Last minute cruise question

[latebuyer]

I'm looking at booking a cruise 40 days away but i'm concerned excursions will book up. Is it the case excursions often book up early?

[jennybenny]

Depends on the itinerary

[dickinson]

It does depend on the itinerary but there are also reputable private companies that do excursions also.

[son3cruisers]

We just booked a 11 night CANADA to BOSTON cruise departing in about 45 days.

Yes, there are many excursions already fully booked.

 

[back-at-it]

3 hours ago, dickinson said:

It does depend on the itinerary but there are also reputable private companies that do excursions also.

Just google tours for the port you are going to.  I have had good success doing this. 

[jimlouisesophie]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:57 PM, Thrak said:

Not going to happen. The juice bar is only included with the Plus 60. If you paid $50 there is no juice bar privilege.

 

On 3/7/2024 at 10:37 AM, sailingkiwi said:

For those of you who have cruised this route before, what would you tell a first timer to do in each port? 
 

Whale watching for me is a given, but what else? 

 

On 3/8/2024 at 1:05 PM, sailingkiwi said:

I’m planning on having a 5 or so days in LA first to explore and get over jet lag. 
 

Everywhere is a long flight from NZ - even Australia is 3 - 4 hours to the East Coast. 

 

On 3/8/2024 at 1:24 PM, DHP1 said:

Is your cruise out of Fort Lauderdale and if so, price the airfare into Miami which we found “much cheaper”. We rented a car from Avis (one way) and drop it off at Avis cruise port. Avis has a cruise shuttle to the various Ports. Keep in mind this goes back a few years ago as things may have changed by now with Avis. 

 

On 3/10/2024 at 5:03 AM, roadmaster said:

Appreciate your thoughts. Will go back to the LA map and check those areas.

 

On 3/12/2024 at 3:10 PM, roadmaster said:

Thanks for your thoughts.

We will stick with Doubletree in San Pedro who offers a free shuttle.

Shopping malls don’t appeal especially with our exchange rates.

We just need to buy some scotch for the cruise and probably walk the area and perhaps a bus to Long Beach

thanks all

 

On 3/19/2024 at 4:15 AM, skip.brandy said:

Hi there,  Carol and Doug here,  we’ve just booked this cruise and four others to get rid of the Ont., winter.    Have been going down to the Caribbean but wanted to do something different.

 

we used to live in Nanaimo from 1990-95, but moved back to Ont., we lived on Prince John Way.

 

You’ve booked into the Vagabond, I looked at that, will look again, at the moment I booked into Redondo Inn, in Redondo beach area,  we’re staying just one night before.

bye for now.  Carol

 

Just now, back-at-it said:

Just google tours for the port you are going to.  I have had good success doing this. 

Just remember if you take a excursion that is not from the Princess sponsored cruise excursions, and  you are late getting back to the ship before the ship leaves, you are SOL.

[back-at-it]

1 minute ago, jimlouisesophie said:

You are correct. Just pick one that leaves lots of time before the ship leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just remember if you take a excursion that is not from the Princess sponsored cruise excursions, and  you are late getting back to the ship before the ship leaves, you are SOL.

 

[Itchy&Scratchy]

1 minute ago, jimlouisesophie said:

Just remember if you take a excursion that is not from the Princess sponsored cruise excursions, and  you are late getting back to the ship before the ship leaves, you are SOL.

what's with the crazy amount of unrelated quotes?

[tulok]

8 minutes ago, jimlouisesophie said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just remember if you take a excursion that is not from the Princess sponsored cruise excursions, and  you are late getting back to the ship before the ship leaves, you are SOL.

Unless the company offers a guarantee or they will fly you to the next port. The company we always use offers that guarantee as they outsource to local tour guides. Never had a bad excursion or one that is even close to on board time getting back. On our upcoming excursion there are only 6 of us and all from our ship. The tour operator already emailed me and asked if we would like still or water with gas in the van. Never had that happen so I believe another great excursion ahead.

[555]

19 hours ago, jimlouisesophie said:

 

Just remember if you take a excursion that is not from the Princess sponsored cruise excursions, and  you are late getting back to the ship before the ship leaves, you are SOL.

If possible book tours that start in the morning. There's a much chance of not being late to the ship.

[Yehootu]

A very good tool to have when on a private excursion is the port information you can get from your in room TV or one of the hall boards near an elevator. If a problem with your arrival time back to the ship occurs you can call the local ship agent and advise them of your updated return time and they could possibly help.

[latebuyer]

Thanks everyone. The 11 day canada new england was what i was looking at so good to know many are sold out.

[Cruisemeister2002]

On 5/17/2024 at 8:55 AM, latebuyer said:

I'm looking at booking a cruise 40 days away but i'm concerned excursions will book up. Is it the case excursions often book up early?

We are on a Canada/USA cruise later in the year from England and I have been booking excursions when they appear on the Princess website. Unfortunately one we had booked we have been informed that the port of call will no longer be in the itinerary and has been substituted by one in France. To get back to your question I have found that of the four remaining excursions booked they are now between them $120 more. So I am glad we booked them earlier. It may seem strange that we haven't booked excursions in all ports but many we have been to before and done most of the excursions or as with New York did the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on our own which saved us 50% on what the cruise line charged. We had as long as we wanted in both places, even took in Battery Park and a cab to Macey's appartment store.                                      

[jeromep]

On 5/17/2024 at 6:52 AM, jimlouisesophie said:

Just remember if you take a excursion that is not from the Princess sponsored cruise excursions, and  you are late getting back to the ship before the ship leaves, you are SOL.

 

Correct, but that is mostly marketing and placing the onus on the tour operator to follow the ship's port schedule to a "T".

 

However, consider this; tour operators in many ports live and die by having good working relationships with cruise operators.  It isn't hard for a cruise line to freeze out an operator that doesn't do their job well or repeatedly misses getting passengers back to a ship by boarding time.  If a cruise line gets tired of a bad operator's behavior, they just won't resell their tours.  Now also consider that most tour operators in ports sell tours direct or through other tour agencies.

 

So, on any given day, a tour operator is running tours that have been sold through a cruise line, and sold by a third-party agency, or they direct sell.  First off, they know the ship schedule at the port.  In fact port schedules are set up very early and long before the cruise season in a region starts.  Second, in most instances tour operators have a relationship with the port agent, and if not a relationship, have access to the port schedule and know who the port agent is.  In fact us groundlings can easily find the port schedule for just about any location in the world thanks to the Internet and a little time with a search engine.  With just a little bit of effort you can have the same ship schedule information that tour operators have.

 

About the only time that a cruise line "guarantee" associated with a shore excursion being useful is if there is a weather event in the port that forces the ship to get underway to avoid the weather event before the all aboard time.  This is an incredibly rare occurrence.

 

So, do not be afraid to book excursions through third-party agents, or even at a shore excursion kiosk once you are in port.  Note your all aboard time, note the times for shore excursions sold by third-party agents or at the kiosk in port, and behave accordingly.

[PR-Texas]

We are booking all our excursions through Princess.  We're cruising around New Zealand and most of the excursions are going 30 or more minutes away from the ship or it's a tendering port where Princess excursions get a priority tender.  Traffic congestions and/or wrecks that block highways can cause an excursion to miss the ship.  We have friends who cruise often and they mentioned that they've been on several Princess excursions where traffic congestion caused them to be late back to the ship and were glad the ship was held.  If the things we wanted to do were close to the ship we would probably book independently.

[JimmyVWine]

A “third party tour company”, (and I put that in quotes because Princess’ tour companies are also third party providers…Princess does not own boats, vans and buses in port cities) would be out of business overnight if they stranded a group of passengers who missed the ship. This is their livelihood. They won’t allow mistakes to happen. If you book with “Shoreside Tours” as an independent provider, there is a good chance that the people who booked through Princess will also be going on their tour with “ Shoreside Tours”. Especially in smaller ports. There just isn’t enough room or workforce to support multiple companies who do the exact same thing. Often you can tell by looking at the promotional photos that are part of both the Princess excursion page and the third party provider’s home page. You will often see the exact same photos. Because it is the same company. 

[latebuyer]

I actually went ahead and booked a cruise end of september instead and best tours are sold out. And in one case the private operator is sold out too. I haven’t looked at others. I’m debating cancelling and booking 6 months ahead so i can get what i want. Its a bucket list cruise and i don’t want to miss out on things.

[latebuyer]

I’m wondering what it means when you are waitlisted. Does that mean if someone drops the excursion you may get added or may they add another excursion. If its sold out may they add another one?

[NavyVeteran]

21 hours ago, latebuyer said:

I’m wondering what it means when you are waitlisted. Does that mean if someone drops the excursion you may get added or may they add another excursion. If its sold out may they add another one?

It could mean either. They can add another bus to some tours if demand justifies it. However, some tours have limited capacity, and they can't add any more no matter how high the demand.

[geoherb]

On 5/18/2024 at 10:31 AM, latebuyer said:

Thanks everyone. The 11 day canada new england was what i was looking at so good to know many are sold out.

 

We've found it easy to do most of the ports on a cruise to New England and Canada on our own. I just booked the June 4 cruise on the Island Princess. I barely glanced at the excursions offered. Everything is way more than I want to spend. I'm going to have a great time doing my own thing--always making sure I get back to the ship in plenty of time. (The ship has three 6 p.m. departures and one 9 p.m. one, so that will make it easy.)

[sandancer]

On 5/18/2024 at 2:57 PM, Yehootu said:

A very good tool to have when on a private excursion is the port information you can get from your in room TV or one of the hall boards near an elevator. If a problem with your arrival time back to the ship occurs you can call the local ship agent and advise them of your updated return time and they could possibly help.

We always take a photo of the port agent details on a phone - you just never know when you might need it.