Excursions book before or on board?

Is it best to book with Thompson before you go or are there better offers to be had onboard?

Is it best to book with Thompson before you go or are there better offers to be had onboard?

There is no difference in price when bboking on board as opposed to booking on-line. There is a 2.5% credit card charge extra (either on-line or on board if you are paying by CC). You can avoid this if you pay by debit card though.

I would recommend you book on-line if there is a trip you especially want to do and there are 'Limited numbers' as that way you are more likely to secure a place - occasionally you may not be able to go on a trip if it is full. You haven't anything to lose as you can cancel when you are on board if you decide it's not for you perhaps after listening to the Port Shopcase presentation or discussing the excursion in more detail with the Destination Services team (can cancel up to 24 hours before the excursion). They will refund to your on board account if you booked on the ship and to your CC or debit card if you booked on-line.

We also found booking our trips before we left meant we'd paid for them and therefore had that part of our cruise costs already covered and our on-board account was much less than usual. This might be worth thinking about if you are sure you want to do specific trips.

But those factors to one side, there isn't any difference whether you book on-line or on-board.

Thank you that's really useful, just need to decide which ones to do now:)

Is it best to book with Thompson before you go or are there better offers to be had onboard?

Book online before cruise,saves a lot of messing about

same prices as onboard.

Not all the trips make it onto the website, but remember that you can always cancel and swap to another trip once onboard as long as you give them enough notice.

No less than 24 hours notice required to cancel, according to the excursion booking small print.

In our very limited experience with Thomsons - you can fill in an excursion choices booking form and drop it in a box at customer services, so no needless hanging around at the desk.

Is it best to book with Thompson before you go or are there better offers to be had onboard?

We booked before and paid by debit card. I agree with Kruzseeka, it is one less expense when you are away. To be honest, I didn't find anything out at the port showcase that I hadn't read online and for DIY this forum is better than anything :)

We booked before and paid by debit card. I agree with Kruzseeka, it is one less expense when you are away.

Agree :D

We've booked 3 excursions up to now, paid by debit card & again it's one less expense on board otherwise we'd have a bill of £350 before we'd even set sail :eek:

By paying months/weeks before we go it'll feel like they haven't cost anything by the time we go on them :p ;) :p ;)

We've booked some online for our oct cruise

We booked before online . the rome express trip wasn't availiable on board as it was fully booked . so if you really want to do something book it now. the prices are the same on board anyway and as said before saves the shock on the onboard bill:eek:

I have per booked the Rome in a day and sporting Barcelona, simply because they are the two trips we really wanted to do, any others we will do ourselves I think, I'm getting very excited now!

How far in advance of taking your cruise can you pre book?

I'm sailing 3rd Jan '13

It looks about 3-4 months in advance - I booked the one trip we want to do in September at the end of May by debit card.

Slightly off topic, with Fred Olsen you can book spa treatments in advance. What a brilliant idea. :D I booked the usual pre holiday treatments for our first evening as I was so busy with work I could not fit them in and all the packing etc had to be done on the one weekend day we had before departure.

It looks about 3-4 months in advance - I booked the one trip we want to do in September at the end of May by debit card.

 

Slightly off topic, with Fred Olsen you can book spa treatments in advance. What a brilliant idea. :D I booked the usual pre holiday treatments for our first evening as I was so busy with work I could not fit them in and all the packing etc had to be done on the one weekend day we had before departure.

I'm just back from a cruise with NCL and with them you can book excursions, spa treatments, shows, speciality restaurants all online 45 days before departure. It really does help to be able to plan things properly rather than running around when you actually get to the ship, half the time wondering what to do next!