Tours that get Canceled?

Another poster mentioned that you should always have an alternative plan if you are signed up for one of the "tours that tend to get canceled a lot due to weather", but I have no idea which those are.

I assume flying tours are the first to go. What else should I be concerned about?

Many times you won't know if the tour will be canceled until that morning. Yes, the ones most likely to be canceled would be the ones involving flying due to the weather.

Keith

On one of cruises to Mexico, we sailed thru the storm of the century from Mobile to Cozumel on the Holiday. gosh!! DH thought we were going down, down. When we arrived at Cozumel, MANY ship excursions were cancelled. Folks sure did have scramble to make quick decisions, not easy, especially if teens are involved or extended families. DH and I stuck with our privately arranged tour. That wasn't cancelled, and we had a great time. So, I totally agree to have back up. Use the port of call for alternative ideas.

Our flightseeing tour in Talkeetna was the only thing canceled on our trip 2 weeks ago. But, just as everyone says, the weather changes by the minute in Alaska. They were going to hold out and let us try again a couple hours later but still had no luck. She said so many times it will be rainy and all the sudden clear up.

So I would say you can never tell til u get to the time of your activity. It seems like the tour places were all kinda "Go With the Flow" type. At least what we dealt with and heard from others who had the same situations arise.

Flightseeing is the top tour, that you have to be aware of canceling. With glacier dog sledding the most canceled. Always have back up plans, meaning- know what else is available in the port. Have phone numbers of tour operators, which have chosen ahead of time to fill in.

Also be aware that most other tours go in all weather- they do NOT cancel because of rain, meaning, you will hike, kayak, zipline etc etc in cold weather and rain. Be prepared.

Our glacier cruise out of Whittier was cancelled because of weather and our Mt. McKinley summit flight took three tries over 5 days to finally happen. I had built in an extra day and we took an unplanned trip to Fairbanks to work around the weather. I neglected to add in the extra day for the day cruise out of Whittier. Pictures are at http://burnet60.smugmug,com

DH had an independent bear excursion with Teck cancelled in Icy Strait at the last minute -that morning( we suspect because he was the only one signed up). They just said it wasn't going to work out and they were sorry. It had been reserved back in February. DH was very disappointed and it was too late to book anything else either through ship or independently. Hopefully this is not common but it can occur.

DH had an independent bear excursion with Teck cancelled in Icy Strait at the last minute -that morning( we suspect because he was the only one signed up). They just said it wasn't going to work out and they were sorry. It had been reserved back in February. DH was very disappointed and it was too late to book anything else either through ship or independently. Hopefully this is not common but it can occur.

I have read of a similar complaint about Teckk a year or two ago here on CC. Fortunately there are other vendors at ISP if I ever get there!

We had the same thing. Everything went except the Flightseeing tours to Mt. Mckinley. We didn't have the extra days worked in and never made it.

Gives us an excuse to go back...

We had a whale watching tour out of Vancouver cancelled due to rough water.

It is very unlikely for any tour company to take ONE person out unless that person is going to pay for the minamum passenger requirement. Gas is expensive :o

Black Bear ATV Rides in Denai made the mistake of booking us on a Saturday. When I called on Friday to confirm, they had already refunded our money to our debit card and was very, very, sorry. I was disappointed to say the least but very happy with their service.

It is very unlikely for any tour company to take ONE person out unless that person is going to pay for the minamum passenger requirement. Gas is expensive :o

I completely understand that. What I object to was not being warned in advance that this might be the case. I e-mailed them a few weeks before our visit to clarify what forms of payment they took. At that point we should have been told that he was the only one signed up and that we should check back as he may not go out if no one else signs on. Instead we found out in port when it was too late to sign on for a different bear excursion-even through the cruise line-as they had already headed out.

I agree that would be frustrating finding out at the last minute when they could have given you a heads up as time got closer. If so, then you could have maybe even found other people on your cruise or on here to go with you. That stinks and if others say it happened to them, that company might not survive long. Word of mouth is everything on these boards.

Even though we had great weather when we docked in Juneau and expected our float trip to go as planned, as we tried to locate our group for an NCL booked excursion after debarking, we were informed the excursion had been canceled. Apparently, it had rained heavily the night before or days before and the river was running high and they canceled the float trip. We did not have a Plan B and by the time we got off the ship (we took our time) because our excursion was at 3:30, it was really too late to book another excursion or find one that we may have been interested in doing. If NCL had informed us before we docked, we would have gotten off the ship sooner. Bummer and we were not happy.

I agree that would be frustrating finding out at the last minute when they could have given you a heads up as time got closer. If so, then you could have maybe even found other people on your cruise or on here to go with you. That stinks and if others say it happened to them, that company might not survive long. Word of mouth is everything on these boards.

On the other hand, those who have gone out with this company rave about the experience so if last minute cancellations don't happen too often I am sure they will survive.