Why so long waiting for excusions?

[Presto2]

In March 2018 we booked a cruise on Celebrity for August 2019 and all of the excursions were available to review and book even though the ship was still only 30% complete. We like to have time to look at them and do some research and then share the cost out a bit. This suits us and it all adds to the excitement :-)

 

We booked Azura with P&O for April 2019 last December 2017 and the excursions are still not out yet. I am pretty sure that they know what they are.

Any idea why it seems to take them so long to get them on line ?

They can't blame Brexit on this one as we are going to Norway ---- :-)

 

(Before anyone wants to tell me, yes I know we can organise some ourselves but we like a mixture)

[jeanlyon]

I don't think they show until Final balances have been paid.  So 3 months out I would think.

[PrincessPete]

Hi, I don't think it is after the final balance has been paid. We booked  on 4 September for the 22 February Oriana cruise 2019 then booked two ship excursions a couple of days later - some long while before the final balance was paid.

Hope this may help although I don't know why April 2019 is not showing yet. Kind regards Peter

[jeanlyon]

My cruise is April and they are not available at the moment.  We pay our balance on Jan 10th.

[PrincessPete]

Seems a strange disparity as ours were booked 5 1/2 months before the cruise (and may have been available even earlier). Most odd!

[Presto2]

40 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

My cruise is April and they are not available at the moment.  We pay our balance on Jan 10th.

 

Hi, we sail end of April and hubby is saying final balance in January. Just seems stupid not to let us have a look at the excursions even if we can't pay for them.

[Onelung]

We are booked on Britannia to the Fjords in July 2019 and there are no excursions up yet. In fact, nothing is pre-bookable - spa/dining etc. Like you, we prefer to think things over and do a mix of ship/own tours. However, one of the "must do" trips is the train in Flam and if you go to their web site it is already sold out so we have no option but to look for a ship tour.  Guess we just have to keep checking every day. 

 

We have only sailed Celebrity previously and they have always had the tours up well in advance.

Edited December 28, 2018 by Onelung

[Scriv]

Someone to do with organising P&O excursions once posted on social media that they have to get all the excursions in from all the ports on the itinerary before they can make them available. And some ports move faster than others.

 

Edited January 1, 2019 by Scriv

[ann141]

Also for Caribbean cruises I expect the excursions are ready to book whether sailing in October or March as they will probably arrange packages with the companies for the whole season

[terrierjohn]

I seem to remember that you used to be able to view the current shore excursions by port even before you booked, which was always useful even if the pricing might be inaccurate, but I cannot find any way to access this information anymore.  Some other cruise lines do still provide this facility.

[Scriv]

2 hours ago, terrierjohn said:

I seem to remember that you used to be able to view the current shore excursions by port even before you booked, which was always useful even if the pricing might be inaccurate, but I cannot find any way to access this information anymore.  Some other cruise lines do still provide this facility.

You can still view typical excursions from the port, John - I have done it recently for the Baltic. They didn't have any price guide though.

 

[Presto2]

7 minutes ago, Scriv said:

You can still view typical excursions from the port, John - I have done it recently for the Baltic. They didn't have any price guide though.

 

 

Hi, have been checking those out, but some don't seem to fit with the cruise we have been looking at - i.e. for a Med cruise they were showing excursions for Venice that didn't tie in with the sailing times of the ship and we probably more for one doing a stay over. (If that makes sense). I suppose my New Year's Resolution will to be more patient :-)

[Scriv]

9 minutes ago, Presto2 said:

 

Hi, have been checking those out, but some don't seem to fit with the cruise we have been looking at - i.e. for a Med cruise they were showing excursions for Venice that didn't tie in with the sailing times of the ship and we probably more for one doing a stay over. (If that makes sense). I suppose my New Year's Resolution will to be more patient 🙂

Yeah, they are only typical examples of the excurisons at the port - not relating to particular cruises like TUI Marella do.

 

[jeanlyon]

I suppose the only reason I look at the excursions is to get the timings for the port.  If you look at the longest All Day excursion, you can work out it it start at 0900 and is 9 hours, we won't be sailing before 1800!  We don't actually do any excursions.  Much prefer to DIY or do local tours.

[Presto2]

29 minutes ago, jeanlyon said:

I suppose the only reason I look at the excursions is to get the timings for the port.  If you look at the longest All Day excursion, you can work out it it start at 0900 and is 9 hours, we won't be sailing before 1800!  We don't actually do any excursions.  Much prefer to DIY or do local tours.

 

Great idea :-) We tend to do the ship's excursions when we are new to a port and then after that we like to do our own thing. There have been one or 2 excursions that we have enjoyed so much that we have been happy to pay the ship again 2 years together. :-)

 

Still no excursions for us. Having said that lots for Norway may be weather dependent so who knows what we will see :-)

[Apial]

On ‎12‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 11:02 AM, Presto2 said:

In March 2018 we booked a cruise on Celebrity for August 2019 and all of the excursions were available to review and book even though the ship was still only 30% complete. We like to have time to look at them and do some research and then share the cost out a bit. This suits us and it all adds to the excitement 🙂

 

We booked Azura with P&O for April 2019 last December 2017 and the excursions are still not out yet. I am pretty sure that they know what they are.

Any idea why it seems to take them so long to get them on line ?

They can't blame Brexit on this one as we are going to Norway ---- 🙂

 

(Before anyone wants to tell me, yes I know we can organise some ourselves but we like a mixture)

 Well Norway is a part of the Schengen Zone so technically in the event of a no-deal Brexit, UK passport holders would become third country nationals. So any rules that currently apply to third country National entering or leaving Norway would then apply to UK Passport holders. Brexit is a fair reason.

 

Should Norway decide to implement full Passport checks at the ports, shore trips leaving times would negatively be impacted as might return times. As P&O do not have a crystal ball, it will be interesting to see if they will be willing at this stage to advertise shore trips promising any particular timings.

On P&O's website it says that shore trips will ordinarily be advertised 12 weeks prior to departure.

[jeanlyon]

But we have cruised to other countries outside of Europe and never had a problem.  P&O hold all passport details and it is a group clearance.  We've never had a problem anywhere, like the Caribbean, Russia, Egypt etc.

[Apial]

What you say is true, but this may not necessarily remain true. At the moment you are an EU citizen, but if there is a no deal Brexit you won't be anymore and the goal posts move.

 

The EU currently propose to introduce a travel document called an ETIAS, deal or no deal,that will cost 7 Euro for 3 years , however its not currently available until late 2020. If there is a no deal Brexit, then hopefully our UK passports will be accepted, and if there is a deal then our passports will be accepted so long as the UK government allows unrestricted movement of EU citizens during the 2 year interim period. I don't think anyone knows for certain what will happen at the end of March if there is a no deal. In theory you might need a Visa......

 

David Dingle, Chairman of Carnival Uk had this to say ," If people are going to have extended immigration inspections, particularly when their cruise comes back to port, it means that they’re going to take much longer to get off the ship and go home. This means we can’t turn the ship around as quickly as we normally would. 

Our port stays would get longer and that gets very expensive. Equally we can’t have our passengers in every European port taking hours to get ashore off the ship.

‘For example, every Monday, our German brand AIDA arrives in Southampton, bringing more than 3,000 German passengers, all very keen to get ashore as soon as possible and do tours to London, Bath, the New Forest and so on.

‘We cannot have a situation where it’s taking hours and hours for them to get ashore. That would be completely unacceptable and unnecessary, so we absolutely have to get that resolved.’

I have less than 13 weeks until my cruise leaves, and it is as clear as mud what will happen. I shall certainly be travelling to Southampton the day before the cruise leaves too. I would hate to be stuck in a massive tailback of port traffic.

 

[Harry Peterson]

Latest advice from P&O - an unsurprising but worrying warning about a no-deal Brexit:

 

 

https://www.pocruises.com/brexit/

 

What about going on shore?

 

You may need to show your passport (with at least six months left until it expires) to go ashore. 

 

 

Let's hope we leave with an agreement, or, better still revoke Article 50.

 

[daiB]

18 minutes ago, docco said:

Latest advice from P&O - an unsurprising but worrying warning about a no-deal Brexit:

 

 

https://www.pocruises.com/brexit/

 

What about going on shore?

 

You may need to show your passport (with at least six months left until it expires) to go ashore. 

 

 

Let's hope we leave with an agreement, or, better still revoke Article 50.

 

Again unnecessary winding up.

 

There is no change from now or two years ago.

[Harry Peterson]

14 minutes ago, daiB said:

Again unnecessary winding up.

 

There is no change from now or two years ago.

As I said in the other thread, you're missing the point - and this is not winding people up.  It's simply warning people (including myself) who have cruises booked but may yet want to cancel if it turns out that the present simple (and quick) system of going ashore is replaced by one involving passports across Europe and the rest of the world.

 

Check the link and you'll find new information from P&O about what will happen in the event of a no-deal Brexit:

 

 

P&O Cruises Brexit Q&A

What about going on shore?

You may need to show your passport (with at least six months left until it expires) to go ashore. 

 

As you well know, that's not the present position for most ports - just a relatively small number.  P&O are warning that it could become much more common - indeed, quite possibly, the norm.

[daiB]

9 minutes ago, docco said:

As I said in the other thread, you're missing the point - and this is not winding people up.  It's simply warning people (including myself) who have cruises booked but may yet want to cancel if it turns out that the present simple (and quick) system of going ashore is replaced by one involving passports across Europe and the rest of the world.

 

Check the link and you'll find new information from P&O about what will happen in the event of a no-deal Brexit:

 

 

P&O Cruises Brexit Q&A

What about going on shore?

You may need to show your passport (with at least six months left until it expires) to go ashore. 

 

As you well know, that's not the present position for most ports - just a relatively small number.  P&O are warning that it could become much more common - indeed, quite possibly, the norm.

See my reply on the other post.

 

why on Earth are you winding people up on two posts.

[jeanlyon]

Dai, exactly.  That information has been on P&O for as long as I have been cruising - years!  You have always had to take your passport ashore in Italy, especially Venice.

[Presto2]

On ‎1‎/‎24‎/‎2019 at 7:41 PM, docco said:

Latest advice from P&O - an unsurprising but worrying warning about a no-deal Brexit:

 

 

https://www.pocruises.com/brexit/

 

What about going on shore?

 

You may need to show your passport (with at least six months left until it expires) to go ashore. 

 

 

Let's hope we leave with an agreement, or, better still revoke Article 50.

 

 

Dunno about a Shengen Zone, I personally I think we need to turn CC in to a  'Brexit Discussion Free Zone' to maintain our sanity …..

 

Thanks to those of you who answered my original question. Just to let you all know that our excursions came out just after the final day for full payment (as someone above had suggested would happen).  I am looking forward to our first cruise to Norway.

[jeanlyon]

Presto, mine have just arrived for April 24th.  I would guess that is just after Final payment is due.

 

My goodness, Rome on your Own - £53!  Glad I am taking another company.  It's £21.