question: should i book excursions before or during the cruise?????

[genesisatabyss]

question: should i book excursions before or during the cruise????? i am not sure to book the excursions now or while im there its my first cruise so i dont know much:)

[madforcruising]

question: should i book excursions before or during the cruise????? i am not sure to book the excursions now or while im there its my first cruise so i dont know much:)

 

If you already made up your mind what to do I would book ahead of time. By booking ahead of time you make sure you get the excursion you would like to do. If you wait until you board you might not be able to book it as it might already be booked up. It is also quite safe to do it ahead of time. If you change your mind you usually can cancel without any penalty as long as you are within the deadline which is mostly 24 hours but can be extended for some excursions to 72-hours.

 

What I like about doing it ahead is that this way it´s already paid way ahaed too. :)

[errolcruisestaff]

Good Morning,

 

I worked for RCCL for 3 years and have soem advice for you, if you are planning a Excursions with like Dolphins or any animlas or mammals then yes book it online. If your booking a party cruise or Booze Cruise as they put it you should be ok. If you have any questions please check my thread and send me a reply...Good Luck...

 

Errol

Cruise Staff

 

Majesty, Sovereign, Radiance, Mariner, Grandeur

[errolcruisestaff]

Good Morning,

 

I worked for RCCL for 3 years and have soem advice for you, if you are planning a Excursions with like Dolphins or any animlas or mammals then yes book it online. If your booking a party cruise or Booze Cruise as they put it you should be ok. If you have any questions please check my thread and send me a reply...Good Luck...

 

Errol

Cruise Staff

 

Majesty, Sovereign, Radiance, Mariner, Grandeur

[birdie16]

Yes, if you want to book something that is very popular like the dolphins...book ahead.

 

Something else to consider...most of the ports you are almost always better off just stepping off the ship and booking with the tourist people in the port. We never book ahead of time, we like to keep our options open. If we are in a place we are unsure of, such as Belize...then we will book a tour the first day of our cruise.

 

I would suggest you go to the port board and check out your ports. You might find from information on your particular port that you don't need to book a tour. For example, in Cozumel you can do so much by just taking a taxi or renting a car.

[boatbunny]

If there are excursions that look really good to you, they will look really good to others too. I do suggest prebooking them. I had actually prebooked 3 excursions for our 4/24 Explorer cruise back in Dec. I ended up cancelling 2 of them a few weeks ago and had no issues cancelling.

 

This is our third cruise, the first cruise we waited til we were on the ship (not sure if they even offered prebooking back then), but first day of the cruise, we waited in a long line at the Excursion Desk booking our choices. Of course, a few of the things we wanted were sold out by the time we made it to the front, very disappointing. Not only that, but I hated waiting in line and "wasting" my time to explore and experience the ship. The thought of doing something "on our own" or with another vendor didn't even cross our mind.

 

Second cruise, we prebooked a few through RCCL, but were a little more adventorous and waited til we got to the island (St, Martin) to take a taxi to a great beach. It worked out really well, the locals are usually very nice and will give you great advice of where to go, especially if you are traveling with children they will make sure they send you somewhere appropriate for them. Now, would I do that in Belize, or some of the other islands that have a reputation for trouble for tourists, absolutely not. I know that an excursion I book through RCCL will have made sure that the tour operator is legit, the location we will be going to is safe, and if for some reason the tour is running late, the ship will wait for me.

 

Our upcoming third cruise (Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman), I did a lot of research and really took advantage of the info on these boards. We now only have 1 excursion through RCCL (Cozumel) because the tour is far from the port and if anything happens with transportation back to the port, I don't have to worry about not making the ship. We booked an excursion through Coral Breezes in Belize, another tour operator for Costa Maya, and we are renting a car through Avis on Grand Cayman.

 

Booking excursions outside of RCCL gave me a wider variety of choices, especially tours more appropriate for children (ages 5 and 8). Many of the RCCL choices had min age requirements of 8. And, the cost was significantly less that RCCL choices. But, and I stress, I really did my research on the outside tour operators based on experiences of others, how quickly they responded to questions I had (I usually sent at least 1 question to the tour operator as a "test" to see how quickly I would get a response and how detailed it would be-it at least gives you an idea of their level of service).

 

So if you prebook, you can skip that long line at the Excursion Desk on Day 1, grab your drink, your book, and start enjoying your vacation right away!

 

Enjoy!