

2) The cardholder's bank is not seeing the transaction. Yet is it declined (by our bank)

What to do: This happens when a 3DSecure verification is not passed. We take Credit Card security very seriously and to protect our clients from fraud our bank is participating in the international 3DSecure verification.

What is 3Dsecure? - It is a text message sent to the cardholder's mobile which must be entered into the corresponding field when prompted during the payment process. This allows the bank to confirm that is it indeed the cardholder that is trying to make the purchase. Most banks in the US participate in 3DSecure now. If the transaction is being declined and your bank is not seeing it, please contact youк bank to find out if your card is protected by 3DSecure and find out to which number the text messages are going to. In majority of cases this helps.

While we strive to make sure every trip is perfect, sometimes things may not go as planned. Please email support@shoreexcursionscenter.com with the refund details including the reservation #, customer name and the reason for the request. Note: Please allow 5-7 business days for a response regarding your refund request.

While on Tour

Shore Excursions Center will provide detailed meeting instructions for each destination after you have booked your tour. Please read the instructions carefully. Your guide always carries a "name sign" for all private tour reservations or a Shore Excursions Center sign with our logo on it for all join-in tours.

We highly recommend you honor your obligations and arrive on time. Time is precious while cruising and it is essential that you show up 15 minutes prior to your scheduled tour start time. Waiting time for all join-in shore excursions is only 15 minutes. If you are late for a private tour, it is highly likely your guide will still be waiting for you up to 1 hour later, but you will finish your tour as originally scheduled. Free of charge tour extensions will not be offered. You may opt to extend your tour for an additional charge if your guide and/or driver are available after your originally scheduled tour.

Travel Advisor Questions

Yes, you can do so at any time.

Please let us know if that happens. We will get in touch with your host agency and will take care of all the details. It's easy!

No! You can live anywhere in the world and sell our tours to your clients. 

No. Our reservation system is free to use both for travelers and for travel advisors/travel agents.

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