Alaska Shore Excursions are Up

[1ANGELCAT]

A quick question, so if you are supposedly able to prebook  free dining from a promotion after July 7th, does this mean they have finally figured out a way for 5 star to reserve their dinners ahead of time🤞

[LAFFNVEGAS]

13 minutes ago, 1ANGELCAT said:

A quick question, so if you are supposedly able to prebook  free dining from a promotion after July 7th, does this mean they have finally figured out a way for 5 star to reserve their dinners ahead of time🤞

I am hoping so but that that is yet to be seen. Right now what I do know is that what ever promotions you have the Excursions and Dining are to pick up what you have for credit(s) with the new changes so they can be pre reserved. We will see how well this works come July 7th. If I was a gambling person I would say that there could be some problems and that it truly will not work till July 9th.

[DDDallas]

18 hours ago, LAFFNVEGAS said:

Unfortunately I think that you got one of the several TEMP Agents that are currently working for Holland America. I know for a fact that the day they opened the Shore Excursions the phone lines were jammed and they brought in the temps to answer phones and take orders for the excursions but if you had specific questions they were to send you to a Shore Excursion specialist. I think they were also giving these temps an incentive probably a few dollars for each shore excursions they booked. it would be to their advantage to state you have to book with them. I can pretty much give you a guarantee you will NOT be required to book a HAL Excursions.

Plus unfortunately if you have the newest Have It All and want to use your $100.00 credit you will have to wait till July 7th. 

I understand your opinion and hope that you are correct.  My HAL representative is not a temp, but is a 21 year veteran that we have used for numerous cruises.  If he had given a different answer to my question, I would have booked the cruise immediately.

[zelker]

Heads up, peeps!  I noticed this afternoon that many excursions for Juneau (now shows 40) and ISP (now shows 7!!) have disappeared from just a day ago.  Further, someone on our roll call (August 21st) said they booked one in Juneau recently and received an email today notifying them that it had been cancelled due to "operational reasons" which made no sense more than 2 months out.  So I called the shore excursions team and asked if all of these newly missing ones were actually sold out and she looked and said that no, in fact they have been pulled for the entire season!   (and she said it is still unknown if we can book independent tours and won't likely be confirmed until we are closer to the first sailing in July)

 

Soooooo, if you were considering booking HAL tours on any of this summer's cruises and haven't done so yet, you should log in and see if what you hoped to do is in fact still being offered, keeping in mind that it's not out of the realm of possibility that even more will be cancelled.

 

Edited to say that I didn't compare previous to current offerings in Sitka and Ketchikan because we are hoping to do private tours in both places.

 

Edited June 12, 2021 by zelker

[AncientWanderer]

1 hour ago, zelker said:

Heads up, peeps!  I noticed this afternoon that many excursions for Juneau (now shows 40) and ISP (now shows 7!!) have disappeared from just a day ago.  Further, someone on our roll call (August 21st) said they booked one in Juneau recently and received an email today notifying them that it had been cancelled due to "operational reasons" which made no sense more than 2 months out.  So I called the shore excursions team and asked if all of these newly missing ones were actually sold out and she looked and said that no, in fact they have been pulled for the entire season!   (and she said it is still unknown if we can book independent tours and won't likely be confirmed until we are closer to the first sailing in July)

 

Soooooo, if you were considering booking HAL tours on any of this summer's cruises and haven't done so yet, you should log in and see if what you hoped to do is in fact still being offered, keeping in mind that it's not out of the realm of possibility that even more will be cancelled.

 

Edited to say that I didn't compare previous to current offerings in Sitka and Ketchikan because we are hoping to do private tours in both places.

 

 

They really did remove a lot in Icy Strait Point.  Looks like none going in to Hoonah.  Maybe they want to limit exposure to the locals?  Just guessing.

 

Thanks for the heads up.  Good advice to keep an eye on things.  Every day is a new day.

[idiebabe]

3 hours ago, zelker said:

Heads up, peeps!  I noticed this afternoon that many excursions for Juneau (now shows 40) and ISP (now shows 7!!) have disappeared from just a day ago.  Further, someone on our roll call (August 21st) said they booked one in Juneau recently and received an email today notifying them that it had been cancelled due to "operational reasons" which made no sense more than 2 months out.  So I called the shore excursions team and asked if all of these newly missing ones were actually sold out and she looked and said that no, in fact they have been pulled for the entire season!   (and she said it is still unknown if we can book independent tours and won't likely be confirmed until we are closer to the first sailing in July)

 

Soooooo, if you were considering booking HAL tours on any of this summer's cruises and haven't done so yet, you should log in and see if what you hoped to do is in fact still being offered, keeping in mind that it's not out of the realm of possibility that even more will be cancelled.

 

Edited to say that I didn't compare previous to current offerings in Sitka and Ketchikan because we are hoping to do private tours in both places.

 

I received an email cancelling a Juneau tour.  I rebooked something else.  All the other Ports the Tours I booked haven’t changed.  🤞

[Horizon chaser 1957]

Cruising, for both ships and ports, is just starting up while the global pandemic is still active. For Alaska’s sake, take that summer of 2021 cruise if you want to.
IMHO, just understand that the horse you’re riding isn’t fully saddle broke yet, and be prepared for anything.

[Crazy For Cats]

We booked excursions for Juneau and Sitka.  Neither have been cancelled and both remain as options.

[idiebabe]

9 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

Cruising, for both ships and ports, is just starting up while the global pandemic is still active. For Alaska’s sake, take that summer of 2021 cruise if you want to.
IMHO, just understand that the horse you’re riding isn’t fully saddle broke yet, and be prepared for anything.

We're very excited to be taking this Cruise and are not expecting our Cruise (especially since it's the first one) to be "normal" but that's part of the excitement of taking it, too.  I totally agree that if someone expects start-up Cruises to be what they were pre-Covid that it would be better for them to stay home until Cruises get back to normal.  Guest Services certainly doesn't need a bunch of complainers lining up to get their "freebies"!  If someone doesn't have a "go with the flow" attitude, they should not be going!  

 

This is a good Thread since there are multi-Roll Calls for AK right now and people are sharing info!   

[Horizon chaser 1957]

2 minutes ago, idiebabe said:

We're very excited to be taking this Cruise and are not expecting our Cruise (especially since it's the first one) to be "normal" but that's part of the excitement of taking it, too.  I totally agree that if someone expects start-up Cruises to be what they were pre-Covid that it would be better for them to stay home until Cruises get back to normal.  Guest Services certainly doesn't need a bunch of complainers lining up to get their "freebies"!  If someone doesn't have a "go with the flow" attitude, they should not be going!  

 

This is a good Thread since there are multi-Roll Calls for AK right now and people are sharing info!   

Exactly, and with that outlook I’m sure you’ll have a great cruise. You’ll also be going when people are excited to see visitors again and aren’t sick of tourists yet. I grew up in a tourist town and remember that annual cycle well.

BTW, completely off topic, you have my favourite avatar on all of Cruise Critic. My own Shepherd is long gone but still greatly missed.

[idiebabe]

2 hours ago, Horizon chaser 1957 said:

Exactly, and with that outlook I’m sure you’ll have a great cruise. You’ll also be going when people are excited to see visitors again and aren’t sick of tourists yet. I grew up in a tourist town and remember that annual cycle well.

BTW, completely off topic, you have my favourite avatar on all of Cruise Critic. My own Shepherd is long gone but still greatly missed.

Thank you and it will also be great to get out of these hot, muggy and humid SC Summers!

 

Thank you so much on my Avatar!  That is Lucy and she's a Sweetie and quite the character!   She's a Rescue and we adopted her when she was 7 mos.  She's 4 yrs old now!  We also have Jerry Lee who's 11 yrs old and also a Rescue GSD.  Very special Breed and I completely understand your Loss!  😢❤️ 

[zgscl]

17 hours ago, idiebabe said:

We're very excited to be taking this Cruise and are not expecting our Cruise (especially since it's the first one) to be "normal" but that's part of the excitement of taking it, too.  I totally agree that if someone expects start-up Cruises to be what they were pre-Covid that it would be better for them to stay home until Cruises get back to normal.  Guest Services certainly doesn't need a bunch of complainers lining up to get their "freebies"!  If someone doesn't have a "go with the flow" attitude, they should not be going!  

 

This is a good Thread since there are multi-Roll Calls for AK right now and people are sharing info!   

I can’t wait also! I’m sure we will all need to be a bit flexible as things get back up and running. Just so happy to be going on a cruise. And on the plus side I don’t think the ship will be nearly as full as a typical Alaska cruise would be, and there will be no customs/immigration to go through when we get back. 
 

I really hope people are not going to be giving the crew a hard time. They have been out of work for over a year and have about zero control over all of the changes both planned and last minute. Totally agree the relaunch cruises are not the place for anyone without a go with the flow attitude 

[cruisewiththekids]

This $100 shore excursion credit is really not being handled well.    I had two excursions I wanted to book, and I saw they were nearly sold out, so I booked and paid for them.   I do see now they are both sold out with a waitlist.    So I guess, unless something changes, I won't be able to use my credit.   I wonder if once on the ship they will allow a credit to be applied, even though shoreside is saying no at this point.   Considering dropping the promotion before my paid in full date.

[QueenofEverything]

Agree.  They have handled this aspect very poorly.  If they were not going to have a way to use the credit, they should have waited to post the shore excursions.