Any waitlist movement on excursions after final payment deadline?

[MomC]

I am sailing July 26 on the Marina in Norway. Even though I tried to book excursions 6 months in advance, I am waitlisted on 3 of the 5 I wanted.  I had no idea it would be a problem that far in advance—it tells me there must be limited tour operators in those ports or they would have added more buses.  I would normally just book private tours EXCEPT one of the best parts of the cruise special was the $800 excursion credit.  When I made final payment last Friday, my waitlist status had not changed.  Often when final payment is due, some opt to cancel their cruise reservation.  Thus opening up spaces on the previously booked excursions.

 

What is your experience with this process?  Are you notified if you clear the waitlist or should I keep calling to check on my status.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Mom C

[pinotlover]

As I reported from my recent cruise, once aboard many found plenty of availability for ship tours that had been waitlisted and even closed to new bookings. Best to wait until aboard and talk to Destination Services. DS didn’t understand why a waitlist existed, but was glad to sign people up for the tours.

[WESTEAST]

1 minute ago, MomC said:

I am sailing July 26 on the Marina in Norway. Even though I tried to book excursions 6 months in advance, I am waitlisted on 3 of the 5 I wanted.  I had no idea it would be a problem that far in advance—it tells me there must be limited tour operators in those ports or they would have added more buses.  I would normally just book private tours EXCEPT one of the best parts of the cruise special was the $800 excursion credit.  When I made final payment last Friday, my waitlist status had not changed.  Often when final payment is due, some opt to cancel their cruise reservation.  Thus opening up spaces on the previously booked excursions.

 

What is your experience with this process?  Are you notified if you clear the waitlist or should I keep calling to check on my status.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Mom C

We share your frustration in being Waitlisted and yes the one learning is to book our Oceania excursions as early as possible in the future and one can always cancel if you find an independent tour you prefer.  On our last cruise, we were on the waitlist for months and would call Oceania to inquire often but they couldn't tell us anything.  We made back-up plans to do our own DIY tour just in case.  Luckily, the one excursion we wanted cleared and we were confirmed approximately 4 weeks prior to embarking.  You can also check with Destination Services desk once onboard as found other excursions had availability due to passengers cancelling. Post-Covid, it appears that there is a shortage of tour guides in many countries - in Japan last month, one tour guide travelled from Tokyo to Kobe to be our guide as no local guides were available in Kobe area. 

[ronrick1943]

We don't do a lot of "O" tours, however a couple of times a tour was sold out.  We put are name on the waitlist.  Didn't think about until we got on the ship, we clear one right after boarding the ship.  The 2nd one clear a few days later, they notified us and ask if we still wanted it.

 

Also when we booked tours on any ship, once we decided we didn't want to tour as much, we turned those back early on, so someone on a waitlist got them.  Now touring isn't much for us, so we book very few for any cruise.

[davencl]

17 hours ago, ronrick1943 said:

We don't do a lot of "O" tours, however a couple of times a tour was sold out.  We put are name on the waitlist.  Didn't think about until we got on the ship, we clear one right after boarding the ship.  The 2nd one clear a few days later, they notified us and ask if we still wanted it.

 

Also when we booked tours on any ship, once we decided we didn't want to tour as much, we turned those back early on, so someone on a waitlist got them.  Now touring isn't much for us, so we book very few for any cruise.

Yes we recently had a similar experience.  One tour we really wanted was waitlisted and we got notice on boarding we got the tour.   We canceled the backtour we had scheduled.

[ColoradoCruiser88]

On 4/30/2024 at 12:46 PM, MomC said:

I am sailing July 26 on the Marina in Norway. Even though I tried to book excursions 6 months in advance, I am waitlisted on 3 of the 5 I wanted.  I had no idea it would be a problem that far in advance—it tells me there must be limited tour operators in those ports or they would have added more buses.  I would normally just book private tours EXCEPT one of the best parts of the cruise special was the $800 excursion credit.  When I made final payment last Friday, my waitlist status had not changed.  Often when final payment is due, some opt to cancel their cruise reservation.  Thus opening up spaces on the previously booked excursions.

 

What is your experience with this process?  Are you notified if you clear the waitlist or should I keep calling to check on my status.

 

Thank you for your help.

 

Mom C

Yes, the waitlists do clear.  We are also booked on Marina for Northern Europe/Norway cruises starting in late June, and booked shorexes because of the mandatory Shorex credits.  We booked 5/6 months out and were waitlisted on 3/6 Shorex for the first cruise.  Two months later, one cleared.  Oceania sent our TA the notice and he forwarded the email to us.  We called O to authorize the payment and confirm the credit card.  Two weeks after this, we got another notification that  another waitlisted Shorex on this cruise was cleared.  At this point, we looked for a “cheap” still available Shorex at a port that we were originally planning to DIY and tried to book it so that we would have the minimum 6 Shorex to get 25% off (all the shorexes).  The online cart didn’t work, so we called O to book to ensure we got the 25% discount applied to all 6 shorexes.  We still have 1 pending Shorex waitlisted for this cruise.  We have a back up privately booked excursion for this port so will decide what to do if/when this last waitlisted Shorex gets cleared. 

[soccermom4]

We were waitlisted for one on a cruise in South America next Feb.  The other day I went in and pulled up the excursion on the website and it had availability - so I went ahead and booked it.  Got myself off the waitlist, I guess.  Anyways, pays to check once in a while, especially if  you suspect that they are going to add more capacity to the tour.

[Flatbush Flyer]

On 4/30/2024 at 11:52 AM, pinotlover said:

As I reported from my recent cruise, once aboard many found plenty of availability for ship tours that had been waitlisted and even closed to new bookings. Best to wait until aboard and talk to Destination Services. DS didn’t understand why a waitlist existed, but was glad to sign people up for the tours.

One caveat: MANY DS personnel are relatively new and mostly clueless when it comes to “under the hood” of their operations.

Thus, I recommend to get on the waitlist precruise and ASAP. It doesn’t negatively impact anything but still can prove that you were (and should be) further in the front of the queue for a tour spot.

I had this situation recently on Riviera with one pre-cruise waitlisted tour (for which I had a senior O phone rep email detailing my addition to the wait list months prior). Onboard, a neophyte DS staffer said she had no knowledge of any precruise waitlist but had started one onboard. I showed her my O email and asked nicely to speak immediately with the DS manager (explaining first [also nicely] that I really didn’t want to have to escalate the issue as far as the GM). She left to the back office and several minutes later returned with two tix for the tour. 

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

Isn't there a way to get waitlisted for an excursion on the website?  My cruise isn't for 7 or 8 months and there are only a few excursions that aren't bookable.  But when I saw one, I noticed a "wait list" selection popped up, though I didn't push it to see what happened. But even if there is, I agree with the poster above.  Often people change excursions, and I have to believe that even with everyone now having Simply More credit, some people will always drop out/change their excursions.  If I see something wait listed that I want to book, I'll likely come back later to see if anything has changed.  I recently changed room categories that way, though of course it did take some time and effort.  

[Flatbush Flyer]

30 minutes ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Isn't there a way to get waitlisted for an excursion on the website?  My cruise isn't for 7 or 8 months and there are only a few excursions that aren't bookable.  But when I saw one, I noticed a "wait list" selection popped up, though I didn't push it to see what happened. But even if there is, I agree with the poster above.  Often people change excursions, and I have to believe that even with everyone now having Simply More credit, some people will always drop out/change their excursions.  If I see something wait listed that I want to book, I'll likely come back later to see if anything has changed.  I recently changed room categories that way, though of course it did take some time and effort.  

Over the past decade we have purchased hundreds of O tours.

 

For the zillionth time: NEVER use the O web cart to buy tours!!! It is extremely glitchy (as confirmed by my O contacts on numerous occasions).

 

In particular, if you are on a multi-segment cruise, there may be tour availability showing on individual segment bookings but not on yours (at least until enough people call O to tell them someone forgot to “turn it on” for the multi-segment cruises).

 

The only value of the O web cart is to compare your search for tours there with the most RECENT “shore excursions” PDF as well as what the O phone rep can confirm is actually available in the accounting system. SELDOM will all three sources agree on what exists and what’s available!!!

 

All that said: someone will now post: “never have had a problem with booking tours on line.” Sure, if you’re doing a single short segment with less than 10 tours once every few years. But, even then, what’s shoeing for availability may be incorrect and you have zero chance of knowing that if you don’t cross check the different listing resources.

Moreover, note that, on the web, you can’t book two tours on the same day (even though it’s allowable if there’s a 90 minute buffer between your choices). You have to call to do that. You have to also call to cancel.

 

And ALWAYS make sure to get a copy of the Prepurchased Shore Excursions PDF - the one with all the O Life or SM math. This is the Bible when it comes to straightening out any onboard disagreement about your tour situation  (including “wait list,” refunds, et al.).

[davencl]

1 hour ago, IWantToLiveOverTheSea said:

Isn't there a way to get waitlisted for an excursion on the website?  My cruise isn't for 7 or 8 months and there are only a few excursions that aren't bookable.  But when I saw one, I noticed a "wait list" selection popped up, though I didn't push it to see what happened. But even if there is, I agree with the poster above.  Often people change excursions, and I have to believe that even with everyone now having Simply More credit, some people will always drop out/change their excursions.  If I see something wait listed that I want to book, I'll likely come back later to see if anything has changed.  I recently changed room categories that way, though of course it did take some time and effort.  

The short answer is no.  There is no way to get waitlisted on a tour using the website.  I have to call in.  The last cruise I did get the tour I was waitlisted on the first day of the cruise.

[sunlover12]

I have 2 comments about this.

 

This week I booked shore excursions for my September cruise on Nautica. I had no trouble except for one port which shows "excursion closed" for every one of the 6 excursions listed. I take this to mean that O is still finding and/or negotiating with the tour operators for this port. 

 

My second comment is about booking online using the cart.  I've read all the comments going way back saying to never book online. The suggestions are you should always call. I have the OLife excursion package. Before I purchased online, I calculated what the total amount should be. The total charged was exactly what it should be, to the dollar. It left the 3 most expensive excursions off the bill and charged the rest.  So yes, it can be accurately purchased online using the cart but do the math before you click "purchase".  This has been my experience.  YMMV

 

[ORV]

58 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

I have 2 comments about this.

 

This week I booked shore excursions for my September cruise on Nautica. I had no trouble except for one port which shows "excursion closed" for every one of the 6 excursions listed. I take this to mean that O is still finding and/or negotiating with the tour operators for this port. 

 

My second comment is about booking online using the cart.  I've read all the comments going way back saying to never book online. The suggestions are you should always call. I have the OLife excursion package. Before I purchased online, I calculated what the total amount should be. The total charged was exactly what it should be, to the dollar. It left the 3 most expensive excursions off the bill and charged the rest.  So yes, it can be accurately purchased online using the cart but do the math before you click "purchase".  This has been my experience.  YMMV

 

The real problem comes with the 25% discount when you book enough to get the discount. It can be done with the cart, but you must be very exacting in the way you do it. Did you get the YWYW 25% discount?

[sunlover12]

32 minutes ago, ORV said:

The real problem comes with the 25% discount when you book enough to get the discount. It can be done with the cart, but you must be very exacting in the way you do it. Did you get the YWYW 25% discount?

THE YWYW 25% discount did not apply to this sailing. It only applies if booked with Simply More.  Even so....the value of the 3 included excursions under O Life far exceeds the $300 paid. 

[AMHuntFerry]

8 minutes ago, sunlover12 said:

THE YWYW 25% discount did not apply to this sailing. It only applies if booked with Simply More.  Even so....the value of the 3 included excursions under O Life far exceeds the $300 paid. 

Check your shorex pdf. The YWC 25% discount for O-Life cruises should still be listed unless you are on a 7-day cruise which occasionally does not offer the discount (which also applies to SM...you can tell which cruises don't have discounts because "N/A" shows up in that column on the website).

[sunlover12]

47 minutes ago, AMHuntFerry said:

Check your shorex pdf. The YWC 25% discount for O-Life cruises should still be listed unless you are on a 7-day cruise which occasionally does not offer the discount (which also applies to SM...you can tell which cruises don't have discounts because "N/A" shows up in that column on the website).

It's been checked and verified.  Not included.  Thanks for your reply.

[AMHuntFerry]

Just now, sunlover12 said:

It's been checked and verified.  Not included.  Thanks for your reply.

Yah, sometimes it makes no sense. We were on a 7 day CA coastal right after another 7-day CA coastal in fall 2022...the first one had the discount, the second one did not. I've noticed the same with SM...sometimes yes, sometimes no (but only for 7, and maybe 8, day cruises).

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

3 hours ago, ORV said:

The real problem comes with the 25% discount when you book enough to get the discount. It can be done with the cart, but you must be very exacting in the way you do it. Did you get the YWYW 25% discount?

Just ignore this.  I didn't mean to quote and comment on this!  I'm just going to figure out what excursions I want, and then have the TA book them, using any credit we have!  

Edited May 10 by IWantToLiveOverTheSea