Do shore excursions sell out?

[Burrata]

Hello all!

booked Montreal to Boston August '22 on the Zaandam. Best to book excursions in advance? on board?

TIA and thank to all who have served!

[LJProk]

I have not done that cruise but yes, book in advance. I have one I was really wanted to do in Denali this week but my husband debated (due to cost) and now all three options are sold out. I'm on a waiting list but not looking good. Another excursion we wanted that we did do the waitlist for we got within about 2 weeks an had 2-3 days to decide and pay for it. But that was early on, I think some people book a bunch then decide what they want and cancel some stuff.

[Burrata]

good to know! This is our first time sailing on HAL. Your husband sounds like my husband debating on excursion due to cost! I usually book something not telling him the price then he raves about it afterwards.

Total strangers can also talk him into things too : /

 

The Alaska cruises look amazing!

[LJProk]

8 minutes ago, Burrata said:

good to know! This is our first time sailing on HAL. Your husband sounds like my husband debating on excursion due to cost! I usually book something not telling him the price then he raves about it afterwards.

Total strangers can also talk him into things too : /

 

The Alaska cruises look amazing!

haha! Same, I can tell him that a stranger on the internet said this excursion was amazing and he will say ok. I want to the do photography tour at night but at over $200 a person, and we did have 4 people going I had to convince him to let me do it and he hang with the teens (now only one teen going, not two).

[TiogaCruiser]

23 minutes ago, LJProk said:

I have not done that cruise but yes, book in advance. I have one I was really wanted to do in Denali this week but my husband debated (due to cost) and now all three options are sold out. I'm on a waiting list but not looking good. Another excursion we wanted that we did do the waitlist for we got within about 2 weeks an had 2-3 days to decide and pay for it. But that was early on, I think some people book a bunch then decide what they want and cancel some stuff.

It might still be possible that the waitlist puts you on the tour. Once aboard (Mexico cruise) we cleared the waitlist for 2 of 3 tours. HAL was able to add capacity with a second van.
 

We had to cancel the tours we had booked as a back up via the front desk. We got wind that we had cleared when we saw both tours booked* on our daily schedule on Navigator, and went to Front Desk to clarify what was happening. Our onboard account also showed the charge. We received no notification or other sign we were booked on conflicting tours.
 

 

*The third tour still indicated we were waitlisted, and the Daily on Navigator showed both the back up tour and the waitlisted tour. We then canceled the remaining waitlisted tour. 

Edited May 30, 2022 by TiogaCruiser

[Mary229]

Yes, tours sell out.  The travel industry has lost lots of companies and employees.   I have had quite a few wanted tours/waitlisted that I never been booked. In some cases I have not even been able to get transportation to do the tour independently nor have been able to book private tours.     If it is a must do book ahead of time.  

[DaveOKC]

Yes, tours do sell out.  Mostly these are the ones that have restricted capacity and of course are very popular.  Further, with all the startup issues for the cruise lines, to me it makes good planning sense to book it ahead of time, as you can always cancel for a full refund (but check the restrictions on this first of course).

 

In the past we usually waited to book, as we often had alot of OnBoard Credit to use up, but nowadays I am paying up and booking the tours I really want.

 

[roxybear135]

We are on a 14 night cruise in a few weeks that goes to Norway, Iceland, and Scotland.  I would say about half of the excursions have been sold out for a few weeks now.  I think with so many doing Have It All, far more excursions are selling out than before that was a thing.  I highly recommend booking the excursions you really want to do ASAP so they don't sell out.  We missed out on a couple we wanted to do because we waited too long since we were debating the cost of them.  

[Burrata]

thank you everyone! Booked the one excursion we really wanted. Can't wait!

[PigsCanFly]

4 hours ago, Burrata said:

Hello all!

booked Montreal to Boston August '22 on the Zaandam. Best to book excursions in advance? on board?

TIA and thank to all who have served!

We are on the Zaandam for 2 weeks Aug 13-27th'22 and last week when trying to book excursions we encountered several that were already sold out.  We  are waitlisted for one of the ones we wanted.

[ontheweb]

It works the other way also; we have booked excursions only to have them cancelled because there were not enough passengers booked on the excursion. (I also remember at least once finding out an excursion was sold out.)

[Lindancer]

9 hours ago, LJProk said:

I have not done that cruise but yes, book in advance. I have one I was really wanted to do in Denali this week but my husband debated (due to cost) and now all three options are sold out. I'm on a waiting list but not looking good. Another excursion we wanted that we did do the waitlist for we got within about 2 weeks an had 2-3 days to decide and pay for it. But that was early on, I think some people book a bunch then decide what they want and cancel some stuff.

Book with locals!  I once couldn't get on a flight plane to see bears because the shore excursion from Princess was sold out.  So we got off the ship and got a better tour from a local in Ketchikan for $100 less per person.  We also found out later the people on the Princess excursion never even saw any bears, while we saw several.  Many years later, when I took my grandson, we did it again -there were 3 of us and we saved $500 over the ship's excursion.

[Burrata]

5 hours ago, PigsCanFly said:

We are on the Zaandam for 2 weeks Aug 13-27th'22 and last week when trying to book excursions we encountered several that were already sold out.  We  are waitlisted for one of the ones we wanted.

you must doing a B2B! we are sailing August 20th-27th, Montreal to Boston. I did book the one excursion that was a must do!

[Mary229]

15 hours ago, ontheweb said:

It works the other way also; we have booked excursions only to have them cancelled because there were not enough passengers booked on the excursion. (I also remember at least once finding out an excursion was sold out.)

It is too bad they don’t indicate how many they need.  There was one my nephew missed and if he had known they only needed one more he would have asked me.   As it was he was told after the cancellation decision was made.

[syesmar]

18 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

It is too bad they don’t indicate how many they need….

Agree. A simple note like, “A minimum of 20 participants is needed for this tour. If this number is not reached, this excursion is subject to cancellation” would at least give those booking it some info. I agree it could be a motivating factor.

Edited May 31, 2022 by syesmar

[syesmar]

What is the current cancellation policy for most HAL excursions? When I last cruised it was penalty-free up until a certain point and then a % within a certain window, but I’m not sure if things have changed.

[DaveOKC]

Not certain of the exact cancellation policy, so I will let others answer that.  I do want to add that HAL is very good about working with you on last minute cancellations though.  Once I cancelled about an hour prior to the excursion and was expecting no refund of course, but I ended up with a full refund because the excursion was waitlisted and someone else took my spot!  That was very nice of HAL to do this and again was totally unexpected by me.

 

[Mary229]

The current policy varies by excursion.  For the most common excursions I think it is 48 hours penalty free.  But be careful some excursions are non-refundable or have up to a 90 day cancellation period.  These are usually ones that require highly sought after entrance tickets, airfare or other complicating factors.  I am sweating one right now with no cancellation allowed. 

[LJProk]

13 hours ago, Lindancer said:

Book with locals!  I once couldn't get on a flight plane to see bears because the shore excursion from Princess was sold out.  So we got off the ship and got a better tour from a local in Ketchikan for $100 less per person.  We also found out later the people on the Princess excursion never even saw any bears, while we saw several.  Many years later, when I took my grandson, we did it again -there were 3 of us and we saved $500 over the ship's excursion.

The one I am still hoping will open for one person is a sunset photography tour in Denali. I didn't see outside options when I looked (or any that had availability).

[LJProk]

Another note that I have not seen other cruiselines. Apparently you cannot add excursions at the last minute with HAL. I'm trying to cancel since I have an older teen son no longer joining us and leaving this week and having issues cancelling his excursions even.

[Cruise Suzy]

23 minutes ago, LJProk said:

Apparently you cannot add excursions at the last minute with HAL.

 

You cannot add HAL shore excursions online within 3 days of departure. Within that time frame, before the COVID pause, you could add them by calling - and you were able to use any OBC you had to pay for them. I have not tried to do so since sailings resumed.

[Mary229]

12 minutes ago, Cruise Suzy said:

and you were able to use any OBC yo

I tried this recently and was denied.  OBC seems to be strictly onboard 

[LJProk]

18 minutes ago, Cruise Suzy said:

 

You cannot add HAL shore excursions online within 3 days of departure. Within that time frame, before the COVID pause, you could add them by calling - and you were able to use any OBC you had to pay for them. I have not tried to do so since sailings resumed.

I called because I always have issues with the website trying to purchase shore excursions, they told me they could not add it on the phone at this point either. All good though, found one through Viator for the same price.

[debdiva]

I though we booked quite early, late January for an August cruise, but the particular excursion we wanted in Reykjavik was already sold out. Bummer, because it was how we wanted to spend our 40th wedding anniversary, on the Golden Circle. Sigh...

[roxybear135]

16 minutes ago, debdiva said:

I though we booked quite early, late January for an August cruise, but the particular excursion we wanted in Reykjavik was already sold out. Bummer, because it was how we wanted to spend our 40th wedding anniversary, on the Golden Circle. Sigh...

Depending on how long you are in Reykjavik (we are going there on a cruise in a few weeks and it's an overnight port there), you may want to look on Tripadvisor.  They have a bunch of Golden Circle tours available (and they're typically cheaper than the HAL excursions).  Plus, if it's an overnight port, you don't have to stress about getting back to the ship in time so doing a non-HAL excursion would be fine.