A 367 % price increase on shore excursions ?

[scubacruiserx2]

On an upcoming HAL cruise we booked with a local shore excursion at $245 pp . The vendor informed us that HAL had bought all of the tickets and that we would have go to them . The new price is $899 pp , a whopping 367 % price increase !!

[I like vacation]

18 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

On an upcoming HAL cruise we booked with a local shore excursion at $245 pp . The vendor informed us that HAL had bought all of the tickets and that we would have go to them . The new price is $899 pp , a whopping 367 % price increase !!

What port is that excursion located?

[MAVIP]

21 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

On an upcoming HAL cruise we booked with a local shore excursion at $245 pp . The vendor informed us that HAL had bought all of the tickets and that we would have go to them . The new price is $899 pp , a whopping 367 % price increase !!

Can you be more specific? cruise, ship, port, excursion f.e. 

[Tom O.]

Can you find another local tour company?

The difference is not actually a price increase, it is the difference between a local tour company and a ships excursion. HAL probably pays the company the same price as you were going to pay, then marks it up to make a large profit.

I think if you originally booked  with a local company, they should be obligated to provide the tour at the quoted price. I would place the blame on that tour company, not HAL.

[scubacruiserx2]

Just now, I like vacation said:

What port is that excursion located?

 

Qaqortog ,Greenland .

[VennDiagram]

9 minutes ago, Tom O. said:

I think if you originally booked  with a local company, they should be obligated to provide the tour at the quoted price. I would place the blame on that tour company, not HAL.

 

If you ran a small tour company in an area where there were not  a lot of tourists, I think you would understand the financial pressure the tour operator is under.  Then you would be less inclined to blame the operator.  It's the "other" golden rule "He who has the gold (in this case HAL) makes the rules".

[scubacruiserx2]

3 minutes ago, Tom O. said:

Can you find another local tour company?

The difference is not actually a price increase, it is the difference between a local tour company and a ships excursion. HAL probably pays the company the same price as you were going to pay, then marks it up to make a large profit.

I think if you originally booked  with a local company, they should be obligated to provide the tour at the quoted price. I would place the blame on that tour company, not HAL.

 

They wouldn't book before New Years but put us on a list . They then Emailed us that they had sold out . They also had a boat tour that HAL bought out to be used a ferries we were told . The town only has 3,000 so they have limited resources . If anyone has other contacts there we would appreciate it if they would let us know .

[knittinggirl]

We use Victoria Pedicab in Victoria, and our tour guide told us that the owner looked into it, and they'd have to double the price to offer it through the cruise line.

 

In Hawaii, we did the Culinary Home Tour, and the original owner told us that we could book directly through them as long as there wasn't a ship in port.  In that case, they had to do only the ship tours.

 

Maybe port of the contract they sign is granting HAL exclusive rights.

Edited January 10, 2020 by knittinggirl

[scubacruiserx2]

3 minutes ago, VennDiagram said:

 

If you ran a small tour company in an area where there were not  a lot of tourists, I think you would understand the financial pressure the tour operator is under.  Then you would be less inclined to blame the operator.  It's the "other" golden rule "He who has the gold (in this case HAL) makes the rules".

 

THE Golden Rule is to treat others as you would like to be treated . They could have honored their commitment to us and sold the remaining tickets to HAL . That's what we would have done .

[scubadawg]

I had this happen in Broome Australia.Had booked a private tour then suddenly saw my op listed as 1 of the only ship sponsored tours.When I contacted to ask what was going on he said I would have to go with ship tour. I wasn't happy and didn't take either.

 

I have also been looking at Greenland ports for privste tours next Aug and getting no returns to emails. Know why...

[knittinggirl]

I don't remember any $899 tours in Qaqortog ,Greenland .   But we didn't pay much attention to tours there since it's a tender port.

 

The advantage with HAL tours are ease of refunds.  After they went with the three-day cancellation deadline,  it's not nearly as good a policy as a few years ago.  That and the limited desk hours makes it hard to get those refunds.  They don't even print the cancellation deadline on our tickets.  I suggested they add the cancellation deadline to the tickets, and they told me there wasn't room.  I was able to hand write the deadlines, so there was enough room.

 

We tried a private tour in Bergen and decided to cancel, and lost the money.  But we lost a lot of tour money w/ HAL, because we kept missing the deadline.

 

In Reykjavic the cancellation deadline was actually 4 days, because they decided to put the same deadline for both days we were in port.

Edited January 10, 2020 by knittinggirl

[3rdGenCunarder]

It's the contract. When a cruise ship hires a local vendor for a tour, the vendor has to sell only through the cruise line. I have found that in North America and the Caribbean, HAL's markup isn't much. In Europe it's more, but I've never seen a markup of 100%, let alone over 300%.  I can't imagine what would justify that price jump, but is there more to the tour than the version you booked? Have you called HAL to ask what's going on?

 

Edited January 10, 2020 by 3rdGenCunarder

[knittinggirl]

A lot of HAL tours take you to multiple places.  Personally, I'd rather fewer stops and stay longer.

 

For example, I'd like to go to only L'ans Meadows, but they insist on two places.

 

I bet a private tour guide would just cover the Viking site.

[scubacruiserx2]

11 minutes ago, knittinggirl said:

I don't remember any $899 tours in Qaqortog ,Greenland .   But we didn't pay much attention to tours there since it's a tender port.

 

The advantage with HAL tours are ease of refunds.  After they went with the three-day cancellation deadline,  it's not nearly as good a policy as a few years ago.  That and the limited desk hours makes it hard to get those refunds.  They don't even print the cancellation deadline on our tickets.  I suggested they add the cancellation deadline to the tickets, and they told me there wasn't room.  I was able to hand write the deadlines, so there was enough room.

 

We tried a private tour in Bergen and decided to cancel, and lost the money.  But we lost a lot of tour money w/ HAL, because we kept missing the deadline.

 

In Reykjavic the cancellation deadline was actually 4 days, because they decided to put the same deadline for both days we were in port.

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

8 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

It's the contract. When a cruise ship hires a local vendor for a tour, the vendor has to sell only through the cruise line. I have found that in North America and the Caribbean, HAL's markup isn't much. In Europe it's more, but I've never seen a markup of 100%, let alone over 300%.  I can't imagine what would justify that price jump, but is there more to the tour than the version you booked? Have you called HAL to ask what's going on?

 

 

Who would you suggest that we call who could and would do something about it ?

[Tom O.]

This sort of thing probably only happens in small ports where there are few tour companies.

It is the old business rule that the consumer benefits when there is more competition.

[DeeniEncinitas]

Good morning all!

scubacruiserx2,

I can understand how the price was one thing and than the hike up came as a shock.

I thought for the helicopter glacier excursion was low in price to begin with.

IMO only. We did a helicopter excursion to Fox Glacier in New Zealand and PP not through a cruise company though it was close to $1,000pp. There were 4 of us.

Ours was 4 hours. I might be comparing apples to oranges though!

Sorry for you it went up!! Seems like HAL on everything is going up. Another thread

in the booze you can order has gone up extremely also.

Good luck! Enjoy your upcoming cruise .

Denise😊

[3rdGenCunarder]

2 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

Who would you suggest that we call who could and would do something about it ?

 

Call HAL and ask to talk to someone at the tour department.

 

With a difference that great you might find out it's a mistake. They do put up wrong prices sometimes. One time, just after the tours were posted, they were charging $29 for a tour that would normally be more. It happened to be a tour that sounded good (even at a higher price) so I booked it to see what would happen, wondering if the price would change in a day or two. The price stayed the same fort several weeks, but eventually they caught the error. They sent an email telling me the price was wrong and I'd have to pay the corrected $99 price, even though I had completed my purchase at the earlier price.  So I paid the difference.

[knittinggirl]

42 minutes ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 

Thanks for the information.  DH won't even consider helicopter tours, so my eyes must have disregarded the tour.

[knittinggirl]

29 minutes ago, 3rdGenCunarder said:

 

Call HAL and ask to talk to someone at the tour department.

 

With a difference that great you might find out it's a mistake. They do put up wrong prices sometimes. One time, just after the tours were posted, they were charging $29 for a tour that would normally be more. It happened to be a tour that sounded good (even at a higher price) so I booked it to see what would happen, wondering if the price would change in a day or two. The price stayed the same fort several weeks, but eventually they caught the error. They sent an email telling me the price was wrong and I'd have to pay the corrected $99 price, even though I had completed my purchase at the earlier price.  So I paid the difference.

We once saw a tour for $8.  I reported it to shore ex by phone and she actually let me have it at that price before they sent it up the queue.  Unfortunately, I lost it when our TA sent the cruise back to HAL, and HAL cancelled all our EXC tours. 

[VennDiagram]

1 hour ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

THE Golden Rule is to treat others as you would like to be treated . They could have honored their commitment to us and sold the remaining tickets to HAL . That's what we would have done .

 

If HAL demanded exclusive rights to the tour,  and offered a guaranteed minimum payment, the tour operator may have had to make a tough business decision.  Take the guaranteed offer from HAL, or turn it down and HOPE that you would show up for the tour, and HOPE that a bunch more people also booked.

 

If I was feeding kids and/or paying employees, "guaranteed" would win out over "hope" every time.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am very sorry this happened to you.  And I think the NEW price is ridiculous!  I hope that as suggested upthread, there's been an error on the pricing.

[VacationCharlene]

scubacruiserx2......

here is something to consider doing and that I have been successful at in the past.  If you KNOW that you want to go on the helicopter ride, and KNOW it is now with a particular company AND you have time to cancel without losing any money, in case you change your mind, BOOK THE HAL excursion and then immediately complete the price match guarantee .  Be sure to take a screen shot of the price and description that you see on the webpage.

Best Price Guarantee

Find a better price on any tour we offer and we'll refund you 110 percent of the price difference in the form of an onboard credit. After booking your cruise, log in to learn more and purchase your shore excursions.  Log into your HAL account, go to shore excursions, price guarantee and complete out the form. 

If it works for you, you will be given back that money and you will get it at the price you wanted originally.  It stinks that the cruise ships grab alot of the local vendors but it is what it is.  Best of luck and hope to hear it went well for you.

Happy sailing and safe travels.

 

[Mary229]

I am surprised that someone quoted you the low price originally.   Greenland is expensive.   I think the first price was a bait, I think that is where the problem is not HAL

[MAVIP]

1 hour ago, scubacruiserx2 said:

 

 

Now I understand the price. You booked a flight and HAL offers a Helicopter Fight and needs at least 2 of them. (Not covered by your insurance anyway.😉 

[SilvertoGold]

I can see the tour company wanting to go with HAL.  It is often said that HAL goes 50/50 on these shorex prices, so the tour company would be making a lot more selling to HAL.