Shore excursion price drops

[chris1978uk]

We’re doing the western med on Jewel OTS this August. We’re on a budget and after looking at what was available, and the prices, in the cruise planner we decided to just do our own thing in the ports. I happened to be checking the cruise planner recently and noticed two things - extra excursions and onboard activities have been added, and prices had dropped, by quite a bit.

 

Eg. In Palma, Majorca, the one port I had considered using the cruise lines excursion, I decided to use the local hop-on-hop-off bus as it’s flexibility suited us better, and also it was much cheaper. RCI’s Palma city excursions were, IIRC, £39, £45 and £54, but this recently dropped to £25 for the basic. I forget the others but all 3 had dropped, but have since gone back up and are now £32, £39 and £54!

 

So finally my point/question! Do excursion prices tend to fluctuate much? And can we expect to see more options appear as the cruise gets closer (eg one port currently has no excursions at all)?

 

While Palma prices have gone back up, the one RCI excursion I am still considering is the disembarkation day tour of Rome. As we’re getting off the ship with luggage I don’t want to attempt to do Rome by ourselves, and as our flight home likely won’t be til 8pm it would be a shame to not see some of Rome. The Rome tour (ending with drop off at the airport) was £184pp which was ridiculous, especially as our package already has airport transfers included which now wouldn’t be needed. It’s now £119 each, which is still expensive for a 6hr coach trip, but it is more manageable. But is it worth it? Is there a better option? Or could the price drop further?!

 

Any help greatly appreciated!

 

Apologies if this would be better in the ports of call forum? My thinking was that it’s mainly about the changing prices and extra additions appearing on the Royal Caribbean cruise planner

 

 

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[Clarea]

With regard to excursion prices, I have seen Royal have sales on excursions from time to time, most often a 20% discount promo. Unfortunately, the timing of these sales is unpredictable.

[papaflamingo]

Can't speak to them adding excursions, but likely, if there is none in a port. As to pricing, remember that you can always cancel an excursion and rebook it at a lower price if it comes up. We did that on our last cruise when they ran a special a few months out for an excursion we had already booked.

I will say that in the Med, there are so many great third party excursion companies that we just don't use ship excursions. You can get a much better deal and generally better excursion from a tour company. Check the ports of calls boards and the roll call for your cruise. You'll find a wealth of information regarding tours, etc. there. Often on the roll call someone will have an excursion booked and need a couple of people to fill it out. Worth looking into.

[chris1978uk]

Thanks Host Clarea, I guess it must have been a sale, though there was nothing to say so (but I get the impression from these boards that that’s usually the case!)

 

papaflamingo, I didn’t realise you could cancel (presumably with no penalty?) and then rebook at the lower price, good to know and will definitely bear that in mind, thanks!

 

Like I said, I think we’re happy enough working it out for ourselves in most ports, either using local providers or just going for a quick walk, the only one we’re still thinking about is disembarkation day as doing it by ourselves would mean hauling luggage around everywhere, so the cruise lines option would at least remove that hassle, albeit for a high cost!

 

 

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