Excursion waitlist

[shopgirl151]

How does the waitlist work?  Will you find out on the cruise if you have the excursion or do you get advance notice?  If I book another excursion while I am waiting on the waitlist, can I cancel the second excursion before the cruise or do you have to do it onboard the ship?

 

Sorry, for the confusion.

 

Thanks

[Rick&Jeannie]

I hope this does not discourage you...but I have never heard of anybody ever being successful in getting an excursion after being waitlisted.  A couple of times (for us personally) a given excursion was "sold out" pre-cruise but once on board we just went to the excursion desk, asked about it and were sold tickets.

[Ombud]

I've gotten an excursion after waitlisting @Rick&Jeannie but (& @shopgirl151) I didn't have a time conflict with an existing booking. In fact I didn't even know i had it until I went into my excursions list to book an alternative and saw it there. It was ziplining with Adventure Camp in Alaska. 

 

You can cancel any excursion in your personalizer, not necessary to wait until onboard. Might free up a spot for another cruiser who's waitlisted for that one

[Rick&Jeannie]

4 minutes ago, Ombud said:

I've gotten an excursion after waitlisting

Good to know that "the system" works!  Thanks for the enlightenment! 🙂

[Shelly97060]

We recently cancelled ann excursion onboard and the crew member said that people on the waitlist will be happy- so I know sometimes people cancel and those on the waitlist do get tickets. 
 

I am currently on Crown and we are waitlisted for an excursion.  The crew member who put us on the list said we will know if we clear the waitlist if the tickets arrive in our cabin- that’s our notification! 
 

[fawnie]

We recently got our Excursion after being waitlisted. There was nothing else that interested us at that port , but low and behold 😉 we got our trip! Hope the same for you 

[roxstarcruiser]

On 3/26/2023 at 4:33 PM, Ombud said:

I've gotten an excursion after waitlisting @Rick&Jeannie but (& @shopgirl151) I didn't have a time conflict with an existing booking. In fact I didn't even know i had it until I went into my excursions list to book an alternative and saw it there. It was ziplining with Adventure Camp in Alaska. 

 

You can cancel any excursion in your personalizer, not necessary to wait until onboard. Might free up a spot for another cruiser who's waitlisted for that one

Is it fair to assume they automatically charge you when you're moved off the waitlist? 

[Ombud]

Just now, roxstarcruiser said:

Is it fair to assume they automatically charge you when you're moved off the waitlist? 

Thats what happens to me when I have enough obc to cover it. I'm currently waitlisted on Japan excursion so I canceled Brisbane excursion just to keep enough obc to cover it.  But, in reality, they just lean obc until embarkation and then charge it

 

I've heard (no 1st hand experience) that you are notified if you have insufficient OBC ... 

[roxstarcruiser]

3 minutes ago, Ombud said:

Thats what happens to me when I have enough obc to cover it. I'm currently waitlisted on Japan excursion so I canceled Brisbane excursion just to keep enough obc to cover it.  But, in reality, they just lean obc until embarkation and then charge it

 

I've heard (no 1st hand experience) that you are notified if you have insufficient OBC ... 

Gotcha, thanks. 

[JimmyVWine]

Oftentimes getting a slot from the Waitlist is a function of there being so many people on the List that they organize another full group.  Given that ship-organized groups can often be very large, that can require a large number of people who have demonstrated an interest in the excursion.  So it can be a numbers game.  If there are two people on the Waitlist, they might stand a good chance of getting in due to cancellations.  If there are 10 people on the Waitlist, that won't be enough to warrant another full group so a couple of people might get in due to cancellations and the rest get shut out.  And if there are 30 people on the Waitlist, there is a reasonable chance that Princess will try to accommodate all of them by assembling another full group, assuming that is feasible.  (A tour of the Vatican should be easy to put together.  Ziplining in Costa Rica, maybe not as easy.) So one strategy would be to connect with others on a Roll Call and if enough people "on the outs" band together and all put their names on the Waitlist, a big enough group might form.  But if most people accept defeat and only a few put their names on the Waitlist, the chances of success might actually decrease.

Edited September 21, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[canusa]

I was on the waitlist on my last cruise. I only found out that I got the excursion by going to the excursion desk 2 days before the port and asking about the wait list.  They printed my ticket for me right there.

[Loveh2ofl]

8 hours ago, roxstarcruiser said:

Is it fair to assume they automatically charge you when you're moved off the waitlist? 

No - perhaps it's true as someone said above that if you have enough onboard credits you're automatically charged.  But we had excursions booked in a port, and were waitlisted on a separate excursion.  The excursions we previously booked were canceled and we got an email saying we had 24 or 48 hours to pay the additional cost (it was more expensive than what was canceled) for the new excursion or we would end up having lost both excursions.  

 

Onboard when we were waitlisted I'd say we were successful in about 1 out of 5 times actually getting the excursion.

[ba5eline]

have there been any excursions that don't accept wait lists?

[Kerry's Girls]

It just happened to me.  I waitlisted a tour and also booked another tour for the same time (since I didn't want to end up with nothing).  Yesterday I received an email that my party was now booked on the tour I had waitlisted and had 24 hours to pay.  I was automatically removed from the other tour.  I logged in, paid the difference (the waitlisted tour was $30 more) and now we're on the preferred tour.  Also, I have family in a 2nd cabin and had waitlisted them as well and they cleared at the same time.  My guess is that we're right around final payment time, so some people are probably cancelling their reservations for this cruise now that it's time to make a decision.  

[Kerry's Girls]

17 hours ago, roxstarcruiser said:

Is it fair to assume they automatically charge you when you're moved off the waitlist? 

The email I received when I came off the waitlist indicated that if I did not pay for the tour within 24 hours, the excursion would be deleted from my account/cart.