When do excursions become available for Alaska?

I did it! Booked our three-generation cruise to Alaska for June 2018! There are going to be seven of us and it's a first cruise for all of us (save for the military members who had to be convinced that this cruise would be very different than their previous "cruises!")

I know I'm jumping the gun a bit but I want to book our excursions ASAP. When do excursions through HAL become available for booking? Also, heaven forbid, but if we had to cancel our cruise, does the platinum cancellation plan cover excursions as well?

Thank you for any info!

We have sailed Alaska several times in June.

Our excursions became available December before the cruise -- that is about 6 months out.

Thank you so much! I've been checking their website everyday...now I can relax, select what we want, and book in December.

If you cancel the cruise, before embarkation, 100% of the cost of your shore excursions will be refunded. You won't need to use insurance to recover those costs.

Thank you!

Are you doing a land tour with your cruise? If so, I would strongly recommend you do the land tour before the cruise. We just came home today from our Princess Alaska land/cruise. I booked most of our excursions about 90 days out. Have a backup plan, as one of our river trips canceled the day before because of low river depth. I also read TripAdvisor & CC reviews on most before I decided on which ones to book.

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My Alaska excursions for my Noordam cruise, on board now, opened the first week of October last year.

If you wait too late to book excursions, the most popular excursions will no longer be available

Thank you!

This was pertinent to me -- just booked 5 staterooms for DH&I and eight members of family. I know about the refund-ability of things but did not know when to look for shoreX as have never booked this far out at least for Alaska, or where I intended to avail of ship's tours. Thanks for asking!

Also, heaven forbid, but if we had to cancel our cruise, does the platinum cancellation plan cover excursions as well?

 

Thank you for any info!

I "think" you can cancel 24 hours prior to the excursion. So if you set sail on Monday with a HAL excursion planned for Wednesday & decide in the mean time that you'd rather not, you can cancel the excursion while you are on the ship.

(Think was in quotes for a reason, rules change, my memory ain't great & I've never personally tried to do that.)

If you ship has a small boat excursion to Tracy Arm, take it! It was my most favorite excursion ever. (I would have booked it again if it were available on my next cruise.) It sold out before our ship even arrived in Vancouver!

Platinum lets you cancel right up until sailaway (and gives a higher percentage of cost refunded, 90%). Standard protection is 24hrs and 80% refund.

For others reading, you do not have to commit to a protection plan until you pay in full (i.e. on Final Payment Day for most of us). For the OP, oh well, what's done is done.

Platinum lets you cancel right up until sailaway (and gives a higher percentage of cost refunded, 90%). Standard protection is 24hrs and 80% refund.

 

For others reading, you do not have to commit to a protection plan until you pay in full (i.e. on Final Payment Day for most of us). For the OP, oh well, what's done is done.

It is very important to note that the protection plan must be purchased prior to the stated final payment date. It can be paid one day prior but it must be prior. The final payment date is the day that cancellation penalties kick in and HAL must have your cancellation premium paid before that.

It's also important to note that occasionally the cancellation insurance must be purchased even earlier. For our South Pacific cruise last year I just happened to be reading our cruise docs and saw that the penalty period kicked in a month prior to the final payment date. I alerted our roll call members to that fact as it was the first time I had seen it done that way since HAL stopped requiring cancellation insurance be purchased at the time of booking if a person wanted to take advantage of the plan.

It is very important to note that the protection plan must be purchased prior to the stated final payment date. It can be paid one day prior but it must be prior. The final payment date is the day that cancellation penalties kick in and HAL must have your cancellation premium paid before that.

 

It's also important to note that occasionally the cancellation insurance must be purchased even earlier. For our South Pacific cruise last year I just happened to be reading our cruise docs and saw that the penalty period kicked in a month prior to the final payment date. I alerted our roll call members to that fact as it was the first time I had seen it done that way since HAL stopped requiring cancellation insurance be purchased at the time of booking if a person wanted to take advantage of the plan.

Absolutely correct. I remember you alerting us on the roll call for the earlier cancellation time.

I've learned since then to check the cruise details and not assume it is always available prior to final payment ;)

It is very important to note that the protection plan must be purchased prior to the stated final payment date. It can be paid one day prior but it must be prior. The final payment date is the day that cancellation penalties kick in and HAL must have your cancellation premium paid before that.

 

 

 

It's also important to note that occasionally the cancellation insurance must be purchased even earlier. For our South Pacific cruise last year I just happened to be reading our cruise docs and saw that the penalty period kicked in a month prior to the final payment date. I alerted our roll call members to that fact as it was the first time I had seen it done that way since HAL stopped requiring cancellation insurance be purchased at the time of booking if a person wanted to take advantage of the plan.

Sapper is correct. Sometimes way before final. Read your documents very carefully. I had to use it cancelling our February cruise so am a bit paranoid about these things.

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I did it! Booked our three-generation cruise to Alaska for June 2018! There are going to be seven of us and it's a first cruise for all of us (save for the military members who had to be convinced that this cruise would be very different than their previous "cruises!")

 

I know I'm jumping the gun a bit but I want to book our excursions ASAP. When do excursions through HAL become available for booking? Also, heaven forbid, but if we had to cancel our cruise, does the platinum cancellation plan cover excursions as well?

 

Thank you for any info!

Excellent question! We are sailing in May.

We cancelled a shore excursion w/in the 24 hour period, and they wouldn't refund us. I'd had a ingrown toenail removed and was still sore. They did type a letter and return our tickets to send to travel guard, who DID refund us.

I had to look this up this past week for insurance purposes. "All cancellations that are made less than 3 days prior to cruise departure are subject to a 10% cancellation fee." My broker says makes a big difference for many of the insurance policies I'm looking at: If the costs are fully refundable up until cruise departure they don't count toward the total cost being insured. I was told that since Holland America assesses the penalty three days prior, those costs do count toward the total count being insured.