If they cancel your tour

[Dukegirl5577]

I've heard that if they don't have enough passengers signed up for the Everglades tour on disembarkation day, that they will cancel it.

 

If this happens, when do they generally let you know? Our flight isn't until 4:30 (chosen specifically so we could do this tour) and I'd want to rent a car and drive to the Everglades myself if the tour was canceled, but we'd need to be able to know that in advance so we could express disembark and make the rental arrangements ASAP in the morning.

 

Do they just tell you the night before?

[garycarla]

Not positive, but have seen tours cancelled and they let you know a few days ahead. Of course, you will be at sea and making car reservations are a bit of challenge with slow internet, but possible. I would think they would know their situation by the 2nd day of your cruise and you could inquire.

[Addictedtwo]

Not positive, but have seen tours cancelled and they let you know a few days ahead. Of course, you will be at sea and making car reservations are a bit of challenge with slow internet, but possible. I would think they would know their situation by the 2nd day of your cruise and you could inquire.

 

You could make a car rental reservation before u go and cancel via internet the morning of or the night before disembarkment if the excursion is a go.

[Dukegirl5577]

How far in advance do you need to cancel a car rental reservation?

 

Probably what we'd do if our tour was canceled was just do express disembarkation and carry our own bags off the ship, then take a cab to the airport and rent a car then (I know you pay more walking up to the counter, but probably easier than trying to book it on the ship with slow expensive internet access).

[Globaliser]

How far in advance do you need to cancel a car rental reservation?

Many car rental reservations have no cancellation or no-show deadlines. Although I try not to do it deliberately, I have in the past no-showed for reserved cars with no problems or charges.

 

Make sure you know what the conditions are for your reservation.

[Soon2Bmtnest]

Be aware a tour can be cancelled right up to the minute it leaves. Some tours are cancelled when you are standing outside the ship on the dock with the other passengers. We had that happen.

[Dukegirl5577]

Damn!

 

I just called the shore excursion department to see why the Everglades tour wasn't coming up online. Last month it wasn't coming up online, but the woman in the shore excursion department who I spoke with said that was a glitch in the system and she told me that she was manually entering it in our reservation for us.

 

So I just checked online today and discovered that it still wasn't coming up in our reservation so I just called again.

 

Turns out that the vendor who does the Everglades tours has requested to permanently cancel the tours leaving from the Sky, because they haven't had large enough numbers of people in the groups to make it worth it to them. :(

 

Sad, because I just booked my airfare yesterday, and specifically chose a departure time late enough that I could do the Everglades tour. :(

 

I guess I'll be renting a car now. Are there any car rental places right by the port or will I need to take a cab to the airport?

 

How long do I need to give myself if I rent a car and drive to the Everglades on my own?

[maggie0104]

We just did the excursion on Saturday and it was a 45 minute drive to the Everglades. We were at the Safari park around 10:20, got on the first boat, went around the everglades for about 40 minutes, watched the wildlife show, got a quick bite of gator nuggets, purchased a magnet in the store and were back on the bus by 12:15. Out of the bus at the airport around 1pm. Total time from embarking and disembarking the bus was around 4 hours. Just add the time of getting and returing the car to that and you should be fine with the 4:30 flight.

Not sure if there are any car rental places at the port, but when we rented a car at the airport Alamo a couple years back, I saw a free shuttle bus to the Port of Miami, so maybe you could use that and then return the car to the same location? I would suggest renting or bringing GPS as we had some trouble getting to Alamo when returning the car.

[flashdog_1]

Try to call on your cell phone from the ship to make the reservation if the tour is canceled if you have not pre-booked a car before your cruise leaves.

 

That means taking the #s for the car rental agencies with you in your carry on which you'll have with you in your cabin.

 

We were denied entry to the bus because we had JUST made the reservation by phone. He let us on when he saw we had a cfm #. Whew He was holding a big long list printed out of those who had reservations and our names were not on it!

[Dukegirl5577]

Thanks Maggie! Was it fun?

 

We already have a portable GPS, so we'll definitely bring that along if we end up renting a car. I'm actually looking into alternative Everglades airboat tours that provide transportation from Miami (mostly from hotels, but I'm emailing them to see if they'd pick up at the Port of Miami) to see if we could do it that way.

 

*sigh*

 

Apparently the vendor NCL uses for their Everglades excursion is still going to offer it for all the ships EXCEPT the Sky. Evidently they've had a very low turnout of people leaving the Sky who sign up for it. I guess that must be because the rates are so low, and since it's a weekend cruise, they have a higher percentage of Floridians cruising than other itineraries, and thus, less need to do the tour.

 

Oh well.

[maggie0104]

No problem, It was definitely more fun and less bugs than I expected. We did see some gators, and some beautiful birds as well. In the wildlife show, they bring out a tiny gator and let you hold it and take pictures for $3, so bring change if you want to.

Also, some tour companies (maybe even same one) may be offering the tour from a different ship if there is another one in the port that day. You would have to walk a different terminal to get to their bus though. There were some seats reserved for others on our bus.

If you decide to do this on your own, make sure to do express debarkation, and you should have more freedom with your time that way.

[Dukegirl5577]

Also, some tour companies (maybe even same one) may be offering the tour from a different ship if there is another one in the port that day. You would have to walk a different terminal to get to their bus though. There were some seats reserved for others on our bus.

 

If you decide to do this on your own, make sure to do express debarkation, and you should have more freedom with your time that way.

 

I would definitely do express debarkation...I do that anyway (the only reason I would ever not do it is if I was doing a tour set up by NCL).

 

I've started calling around to some tour companies to see if they would do a pickup from the Port of Miami (several companies will pick you up at any hotel). I'll see if I can find out whether Carnival or Royal (the only two other ships in port that day) are offering this excursion and see if I can figure out what company they use.

 

Fortunately, I've got time to figure this out!

[maggie0104]

Good luck and have fun ;)