WHEN do you book your excursions?

[widallas]

How far in advance do you book your excursions? Called RCI today to book a shore excursion for late November, and the agent said I should wait until 90 days out. I guess I was thinking if it's on the cruise planner, and that was the excursion I was looking for, I didn't want it to book up.

 

When do you normally book your excursions?

[CruiserBruce]

If it's a limited capacity excursion, I would book now. If a high capacity excursion, you could wait. But I wouldn't wait until boarding.

[Hlitner]

We would not book ever....for the Caribbean. Why? Easy enough to do whatever we please on any island...without the overpriced cost of excursions or the large groups. There is plenty of great island-specific info on the CC Ports of Call boards.

 

Hank

[Shawninrye]

We would not book ever....for the Caribbean. Why? Easy enough to do whatever we please on any island...without the overpriced cost of excursions or the large groups. There is plenty of great island-specific info on the CC Ports of Call boards.

 

Hank

 

Ditto.

I book my own excursions 10 months out.

[terri-eddie]

If we see an excursion that really appeals to us, that we can set our hearts on doing, that we would be very sad to miss...we book it as soon as we see it.

 

If there's nothing really appealing, we will wait and book onboard, to take advantage of any OBC we might accumulate before cruising.

[CupcakeSusie]

I'm a total newb so I've probably done it wrong. But I've already booked 3 out of the 4 excursions I want to go on for our cruise next January. I don't want to miss out, so I bit the bullet.

[Flatbush Flyer]

If we take some ship excursions as our free Oceania O Life perk, we book them as soon as they are available, a draft of which is often available a couple of months before they are posted on the line's website.

For private tours, where transportation and/or licensed guides are required and/or preferred, we do a ton of research and try to book at least a year before.

[Krazy Kruizers]

As soon as I see that they are available, I book them.

I don't want to be disappointed that something could sell out right away.

[bosswench]

For our upcoming December cruise I have already booked a popular private excursion in St. Kitts since there are four ships in port that day. Although we do not normally book ship's excursions we will book one for St. Thomas when we board. We have a pile of non-refundable OBC to use and the ship has a couple options that we would enjoy.

 

So my answer to your question is, it depends on the specifics of your itinerary and what you want to do. There is no specific *right* or *wrong* time.

 

JoJo

[Keith1010]

If the exclusion is something you are sure you want to do and would be disappointed if you could not do it then book it.

 

Keith

[Marisawrite]

I've only done two cruises. The first time I had no clue, so as soon as they sent me an email advertising their excursions, I just booked them!

 

Since then thanks to CC, I've realised what a rip-off the cruise line's own excursions can be, so on our second cruise I researched alternatives, and this time I didn't book any of the cruise line's own excursions at all.

 

One big consideration is how much time I'll have in port - if it's a short visit then I think twice about using an outside operator because I'm always worried about being left behind. So I dithered for weeks before I made the decision, and in the end I only booked about a month out.

Edited June 5, 2016 by Marisawrite

[cruiseapril]

We have only booked a few (ship's) excursions early (before 90 days.)

We were glad we booked the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Encounter in Nassau early as it was a very good excursion for us and filled up quickly.

 

Have done our own excursions in Nassau also and in places like Curacao and Aruba which have lots of activities and plenty of reliable taxis.

[OCruisers]

We book any excursions we know we want to take as soon as they become available because the popular ones often "sell out" . :)

[lahlah57]

So true about Caribbean islands tours. Some islands are so small just take yourself or at a pier tour stand. Alot cheaper than onboard tours. We have even hired taxi drivers to take us to highlight and negotiated prices and if time allows take him to lunch at places where he suggests that the locals frequent. This was more fun than any ship tour!!!

Just make sure about times to be back and make it no less than hour before ship takes off.