Shore Trips - cost

[iloveglee]

Am booked on Volendam to Alaska May 2011 and looking what shore trips are available and whether to book the cruise line provided ones, or go independent. Don't seem to be able to work out the price of cruise provided trips in order to compare these with the advertised independent trips, all the website shows are a series of $ from $ to $$$$, clearly the more $ the more expensive but how on earth is a person supposed to know how much these $ signs represent. Can someone with experience of these trips give a clue. We have cruised before (not with Holland America and not to Alaska ), but have never gone on a cruise provided tour.

[momatibm]

If you go to the section for booked guests on the HAL website and select the book excursions option, the $$$ will be replaced by dollar amounts. Of course this assumes that they've opened exscurion booking for your particular cruise.

[taxmantoo]

Basically...

$ $1 to $50

$$ $51 to $150

$$$ $151 to $250

$$$$ $$251 or more

 

If you are already booked, just go to the "My Reservations" page of the HAL website with your Booking Number and you can see shore excursion prices for your cruise under the Purchase heading.

[duckman715]

Am booked on Volendam to Alaska May 2011 and looking what shore trips are available and whether to book the cruise line provided ones, or go independent. Don't seem to be able to work out the price of cruise provided trips in order to compare these with the advertised independent trips, all the website shows are a series of $ from $ to $$$$, clearly the more $ the more expensive but how on earth is a person supposed to know how much these $ signs represent. Can someone with experience of these trips give a clue. We have cruised before (not with Holland America and not to Alaska ), but have never gone on a cruise provided tour.

 

The $ code is as follows:

$ = $1 - $50

$$ = $51 - $150

$$$ = $151 - $250

$$$$ = $251 and up

 

The exact cost for a particular excursion can be found by placing your cursor on the "For Booked bGuests" bar on the HAL web site. There you will see "Book Shore Excursions/Spa..." Click on that and enter your name and booking number. Your itinerary will pop up on the left of the screen and you will be able to click on a particular port. All excursions for that port and the prices will show.

Hope this helps

[Mary Ellen]

You don't have to go to 'for booked guests' or to 'my reservations' to see pricing on any shore excursion that is available for booking. All anyone needs to do (booked or not) is, when viewing an itinerary, click on "View Shore Excursions For This Cruise" (blue box just above the itinerary and under the tabs for Itinerary, Deck Plans, Ship, Shore Excursions, Ports, Air, Hotels/Tours, Cancellation Protection Plans). In addition to the exact pricing you'll also see departure times. Of course, if shore ex aren't yet available for booking, all you can go by are the $ signs.

[Krazy Kruizers]

You should see a lot of shore excursions for your May Alaskan cruise.

There have been quite a few already up for our June cruise -- and we have booked one back in November.

[CowPrincess]

whether to book the cruise line provided ones, or go independent

 

You won't save much (or any) money going independent, but will likely have a smaller more personalized tour. If you want independent tours, you need to get working on it now, as many are fully booked long in advance.

 

We usually do a mix of independent and ship tours. Or self-guided if we are doing museums and such.