Excursion Availability Prior to Booking Window?

[ifitfloats]

Our booking window opens later this week and we were not part of the 365 day in advance group. Is there any way to see what's still available before the magic day at 8 pm? 

[Portolan]

When you go to the page describing your cruise, there is a major section entitled "Itinerary & Excursions."  At some point in advance of the 365-day booking window, there should be a line immediately below the section title which says, "Click here to receive a list of all shore excursions being offered on this voyage."  The word Click is a hyperlink.  You'll be asked for your email and a pdf of the excursion offerings will be sent to you.

Edited August 13 by Portolan

[ifitfloats]

Yes, I have had the PDF for quite some time. What I was wondering is if there is a way to see which ones have been fully booked by the folks who have the full 365 days? We are in the 330 day group. 

[Portolan]

No way that I know of that you can see that information on-line though possibly your TA can check or the Regent phone rep will check for you.

 

One other possibility is to find the thread in the Roll Calls for your cruise (if there is one), and some kind 365-day soul will check for you.  Once the window opens, those who have already registered can see which tours are sold out, but somewhat painfully excursion by excursion, so asking for information about all will not likely get you an answer.

Edited August 14 by Portolan

[ifitfloats]

Yep, that's what I figured. Thanks for the suggestion. I think I will just wait until my 8 pm slot and see where we stand. We are going to do our own thing in many of the ports so we will not be crushed if we can't get any specific excursion and it sounds as if waitlisting usually works in any case. 

[irishwitchy]

Where are you cruising and is there a particular excursion you really want?  Some folks may be able to tell you based on past experience.  For example,  the private yacht in the Mediterranean or the helicopter landing in Alaska, will not be waiting for you.  This may help manage your expectations and have a backup.    

[ifitfloats]

It's a British Isles cruise. None of the excursions are must-do for us, but there are a few that sound good. We will see what's available...

 

No private yachts or choppers for us. 😀

[mj_holiday]

When I book excursions I have a list of the first and second choices (that I got from the cruise itinerary sight which may be slightly outdated)

 I first book the excursion at a port that is most important to me (looking to see if anything changed on the offerings) and then go through the rest of the ports.  I empty the cart every couple of ports, even if I don't owe anything to get stuff saved as I go.

[ifitfloats]

Thanks! Very helpful. We are ready to go with first and second choices and a priority list. We actually made a Notion database for the cruise with tons of data on each port, web site links, live Google maps, the night we have cooking class, other ships in port, etc. Then we created a separate excursion database and linked each port's excursions to that port's page. Very nerdy, but it's pretty cool. We will finally put it to work this week. 

 

This will be our first Regent cruise (next June), but now that the database is built, we will be ready to use it again for future cruises. 

[irishwitchy]

Retired database administer computer nerd here,  lol I just make a spreadsheet, but I like how you think! 

[ifitfloats]

Well, we were not entirely successful. Despite starting at 8 pm on the nose, our first four priority tours were sold out and we were only able to waitlist one. We did get what we wanted in three other ports. We were so well prepared after reading hundreds of messages on this board, but alas, by 8:05 it was clear we were going to be a bit disappointed. We will call Regent and see if we can be added to the waitlist for any of the other three after booking our 2nd or 3rd choices as backup. 

 

The good news is that we are fine doing our own thing in most ports so certainly not a dealbreaker for us. I just hope we have somewhat better luck making specialty dining reservations next spring...

 

I must say that the Regent web site performed perfectly during this process. I believe our cruise is sold out but no technical issues at all.