Hotels before/after cruise in Europe - How soon can you book? And why can't CCL post excursions in advance?

[Eli_6]

So, I got my flights booked for my Carnival Europe Legend cruise next summer and wanted to go ahead and book my hotel rooms. Cruise leaves out on May 30, 2024. We are flying in 3 days ahead (2 nights in hotel) and out the day after (so one night in hotel) the Legend gets back in to port. However, when I went to look at hotel rooms, it seems like only maybe 25 percent of the hotels have their availability listed.  Is it simply too early? We cruised in Europe in 2022 and 2023 and I swear I was able to book my hotel rooms out really early the last couple of years, but maybe it wasn't quite this early...

 

Also - why in the world can't Carnival put up its port excursions on the ports it goes to year after year?  I mean, I would think they would offer the same excursions they did last year and they year before. Many of these ports are NOT new.  And, yet, it seems like every year I have to wait until 1-2 months before the cruise to see what excursions trickle in and are going to be offered at the European ports.  I can see ones offered in the past on the main page, but yet they aren't available for my booking.  This makes it hard to plan.  And clearly booking an excursion you would "like" to take to make sure you have something booked when you know there is one out there you would like to take way MORE but isn't posted yet doesn't work either since getting your money back isn't exactly easy. For example, I would really like to take the Monteserrat (sp?) excursion on the debark day in Barcelona (which, in turn, affects where we stay and whether or not I make other plans) but who knows if it will be offered.  It was last year, but will it be this year?  Currently, there are only 2 ports with excursions listed.

 

If this needs to be moved to another forum, that's fine but didn't know where exactly to put it as it is sort of a weird topic. 

[staceyglow]

Maybe they don't have contracts with tour providers that go that far out. A lot can happen in ten months. 

 

One could also ask why anyone would need to book excursions that far out. Very few of them sell out, at least not until you close in on the sailing date. 

 

Booking a little closer to the sail date reduces the chance that you will change your mind and have to chase down a refund. 😊

[Eli_6]

45 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

Maybe they don't have contracts with tour providers that go that far out. A lot can happen in ten months. 

 

One could also ask why anyone would need to book excursions that far out. Very few of them sell out, at least not until you close in on the sailing date. 

 

Booking a little closer to the sail date reduces the chance that you will change your mind and have to chase down a refund. 😊

Actually, some of the more popular excursions for Europe do sell out months in advance.  Especially when it is a port that Carnival only visits once or twice a season. I started looking last year in September/October for my May/June 2023 cruise and waited to book a couple of them I was interested in.  By January, my first choice for Brussels, and La Rochelle were ALL already sold out and my second choice for Paris (behind an excursion that had not posted) was sold out as well.  They were available in September. Same with some of the excursions for the Alaskan cruises. I was told by my TA to book the small bout tour up the fjord as soon as I booked (and I did) and, sure enough, a month or two later, it was booked up. The whale watching by yacht was another one that even though I was booking 6+ months out it didn't have enough availability for all 4 of us.  The less expensive helicopter tours also sold out very quickly.  

 

Furthermore, last year I saw the prices often go up DRAMATICALLY about 6 months before the cruise.  Some as much as 50 percent.  I had one excursion that I booked for $79 in September that was $149 by the time of sailing.  Even an extra $50 per ticket times 4 people times 8 days = $1600. That's basically the cruise fare for 1 person.  And with how much the cost of EVERYTHING is going up right now, I see no reason not to go ahead and book it if I can.

 

I also want to go ahead and book some of these because I need to meet a minimum spend for a sign up bonus on a credit card and was planning to do that by going ahead and booking travel for next year. I only have 3 months to meet it. I just paid 720k Avios (British Airway's miles) for 2 first class and 2 business class round trip tickets (fully refundable and cancellable) from Houston to Barcelona that would have cost us $73,249 if I had paid cash for the tickets.  You don't get $70k in airline tickets for just the cost of the taxes by starting your planning 2 months before the cruise.  I am already working on compiling my avios for a 2025 cruise from Athens to Egypt/Holy Land.  The reward tickets have to be booked as soon as they post (355 days in advance) to get 4 on one flight because they usually only offer 4-6 per flight and that means I need to be accumulating avios now and already have them "waiting" to be spent as soon as the reward flights post.  This is also how I paid for 4 business class tickets to Scotland in 2022 (and to our cruise out of Dover), 4 biz class tickets to BCN and home from Heathrow in 2023, 2 biz class this year to go to Scotland at Thanksgiving, and 2 First and 2 biz next year. (They only had 2 first and 2 biz available because I was a couple of weeks late getting my points all transfered to Avios so we will be split up between cabins.)

 

[mkcurran]

If you don't have to spend the money with Carnival I've had excellent tours from tours by locals. Often I can customize a tour for four for less money than the Carnival tour. 

If you don't feel comfortable going outside the cruise line, that's understandable as well.

[staceyglow]

55 minutes ago, Eli_6 said:

Actually, some of the more popular excursions for Europe do sell out months in advance.  Especially when it is a port that Carnival only visits once or twice a season. I started looking last year in September/October for my May/June 2023 cruise and waited to book a couple of them I was interested in.  By January, my first choice for Brussels, and La Rochelle were ALL already sold out and my second choice for Paris (behind an excursion that had not posted) was sold out as well.  They were available in September. Same with some of the excursions for the Alaskan cruises. I was told by my TA to book the small bout tour up the fjord as soon as I booked (and I did) and, sure enough, a month or two later, it was booked up. The whale watching by yacht was another one that even though I was booking 6+ months out it didn't have enough availability for all 4 of us.  The less expensive helicopter tours also sold out very quickly.  

 

Furthermore, last year I saw the prices often go up DRAMATICALLY about 6 months before the cruise.  Some as much as 50 percent.  I had one excursion that I booked for $79 in September that was $149 by the time of sailing.  Even an extra $50 per ticket times 4 people times 8 days = $1600. That's basically the cruise fare for 1 person.  And with how much the cost of EVERYTHING is going up right now, I see no reason not to go ahead and book it if I can.

 

I also want to go ahead and book some of these because I need to meet a minimum spend for a sign up bonus on a credit card and was planning to do that by going ahead and booking travel for next year. I only have 3 months to meet it. I just paid 720k Avios (British Airway's miles) for 2 first class and 2 business class round trip tickets (fully refundable and cancellable) from Houston to Barcelona that would have cost us $73,249 if I had paid cash for the tickets.  You don't get $70k in airline tickets for just the cost of the taxes by starting your planning 2 months before the cruise.  I am already working on compiling my avios for a 2025 cruise from Athens to Egypt/Holy Land.  The reward tickets have to be booked as soon as they post (355 days in advance) to get 4 on one flight because they usually only offer 4-6 per flight and that means I need to be accumulating avios now and already have them "waiting" to be spent as soon as the reward flights post.  This is also how I paid for 4 business class tickets to Scotland in 2022 (and to our cruise out of Dover), 4 biz class tickets to BCN and home from Heathrow in 2023, 2 biz class this year to go to Scotland at Thanksgiving, and 2 First and 2 biz next year. (They only had 2 first and 2 biz available because I was a couple of weeks late getting my points all transfered to Avios so we will be split up between cabins.)

 

If you can't book them, no one can book them.  Just keep checking back.

 

As for that other matter, well, you can always join me back in coach.  That's how I am flying to Australia and Singapore in 2024.  🙂

[sasandy]

I booked a hotel for September 2024 in Rome. I researched a lot and found a perfect one. They were one of the few hotels that had a booking calendar that far out. After researching, I went to the hotel's website. They emailed me already about a preference I noted and we have had several emails back and forth. It seems they are great to work with. 

I have also booked one excursion so far. I am having problems with Naples. Even when I look at other cruises on other dates I can't find anything. I will probably call Carnival about it.

Edited July 10, 2023 by sasandy

[Eli_6]

6 minutes ago, staceyglow said:

If you can't book them, no one can book them.  Just keep checking back.

 

As for that other matter, well, you can always join me back in coach.  That's how I am flying to Australia and Singapore in 2024.  🙂

Oh wow. How long is that flight to Singapore with layovers? 30 hours?  

 

I tried to get my husband to go to Australia (even booked the cruise which was basically free) and he refused to go even in biz.  Said he wasn't interested in doing that long of a flight. Sigh.  

[klfrodo]

Have you considered private or semi-private excursions?

These people are very easy to work with, they do a fabulous job, and in Europe, who cares if you should happen to miss the ship. The next port is a train ride away and enhances the experience.

 

ItalyTours.EU

[staceyglow]

1 hour ago, Eli_6 said:

Oh wow. How long is that flight to Singapore with layovers? 30 hours?  

 

I tried to get my husband to go to Australia (even booked the cruise which was basically free) and he refused to go even in biz.  Said he wasn't interested in doing that long of a flight. Sigh.  

We are actually going to Australia first, doing a 9 day cruse, then on to SIngapore, where we are taking a 25-day Transpacific back to LA and hitting a bunch of stuff on the way back, including Hawaii.  So at least we only have to fly one way.

[snowballs mom]

When I booked hotels in England for our November 2022 trip I found that reservations did not start to open up until eleven months out. Some were at ten months. I contacted one of the properties I wanted to reserve in Southampton, and they kindly sent me an email once my dates were available. 

[BlerkOne]

On 7/10/2023 at 5:39 PM, Eli_6 said:

 

I also want to go ahead and book some of these because I need to meet a minimum spend for a sign up bonus on a credit card and was planning to do that by going ahead and booking travel for next year. I only have 3 months to meet it. 

I bought thousands in discounted Carnival gift cards to pay for cruises. Double click, done 

[Eli_6]

8 hours ago, BlerkOne said:

I bought thousands in discounted Carnival gift cards to pay for cruises. Double click, done 

Good suggestion.  However, I already have about 1k in gift cards to use for spending on board. And I don't have thousands in unpaid cruise fares left. My Sept cruise is paid in full--with gift cards.  For next year in Europe, I still have over 5k in FCC I am applying that has to be spent by Aug 2024. 

 

And after my problems getting shore excursions refunded last year, I am hesitant to use gift cards to pay for shore excursions. 

 

And obviously I can't use gift cards to pay for hotels.

 

This probably doesn't matter now anyway because I just found out my child may needs some dental work so that will probably push me over minimum spend. Sigh. 

[csm5986142]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:57 PM, Eli_6 said:

Also - why in the world can't Carnival put up its port excursions on the ports it goes to year after year?  I mean, I would think they would offer the same excursions they did last year and they year before. Many of these ports are NOT new.  And, yet, it seems like every year I have to wait until 1-2 months before the cruise to see what excursions trickle in and are going to be offered at the European ports.

 

I am not sure why, but wanted to mention it's not just Carnival - we are booked on NCL for Europe next spring, I check periodically, but no excursions are listed yet either.

[kctwinmommy]

I feel like we booked ours right around the new year holiday, for our July 2017 cruise. We stayed at the Victory Services Club (for military members) and loved it! We actually had to call, at the time there was no way to reserve a family room (3 people) online. So it might just be too early.

 

https://www.vsc.co.uk/

I was trying to get things booked for our cruise next spring, and there were things I couldn't book. But hotel rooms I was having no problem with. Although we ended up doing a pre-cruise extension for this one (Viking cruise). But excursions, that's a totally different thing for our cruise. Viking doesn't publish anything until like 3 months out.

[MommytoAsquared]

On 7/10/2023 at 5:50 PM, mkcurran said:

If you don't have to spend the money with Carnival I've had excellent tours from tours by locals. Often I can customize a tour for four for less money than the Carnival tour. 

If you don't feel comfortable going outside the cruise line, that's understandable as well.

 

I second this - especially since we usually have four people in our group.  A private tour is usually not much more than the group carnival tour.  But again, sometimes you need to play way ahead for the best tours and prices.

[Eli_6]

On 7/14/2023 at 7:29 AM, MommytoAsquared said:

 

I second this - especially since we usually have four people in our group.  A private tour is usually not much more than the group carnival tour.  But again, sometimes you need to play way ahead for the best tours and prices.

Thank you for this advice.  I just booked "Rome in Limo" for two of the ports--Rome and Naples--after reading the recs on the CC Italy board.  It was 550-600 Euros for 5 people for a PRIVATE tour in a minivan for 8-9 hours!  It is actually less than most of the bookings through Carnival (by the time you pay for 5 tix!) and we get to do exactly what we want to do and not have to wait on other people. 

 

I have been hesitant to do this in the past because always afraid of what you might end up with but there were so many glowing reviews of Rome in Limo on CC that I don't feel concerned in the least.