10 Months Out - Still Can’t Book Excursions

[Sea-n-Ease]

I know this is discussed a lot here.  Has anyone had to wait this long for HA to release excursions?

[Cruise Suzy]

Shore excursions for our November Caribbean cruise weren't posted until June - along with the ones for our February Caribbean cruise.

[CruiserBruce]

10 months isn't an issue...its probably even maybe a little early.  Routes they do frequently can come out very early, ports that are less frequently visited can come out only a couple months prior to sailing.

[OlsSalt]

We are about 70  days out and still have no excursions offered for LA or Catalina Island after these ports were added recently, after  Monterey and Santa Barbara were taken away on an Oct Coastal California cruise. 

 

Monterey we expected to lose - after they declare the entire area a Marine Sanctuary - no cruise ships ever again. Still not clear why they eliminated Santa Barbara at the same time.

But there are plenty of things to do on our own in both new ports.

[CruiserBruce]

55 minutes ago, OlsSalt said:

Monterey we expected to lose - after they declare the entire area a Marine Sanctuary - no cruise ships ever again. Still not clear why they eliminated Santa Barbara at the same time.

But there are plenty of things to do on our own in both new ports.

That is not the reason for Monterey cancelation. The Marine Sanctuary was created in 1992 by. the first Bush Administration. Cruise ships have sailed through the Sanctuary since formation, and still sail through it.

 

The cancelation is because the city of Monterey no longer wishes to have cruise ships in town, as they are already over run by land based tourists.

[campbean41]

3 hours ago, Cruise Suzy said:

Shore excursions for our November Caribbean cruise weren't posted until June - along with the ones for our February Caribbean cruise.

And only some November excursions are posted - some ports still have none or only a few showing.

[Hlitner]

1 hour ago, CruiserBruce said:

That is not the reason for Monterey cancelation. The Marine Sanctuary was created in 1992 by. the first Bush Administration. Cruise ships have sailed through the Sanctuary since formation, and still sail through it.

 

The cancelation is because the city of Monterey no longer wishes to have cruise ships in town, as they are already over run by land based tourists.

So Monterey is following the worldwide trend to minimize or eliminate cruise ship visits.  Just in the USA we have seen restrictions in Key West, Bar Harbor, Charleston, and now Monterey.  In Europe the trend has had a major impact on Venice and there is a movement to eliminate ships from La Spezia (Cinque Terre) and a few other ports and further restrict the number/size of ships visiting Santorini.

 

What has happened?  Not only is there the constant "thump thump thump" of environmental groups, but movements have now been joined by locals who simply do not like being overun by oversized cruise ships full of passengers who spend relatively little money when ashore.  Being folks who enjoy DIY land trips and also cruises, we have mixed emotions.  I do get both sides of the argument but will admit to liking the Key West restrictions and do understand the issue in Venice.

 

Hank

[kazu]

For our upcoming cruise in October, a lot of the tours were out at least 9 months early.  More tours were added as time went on.   But our Half Moon Cay port remained without tours until just a couple of weeks ago.  

I expect you should see them soon.  If you want an idea of what HAL offers, you can google ‘holland america shore excursions” or add the port and you will see their traditional shore excursions if that is of help.

I did that for our 2024 cruise which allowed me to start planning private tours for ports where I knew the HAL tours would not suit..

[Sea-n-Ease]

Thanks all!  I’m waiting on pins and needles to book an Alaskan cruise excursion that will invariably sell it.  It’s our only excursion “must have”.   My HAL PCC told me I’d receive an email once excursions are available, but I’m not relying on that.  Just logging in on desktop every couple of days and trying to be patient. 😇 

[CruiserBruce]

57 minutes ago, Sea-n-Ease said:

Thanks all!  I’m waiting on pins and needles to book an Alaskan cruise excursion that will invariably sell it.  It’s our only excursion “must have”.   My HAL PCC told me I’d receive an email once excursions are available, but I’m not relying on that.  Just logging in on desktop every couple of days and trying to be patient. 😇 

The email usually comes out unrelated to the actual release of excursions. It's just a routine sales email. 

[hrhdhd]

Check the Ports of Call board and see if the excursion you want can be done privately.