HAL's shore excursions...pre-book or buy onboard

[SusieKIslandGirl]

On our first Princess cruise this past spring, we were able to book a tour online and pay later. It did show up on our onboard account. This was a surprise after always paying ahead on HAL tours.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Princess is the only line we regularly sail that allows you to make a reservation and pay on board. HAL and Royal Caribbean require payment at time of reservation. I can't comment on the others.

 

I prefer to pay on board, sometimes because we have a good amount of on board credit. When sailing HAL we go right to the tour desk after we board and book our tours, and to this point we have not had any that we had our hearts set on but were sold out when we boarded. On our last cruise in June in the Baltics, HAL actually reduced the price of a few expensive excursions while on board, the full day tours to Berlin. I have no idea if those who prepaid received a price adjustment.

Edited August 16, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[oldmanonthesea]

I see your point RuthC. I never would of thought of booking multiple excursions ahead of time, then canceling the ones I didn't want after boarding. But you're right, I'm sure it happens.

[OlsSalt]

......

I prefer to pay on board, sometimes because we have a good amount of on board credit. .......

 

What are ways to generate a "good amount of onboard credit" before you board?

 

I am thinking only of the HAL credit card and 100 CCL stock ownership. What are other ways, besides gifts? Thanks.

[sunsetbeachgal]

What are ways to generate a "good amount of onboard credit" before you board?

 

I am thinking only of the HAL credit card and 100 CCL stock ownership. What are other ways, besides gifts? Thanks.

 

On our cruise last fall on the Prinsendam, there was a HAL promo earlier that year that gave an extra $450 per person onboard credit for our oceanview category booking, on top of what I considered a very good price for the cruise in the first place. My TA spotted it and cancelled and rebooked (we had just booked the week prior) to take advantage of it. Didn't happen on our last cruise (but did take advantage of a good rate for upsell to Neptune Suite so can't complain!)

Edited August 16, 2015 by sunsetbeachgal

[DaveOKC]

What are ways to generate a "good amount of onboard credit" before you board?

 

I am thinking only of the HAL credit card and 100 CCL stock ownership. What are other ways, besides gifts? Thanks.

 

Purchase a Future Cruise Deposit (FCD) while onboard a cruise (or have someone purchase you one while they are on their cruise) and you will receive some OBC. Then wait for 2 weeks after your cruise to get an email from HAL (called the Thank You for Sailing" email) which will double this OBC (promo code ZPM).

 

You have 4 years to use the FCD and if you do not use it, you get your $100 deposit cost back.

[ryndam]

Princess is the only line we regularly sail that allows you to make a reservation and pay on board. HAL and Royal Caribbean require payment at time of reservation. I can't comment on the others.

 

 

We sail often on Crystal, and pre-payment of shore excursions are not required. They can be reserved up to 6 months in advance of sailing and the costs are posted to our onboard account. We use our OBC to pay for those excursions.

 

When we sail on HAL, unless we are looking for a very unique tour that specifically states "limited availability", we generally wait until we are onboard to reserve an HAL excursion. Of course, we also accept the possibility that tours may be sold out once onboard, but we generally have not been disappointed with our decision to wait until onboard to reserve.

 

Rob

[cruisemom42]

I know many feel HAL tours are over-priced but we have found them to uniformly excellent and most of them avoid getting dragged into additional "shopping experiences" the less expensive local tours can often tack on - "my uncles jewelry shop - best prices" type ruses.

 

Unfortunately that has not been my experience with HAL tours I've taken -- many have included some sort of forced shopping stop, be it the cameo factory in Naples or the carpet store in Istanbul....

 

Unless it has recently changed? (After my disastrous HAL excursions in Turkey in 2011 I have pretty much given up on booking their excursions....)

[Cruising-along]

Unfortunately that has not been my experience with HAL tours I've taken -- many have included some sort of forced shopping stop, be it the cameo factory in Naples or the carpet store in Istanbul....

 

Unless it has recently changed? (After my disastrous HAL excursions in Turkey in 2011 I have pretty much given up on booking their excursions....)

 

I completely understand that there are many other reasons some people don't like HAL shore excursions. But I just wanted to say that when we were in Istanbul all we had to do was tell our guide that we had just been to a carpet store in Kusadasi, could we go wander a bit, have a Turkish coffee, and meet up with them later. No problem doing that, and we thoroughly enjoyed our wanderings. :)

[cruisemom42]

I completely understand that there are many other reasons some people don't like HAL shore excursions. But I just wanted to say that when we were in Istanbul all we had to do was tell our guide that we had just been to a carpet store in Kusadasi, could we go wander a bit, have a Turkish coffee, and meet up with them later. No problem doing that, and we thoroughly enjoyed our wanderings. :)

 

Yes, of course it is sometimes possible to avoid the forced shopping aspect of the stop (as I did in Istanbul by wandering down to the entrance of the Grand Bazaar). But the real downside to me was that because of the length of that stop we did not get to Haghia Sophia until it was quite late and we had minimal time there.

[OlsSalt]

HAL will disclose up front if the tour includes a "shopping experience". And if the guide tries to inflict on on the group, it is perfectly okay to protest. One guide put it out for a vote to add one, and everyone on the bus turned it down.

 

The other ruse is the promise of "clean toilets" at some intentionally commercial enterprise. China has been the worst, but this can come up almost anywhere. Best to let HAL know when these abuses occur and they have not been included in the shore excursion description.

 

One recent experience was a very good tour of Ephesus that ended with a forced stop, close to the ship, to have a shopping opportunity at the guide's uncles carpet store.

 

This was added after he had us all fill out a satisfaction survey which had earned him high marks. Since we had no desire to get into a forced shopping experience, we just left the tour on our own at that point and he did not get a tip, that up to that point he had well-earned.

 

But the original point is often the "cheaper" private tours do drag everyone to some forced shopping experience where most of the times HAL tours have not, unless this was disclosed up front.

 

We have also found the included dining on our HAL shore excursions has been very good - even when served in large buffet settings. I also like seeing HAL is adding small number tours at a slightly additional cost - no more than 20 members. Next they need to ensure they have those audio-ear phones to really make their shore excursions superb - maybe this is something they can include on the limited number tours.

Edited August 16, 2015 by OlsSalt

[cruz chic]

Princess is the only line we regularly sail that allows you to make a reservation and pay on board. HAL and Royal Caribbean require payment at time of reservation. I can't comment on the others.

 

I prefer to pay on board, sometimes because we have a good amount of on board credit. When sailing HAL we go right to the tour desk after we board and book our tours, and to this point we have not had any that we had our hearts set on but were sold out when we boarded. On our last cruise in June in the Baltics, HAL actually reduced the price of a few expensive excursions while on board, the full day tours to Berlin. I have no idea if those who prepaid received a price adjustment.

 

I prefer it too. I never book tours unless I'm committed but a few ruin it for everyone.

[Keith1010]

If the excursion is very important to me I would book it on line so that I would not be disappointed if it was full and I couldn't get on.

 

Keith

[knittinggirl]

If you definitely want a specific tour - book it ahead of time to be safe.

 

One thing no one has mentioned yet is that while the tour may be available onboard, the time you want may already be booked. Once we were going to take a jungle tour in Costa Rica and someone on these CC boards mentioned to take an early tour time. We booked before hand and got a very early time. We had a great tour, but by the time we finished it was already getting hot. Later, we met some folks who had a later tour time (that was all that was left onboard) and they were very miserable on the tour and really did not enjoy it.

We usually book the earliest time. Often the tour guides (Royal Caribbean) use the same bus for the later time.

 

Sometimes, we'll book a cheaper tour at home, then cancel it and book a more expensive one onboard. That's what we did on Celebrity when they gave us $300 more credit to use now for booking a next cruise booking.

 

You can save your OBC for dining and alcohol.