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1st time Cunard Cruser: How late can be sign up for excursions and be ok?


uilleann
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Ran out of room on the title. We are on the 5Nov Iberian adventure. The excursions have been posted for a while now and I was wondering this. How late can we wait to sign up for an excursion and still have a good chance at getting the one we want.

 

If it were up to me I would have done all this the day they posted the excustions but I am traveling with my brothers and without my prodding , they would probably try to sign up for excursions after we checked it or maybe not till the night before the excursion port.

 

So what are people's experiences with this?

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Hello, I'm on your cruise.

 

The QE cruise I was on a couple of weeks ago sold out on some excursions weeks before the cruise. They then open a waitlist and if enough people are interested, they will put on another coach later in the day.

 

So if there are excursions you 100% want to do, you might as well book them after the cruise balance is paid which is shortly.

 

If you're not too bothered then you can leave it until you're on the ship but beware the price usually increases by a few dollars - typically $2-5.

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How late can we wait to sign up for an excursion and still have a good chance at getting the one we want.

How lucky do you feel? In December we boarded to find a letter in our cabin informing us that one of the excursions we'd booked well in advance was cancelled due to lack of support, so the availability issue works both ways. From my POV a cruise isn't a spur of the moment thing: the only reason to leave booking excursions until after sailing would be to use up excess OBC, something which I haven't yet found necessary :(

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How lucky do you feel? In December we boarded to find a letter in our cabin informing us that one of the excursions we'd booked well in advance was cancelled due to lack of support

 

I can beat that.

 

When we boarded our excursion tickets were waiting in our cabin. That's good.

 

2 days before said excursion, Cunard cancelled it due to lack of support.

 

It was the only one we'd booked and were really looking forward to it as it was different from the usual walking around looking a building that they normally do.

 

Still, on the bright side, Cunard did offer a reduction of $5 each off another excursion. Their generosity really does hold no bounds.

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...this. How late can we wait to sign up for an excursion and still have a good chance at getting the one we want.

.. sign up for excursions after we checked it or maybe not till the night before the excursion port.

 

So what are people's experiences with this?

 

Im my experience it works pretty good to book onboard. (Other guests mights have others ;))

 

I would not wait till the night before but even that is often possible. Sometimes they even announce in the daily paper to check with the tour team for last minute availability on the day of the excursion.

 

Only very specific excursion with naturally limited numbers (meet a specific persion in privat, a concert in a small venue ...) I might be tempted to book in advance.

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Because we usually have a reasonable amount of credit, I rarely think of booking until we are on board. We have never missed out on a trip we wanted to go on, although occasionally trips have been changed after we've booked. Sometimes the prices have been the same as they were before the cruise.

Jane

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If you are traveling with a few people, you can probably save money doing exactly the same thing as the cruise excursion through a private vendor. You can find them on tripadvisior or the port of call board on cruise critic. If they're all booked, then you can book through the cruise line. Have a great trip!

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I have found if there is a specific excursion you want to go on you are always best to book ASAP. Some excursions are limited to places where as others aren’t limited to the amount of people who want to participate, it all depends on what exactly it is. Waiting until you get on board isn’t something I would do. At best you could be on the cancellation list along with many others.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Unless you want to use OBC (wish they were like some other lines that let you use OBC when booking before the trip) I see no reason to wait assuming the excursion does not have a no-cancel clause (read the fine print). While you may not have a problem waiting until you are on the ship why take the chance.

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