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All shore excursions sold out?

Electricx

By Electricx,
in Princess Cruises

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Electricx

Electricx

Posted
Posted

Hello!

 

I am hoping someone can help me out! My husband and I are new to Princess after having sailed with Carnival for a number of years. We just completed a Cruise to Mexico in the beginning of October, and we have had our cruise to Hawaii (Jan 16 out of SF) booked forever. We returning from Mexico, paid for Hawaii and buckled down to start booking our shore excursions. They are all sold out. They have one or two groups to the Pearl Harbour Museam (for example), sold out. Another volcano type trek / hike, with one group sold out. Pretty much everything is sold out. There is no wait list. 

 

I called Princess, and all they could say is that they noticed their Hawaii excursions drop off, but she didn't know if that was due to COVID or operators changing. All she could suggest was to wait and see if more pop up. I asked her how a ship of 4000 people only has ONE 40 person offering of a shore excursion, and she couldn't answer me. So I guess the question I pose to you all is, do more shore excursions show up or get populated closer to?

I try not to compare Carnival to Princess too much, but I am getting a little frustrated that I am literally trying to give Princess money a number of times and no one is interested LOL. Any insight would be appreciated! 

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sloopsailor

sloopsailor

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18 minutes ago, Electricx said:

I asked her how a ship of 4000 people only has ONE 40 person offering of a shore excursion, and she couldn't answer me. 

 

They only list 40 or so people, but there are often several busses for the same excursion. We booked our excursions early and the number did not change after our booking was confirmed, indicating that there are more availability than the initial number of people listed. 

 

Also, they typically leave a portion of the bookings unreserved so people can book them once on board.

 

One other note: the parks department limits how many people can visit the Pearl Harbor sites on any given day. That means that these excursions sell out early. especially during the busy tourist season. 

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paradiselivin1

paradiselivin1

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29 minutes ago, skynight said:

I would go to your roll call and see if you can join private tours.

Agree which if most often what we do but would suggest keeping an eye on the excursion daily (if possible) as we were able to book a Princess excursion recently for our cruise next August to Greenland when everything had been sold out and can only guess that someone canceled.

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phoebe2m

phoebe2m

Posted
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In the many years with Princess we have never booked our excursions until a day or two before the port. Things have changed. We are going to Hawaii the end of January and a lot of the excursions are full. I've was able to book 3 excursions and am waitlisted on one. I don't know why things are different but it's worrisome for sure. Good luck! 

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SiliconCruiser

SiliconCruiser

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 10/27/2022 at 8:11 AM, Electricx said:

I am hoping someone can help me out!

 

For all of the Hawaiian ports, take a look at what Roberts Tours has to offer.  They are the largest tour operator in the islands and also contract with local municipalities for their local transit systems.  They also contract with Princess for many of their excursions.  Super nice people that embody the Aloha spirit.  They know what they're doing and usually will be running their own tours that match the Princess tours.  Don't buy that 'get you back to the ship on time ' line that Princess feeds you about them waiting for you. When Roberts offers an excursion directly, they will also only do it for one ship.  So if the Roberts bus is late getting back to the port, the Princess tour that Roberts is contracted for will also be delayed (maybe even later.)

We had an experience where they didn't have a 16 passenger mini-bus with a wheelchair lift (they said that Princess had taken it.)  When I told them that the chair would fit in a baggage compartment, they said they could arrange that.  The following morning, there was a 54 passenger bus for 16 passengers and a wheelchair!  ... the Aloha spirit at work.

Oh, we went through the entire Hawaiian cruise without booking a single excursion with Princess and were quite pleased with our experience with Roberts at all the ports. (except Oahu where we used DaBus.)

 

Edited by SiliconCruiser
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cr8tiv1 Holiday Sharing Rare

cr8tiv1

Posted
Posted (edited)

@SiliconCruiserYou are spot on with Roberts and doing Hawaii on your own...with a few exceptions 

 

The night-time luaus, Polynesian Cultural Center after dark, Hana, and the north shore of Kauai.  All of these have reservations due to traffic concerns.  Most everything else is very doable on your own or with independent tour companies like Roberts.

 

When I am "home", I give myself plenty of extra time due to traffic.  

 

 

Edited by cr8tiv1
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Guest ldtr

Guest ldtr

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From what I have seen a number of the tour companies in various of the Hawaii Islands went out of business and/or dramatically reduced their staff during Covid.  Especially noticeable on the big island and Kauai.  Would not be surprised if this is impacting the number of tour slots that are available.  Last spring when I did the Hawaii cruise noticed that several of the tours had changed with a noticeable drop off in quality compared to pre-Covid.

 

Spent a couple of weeks in Kona at the end of September.  Talked with some people I know in the tourism industry.  They indicated that the number of people doing various tours is down substantially compared to pre-Covid, even with the number of tourists returning.  A number of people that used to work in that area have totally left the islands due to lack of work during Covid, dramatic increases in housing costs, etc.

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Thrak

Thrak

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When we visited the Oklahoma we got tickets online for like $1 each. The place is actually free to visit but the tickets got us a time slot rather than having to just wait. Princess wanted something like $99 per person for the Arizona. We rented a car and the three of us made a full day of it for less than paying Princess just for the Arizona visit.

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Guest ldtr

Guest ldtr

Posted
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42 minutes ago, Thrak said:

When we visited the Oklahoma we got tickets online for like $1 each. The place is actually free to visit but the tickets got us a time slot rather than having to just wait. Princess wanted something like $99 per person for the Arizona. We rented a car and the three of us made a full day of it for less than paying Princess just for the Arizona visit.

 Most of the excursion cost  from Princess is the transportation cost

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cr8tiv1 Holiday Sharing Rare

cr8tiv1

Posted
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1 hour ago, Thrak said:

When we visited the Oklahoma we got tickets online for like $1 each. The place is actually free to visit but the tickets got us a time slot rather than having to just wait. Princess wanted something like $99 per person for the Arizona. We rented a car and the three of us made a full day of it for less than paying Princess just for the Arizona visit.

 

Thrak is absolute correct in his description.  

 

Visiting the USS Arizona Memorial is one of the easiest things to do...but does require pre-planning.  In addition to reserving tickets, the NPS has very strict what you can carry in to the park.  

 

If you just want to walk around the museums and view the Memorial from a distance, then nothing more is required.  You will need a ticket for the movie, the launch, and to step on to the Memorial.

 

https://www.nps.gov/perl/index.htm

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MissP22

MissP22

Posted
Posted
On 10/30/2022 at 12:08 AM, ldtr said:

 Most of the excursion cost  from Princess is the transportation cost

You always have the option of doing your own excursion and using the local bus transportation system.

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cr8tiv1 Holiday Sharing Rare

cr8tiv1

Posted
Posted (edited)
44 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

You always have the option of doing your own excursion and using the local bus transportation system.


Bus fare has gone up….haha. But you still can get a senior fare by showing your Medicare care.  
 

https://www.thebus.org/Fare/FareTran_Brochure_English.pdf

Edited by cr8tiv1
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Roatanfans

Roatanfans

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We've done this cruise 3 times.  We use Robert's Hawaii for excursions.  They offer many of the same excursions as Princess at a discount.  They are usually the company doing the Princess excursions, so quality is the same but often smaller groups.  They also have a return to your ship guarantee if you are nervous about booking non ship excursions.  Their tours are wonderful and we use them whenever we can.  The one Princess excursion I can recommend if you want something a little more adventurous is ditch tubing in Kauai.  My kids still talk about it and want to go back and do it again!

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cr8tiv1 Holiday Sharing Rare

cr8tiv1

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Hawaii is so easy to on your own with some early planning.  
 

We speak (American) English.

We are happy to take your dollars (no exchange rate for Americans).

Our gas is cheaper than California.

The weather is wonderful.  You might even see a rainbow (anuenue) if you are lucky.

Food is ono-licious. 
We drive on the “correct” side of the road.

 

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