Pre-Booking Ship Excursions

[Bob and Peg]

Does anyone have an opinion about pre-booking ship-sponsored excursions? We are on the July 12 Black Sea cruise (Quest) and are planning to take several of the ship excursions. Should we pre-book them or wait till we board the ship? (Yes, I'm a regular of the Roll Call for this cruise.) Has anyone ever not been able to get the desired excursion because it was full?

 

Thanks,

 

Peggy

[cs91]

If there's a shore excursion you're very interested in, you should pre-book because you are allowed to cancel up until 2-3 days prior without penalty.

This will assure you get what you want.

[JDS3]

There are two things to consider when deciding whether to pre-book excursions:

 

1. Availability

This can especially be an issue for tours of sites that limit the number of visitors who can go in during a particular time period (examples: La Alhambra and Anne Frank museum). I fully agree that you should pre-book these in order to make sure you can get in, since the tour operator has already taken care of the limited ticketing restrictions. As the previous poster said, you can cancel a few days in advance of the tour if you change your mind.

 

2. Ship Board Credits

This is the down side of pre-booking. If you have received ship board credits, these can only be used once you are on board the ship. So, when you pre-book an excursion, it is charged to your account and to my knowledge ship board credits can not be used to pay for this pruchase. Ship board credits can only be used for excursions booked while on the ship. If someone has found a way around this and I would be interested in hearing it.

[cs91]

We have the same issue with shipbd credit. I was concerned about 'missing out' on an excursion. So I pre-booked it. According to Az, they retain 30% of excursion availabilty for onbd check-in (for those who don't use Internet) As long as that availability still exists, I plan to cancel onbd and then rebook using onbd credit.

[Ulisses]

Our onbd credits will pretty much be swallowed by end of cruise gratuities and the odd glass of wine, so we've pre-booked some excursions.

[Carmic]

We are cruising for the first time on Azamara in October. Just wondering when you book an excursion on line when do you have to pay for it? Do you need a credit card to book?

 

Thanks,

Carol

[Ulisses]

We are cruising for the first time on Azamara in October. Just wondering when you book an excursion on line when do you have to pay for it? Do you need a credit card to book?

 

Thanks,

Carol

Yes, cc required at booking, then the shore excursion info is folded into the pre-paid reservation along with transfers, flights, etc.

[jenhem]

If it is a shore excursion you are really interested in, I would pre-book it! We were on the Journey 4/25/09. The ship was booked to capacity , and I noticed that some of the shore excursions were sold out early in the cruise. If you are confident that this is what you want to do on that day, what do you have to lose by pre-booking?

Jenny