Purchasing Shore Excursions once onboard

[jascarb]

Any experience waiting to purchase excursions once onboard either? Do they let you do that if there is availability?

[LAexNY]

Yes, you can.

Sometimes the price goes up between the online ordering window and the time you are onboard.

[jascarb]

Lovely...like the prices are not high enough :mad:

I don't want to commit to one port so I rather wait and see how we are feeling but NOT at an elevated rate.

[Bowie MeMe]

Keep in mind that the shore excursions are contracted out. I know for a fact that independent local tour guides are hired as needed. Last year our friend tried to order excursions to join us and found that the excursions "closed" three days prior to the excursion. -- No exceptions. Therefore you can not wait to see how you feel that day.

[leonardray]

We have had excursions cancelled as not enough people signed up or been closed because they reached their limit. Never had prices go up. Bring a copy of tours and prices with you just to make sure.

[capecodder2]

It doesn't sound like the shore excursion is terribly important to you, so wait and see how you feel. If it is sold out or at a higher price, you just have to decide how important it is then. It doesn't sound like a big deal. Some of the really "must do" excursions do exceed the initial number of seats available and if they have to charter more buses and guides, they may have to do it at a higher price. Good ole supply and demand. If I know I want a particular ship excursion, I book ahead to get it. Same with a private excursion.

[loum140]

On previous O cruises they left booking sheets for tours that were still open in our stateroom as each closing date approached (usually 3 days prior). I don't recall the prices being any different from those posted on the website. DH and I decided well into our Central America cruise to book two upcoming O excursions and were accomodated. Marsha

[LHT28]

I also have never seen them go up

If they are popular they do sell out early EG: trip to ruins

 

but in the Caribbean they seem to open till 2-3 days prior.

 

You can always do your own tour from the dock in many ports

 

Lyn

[teeniewahine]

Hello,

 

Is it possible to book the shore excursions online? I have looked recently on the O website and thought you had to call Oceania to book. Would like to book some ahead of time-not wanting to chance that they are sold out!. Thanks

[LHT28]

Hello,

 

Is it possible to book the shore excursions online? I have looked recently on the O website and thought you had to call Oceania to book. Would like to book some ahead of time-not wanting to chance that they are sold out!. Thanks

I think at the present time you can only book the Discovery & Explorer Packages online but it looks as if they are getting set up for booking other tours online.

Our cruise is too far away to see any excursions so maybe someone with an upcoming cruise will comment

 

Lyn

[leonardray]

Yes, you can book on line.

[neepawa]

Shore excursions for our February 2010 cruise on the Regatta are available to view online but not to book.

 

At the bottom of the description of each excursion is the statement "Please contact reservations at 1-866-765-3630 if you would like to request this tour".

 

There is no indication if I will be able to book online later.

 

Don

[capecodder2]

We have done 7 O cruises and have always been able to book the excursions we really wanted online at least 6 months prior to the cruise. Maybe you are too early?

[LHT28]

We have done 7 O cruises and have always been able to book the excursions we really wanted online at least 6 months prior to the cruise. Maybe you are too early?

 

Really?? :confused:

 

I know other lines you can book online but have never seen them on Oceania before now.

On previous cruises the excursions were not online till 3-4 months out.

 

Lyn

[newcruisers04]

Lyn....Hiya, and hope things are going well for you. The shore excursion descriptions and prices are shown on O's site already for our Regatta Feb. 9, 2010 cruise out of LA going thru the Panama Canal...just not sure I want to take the chance and book thru them or go private all the way and hope nothing gets cancelled.

[Bowie MeMe]

I just made one phone call to TA and she booked all of our shore excursions. We do ship -- few experiences over the years means we are more comfortable with doing the ship thing. We found that the discovery package was only $7 more than the cost of the "don't miss excursions" that we had chosen so signed for the package (2 additional 1/2 day trips). TA was also able to get $2000 worth of flights, excursions, prepaid hotels on our cruise travel insurance for only $32 extra. Worth it IMHO. Our TA thanked us for booking the excursions through her -- commissonable.

[LHT28]

Lyn....Hiya, and hope things are going well for you. The shore excursion descriptions and prices are shown on O's site already for our Regatta Feb. 9, 2010 cruise out of LA going thru the Panama Canal...just not sure I want to take the chance and book thru them or go private all the way and hope nothing gets cancelled.

Lori thanks for that info

That is good then ...things are changing at O

 

You can always cancel the excursions 3 days prior to get a refund but they charge you right away when booking online.

 

If you can find others on the Roll call to share tours you probably will get a price ;)

 

Lyn

[ShopperfiendTO]

I know for a fact that the excursion can and does go up from the time of offering months before sailing to when you board. We booked an excursion that was cancelled two days before we arrived at the port and the replacement excursions available were at least $10pp more than what they were when we had first looked at them when the excursions list was initially released.

 

The best advice I can give you is to book early and cancel within the permitted time period to lock in your price. The downside is that the excursion might be cancelled due to lack of bodies interested, but to mitigate that I would also recommend that you book an excursion that will very likely be popular as well.

[Bowie MeMe]

Has anyone done the discovery or explorer set of shore excursions? Since it is a "package deal" I hope they do not cancel any parts. The package does not allow any substitutions or variances on passenger part so I hope they can not cancel or change either.

[CintiPam]

Has anyone done the discovery or explorer set of shore excursions? Since it is a "package deal" I hope they do not cancel any parts. The package does not allow any substitutions or variances on passenger part so I hope they can not cancel or change either.

 

I do not know about cancelling, but O certainly can change the tour to a different one if there are not enough people. That happened to several fellow cruisers last month on Nautica.

[Bowie MeMe]

Well this cruise is fully booked and I know the 4 in my party are booked for the discovery package. How many is too few to do the excursion?

[CintiPam]

Well this cruise is fully booked and I know the 4 in my party are booked for the discovery package. How many is too few to do the excursion?

 

Sorry, I do not know the answer to that, but our June 5 cruise also was fully booked, yet several excursions were cancelled and the bookings moved to different excursions on the same day. One was not left without any excursion at all. (Perhaps those cancelled were the more obscure ones? Sorry I do not have more information; we are DIY or private tour people.)

[gtragitt]

We had several people miss their scheduled excursions. I guess since those that missed their excursion had already paid, Oceania did not cancel tours where few were on the bus.

 

Some excursions are non-refundable. As an example we booke a day tour from St Petersburg to Moscow in advance of the sailing. It was not refundable once it was booked. I had also booked a private van for Port Said. I am not sure, but I think it was non-refundable.

[Bowie MeMe]

the fact that shore excursions have to be cancelled well before the day of the excursion is a main reason that I use independent travel insurance and have all components of the trip insured. It really does not cost that much and as always with insurance you certainly hope you do not have to collect on it. The cost of 4 day pre,4 day post, excursions on cruise and before, flights, and hotels adds up to a sum approaching the cruise price.

 

Three years ago I had a very special "Balloon over the Serengetti"

breakfast scheduled and :eek: severe gastric distress struck in the night. Both DH and I were refunded our $400 each for this trip as a "trip interruption". Unfortunately on the same trip our theater tickets in London were not paid for on the day after the terroist bombing because the show went on even though we deverted our plans to Brighton.

[gtragitt]

the fact that shore excursions have to be cancelled well before the day of the excursion is a main reason that I use independent travel insurance and have all components of the trip insured. It really does not cost that much and as always with insurance you certainly hope you do not have to collect on it. The cost of 4 day pre,4 day post, excursions on cruise and before, flights, and hotels adds up to a sum approaching the cruise price.

 

Three years ago I had a very special "Balloon over the Serengetti"

breakfast scheduled and :eek: severe gastric distress struck in the night. Both DH and I were refunded our $400 each for this trip as a "trip interruption". Unfortunately on the same trip our theater tickets in London were not paid for on the day after the terroist bombing because the show went on even though we deverted our plans to Brighton.

 

Although I did not miss any shore excursions or ports of call, my cruise was a learning experience for me. I will strongly consider options for insurance in the future. I will look at both trip interruption coverage as well as medical coverage for international travel. I am thankful for the information regarding these choices posted on this forum.