Book Shore Excursions Anytime - No 6 Month Release Date for Excursions

[Stickman1990]

Silversea have removed the “window” opening for Shore Excursions going forward

While it will create a surge of bookings now it will even the workload out over time and hopefully make things more convenient for passengers

My TA received this email from Silversea today 

 

SHORE EXCURSION RESERVATIONS YOUR CLIENTS NO LONGER NEED TO WAIT

Dear Travel Partner, We are thrilled to share some good news with you today that will make planning your clients’ customised travels with Silversea even more seamless. Guests are now able to book shore excursions for all 2022-2025 published sailings immediately; your clients no longer need to wait until six months prior to their sail date to reserve their selected shore excursions. If they are holding an existing booking, we invite you or them to visit their MySilversea account now and reserve their shore excursions today.  Our teams have worked vigorously to provide your discerning clients with the luxury of advanced time and myriad choices to curate their Silversea experience to very personal interests. From active and adventurous to sublime and enriching, they’ll find more intriguing and connective opportunities to discover the authentic beauty of each destination, inviting them to travel deeper into each port of call. Thank you for your attention to this exciting development, unprecedented in cruising. We look forward to hosting your clients on their ultra-luxury Silversea adventure, where the world and all its wonders await.  Silversea Cruises

 

 

[Brownie54]

We received the same email and will be sailing for the first time on Silversea on the Cloud in Antarctica in January, 2024. I went on the My Silversea this afternoon, but was unable to book excursions.
Is it  true of the Expedition cruises that you book them once on board?

[gnome12]

I have already booked some excursions for my June 2024(!) Norway cruise on the Dawn. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

I was able to book shore excursions for my Jan. 2024 cruise in New Zealand and Australia over a month ago.  [Except for two ports, where nothing has been posted yet – these were post-booking substitutions for Melbourne, which Silversea said had no dock available, so I wonder if they are still hoping to switch us back there.]

[nancygp]

Ditto

 

Nancy

[sherylc]

5 hours ago, Brownie54 said:

We received the same email and will be sailing for the first time on Silversea on the Cloud in Antarctica in January, 2024. I went on the My Silversea this afternoon, but was unable to book excursions.
Is it  true of the Expedition cruises that you book them once on board?

All of the Antarctica excursions are booked onboard -- likely not a lot of choices (landing vs zodiac likely switched off between groups) with kayaking as only alternative. No need to worry about booking anything in advance. We are going in December of this year and are super excited!!

 

[Stumblefoot]

6 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

Silversea have removed the “window” opening for Shore Excursions going forward…

 

 

Correct.  The change was reported here in the SS forum on August 2nd.

[jpalbny]

The cynic in me reads this message from SS as "Book your 2025 cruise ASAP before the excursions that you want are sold out!" Since you can't book excursions until you've booked the cruise, this new system gives absolute priority to those who book early (i.e., those who buy the privilege by handing over a big deposit years in advance). Smart move for SS to improve their cashflow.

 

But after spending the last 3 years keeping track of the deposits we had with various companies, and rescheduling trips to make sure that we didn't lose our money, I'm reluctant to book anything much more than a year in advance. Currently looking at a SS cruise in September 2023 and thinking that's far out. Some of the excursions look interesting - are they already waitlisted? Will I need to put down 25% to find out?

[highplanesdrifters]

19 hours ago, Brownie54 said:

We received the same email and will be sailing for the first time on Silversea on the Cloud in Antarctica in January, 2024. I went on the My Silversea this afternoon, but was unable to book excursions.
Is it  true of the Expedition cruises that you book them once on board?

As mentioned earlier, you will be assigned a zodiac group and will be told at the daily briefing when your group will depart. On our last trip,  Kayak sign up was at the daily briefing. That may change.

[Host Jazzbeau]

8 hours ago, jpalbny said:

The cynic in me reads this message from SS as "Book your 2025 cruise ASAP before the excursions that you want are sold out!" Since you can't book excursions until you've booked the cruise, this new system gives absolute priority to those who book early (i.e., those who buy the privilege by handing over a big deposit years in advance). Smart move for SS to improve their cashflow.

 

But after spending the last 3 years keeping track of the deposits we had with various companies, and rescheduling trips to make sure that we didn't lose our money, I'm reluctant to book anything much more than a year in advance. Currently looking at a SS cruise in September 2023 and thinking that's far out. Some of the excursions look interesting - are they already waitlisted? Will I need to put down 25% to find out?

Silversea doesn't charge for excursions when you book them.  So booking as early as possible is pure benefit:  you're locked in, they know how much interest there is, and you don't pay a penny for the privilege.

[gnome12]

2 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Silversea doesn't charge for excursions when you book them.  So booking as early as possible is pure benefit:  you're locked in, they know how much interest there is, and you don't pay a penny for the privilege.

Why do you say you are locked in? I read the terms and conditions and you can cancel up to the day before in most cases. 

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, gnome12 said:

Why do you say you are locked in? I read the terms and conditions and you can cancel up to the day before in most cases. 

'Locked in' in the sense that the shore excursion can't get 'sold out' on you – I was reacting to @jpalbny statement.

[jpalbny]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Silversea doesn't charge for excursions when you book them.  So booking as early as possible is pure benefit:  you're locked in, they know how much interest there is, and you don't pay a penny for the privilege.

 

True, you don't pay for the excursions until you're on board. That wasn't my point.

 

You can't book excursions until you book the cruise. That usually costs 25% of the cruise total because you need to pay a deposit. 

 

So now you have to pay up 25% of the cruise fare, maybe years in advance, so you can book your shore excursions before they fill up.

 

Under the old system, you couldn't book the excursions until 6 months before the cruise sailed. So no worries about them filling up before then.

 

 

[Host Jazzbeau]

4 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

 

True, you don't pay for the excursions until you're on board. That wasn't my point.

 

You can't book excursions until you book the cruise. That usually costs 25% of the cruise total because you need to pay a deposit. 

 

So now you have to pay up 25% of the cruise fare, maybe years in advance, so you can book your shore excursions before they fill up.

 

Under the old system, you couldn't book the excursions until 6 months before the cruise sailed. So no worries about them filling up before then.

 

 

Ah, gotcha.  So those of us who book really early are rewarded.  OK by me!  😉

[Host Jazzbeau]

1 hour ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Ah, gotcha.  So those of us who book really early are rewarded.  OK by me!  😉

Seriously, I don't know whether Silversea excursions will sell out – the 'all-inclusive' model that includes them is just getting started, so they can't know the impact on the included ones or the now-extra-charge ones.  

 

But when I pre-book shore excursions on Azamara, I have to pay up front.  Yes, I can get my money back if I cancel an excursion in time, but they still get to hold it in between.  [And their small-group excursions do sell out – I am waitlisted for one on next month's cruise.]  So to me, this model is definitely better.

[CruzinFeraBruzin]

On 9/23/2022 at 6:21 AM, jpalbny said:

Some of the excursions look interesting - are they already waitlisted? Will I need to put down 25% to find out?

We use a Silversea Rep to book cruises so I'm not sure if its the same when using a TA, but when we are interested in a cruise, the Rep puts a hold on a suite for a week to 10 days with no deposit required and creates a booking number.  During the hold period, we can pull up the booking in my.silversea and look at all the excursions.  We just can't reserve them because its not a live booking yet, however I believe you can see which ones are waitlisted and which are still available.  If we decide not to proceed with booking the cruise, the booking falls off my.silversea after the hold time expires.

 

Edited September 24, 2022 by CruzinFeraBruzin

[jpalbny]

@CruzinFeraBruzin, thanks for that tip. Will see...

[drron29]

Our TA has always put a suite on hold so this is a bonus for us.

last night booked a lot of excursions especially on our April 24 voyage around Japan. basically booked all those that included gardens as it is cherry blossom time.

Because I could I booked excursions for our April to June 25 voyage Singapore tp Athens on the Muse. But I am really upset with Silversea as I couldn't book the Egyptian ports in June.😁

[Port Power]

On 9/25/2022 at 10:16 AM, drron29 said:

Our TA has always put a suite on hold so this is a bonus for us.

last night booked a lot of excursions especially on our April 24 voyage around Japan. basically booked all those that included gardens as it is cherry blossom time.

Because I could I booked excursions for our April to June 25 voyage Singapore tp Athens on the Muse. But I am really upset with Silversea as I couldn't book the Egyptian ports in June.😁

It was posted at least a month ago on a thread here somewhere that excursions for any cruise could be booked immediately.  I booked all of my excursions for September’s Silver Muse cruises and November’s Dawn cruises back then.  I don’t remember now who gave us the heads up, but thank you.  Being able to book excursions immediately after paying your deposit is now a welcome benefit for booking early.