Shore Excursions - Unable to book?

[TNTKP]

Am traveling in November on the Fortuna (Egypt, Greece). I tried to view, and possibly book, shore excursions but was unable. I contacted my travel agent, and they were told that, per Costa's policy, shore excursions can only be booked after final payment is made?? Is that too late?? Anyone else encountered this, and if so, were you able to book the shore excursion you wanted?? In a couple of these ports, I feel the cruise line's excursions are the only way to go!

Thanks,

Tim

[TDOTCRUISR]

Tim: I was on the Magica (sister ship) in May 2005. You need a password in order to access the site & it is assigned to your T/A by Costa (so it is possible that you have to make full pymt first). Anyhow, even with password access I had problems with the website>no tour visibility on some ports. I ended up having to book tours on the ship, there were no problems whatsoever. I noted on Costa's comment sheet at the end of the cruise, that the .com site was really bad. It seems that their other websites ie: UK, etc are better run and offer more info, but you can't access those with your password. Continue to ask your questions on this board & someone who is going will probably be able to access for you. I was originally going to do tours in every port, but when I got on the ship & started talking to others, I found some ports were very accessible without a tour & were actually better venturing out on our own. All tours are pretty expensive.

[TNTKP]

TDOTCRUISR,

Thanks for your reply. I know some are on the expensive side, BUT, some like Egypt - are a necessity. Costa issues a blanket visa for those taking their (Costa's) excursions into Egypt. Those wishing to do tours or sightseeing on their own (in Egypt), need to obtain their own visa-while not expensive, a hassle nontheless. I just thought it would be nice to view what tours Costa had to offer in the various ports. On thier website, Costa also claims their excursions are nonrefundable once paid for.. Again, unlike any other cruise line I've dealt with!

I do have an itinerary number and am able to access my reservation online, just nothing in the excursion area comes up.

Thanks,

Tim

[jql999]

Hi,

 

We just got back from a med/egypt cruise. We booked online directly with Costa. It makes sense that they wouldn't let you book excursions until you've paid for your cruise in full.

 

The online bookings were just reservations really - they don't become an actual booking until about 5 days before the cruise and you don't pay for them until the last day of the cruise.

 

My booking number didn't work on the site at first but I sent an email and they fixed it right away.

 

Most, but not all, of the excursions are listed online. Unfortuately there's no way to just get a list - their web site really sucks. You won't get the full list until you get your tickets a week or two before sailing.

 

If you reserve an excursion online and then find a different one you want to go on, they'd probably let you switch.

 

I would definitely do an excursion in Egypt. For Santorini you don't need one. The Jeep tour on Cyprus filled up before we even got on board, so if you are interested in that one - book online.

 

Also check the day of the week - we were in Limassol on a Sunday and none of the sites were open, just the typical tourist shopping/cafes. That was OK though since we were exhausted from the Egypt tour the day before. Egypt is a loooong day.

 

We did the Giza, Sakkara, Memphis excursion in Egypt. Excellent guide, cool sites, but it was a long, hot day crammed into a minibus because we didn't have enough people for a regular coach. That was a big deal because we spent a lot of the 13 hour day driving around in a bus without a toilet, and you really need to stay hydrated since it is, you know, the desert....

 

We did the overnight excursion in Turkey where we stopped in Antalya, spent the night in Pamukkale, and met the ship in Mamaris. I was glad we did this because we got to really experience a lot of Turkey. Again, the guide was fantastic - particularly impressive since shehad to explain everything in both English and German. No time for shopping though, I ended up buying souvenirs on the ship. BTW - the Euro has made Greece and Turkey as expensive as anywhere else in Europe.

 

We also did a tour of Olympia. This was the only excursion where we thought the guide wasn't very good. She was pretty cranky and didn't really care about what we wanted to see or know, and we only had about 20 minutes for shopping. (I'm not a big shopper - but only 20 minutes?) I would rather have just hung out in town. Maybe that was because it was the last port of 11 days of some of the most famous ruins in the world. After a while you get kind of "ruined out".

 

Our first excursion was Pompeii. It was really good, the guide was knowledgeable, but not nearly enough time - no time at all to explore on your own. If seeing the brothel is high on your list - book an independent tour.

 

We booked excursions with Costa just because it was easy, and we knew the ship would wait for us if we were running late. It happened in a couple of ports.

 

Hope this helps.

[TNTKP]

jgl999,

Thanks for the info. Frustrating not to be able to see/book excursions prior.. Running late back to the ship could be a nightmare for those on independant tours. Not sure if I'll just pay for the cruise early just to guarantee a spot on one of the Egypt tours. I would be really disappointed if I missed that one!

Thanks again,

Tim

[jql999]

Honestly I don't think you need to worry about an Egypt excursion. Pretty much everyone on the ship takes one of the excursions and I'm sure they expect and plan for that. And my experience was that as an English speaker there was plenty of room on all the excursions.

 

We complained about being stuck on a mini-bus and the excursion director told us that they needed a minimum of 35 people for a full-size coach. There were only 15 of us so the choice was to cancel the excursion altogether or give us a mini-bus.

 

The only excursion that was sold out when we boarded was the Jeep tour at Limassol.

 

BTW - because we complained, they comped us our last excursion to Olympia. We got a little bit of attitude ("We understand that Americans have a different mentality.") but they did comp us.