How far in advance do you book your excursions?

[01Sweetpea]

We are on the 7/3/05 Miracle (yes I know it's 8 1/2 months away). We are going to Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Cozumel & Belize. Belize is the only port we will probably book the excursion thru the ship, we want to do one of the ruin tours, maybe Altun Ha. DH is VERY concerned about missing the ship, especially if it's a 7+ hour tour and we are only there 9 hours.

 

After much research, and lots of opinions/recommendations from this great site, we are going to go with a few that are regulalry recommended here, which to me means they will fill up fast. So for the excursions that we book by ourselves, how far in advance do you usually book them? 3 months 6 months, more?

 

Thanks!

[Donnask8pro]

I would love to know also...

[AllenF]

I start booking mine as soon as I put down my deposit wheather it is 9 to 12 months out or 4 to 6. I research what i want to do review my choices and choose. On my up coming cruise I put down my deposit in Jan. and I booked Altun Ha in belize about 9 months out the same with Almond and corals in Costa Rica booked both back at the end of march. For Panama it took me a while could not find any reviews on private tours I found an operator but could not get much info on them so I decided to use cruiseline. But after exchanging a few emails after my intitial inquire with them back in march. Decided to try GoldCoast and booked them last month. For our Hawiian cruise I pretty much did the same thing booked everything last July. 2 private tours and rented cars in 3 other stops.

[csteck]

01Sweetpea, I think the answer would depend on when your going and what you want to do. If it was Captain Larry's whale watching (for instance in Alaska ) I would book as soon as I knew my plans would not change.

It is a good idea to start looking now and have some contact with the tour companies. If your sure your plans won't change go ahead and book. Check on the refund and cancelation policies first. What do they do if the ship misses the port or is late? Good luck. Carla