In General, do most excursions book up far in advance?

[AllegraTiger]

Hubby and I are traveling on the Celebrity Summit to the Southern caribbean on Dec 1. We booked through a summer cruise sale on Travelocity and we now have $175 of OBC. Which is very awesome, except that we don't drink. We don't gamble. We had no plans of eating in a specialty restaurant (though we could). We don't shop on the ship. We DO plan on taking lots of excursions.

 

Normally, we would want to book our excursions in advance and go private, but I'm thinking about booking a ship excursion to use some of our OBC. Of course we need to wait until we get onboard to do so. I'm worried the ones we'd want would book up early. In people's experiences, do certain types of excursions *not* book up in advance? Is it totally random? For example, we're thinking of the St. John's Coastal Cruise/ On Your Own which would basically serve as transportation for us to and/fro St. John's from St. Thomas. It's the last day of our cruise, so I'd try and book it our first day aboard.

 

Thoughts?

[cruisestitch]

Are your gratuities pre-paid? The OBC could go to them.

 

Also unused OBC can be withdrawn from the casino for a 5% fee.

 

If you have certain shore excursions that you really, really want, you probably should book them ahead of time, since there is no way of predicting which ones might sell out, or which ones might be cancelled because not enough people signed up.

[cgeidl]

As more people find out that ship excursions sometimes using the exact suppliers cost double or in our case triple direct booking.we were quoted a price of $3000 for a driver and guide in St Petersburg for 6.Booking direct we got the same company with driver and van for $1000.The man booking our cruise did a conference call with Us and Oceania and they confirmed the rate and that it was the same company they used,however if the car issues getting back the last day the cruise company will not assist you.Trying to make us fear missing was there last sales technique and if the difference was 10 percent or so I would have paid but we took the big risk for $2000 difference.We now do all independent or book our own excursions and so far have. Not missed the boat.We have found 6 people can take independent trips and see what they want to see,for how long they want and lines are avoided and cost is comparable or less.We have even hired taxis at better rates however the knowledge level is different.

[Orlandocruiser]

I agree that if there is something you really truly want to do book it ahead of time. That said $175 doesn't really go all that far when you are booking shore excursions for two people. One thing about Caribbean cruises is that many people just grab a cab when they get off the ship and head to a beach either because they just want to chill or have been to that stop many times before so there probably are not as many sell outs as there would be on a cruise to an unusual location. (I was amazed on one of our transatlantics at the huge line at the shore excursion desk the night before we "hit" Europe - I guess some people just aren't planners ahead.)

[Denny01]

I agree with Cruisestitch....it can be closed if it is popular. We did a S Caribbean cruise with a stop in Panama (not into the Canal). I wanted to take the Train tour that goes along the Canal, but some family wanted to wait to see what else they might do. I waited and it was closed out....Not again.

 

I book some private and some Celebrity. I'll disagree with the Ship tours costing double and triple...they are more expensive, but in many cases, not that much more.

 

If they are specific tours I really want, I'll book early. But in your specific example of an 'On Our Own' tour that is mainly transportation to/fm a spot, I think you can wait since they'd add buses as more need them. They don't need guides or anything, just buses.

 

So the answer won't really help you....."It depends" is true for popular tours, but for your specific one, you can probably wait and not have an issue (notice the word 'probably').

 

We've never really had issues with expending OBC....we use traditional dining so the gratuities come on it, we do have a few drinks and maybe one night at a nice specialty restaurant.

 

Den

[Denny01]

I made a general statement that private tours weren't 2 or 3 times less expensive in my experience, generally, than Ship tours. Another poster gave a specific example where it was.

 

We have two private tours on our upcoming E Med cruise because we want to see specific things the ship tours don't cover or only touch on and both were abut 25% cheaper than comparible ship tours. For a Ship tour we signed up for (Ancient Corinth), a private tour cost about $72pp while the ship tour cost $92 - again about 25% difference. And the ship tour included a boat ride on the canal, and I couldn't find listed in the private tours I looked at. One private tour listed the car at $285 and up to 4 in it. But you need to be aware, many of those are Euorpean taxi's, not large cars and 4 in one of those standard taxis would be more than a bit tight, others use nice vans. So make sure what you are signing up for.

 

I know a lot of posters dont like ship tours because they use a large bus and not as nice, which I agree, but there are some advantages, and the pricing isn't that out of hand, in many cases.

 

Den

[jaylaw1]

You can use the OBC to pay for tips if you have not prepaid your gratuities. Last year on the Summit, we still had money left after trying very hard to spend it on makeup,etc in the onboard store, I was surprised to find out that they would issue a credit to our credit card. Hope this helps

[cruisestitch]

There are two kinds of on-board credit (OBC). One is known as OBC-R, which generally comes from travel agencies. This can be refunded to your credit card if there is any left over. The second is known as OBC-N, which is non-refundable. This must be spent on board or lost. You can withdraw it from the casino for a 5% fee, so don't leave it in the account. If you have both kinds, they will use the OBC-N first, then the OBC-R. It will be noted on your SeaPass account as to which kind it is.

[Notagoose]

And don't forget that even if you don't drink alcohol, you surely must drink *something* - smoothies and non-alcoholic fruity blender drinks are wonderful and don't come cheap. You might also want to buy some bottled water to take with you off the boat. Or have some yummy gelato. It all adds up pretty quickly.

[AllegraTiger]

Sorry for disappearing from this question, everyone-- had a sick little one here, who managed to get both of US sick, and, well, the cruise was the last thing on my mind. (Except for the occasional thought, can't wait until Nov 30 and we're headed to our cruise!)

 

Thank you for ALL of the responses. We do plan on booking mostly private tours, and plan on using the OBC for a combo of gratuities, the last "transfer" tour on St. Thomas, and a variety of things like drinks. Thanks so much!

[Aunt Tina]

I was transferred by the Captain's Club to the shore excursions department yesterday and talked with a very knowledgeable and friendly young woman who told me the number of openings still available on my Alaska cruisetour starting on the 26th. She had great info on the tours and said I could book directly with her since my cruise roommate lives 3 hours away and have different credit cards. We will book one now and wait on one since there are still 72 openings and we will use OBC.

[Phalst]

Another onboard expense you might include is an Internet package. We always buy time for airline checkin and for printing boarding passes. We've done this on Princess; I assume Celebrity offers similar packages.