Shuffled Excursions and Increased Pricing

[Lookingtocruise42]

Hey all - 

 

I have a cruise booked in an otium suite on the nova early next year.(Alaska)

Up until recently, all the excursions started at the same time on all days. I recently got an email kicking me off of the luxury train ride excursion and noticed they had updated all the times. I re-joined that one, but it appears that the pricing for ALL excursions, including all the ones I already selected, have gone up.

The system is expecting me to pay the newer, inflated pricing (example: SIT-E, ocean raft adventure, in sitka, went from $149 to $209)

In addition, this also moved things around. I had Heli-flight and mendenhall glacier (JNU-OA) booked (at $699) for 9:30am. It moved my booking to 12, so I can't do anything else that day, and increased my price to $799. There is a 9:30 showing now, but that is showing waitlisted and I can't get confirmed into it, despite it being my original time. 

 

Further, they seem to have removed (and kicked me off of) the white pass scenic railway luxury class offering, but left the regular offering?

 

Has anyone had this happen before? How do I get SilverSea to honor the original excursion prices, and my original confirmed excursions?

Edited October 16, 2023 by Lookingtocruise42

[david63]

24 minutes ago, Lookingtocruise42 said:

How do I get SilverSea to honor the original excursion prices, and my original confirmed excursions?

Probably you cannot - I would imagine that there is something in the small print that allows them to do it.

[canderson]

When you see all shorex starting concurrently, I've come to understand that these are only 'placeholders' and that all is subject to change.  IMHO, SS shouldn't display those for booking, but that seems to be how they roll at SS IT.

[jimdee3636]

The fact that SS "can" do something outrageous doesn't mean they should do it, or that guests should put up with it. If they can raise prices on excursions you've already booked, and arbitrarily drop you from an excursion at the time you wanted and put you on one at a less-convenient time, what else might they do?

 

Maybe I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I'd cancel the cruise and kiss SS goodbye. Life is too short to be pushed around, especially when you're paying big bucks. (And for what it's worth, I'm not a SS "hater." My wife and I loved our three cruises on SS. I just won't put up with BS). 

 

Jim

[Lookingtocruise42]

22 minutes ago, jimdee3636 said:

The fact that SS "can" do something outrageous doesn't mean they should do it, or that guests should put up with it. If they can raise prices on excursions you've already booked, and arbitrarily drop you from an excursion at the time you wanted and put you on one at a less-convenient time, what else might they do?

 

Maybe I'd be cutting off my nose to spite my face, but I'd cancel the cruise and kiss SS goodbye. Life is too short to be pushed around, especially when you're paying big bucks. (And for what it's worth, I'm not a SS "hater." My wife and I loved our three cruises on SS. I just won't put up with BS). 

 

Jim

This is my thought also. The “activities team” is “reviewing” to see if they can restore it for me

[gnome12]

My cruise isn't until next June, but one of my excursions has gone from included to additional cost. However, in the My Activities summary on My Silversea, it shows as no cost for the excursion. (I still have the issue that all of the excursions show as beginning at the time we dock, but hopefully that will change.)

[Kalscruise]

I took screen shots of all my reservations that show the original time and price.   I understand some of the time changes... ex: originally the train was to be at 7am.. which seemed very early and the time we were to dock....  it has now been updated to 9am.   We too had another excursion move from morning to mid afternoon...  and that seems to be the only time it is offered.  I am keeping it as it is the excursion I wanted to go on.   They most likely honor the original price (if you can show them what it was when you originally booked) as they did with La Dame etc for those that booked before the prices went up on the Nova.

[seaver]

It is so much cheaper to do the tours on your own! I just looked up Heli-flight and mendenhall glacier and it's $359.00 vs your $799.00.

[Lookingtocruise42]

14 minutes ago, seaver said:

It is so much cheaper to do the tours on your own! I just looked up Heli-flight and mendenhall glacier and it's $359.00 vs your $799.00.

Can you link to the one you found?

[seaver]

Here you go.

Mendenhall Glacier Helicopter Tour & Glacier Walk Alaska Shore Excursions.htm

[Lookingtocruise42]

That seems to have posted as an attachment rather then the link.

 

regardless:

 

https://temscoair.com/dog-sledding-on-the-mendenhall-glacier/

 

is the provider(Google-fu by searching the tail number of the helicopters in the photos). Their schedules will be out in 2-3 weeks now for next year.

 

they are about 10% cheaper to book direct vs on the boat :).

[MHF]

On 10/17/2023 at 2:08 PM, Lookingtocruise42 said:

Can you link to the one you found?

If you would like other recommendations, we really enjoyed the helicopter flight to walk on a glacier (not Mendenhall) with Coastal Helicopters from Juneau.  They picked us up in a van and took us to the airport.

 

We also enjoyed Misty Fjords flight and Bear Search flight with Island Wings from Ketchikan.

[Stumblefoot]

Got a kick out of the message below we received from SS.

 

“Dear Señor and Senora Foot,

 

We regret to inform you that due to operational challenges, the shore excursion you selected for March 6, 2025 has been cancelled.  The booking has already been removed from your account and no further action is needed.”

 

The kick is the fact that not only have we not booked any excursions for 2025, we haven’t even booked anything for our 2024 voyage this winter.  Gotta luv SS IT.  Guess I should login to MySilversea sometime and see what other gremlins may be hiding for me to discover.