Curious About Reason for Cancelled Excursion on the Pride

[jawas]

We just got back from the Pride (Port Canavaral, Nassau Bahamas, Freeport Bahamas). We booked our shore excursions in advance, and our Freeport Kayaking/Nature excursion was cancelled the night before because there weren't enough participants. I would have thought if that were the case, Carnival may have known earlier on, and maybe could have notified us earlier? The excursion was supposed to end 15 minutes before we set sail, and I wondered if there might have been another reason for the cancellation? I had been wondering exactly how the timing would work out.

 

Truly just curious about your take on this - we had a fantastic cruise, and the cancellation was probably a blessing, since it gave us the chance to just relax and not have to rush off and back on the ship :)

[luvscruising2007]

We had our excursion in Freeport cancelled as well. We were notified at breakfast the morning of the excursion. We were told it was because of the weather and that the tour company had cancelled.

However, we suspected that it had to do with timing also. They had us getting back just before embarkation, maybe a half hour before. We thought maybe the excursion company wouldn't guarantee we would return on time.

We will never know for sure.

We were disappointed but enjoyed the day anyway.

[seashinesunshine]

My guess is that they cancelled for the reason they said. They do not know how many are going on an excursion pretty much until it leaves. We have booked excursion just a few hours before they leave.

I doubt the timing had anything to do with it, but I could be wrong. Seems like they wouldn't have even scheduled it in the first place if they thought the timing was too close. We had an excrusion that was scheduled to get back 1/2 hour before the ship left, they had problems and yes we were one of the people running to the ship, however since it was a Carnival excursion we didn't need to run.

The great thing about being on a cruise is, even when something goes wrong it is still all fun!

[zqvol]

We just got back from the Pride (Port Canavaral, Nassau Bahamas, Freeport Bahamas). We booked our shore excursions in advance, and our Freeport Kayaking/Nature excursion was cancelled the night before because there weren't enough participants. I would have thought if that were the case, Carnival may have known earlier on, and maybe could have notified us earlier? The excursion was supposed to end 15 minutes before we set sail, and I wondered if there might have been another reason for the cancellation? I had been wondering exactly how the timing would work out.

 

Truly just curious about your take on this - we had a fantastic cruise, and the cancellation was probably a blessing, since it gave us the chance to just relax and not have to rush off and back on the ship :)

 

Excursions can be booked up until the lat minute. There is always a minimum number required for an excursion to run and sometimes not enough people sign up and things get canceled. Carnival would not know that there were not enough participants until the time to sign up ended which was probably the night before the excursion, and they would not cancel until then.

 

The ending time of the excursion had nothing to do with the cancellation. Carnival has numerous excursions that "end" at sail away time. They know exactly what they are doing on the timing. If the time was an issue they would not schedule an excursion because there is too much money involved. Carnival makes about 50% of what you pay for an excursion, and every one that is canceled is that much less for the cruise line. Carnival does not ever want to cancel any excursion, and there are only three reasons that they would do so.

 

1. Passenger safety

2. Not enough people signed up so that it costs Carnival more to run the excursion than it makes on it (The vendor gets a fixed minimum payment for each excursion without regard to the number of participants.)

3. The vendor cancels without Carnival approval (this is a good way to get your contract canceled if you are the vendor.)

[vacruizer]

It does sometimes happen if they don't meet the minimum number. They usually wait as long as they can since a lot of cruisers book last minute on the ship for tours.

 

We had this happen in Port Canaveral. The airboat tour had two times - 9am and 1pm. We opted for the 9am thinking it would be cooler. We were notified the night before that the 9am had been cancelled since not enough people had signed up. In our case, they moved us to the afternoon tour since they were running two and it was a long port call.

[hubofhockey]

I am not a fan of cruise line excursions. The cruise lines are nothing more than retailers and don't run the excursions themselves. If there are not enough people, neither the cruise line nor the tour operator want to lose money and probably do have minimum numbers. Maybe cruise lines cancelling their excursions is a good sign that more people are doing business with private vendors or seeing ports on their own.

[life is too short]

how was air boat tour?

Thanks!

[vacruizer]

how was air boat tour?

Thanks!

 

We really enjoyed it. It was a little on the expensive side, but still a good tour. I normally do independent stuff, but we hadn't planned to do anything in Cape Canaveral and DH decided he really wanted to go. They took us to an old fishing camp on the St. John's River. The airboat was great - a perfect mix of speed and then cutting the engine for peace and quiet once we got into areas where we could observe the wildlife. Saw lots of large marsh birds and quite a few alligators. It's a beautiful stretch of pristine wetlands. After the boat ride, we sampled alligator at the restaurant there and a wildlife rescue group was there with some of their animals to talk about various native Florida animals.

[rdmallory]

I don't book through the cruise line. Or last excursion only had 4 adults and my son so he dumped the cattle truck and took us around in his wife's SUV.

 

Most take CASH no no credit card charges if you miss port

 

Doug

[life is too short]

Thank you! vacruizer for your answer.:)

[JohnStevenGordon]

They book up to the excursion, many book online the day before. I book all mine direct or you can get all the same excursions by just walking off the ship - people will be there asking you if you want to go here or there.

[jawas]

Thanks everyone!