When to Start Booking Excursions

[Cate M.]

Can't wait of course for my 11 day Maasdam cruise in January 2012. When can one start booking excursions as I want to make sure all are listed before booking.

 

If anyone else has been on this cruise was it too many islands and did they all start looking the same. Won't have much chance to use facilities on board if I get off to see all the ports.

 

Cate M.

[RetiredMustang]

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

 

We are on an 11-day Maasdam cruise in February 2012, and booked several excursions a few weeks ago -- they are up on the HAL web site.

 

Don't worry about missing things on the ship if you go ashore as there will be time to enjoy the ship before and after excursions.

 

We have not been on this particular itinerary, but have been on many Caribbean cruises, and have not found that they all start to look the same. Some like Dominica and St. Lucia are mountainous, others have more beaches, some have lots of shopping, others don't, some have French, Dutch, Danish, Creole, English or Spanish influence (or more than one). We enjoy the different geography and cultures of the islands.

 

Don't worry -- you're on a cruise!

 

Dave

[IRL_Joanie]

Can't wait of course for my 11 day Maasdam cruise in January 2012. When can one start booking excursions as I want to make sure all are listed before booking.

 

If anyone else has been on this cruise was it too many islands and did they all start looking the same. Won't have much chance to use facilities on board if I get off to see all the ports.

 

Cate M.

 

Cate, hubby booked all of our excursions for our 11 day Caribbean Wayfarer cruising on March 5, 2012 last night:) Well, let me state he booked all those listed, to date, that he knew we would both like. There may be more put up in the next couple of months:)

 

Most excursions start becoming available approximately 6 months prior to a cruise.

 

Joanie

[kazu]

Welcome to cruise critic and the Holland America board.

 

If there is a ship excursion we want, we book it immediately. (you can always cancel and receive full refund as long as you do it at least 6 days before the cruise).

 

Some of the excursions are limited and book up quickly, so if there are some you like, go ahead and do it. Your credit card will be charged right away, but for a lot of us, that's a good thing as it's one less thing to worry about it and another taken care of and less on board bills to pay.

 

Have a great cruise and a great time:D

[Cate M.]

Thanks for the welcome.

 

Will get busy and do some research. Realizing that I can cancel if I want makes the decision easier. I was afraid of bookinig something only to have a better excursion come along.

 

Going to be addicted to this board until cruise time. Tons of great advice.

 

Looking forward to each and every island. Picked this itinerary as we had done the eastern and western caribbean before but never get tired of going to Half Moon Cay.

 

Thanks folks. You are a nice helpful bunch.

 

Cate

[Krazy Kruizers]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

We book tours as soon as possible as some excursions do sell out before the ship sails.

If more excursions open up before the cruise sails and there is one that we like better -- we book the new one and cancel the old one.

[Jemima]

We book excursions one by one over a period from about 3 months out to a couple of weeks before sailing. I'd only book way early if an excursion was a "must do" for us. We've done HAL excursions at nearly every port on 15 cruises. We've done all online excursion booking since online became available several years ago. At two or three months out, I've only seen one excursion waitlisted of those we considered.