Shore Excursions

We have been on 9+ Oceania cruises and seem to have forgotten some details. When can you start booking shore excursions. Does it depend on the level of stateroom that you have ?

excursions may be booked as soon as they are posted. BUT some may not be posted until approx 120 days before your cruise.

Remember if you intend to use onboard ship credits on shore excursions, the shore excursions can only be booked after you board the ship for the cruise the onboard credits were earned for.

Those choosing to do O tours should regularly monitor the “manage my account “ for tours on the O website. On my just completed cruise, I was told some tours had as many as seven (7) buses doing the same tour, so there was plenty of availability even up to the day before the cruise. Others, though, were capacity controlled, most often by local regulations or conditions, and sold/closed out very quickly.

Best advice is to monitor that website frequently as not all tours are made available at the same time. Also monitor your Roll Call here on Cruise Critic for tour opportunities.

you are aware the ships excursions are 4 to 5 times more expensive than you doing a bit of research and booking tours on your own? If you have do it yourself options then why throw money around.... unless you like to. Only in ports where O is the only show in town does it make sense Book only tours on your own that take credit cards, as your insurance. Cash people can be good but also rip you off bad, and what if the chip misses a port or schedule change.....Credit card covers all that....Cash your screwed

Response to Hawaidan post

Your comment on using credit cards is very appropriate and useful.

I am not sure that Oceania shore excursions are "4 to 5 tine more expensive. (ie an Oceania shore excursion costing $300.00 , can be had for $50.00 or $60.00). I do not dispute that Oceania tour excursions are more expensive as they are a profit center for Oceana corporate just like the casino's Also, I am assuming that you are referring to private commercial tour operators rather than a DIY (do it yourself - using cabs, public buses and trains and paying attraction entrance fees)

Warning to readers - The Oceania statement about waiting for Oceania excursions getting back to the ship after departure can have little or significant value. I am booked on a cruise from Montreal to London. If I were to miss the ship departing from the Trois Reveries stop it would be relatively cheap and easy to get to Quebec City , the next stop. Miss the ship departure in St. Johns NF (next is followed by three days at sea) and getting to Cork Ireland is a different matter.

Thanks for the post. It is definitely something cruisers need to consider. They should also check the Cruise Critic roll call for their cruise and outside sources (trip adviser?) for Oceania shore excursion alternatives.