Shore Excursions Waitlisted in Full

[Shay123]

Hi,

 

We are long time Seabourn Cruisers who are trying Silversea for the first time!  We are going to be on the August 22nd Silver Muse sailing from Seward to Vancouver.  I just paid in full today and promptly went to book shore excursions.  To my dismay, almost everything we wanted to do was waitlisted or full.  Does anyone know if Silversea limits advanced bookings and keeps some spaces open for bookings once onboard?  Do waitlists tend to clear?  It's a little concerning to me that I didn't find out how limited the availability was until after I booked.  Thank you!

[agape01]

For me, I booked my shore excursions when I had access into My Silversea which was a few days after I paid my deposit which was a year in advance.

I will be on the Nova this coming September from Vancouver to Tokyo.

[Aussieflyer]

We usually book excursions as soon as we have paid the deposit - so usually well before full payment. I have seen instances where additional times have been added to some excursions - for example one we had booked left at 9am and then not long before we sailed I saw there was a second excursion which left a couple of hours later. There is always a chance that space will come up if people cancel often once on board. We had to do that with one excursion due to a minor injury which would have made the excursion difficult. We were able to book something different on board.

[gcornell]

Unfortunately not that I have found.  In addition, in Alaska the cruise lines take up the majority of the local operators capacity so independent booking is hard.  The excursions that usually have space on board are the basic walking/bus tours sometimes. Best to keep checking daily for cancellations. 

[Shay123]

Thank you for your replies.  I had no idea that people could begin booking shore excursions as soon as they paid a deposit.  This was last minute for us so we had to pay in full right away.  Unfortunately, there was no indication that the included excursions might already be booked (at least the desirable ones).  Time to talk to my travel agent.  Unfortunately, I don't feel like I'm off to a good start with Silversea.  

[RetiredandTravel]

Silversea has a concierge for excursions, maybe they can help.  shoreconcierge@silversea.com

 

I would check the SS website every day.  We were waitlisted on an excursion in NZ and when they added new time slots we weren't given the excursion at a different time.  We were basically waitlisted for that excusrion only at that time.  I had to delete the waitlist and add the new excursion at a new time.  Good Luck

[dawntrdr]

@Shay123, what fare did you book?  If you booked the Essential Fare, excursions are not included but you can buy them if available.   Since this is a last -minute fare (comparatively), the customer takes the risk that there wont be any excursions available through the ship.  If you booked Door to Door or Port to Port, they advertise that excursions are expressly included and I would be rightfully upset if they don't have them available, because that is part of the fare you are paying.  

 

That said, I agree that if you register at the Excursions Desk, they will do their best to alert you if there is an opening, even at the last minute as people are exiting the ship.

[Shay123]

Again, thank you for the replies.   
 

I booked the Port to Port fare.  I’ll keep checking the waitlists and will email the shore excursion department.  Hopefully it will all work out!  

[gcornell]

22 minutes ago, Shay123 said:

Again, thank you for the replies.   
 

I booked the Port to Port fare.  I’ll keep checking the waitlists and will email the shore excursion department.  Hopefully it will all work out!  

It’s worth a shot to also contact vendors directly.  Most have very similar programs as the cruises do.  I was curious for our Alaska cruise 2 years ago and easily found the exact same excursions on my own but wasn’t worth doing separately as they were almost the same price. I seem to recall some had availability as they blocked off a portion for non cruise guests. 

[claranda]

A related question…we have booked on a 2026 cruise (a world cruise section) and after paying the deposit I went straight on and booked the excursions - with the exception of a one-horse (one excursion company?) little town in W Australia where the two included excursions are marked SOLD OUT and the other two (with a charge) are waitlisted. I’ve put us on the wait list and have also contacted the supplier, who was sorry, but the cruise company also books all the buses in town, so we’d have no way of getting to the starting point of any tour. No public transport, no hire cars… . My question is whether, in this situation and if we manage to get on the charged excursion, we are entitled to have it as our ‘included’, ie. free of charge, tour?

[RetiredandTravel]

I don't think so.  We made our reservation for Dec 2024 Australia/NZ in Feb 2024.  There have been quite a few changes to the excursions over 3 months.  I think its important to keep checking the website.

 

[RetiredandTravel]

29 minutes ago, claranda said:

A related question…we have booked on a 2026 cruise (a world cruise section) and after paying the deposit I went straight on and booked the excursions - with the exception of a one-horse (one excursion company?) little town in W Australia where the two included excursions are marked SOLD OUT and the other two (with a charge) are waitlisted. I’ve put us on the wait list and have also contacted the supplier, who was sorry, but the cruise company also books all the buses in town, so we’d have no way of getting to the starting point of any tour. No public transport, no hire cars… . My question is whether, in this situation and if we manage to get on the charged excursion, we are entitled to have it as our ‘included’, ie. free of charge, tour?

 

 

Not sure if you read my post above but we were waitlisted for an excursion @ 8AM.  They later added two more time slots for the same excursion and we didn't clear the waitlist for another time slot.  I had to delete the waitlist and add the same excursion for the new time slot. We also had a port with no included "free" excursions, they have now added included excursions.

 

[pavementends]

There is a decent chance OP will eventually get some or maybe all of the excursions. Sign up on wait lists and maybe try calling Silversea once or twice.

 

On a recent cruise one of my reservations seemed to disappear. Or maybe I didn't make it properly? In any case, they fixed it.

 

It seemed to me that the less sedentary excursions were easier to reserve.

[Port Power]

On 5/23/2024 at 4:20 PM, claranda said:

A related question…we have booked on a 2026 cruise (a world cruise section) and after paying the deposit I went straight on and booked the excursions - with the exception of a one-horse (one excursion company?) little town in W Australia where the two included excursions are marked SOLD OUT and the other two (with a charge) are waitlisted. I’ve put us on the wait list and have also contacted the supplier, who was sorry, but the cruise company also books all the buses in town, so we’d have no way of getting to the starting point of any tour. No public transport, no hire cars… . My question is whether, in this situation and if we manage to get on the charged excursion, we are entitled to have it as our ‘included’, ie. free of charge, tour?

This probably just means that the tours are not yet finalised. Often happens when the cruise is so far away. And as @RetiredandTravel advised, more times slots might be added. Just keep checking regularly.

 

Definitely NO!  A charged excursion will not be granted at no charge.

 

What is the name of the town in question?

Edited May 24 by Port Power

[claranda]

Thanks to all for this good advice. It’s our first SS cruise and we appreciate your help. I’ll keep a close eye on developments…..

 

Port Power, it’s Exmouth that’s the spot in question. We’re looking forward to being in Perth again after quite a few years and catching up with extended family who’ve been there a long time.

[AusMum]

On 5/23/2024 at 11:20 PM, claranda said:

A related question…we have booked on a 2026 cruise (a world cruise section) and after paying the deposit I went straight on and booked the excursions - with the exception of a one-horse (one excursion company?) little town in W Australia where the two included excursions are marked SOLD OUT and the other two (with a charge) are waitlisted. I’ve put us on the wait list and have also contacted the supplier, who was sorry, but the cruise company also books all the buses in town, so we’d have no way of getting to the starting point of any tour. No public transport, no hire cars… . My question is whether, in this situation and if we manage to get on the charged excursion, we are entitled to have it as our ‘included’, ie. free of charge, tour?

If you need any info on Western Australia just inbox me - I am from there and pretty passionate about it

[AusMum]

On 5/25/2024 at 1:01 AM, claranda said:

Thanks to all for this good advice. It’s our first SS cruise and we appreciate your help. I’ll keep a close eye on developments…..

 

Port Power, it’s Exmouth that’s the spot in question. We’re looking forward to being in Perth again after quite a few years and catching up with extended family who’ve been there a long time.

what time of year are you there? are you hoping to do one of the whale shark tours? it's one of my favourite places

[claranda]

18 hours ago, AusMum said:

what time of year are you there? are you hoping to do one of the whale shark tours? it's one of my favourite places

We’ll be there in March, so no whale sharks offered. I’d like to get my husband on one of the sold out glass bottom boat tours as he’s no swimmer, but I’ve put us on the waitlist for snorkelling at Turquoise Bay (thought it might be better for me than Ningaloo as I’ve not snorkelled for some years and will be 75; what do you think?!).

 

Thanks for your offer re WA info, but I don’t believe we can email directly on Cruise Critic and I don’t want to load the post here too much! We’ve been as far south as Denmark in the past, anyway, and are looking forward to some Margaret River tasting….

[AusMum]

They probably aren't including the whale sharks because it's so expensive, but they do start to arrive around March (some friends from Denmark were lucky enough to dive with them in early March this year).

 

I have done the glass bottom boat a few times, and it seems strange you need to waitlist already.  It's quite an inexpensive tour, if you book as a member of the public. It seems crazy that it is already 'booked out' b ut it might be because the tour company hasn't opened for bookings yet.

 

https://www.glassbottomboat.com.au/

 

Turquoise Bay is one of my most favourite beaches in the world.  You don't even have to be a strong swimmer to enjoy it. Turquoise Bay is famous for drift snorkelling.  Most people just lean over a swimming noodle and let the current take them out and then back in.  You can see fish swimming around your feet etc because the reef there is protected as part of the national park.

 

https://exploreparks.dbca.wa.gov.au/site/turquoise-bay

 

How long do they give you in Exmouth? you could consider hiring a car and driving yourself to the boat ramp, and then to the National Park and Turquoise Bay.

 

 

[riandei]

We booked a year out for our sailing and there were excursions that were already sold out.  Some ports had 1 tour and it was a walking tour.

 

there have been a few tours added in the past month but most are walking tours.

 

we prefer crystal to SSEA but found pricing similar and SSea included excursions 

 

when you are unable to get an excursion that is of interest, the included excursions no longer factor in to costs.  Will be looking at Crystal next go round.