Booking Excursions thru HAL

[TessM]

I booked my cruise through my TA, not thru HAL directly and I think that's the reason I can't see my booking on the HAL website.* But, the site will accept my booking number when I try to look at excursions.

 

But, when I try to put in the excursions, it's asking me to pay in advance. Is this the norm? My only frame of reference is a couple of years ago on Princess and I wasn't required to pay in advance. The bill for my excursions was always just added to my cruise account - which was settled at the end of the cruise.

 

Is this HAL's way of doing things, or, am I doing something wrong. I readily accept that the problem might be with me. :)

 

Thanks!

 

*Has this always been the case, or is it because they just changed their website and they don't have all the kinks out yet?

[pms4104]

You are not doing anything wrong. Indeed, HAL expects that one pay for the shore excursion when one books it online. The details are outlined in the terms which you must agree to in order to continue with an online excursion booking. I haven't looked for several months, but I believe that you can cancel up to 10 or so days before sailing and get a full refund if you have a change of mind. After that, I think HAL holds onto 10% and refunds the rest. Take a look at the terms in the shore excursion area for a clearer explanation.

 

This is not new with the updated website ... to my knowledge, this (or something nearly identical) has been in place since HAL began booking excursions thru its website.

 

In a way, I suppose, the prepay makes sense in that it discourages passengers from booking a whole slew of excursions that they just can't make up their mind about ... thus filling the allotted slots with ifs and maybes and preventing some who earnestly want specific tours from having a chance at them.

[savannahgirl1]

No, your doing it right. We booked our March cruise last year and pre-booked all of our excursions and yes HAL did charge our card at the time we booked them. It was ok with us because that gave us a full year to pay them off and change them if we had needed to. :D Be sure to fully read the cancellation policy and closely. You don't want to miss anything important and it can be confusing if not read carefully. ;)

[camNaud]

We were taken back a bit when we tried to book excursions online for our up and coming HAL cruise, and discovered that payment up front was required. Like the OP we had sailed with Princess previously and booked excursions online, and had the payments added to our onboard account.

 

It's strange how two cruise lines with the same parent company (Carnival) - can have differing policies regarding payments for excursions - unless Princess have also changed to up front payments.

 

Despite my gripes we have booked 3 excursions for our cruise, and up front payments have been made, so I suppose thats one less expense to care about now. ;)

[mybagsarepacked]

I booked my cruise through my TA, not thru HAL directly and I think that's the reason I can't see my booking on the HAL website.* But, the site will accept my booking number when I try to look at excursions.

 

But, when I try to put in the excursions, it's asking me to pay in advance. Is this the norm? My only frame of reference is a couple of years ago on Princess and I wasn't required to pay in advance. The bill for my excursions was always just added to my cruise account - which was settled at the end of the cruise.

 

Is this HAL's way of doing things, or, am I doing something wrong. I readily accept that the problem might be with me. :)

 

Thanks!

 

*Has this always been the case, or is it because they just changed their website and they don't have all the kinks out yet?

 

We have always paid in full for excursions at the time of booking. But as the one poster says, different activities have different cancellation policies but often you can recoop your money if you cancel in time.

 

Many of the excursions fill up fast, and they want to make sure that the people requesting slots are fairly serious about going on the activity. They figure if you pony up the dough you are fairly serious!

[Roz]

I sail in 12 days, and like the fact that my excursions are bought and paid for. Read the agreement carefully before you make your final click to purchase the excursions.

 

Roz

[jtl513]

I booked my cruise through my TA, not thru HAL directly and I think that's the reason I can't see my booking on the HAL website.*

 

*Has this always been the case, or is it because they just changed their website and they don't have all the kinks out yet?

I don't know if it has "always" been this way, but it has been as long as I've been using their site (about 3 years). :D

[jhannah]

I ... like the fact that my excursions are bought and paid for.

So do I, Roz. It's nice to have that expense already out of the way before we even leave town. It makes the final settlement statement much more friendly looking!

[NoNoNanette]

Hi Tess-

 

Have you considered booking independent tours? I'd be more than happy to make recommendations for you if I know of any guys at your upcoming ports!

 

As far as I'm concerned, ship-sponsored excursions are an overpriced racket! :)

[TessM]

Thanks for all the information. I do like the pre-pay option from the standpoint of "lowering" my cruise account onboard. I just didn't want to pre-pay if I had other options.

 

Nannette - thanks for the offer - that's very generous of you. I think I'm set for my tours. I'm only interested in Ketchikan tours thru HAL because the port time is so limited and the excursion I want to take is quite long. I know they're sometimes overpriced but I'm travelling solo and for that particular port, I'd rather go through the ship.

 

I've done independent tours before. I can say that I've been equally happy with both independent and thru the cruise line.

 

Thanks again for all your info.