Two Shore Excursion Questions

[57eric]

My voyage is almost two months away and I'm already seeing about a third of the shore excursions sold out.  Are they really sold out, or does Princess hold spaces back for on board booking?

 

I also see almost no afternoon tours.  How likely is it that Princess will add afternoon departures where the morning is sold out?

[Honolulu Blue]

30 minutes ago, 57eric said:

My voyage is almost two months away and I'm already seeing about a third of the shore excursions sold out.  Are they really sold out, or does Princess hold spaces back for on board booking?

 

I also see almost no afternoon tours.  How likely is it that Princess will add afternoon departures where the morning is sold out?

I don't have any Princess specific answers for you,  and I also look forward to the ones you get. However, I have been on and researched numerous ship excursions on several cruise lines - including Princess. 

 

My experience is that when they say "sold out", they really are sold out. Sometimes they open up spaces during the cruise or occasionally before on a different excursion, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

As for afternoon tours, it really depends on when you're coming into port, where you're going and how long you're staying. If you're leaving at 4, any afternoon tour is going to have to be very short - probably under 3 hours. I've seen some tours with staggered starting times - for example 9, 10, and 11. That might be an option. 

[Paula_MacFan]

5 minutes ago, Honolulu Blue said:

My experience is that when they say "sold out", they really are sold out. Sometimes they open up spaces during the cruise or occasionally before on a different excursion, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

That's our experience too -- sold out means just that. Sometimes they will offer a wait list for possible cancelations. It probably depends on the itinerary too. For some of our upcoming Caribbean ports there are 6 ships scheduled so that will stretch resources. Princess has to rely on local available vendors -- it's not like they are running tours themselves.

 

You didn't say where you're sailing but for our upcoming May/June Alaska cruise some excursions have been sold out for months already. Also prices have increased, so it pays to book early if you can.

[57eric]

Thanks for the responses.  (I actually did say when I'm sailing - almost two months.)   There is only one port where we leave before 6:00, so there's plenty of time.  There's also only one port that has more than one other ship calling, and that one is less than 600 passengers.

 

This doesn't have a tremendous impact on me as I will be doing mostly third party tours or touring on my own, although I'll only do an afternoon tour with Princess, and wish there were more.

 

I've got to believe there will be a lot of unhappy passengers about this.  Not everyone wants or knows to start booking so far out. 

[Paula_MacFan]

23 minutes ago, 57eric said:

Thanks for the responses.  (I actually did say when I'm sailing - almost two months.)  

 

If that's directed to me I said you didn't say WHERE you were sailing, not when 😀

[57eric]

Oops, my bad.  Apologies.

[nini]

Typically, we book independent tours (not through the ship) as soon as possible after booking.