When to book Alaska Excursions?

[richart]

New to cruising Alaska. Taking the inside passage on Discovery Princess in May 2024. When should I start looking to book excursions?

[disneyochem]

Now.  I’m taking several cruises next year to Alaska (June -July 2024, August 2024) and have booked a number of excursions.

 

The more popular excursions through the cruise line tends to sell out early.
 

I usually don’t use the cruise line excursions but I do have some shore excursion credits that need to be use so booked a couple with the cruise line.  Some private vendors don’t have online booking up for next summer but you can call and book the tour you want.  
 

I’m waiting for Black Friday sales to book my Kenai Fjord cruise out of Seward.

[NavyVeteran]

Some excursions are available only from Princess. For example, the cruise lines book all of the seats on the train excursions in Skagway.

 

Reasons to book now:

• The excursion might sell out. Some do.
• The price may go up. That happens.
• If the price goes down, you can cancel and rebook - if there is space available.

 

The only reason to wait is that you have to pay when you book for any excursions exceeding your onboard credit (OBC) balance. You will get a refund if you cancel, but you are tying up the money for now.

[travelin.sisters]

my thought is book asap if you know what you want & cancel if you change your mind

[gilboman]

4 hours ago, richart said:

New to cruising Alaska. Taking the inside passage on Discovery Princess in May 2024. When should I start looking to book excursions?

ASAP especially for ones like seaplane flight of glaciers and etc..they get booked up and you can always cancel

[Ombud]

1 hour ago, NavyVeteran said:

Some excursions are available only from Princess. For example, the cruise lines book all of the seats on the train excursions in Skagway.

 

Reasons to book now:

• The excursion might sell out. Some do.
• The price may go up. That happens.
• If the price goes down, you can cancel and rebook - if there is space available.

 

The only reason to wait is that you have to pay when you book for any excursions exceeding your onboard credit (OBC) balance. You will get a refund if you cancel, but you are tying up the money for now.

Too true for any cruise!! While mulling over a disembarkation tour next May it sold out but I snagged a spot on the waitlist. Waitlist closed on another excursion.  Ah well, time to research the port with other roll call members

[deliver42]

Especially in Alaska, never too early. The better excursions do sell out. It's not hype.

[capriccio]

9 hours ago, NavyVeteran said:

Some excursions are available only from Princess. For example, the cruise lines book all of the seats on the train excursions in Skagway.

Chilkoot Tours (https://chilkootcharters.com/) also books seats on the White Pass railroad.  We've used them twice (2012 and 2018) and they had an entire train car reserved just for their passengers.  We highly recommend them.

[voljeep]

13 hours ago, disneyochem said:

usually don’t use the cruise line excursions but I do have some shore excursion credits that need to be use so booked a couple with the cruise line.

if the shore excursion credit was from a previous Princess promotion (we have $100 each) it's been reported here that it is really just general OBC and applied to your folio charges.

 

I 'guess' that 'could' change at any time and be exclusively for excursions only

[memoak]

As soon as possible these cruises are especially popular with first time cruisers who see it as a bucket list trip and want to do everything in every port

[disneyochem]

2 hours ago, voljeep said:

if the shore excursion credit was from a previous Princess promotion (we have $100 each) it's been reported here that it is really just general OBC and applied to your folio charges.

 

I 'guess' that 'could' change at any time and be exclusively for excursions only

The shore excursion credits are on Holland America cruises, not Princess.  HAL will only let you use the shore excursion funds on shore excursions--you lose it if you do not use it!

 

(I certainly prefer Princess's policy--we've had their shore excursion credit and used it as general OBC.)

[charliedalrymple]

No advice on booking excursions. However, our Alaska cruise was in May and a fair number of people said it was too early.  I can report that the weather was perfect every day and it remains our favourite cruise.

[jlacy1987]

If there is anything you have your heart set on doing, I'd book as early as possible. We are cruising next month and will have our 3 year old with us. I know there are a lot of excursions that aren't small kid friendly so I wanted to make sure we got excursions booked that would benefit our entire family and booked our excursions back in the spring. 

[no1racefan1]

We are going to Alaska in May 2024 and I had our excursions booked by June. I recommend booking as soon as you know what you want, as there's really no benefit to be gained from waiting.

 

That being said, I have been keeping track of excursions on our cruise so I could see when they start selling out, and I have not yet seen anything sell out--so I'm sure that happens, but possibly not this far in advance. A couple of excursions only have a few spots left though.

 

Also, you'll probably note that there is only one time (early morning) listed for all excursions. I have read from other people that more times are likely to open up as we get closer, because a lot of Alaskan tour companies don't have their 2024 schedules finalized yet. So that's something else to keep an eye on as it gets closer. I went ahead and booked everything and will cancel and rebook if the timing works out better later.

[AtlantaCruiser72]

My rule of thumb - if it's a "make or break" experience that is integral to your enjoyment of the trip book as soon as you know you want to do it.  This is true of excursions through the cruise line or third party operator.  If it's a "it might be nice" type of thing, but I could do something else, then there is no harm in waiting.

[georgetheblue]

No land excursions are available for booking for my august 24 cruise tour.  When will they be available?  I have t

wo nights in Cooper River, two nights in Kenai, two nights in McKinley that i want to choose an excursion.  The excursions are included in Denali and Fairbanks. Right now the only excursion availibilty is for the cruise portion. Is there time limit before princess releases the land excursions?

[Italy52]

I always book our "must do" excursions ASAP so we never miss an opportunity to enjoy our favorite excursions.  We are cruising twice to Alaska in 2024 and have already booked our independent as well as our ship's excursions.  In fact, one of our ship excursion has already gone up in price.  Popular independent vendors can book up fast -- one of our independent vendors is taking reservations already for 2025.  Enjoy your Alaska planning.

[Paula_MacFan]

21 hours ago, georgetheblue said:

No land excursions are available for booking for my august 24 cruise tour.  When will they be available?  I have two nights in Cooper River, two nights in Kenai, two nights in McKinley that i want to choose an excursion.  The excursions are included in Denali and Fairbanks. Right now the only excursion availibilty is for the cruise portion. Is there time limit before princess releases the land excursions?

 

We have a cruisetour booked for May 2024 and are experiencing the same as you -- cruise excursions are up to book, but the land tours are not.  I asked my CVP when we could expect them to be available and they said 'hopefully soon' but they also said that 'Princess no longer has a dedicated shore excursion department' so they had no one to contact specifically to ask. 

 

I check every day online and plan to book as soon as they are available.  Good luck 🙂  

[jannieb]

Not having cruised in over 20 years I had a lot of questions on this topic.  Can you book excursions before final payment?

Are they fully refundable if you change your mind or have to cancel the cruise?

It's been a rough year health wise for me and next year is my make up year for travel, but sometimes the universe interferes. So right now planning is exciting.

[capriccio]

I would just keep checking the excursions every week.  I know in the past that many Alaskan vendors - some of whom are relatively small companies - didn't release their schedules until November or December.  They are obviously very busy during the summer cruising season and then it takes a while to get the next season set up.  Since Princess frequently contracts with those companies I imagine that everyone is working on scheduling now.  

[georgetheblue]

WOW - That information is very disappointing to hear.  It explains why they were there for awhile but now gone.  Princess better get their act together on this problem.  FYI, my TA has a partnership with shore excursions group.com and they do have a few excursions for interior Alaska, so that’s something to look at.  

We’ll now I will be researching RCL to see if they are offering interior excursions on their landtours

[georgetheblue]

Unable to open the RCL land destinations for excursions

[Paula_MacFan]

12 hours ago, jannieb said:

Not having cruised in over 20 years I had a lot of questions on this topic.  Can you book excursions before final payment?

Are they fully refundable if you change your mind or have to cancel the cruise?

It's been a rough year health wise for me and next year is my make up year for travel, but sometimes the universe interferes. So right now planning is exciting.

Yes you can book before final payment.  In fact, on our last cruise many were sold out months before the cruise.  For Alaska as others had said, if there's something you know you want to do, it's best to book ASAP.  

 

Excursions are fully refundable if you change your mind or have to cancel.  The only caveat is some flight-seeing excursions in Alaska have different cancellation policies, but those are disclosed at booking.  

 

As far as Alaska for 2024, everything I've read says bookings are extremely strong and our May 2024 cruisetour has been sold out for quite awhile.  So keep that in mind as you plan.  Good luck 🙂

 

[Gentle Traveler]

 

1 hour ago, Paula_MacFan said:

Yes you can book before final payment.  In fact, on our last cruise many were sold out months before the cruise.  For Alaska as others had said, if there's something you know you want to do, it's best to book ASAP.  

 

Excursions are fully refundable if you change your mind or have to cancel.  The only caveat is some flight-seeing excursions in Alaska have different cancellation policies, but those are disclosed at booking.  

 

As far as Alaska for 2024, everything I've read says bookings are extremely strong and our May 2024 cruisetour has been sold out for quite awhile.  So keep that in mind as you plan.  Good luck 🙂

 

Thank you!   I had better get busy!

[nlsgmk]

Booked for May 24 - and have all our excursions booked.  I would book as early as possible.  Popular excursions or those that take a limited number of people sell quickly.