Help & FAQ

What is The Excursion Edit?

The Excursion Edit is an independent comparison site for cruise shore excursions. When you only have a few hours in port, the things that matter most — is the operator properly insured, will you get back to the ship in time, and is there a government travel advisory for this destination — are usually the hardest to find. We bring them to the surface so you can see them before you book.

Do I need an account? Is it free?

The site is free to use and there is no account to create. You can search ports, compare excursions and build a cruise itinerary without signing up.

Anything you personalise — your travel profile, saved searches and your cruise plan — is stored only on your own device. It is never sent to us or to anyone else.

How does the return-to-ship time-fit check work?

For every excursion on a cruise itinerary we compare the tour length against your ship’s actual hours in that port, and we build in a margin before the all-aboard time (the real deadline, which is earlier than sail-away). The result is shown as a simple verdict on each tour.

It is guidance to help you judge the day, not a promise — port traffic, tenders and your own pace all vary, so always leave sensible headroom and follow your cruise line’s all-aboard time.

What do the fit verdicts mean?

“Fits comfortably” means the tour fits well inside your time in port with margin to spare. “Tight” means it can be done but leaves little room for delays — book it only if you’re comfortable with that. “Won’t make it back” means the tour is longer than your time ashore allows, so we flag it rather than hide it. “Rough fit” appears when we don’t have firm in-port times for that call and can only give a rough indication.

We order excursions best-fit first, but we never hide a tour — every option stays on the page.

What do the trust badges mean?

A “PLI” badge means the operator’s public-liability insurance is shown on the partner platform we draw the listing from. A green return-to-ship badge appears only where an operator publishes its own return-to-ship guarantee — it’s a bonus signal, not a requirement, and its absence does not mean a tour is unsafe.

Government travel advisories are shown at the port level, refreshed automatically from the official UK FCDO source (with US State Department guidance alongside it). We surface what the authorities publish; we don’t add our own risk rating.

What is the travel profile, and is my data sent anywhere?

The travel profile is an optional way to tell the app how you like to travel — your walking comfort, your preferred pace, and the kinds of things you enjoy. It’s used to add a little extra time margin where you need it and to float matching excursions higher up the list.

It lives entirely on your device. Nothing is sent to us, there is no account behind it, and you can edit, export or clear it at any time. Choosing an interest only changes the order things appear in — it never hides an excursion from you.

How are you funded?

The site is free because we earn affiliate commission when you book through some of our partner links, at no extra cost to you. It never changes the price you pay, and it doesn’t change which excursions we show or how we rank them. See our Affiliate Disclosure for the detail.

Do you sell or book the excursions yourselves?

No. We are an independent comparison service, not a tour operator or a booking agent. When you choose to book, you do so on the partner platform’s own site, and your contract for the excursion is with that operator or platform — not with us.

Which ports do you cover?

We’re live across cruise ports in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, Alaska, the Baltic and the Atlantic, and we’re adding more as we grow. If a port isn’t live yet, it’s on the way.

How reliable is the sea-state and marine forecast?

Where we show a marine forecast it comes from a live source and describes sea conditions only — it is not a guarantee that a tender or a water activity will run. The ship’s captain and the operator always make the final call on the day. We use it to widen our time-fit margin when seas look rough, never to promise that something will go ahead.

Build my cruise

Turn a sailing into a port-by-port plan with time-fit guidance on every excursion.

1. Open “My Cruise” and choose your sailing, or enter your ports and dates.
2. For each port we show your hours ashore and the excursions available there.
3. Each excursion carries a fit verdict measured against your time in port.
4. Add the ones you like to your plan — it’s saved on your device, no account needed.
5. Export the day to your calendar, with the all-aboard time set as the deadline.

Read the fit verdicts

Every excursion on an itinerary is checked against your real time in port.

1. “Fits comfortably” — fits with margin to spare.
2. “Tight” — doable, but little room for delays.
3. “Won’t make it back” — longer than your time ashore; flagged, not hidden.
4. “Rough fit” — we don’t have firm in-port times, so it’s an indication only.
5. Always leave headroom and follow your cruise line’s all-aboard time.

Set my travel profile

Optional, on-device, and never sent anywhere — it just tailors the margins and the order.

1. Open the travel-profile panel from the menu or the My Cruise header.
2. Tell us your walking comfort and preferred pace.
3. Optionally pick the interests you enjoy — history, food, nature, and so on.
4. The page re-runs instantly: more margin where you need it, matching tours floated up.
5. Edit, export or clear it whenever you like — it’s yours, kept on your device.