Why aren't prereservations for shore excursions for kids allowed?

[CLC22]

11 of us are cruising together on the Crown, 2 of whom are children. We are two days away from the 120 day mark and were looking forward to planning and booking our shore excursions.

 

Now that I have learned that you can not pre book the kids I am not sure what to do. Any suggestions? Does anyone know why they do this?

[karatemom2]

I've never heard this before. We have never had a problem prebooking excursions for our children. Is this something new? :confused:

[Toto2Kansas]

11 of us are cruising together on the Crown, 2 of whom are children. We are two days away from the 120 day mark and were looking forward to planning and booking our shore excursions.

 

Now that I have learned that you can not pre book the kids I am not sure what to do. Any suggestions? Does anyone know why they do this?

 

First of all, even though you are almost to the 120 day mark, I should warn you, your excursions probably won't be available until much closer to your cruise date. You need to keep checking them every few days but many sailings won't show as available for booking until around final payment time. They say they can be available AS EARLY as 120 days out, but that is in no way the normal time frame for Princess anymore.

 

As for the kids, I didn't realize you couldn't book excursions for children online????????????? I swore our last cruise that it asked how many adult tickets and how many childrens tickets we needed to book. Was I seeing things?

[catmand]

Maybe you need to wait until you are closer in? We sail next month and I just took a look at ours. We have child's prices and when looking at what we booked it sates: ADULT TOTAL and CHILD TOTAL.

EDIT: I need to learn how to type faster so I'm not repeating things....:D

[paul929207]

Will the children be paying for their own shore excursions? If not, you can book them in an adults name.

[Magellan321]

I just checked my cruise personalizer for Oct.- it allowed me to put in a child shore excursion. What I did notice was that it required an adult shore excursion ticket to be done first.

[dpalmquist]

About a year and a half ago you used to be able to book an excursion when logged on as a child. Now you have to be logged in as an adult to book the children's ticket so that the adult is the responsible party.

 

Maybe the kids were booking too many tours. :p

[karatemom2]

Will the children be paying for their own shore excursions? If not, you can book them in an adults name.

 

Yes now I understand. The OP is probably looking at his cruise personalizer and seeing that you can't reserve shore excursions in the children's names and taking that to mean you can't prebook for kids.

 

You can book the children under the adult's name. In fact we almost always book everyone together under my name or my husbands name, but it gives the option to select the number in your party as well as how many adults and how many children.

[CLC22]

Thanks for the info.

 

I had read this and didn't check to see if I could buy it under the adult name.

 

"Pre-reservations are not available for passengers under the age of 18. For information on youth services, please visit or call the Lotus Spa or Shore Excursions Desk once onboard."

[rnff2]

I was able to go into on of the adults profile and it asked how many tickets you need for each adult and child. I put in 2 adults and 1 child and now it shows our reservation under that adult profile. If seems as is you can't just click on the childs profile to reserver them, must use the adult profile.

 

Hope this makes sense...

[cdngrl]

yup, just go in under your (or other adult name) and reserve away.

ps my excursions came up around the 120 day mark, but my daughter's just came up and she's around 70 days from sailing.

[Pam in CA]

This makes sense. After all, you wouldn't send your child on an excursion without a parent or responsible adult. Give it a few days and try again only the next time, go to your booking and book the excursions you want for adults and children. If both parents are going, you don't have to sign in under the 2nd adult's name; just book 2 adults and "x" children.

[karmacruiser]

Thanks for the info.

 

I had read this and didn't check to see if I could buy it under the adult name.

 

"Pre-reservations are not available for passengers under the age of 18. For information on youth services, please visit or call the Lotus Spa or Shore Excursions Desk once onboard."

 

Perhaps this means that they don't allow you to book just a child on an excursion, that they want an adult to accompany them.:confused:

[Cruisin' Chick]

This makes sense. After all, you wouldn't send your child on an excursion without a parent or responsible adult. Give it a few days and try again only the next time, go to your booking and book the excursions you want for adults and children. If both parents are going, you don't have to sign in under the 2nd adult's name; just book 2 adults and "x" children.

 

It was three years ago that I booked our last excursions, but I did it under one of our names (my hubby's or mine) and booked two adults and one child. I would do that anyway, rather than booking yours and your spouse's separately.

[Corndog819]

Yeah I didnt bother to read responses.

 

But all it means is that the child him/herself cant book his own ticket. But an adult can buy a childs ticket.

[Spikesgirl]

We booked numerous excursions with our GD (15) last year with no trouble at all. As everyone else has recommended, just book them under your name and there won't be a problem.

[nicschick]

Thanks for the info.

 

I had read this and didn't check to see if I could buy it under the adult name.

 

"Pre-reservations are not available for passengers under the age of 18. For information on youth services, please visit or call the Lotus Spa or Shore Excursions Desk once onboard."

 

 

I thought this particular message refered to the Spa reservations, but apparently is does apply to shore excursions as well.

[notentirelynormal]

Plus its always better to book all reservations under one person. That way if there are groups you are all in the same group. I think its because under 18 isn't an adult and therefore can't legally sign an agreement to pay. Even when we had 20 people I bought all the tickets to assure we were together and then they paid me back.