Sold out excursions :-(

[kasaba]

Last night I went on the app to try to sign up for excursions on regal princess, eastern Caribbean 3/26-4/2, but the ones I wanted were all sold out! Do they ever open duplicate excursions (for example, a second walking tour of the city)?

[trinitygirl]

That fear is why I always buy my excursions as soon as I book the cruise. If the waitlist isn’t showing, it’s likely the tours are genuinely full.  You could always hope for cancellations, but it is likely time to look for independent excursions.  Check with your roll call and see if anyone has arranged private tours you could join etc.

[PMGS247]

I ran into this as well for an upcoming Mexican Riviera cruise.  I was able to join a waitlist but only for 1 person....I'll have to cancel if I can only ultimately get one slot. I would be in the dog house if I left my wife behind lol

 

Hoping maybe I can get one, and then sneak another one later.

[memoak]

Remember Princess is dependent on their tour suppliers. It is best to book a minimum of 1-2 months out

[JimmyVWine]

2 hours ago, kasaba said:

Last night I went on the app to try to sign up for excursions on regal princess, eastern Caribbean 3/26-4/2

Lesson learned.  Waiting until this close to the departure date is almost always going to result in disappointment.  For my next cruise (UK and Ireland) every single excursion was sold out in certain ports four months in advance with most not having a waiting list.  The good news is that most excursions offered by Princess are replicas of other excursions offered privately, sometimes even run by the very same companies.  As you know, Princess outsources its excursions to local companies.  Most or all of these companies offer the same things privately.  

[azbirdmom]

Keep checking in case a waitlist opens or they add extra space.  Also check when you're onboard as they may have additional tours available then.

[cr8tiv1]

I was waitlisted for an excursion.  About a month before the cruise, it opened up.  Don't know if they scheduled another one or there were cancellation.  Ended up not booking since I made other arrangements.  

[JimmyVWine]

5 minutes ago, cr8tiv1 said:

About a month before the cruise, it opened up.  Don't know if they scheduled another one or there were cancellation.  Ended up not booking since I made other arrangements.

I think that if enough people show interest on a wait list, they try their best to cobble together another group.  

[donaldsc]

26 minutes ago, JimmyVWine said:

I think that if enough people show interest on a wait list, they try their best to cobble together another group.  

The problem w this approach is that the 1st tour may get the good guide and the makeup trip may get the leftover guide.

 

DON

[DrSea]

There may be last minute cancellations. My last PCL cruise, there was a medical emergency almost daily. 

[JimmyVWine]

1 hour ago, donaldsc said:

The problem w this approach is that the 1st tour may get the good guide and the makeup trip may get the leftover guide.

 

DON

I'm not sure what a "leftover guide" is.  The companies that are being used all have multiple guides.  It's impossible to predict if the person assigned to "Tour #2" is going to be better than the guide who is assigned to "Tour #4".  It's not like the tour companies are pulling people out of line at the unemployment office.  Maybe the "best guide" was scheduled for an off day that day, but pulled back into service because of the need for all hands on deck.  

Edited March 8, 2023 by JimmyVWine

[Paula_MacFan]

59 minutes ago, donaldsc said:

The problem w this approach is that the 1st tour may get the good guide and the makeup trip may get the leftover guide.

 

DON

I guess that's another reason to not wait until the last minute to book excursions if you know you want it.  

[JG&Lcruisingnewbies]

I’m on a cruise from the 19th August, Norway. 105 days away. So many of the excursions are now sold out 😞. Most places we’ll explore the area on our own, lots of walking. but we would have really liked to have made our way up to North cape with Princess.

 

I will keep checking. I’ve not seen a waitlist on any of them but hopefully some will appear. Fingers crossed!

 

[Rick&Jeannie]

On 3/8/2023 at 12:03 PM, azbirdmom said:

  Also check when you're onboard as they may have additional tours available then.

Absolutely!  On a couple of occasions we have swung by the excursion desk just on the off chance that someone cancelled or some other reason.  Both times we were able to get in on the one we wanted.  YMMV, obviously.

[BamaVol]

I have one particular excursion in mind for Ketchikan that I am holding off because I would like to pay for it with OBC.  Should it sell out, my backup plan is to walk up and pay the operator directly, it’s actually $3 less per their website. Since it’s 150’ from the gangway, I’m not worried about being left behind if I don’t book with Princess.

 

At some point prior to embarkation, can I book an excursion with OBC?  Like maybe after final payment. Last cruise, I hoped to book a couple on board but everything I wanted was sold out prior - like 2 weeks prior. Receiving “excursion credit” from my TA is kind of a joke if all the excursions are filled well in advance and I’m unable to use it until I board.

[cavecreekguy]

Before my Princess Caribbean cruise in March, the tram tours on Grand Turk were all booked. Once on board, I was able to book it. Maybe there was a cancellation? But I wonder if they maybe don't release all the slots for advance booking. Perhaps they hold some back for booking on the ship?

 

4 hours ago, BamaVol said:

I have one particular excursion in mind for Ketchikan that I am holding off because I would like to pay for it with OBC.  Should it sell out, my backup plan is to walk up and pay the operator directly, it’s actually $3 less per their website. Since it’s 150’ from the gangway, I’m not worried about being left behind if I don’t book with Princess.

 

At some point prior to embarkation, can I book an excursion with OBC?  Like maybe after final payment. Last cruise, I hoped to book a couple on board but everything I wanted was sold out prior - like 2 weeks prior. Receiving “excursion credit” from my TA is kind of a joke if all the excursions are filled well in advance and I’m unable to use it until I board.

When I booked excursions in advance, the cost was deducted from my OBC. I booked my cruise directly with Princess though, not a TA, and my OBC was showing online. Is yours showing up when you log into the Princess website?

[BamaVol]

2 hours ago, cavecreekguy said:

Before my Princess Caribbean cruise in March, the tram tours on Grand Turk were all booked. Once on board, I was able to book it. Maybe there was a cancellation? But I wonder if they maybe don't release all the slots for advance booking. Perhaps they hold some back for booking on the ship?

 

When I booked excursions in advance, the cost was deducted from my OBC. I booked my cruise directly with Princess though, not a TA, and my OBC was showing online. Is yours showing up when you log into the Princess website?

Yes, I have $100 stock OBC showing on the website.  My TA has promised another $110, $50 of which is “excursion credit”.  I don’t see it, but thought I might not until after final payment. When I try to book an excursion, I have a credit card option or a PayPal option.

 

I will call the TA to see if she is able to do it. I can ask about the $110 at the same time.

[Rick&Jeannie]

The way it has always worked for me is that if I have any OBC "on file" with princess (I don't book through a TA, normally) it uses that OBC first when trying to pay for an excursion.  You can "uncheck" the box that says "use OBC" if you like, but that box has always been checked by default.  If you don't have enough OBC to cover the excursion...then it proceeds to allow you to pay via PayPal or credit card.  That's been my experience for several years now.

Edited May 7, 2023 by Rick&Jeannie

[charliedalrymple]

9 hours ago, BamaVol said:

my backup plan is to walk up and pay the operator directly, it’s actually $3 less per their website. Since it’s 150’ from the gangway, I’m not worried about being left behind if I don’t book with Princess.

 

This is what we almost always do these days.  It's usually cheaper, since Princess is not an intermediary, and the tours are basically the same.  They can also be less crowded.  The only real downside, as I'm sure everyone knows, is that the ship won't wait if your tour happens to return late--whereas they will wait if an official Princess excursion runs late.

[Papa Yoda]

On 3/8/2023 at 10:38 AM, JimmyVWine said:

I'm not sure what a "leftover guide" is.  The companies that are being used all have multiple guides.  It's impossible to predict if the person assigned to "Tour #2" is going to be better than the guide who is assigned to "Tour #4".  It's not like the tour companies are pulling people out of line at the unemployment office.  Maybe the "best guide" was scheduled for an off day that day, but pulled back into service because of the need for all hands on deck.  

True story:  we were waiting on line for an excursion on Maui (Road to Hana).  We got into an elbowing match with this couple who insisted "they were there first".  Upshot:  we got a van with a smaller group and a better guide,  So don't let karma get in your way, be cool and hang loose!

[caribill]

14 hours ago, BamaVol said:

At some point prior to embarkation, can I book an excursion with OBC?  Like maybe after final payment. Last cruise, I hoped to book a couple on board but everything I wanted was sold out prior - like 2 weeks prior. Receiving “excursion credit” from my TA is kind of a joke if all the excursions are filled well in advance and I’m unable to use it until I board.

 

Most posted OBC can be used to book excursions. And it can be used whenever excursions are available to book.No need to wait until final payment.

 

The key word is "posted" as sometimes TA OBC is not actually added to your account until a day or two into the cruise.

 

OBC that can be used for excursions pre-cruise includes OBC from booking promotions, stockholder OBC, veteran OBC plus some others.

 

OBC that cannot be applied to excursions includes OBC Princess gave you as compensation for a problem on a previous cruise.

[Expat Cruise]

The tours may not be filled. It seems with the App, it is very hard for them to remove a tour. So if they are not offering the tour it will not show as cancelled, it will show as full. So waiting and hoping will not help.

 

The good news is 99% of the tours being offered (not on Princess owned Islands) are available as a private tour and always seem to be priced much less. 

 

Don't be afraid of the oldest sales trick used by Cruise Lines. Which is, don't book non ship tours because the ship will leave without you. Yes, if you're not back they will not wait, but the answer is simple, don't be late. Have done hundreds of tours over the last 50 years, only a handful were ships tours when require by the visa for the port. We have never missed the ship. Use a simple plan back to the ship 30 to 60 minutes before the ship says is last call.  If we booked a private car, when back at the port we can explore around the port. 

[stevenr597]

I do remember the day when you could decide and book your tours during the cruise.  

[kitkat343]

On my second cruise, I was researching cave tubing in Belize.  A woman drowned on  a Carnival cruise line tour a few years before we went.  As I researched the safety of this activity (sometimes the water level is high in the caves and there is some risk; other times like the day we went it was quite low and it is quite safe.  After the death the government of Belize put forth stricter guidelines for a higher guide to passenger ratio and more monitoring of the water level).  

 

It turned out the private tour operators had been trying to tell the government for years that the ship tour excursions were dangerous because the groups were too large.  On my tour, I was surprised by how long the chains were of people cave tubing on the cruise ship tours and felt that my private tour was much safer since the groups were smaller and we  were closer to the tour operators if anyone got in trouble.  

 

Ever since then, we booked private tour operators for our cruises, finding them either here on cruise critic's destination board or tripadvisor.  

 

The only thing you need to be careful of with a private tour operator is researching their cancellation policy prior to booking.  Most will refund you if the ship doesn't dock, but you should know that ahead of time or check with your trip insurance to make sure they will cover the costs if the itinerary has to change.  This is particularly important on NCL, since they seem to be cancelling port stops a lot for nonemergency reasons, but any ship can have an emergency at any time so its something to research.   

 

[donaldsc]

On 3/8/2023 at 6:32 AM, kasaba said:

Last night I went on the app to try to sign up for excursions on regal princess, eastern Caribbean 3/26-4/2, but the ones I wanted were all sold out! Do they ever open duplicate excursions (for example, a second walking tour of the city)?

 

It is after the OP's cruise so it is irrelevant but if you try to book excursions 18 days before the cruise that is what happens.   Hope that he found something.  However a DIY walking tour of a Caribbean city is easy to do.

 

DON

Edited May 7, 2023 by donaldsc