When do excursions typically get loaded on website?

Doing our first Seabourn cruise next September and so far there are no excursions that I can find posted for this cruise. When are excursions typically listed online, and is there somewhere else on the website where I can see a generic list of what might be available.

The cruise in Montreal-Montreal, up the St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland. We'd like to roll our own in most cases, but I want to see what the cruise ship offers.

On the home page click on Our Destinations and then on Shore Excursions. It will take you to this page:

https://www.seabourn.com/luxury-cruise-destinations/Shore-Excursions.action?selectedNavElement=search&WT.ac=pnav_DestShoreEx#

There are several excursions listed for Canada and New England ports.

On the home page click on Our Destinations and then on Shore Excursions. It will take you to this page:

https://www.seabourn.com/luxury-cruise-destinations/Shore-Excursions.action?selectedNavElement=search&WT.ac=pnav_DestShoreEx#

There are several excursions listed for Canada and New England ports.

Thanks, found it! I had found it once before but couldn't find it again, or perhaps I did, but my port stops weren't listed. There are two that aren't listed: L'Anse Aux Meadows, Nfld and Havre St. Pierre PQ. So I'd still like to know when my specific cruise's excursions might be finalized. I can ask my TA or Seabourn of course, just wondering if there's a rule of thumb.

Given the probably paucity of private guides in some of these ports along the river, might either just hoof it around or take an ship's excursion. Do Seabourn's excursions tend to be good value, or not?

Good value? Over all I would have to say yes. Of course, you can organize your own or simply wander the port. We have done all of these, it depends on the port and what is on offer both privately and with SB.

On the Montreal to Boston we did several SB tours and were very happy with them. With some effort you can organize your own, but sometimes you just don’t want to put in the effort or as for us in Halifax, the ship was leaving at 2:00pm and it was foggy and although I had a car hire booked, we canceled it and did a SB tour and so glad we did.

Varies but our excursions for the Med in August are up now. And they add to it also. Spa bookings just came available too.

As a mostly oceania cruiser I think seabourn excursions are a bargain. Prices are very reasonable for the most part. Much harder to organize small groups for privAte tours on seabourn roll calls so the ship excursions might be an option. We are taking two ship excursions on our upcoming Antarctica cruise. The rest is private

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

An advantage of SB excursions is that they do not "pack the bus." They generally keep it to about 25 persons per full-sized bus.

We do about 50-50 private (just us) and SB.

25 is way too big for us. But the lack of participation on roll calls forces our hand. I’m sure it will be ok

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We almost never do ship excursions. We either book a private tour for the two of us or with two to no more than four friends we already know. To my mind any more than six people and it is no longer a private tour - you start getting too many different interests/abilities and then you have to start compromising. To me that sort of defeats the purpose.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for all the advice. Normally we'd just do private, since we're cruising with a couple of friends, but I'm not sure how the ports are set up for tourists. I'm going to do my own research, of course, but want to be able to weigh the alternatives. This cruise being almost entirely in my own country (except for Saint Pierre et Miquelon), you'd think I'd have a leg up. All I do know is that private guides with organized itineraries are probably scarce on the ground in some of these ports.

The advantages of a Seabourn Tour is that you can get onto the tenders earlier - they want you to make your tour and not keep everyone waiting - and they guarantee they'll wait for you if you run late, not that one expects this to happen. They outsource I believe to local tour guides who are experienced and run enough of the same tour for everyone (other cruise lines, private tours) to know how long it takes to get back. The other advantage is if the ship tenders elsewhere or cancels the port, you get your credit back. Some private tour companies have arrangements to do the same thing also.

Almost all the Seabourn tours I've seen on the Med Cruise, other companies recommended here also run very similar tours, and possibly at cheaper prices! Some of the tour descriptions are word-for-word taken from other websites.

The advantages of a Seabourn Tour is that you can get onto the tenders earlier - they want you to make your tour and not keep everyone waiting - and they guarantee they'll wait for you if you run late, not that one expects this to happen. They outsource I believe to local tour guides who are experienced and run enough of the same tour for everyone (other cruise lines, private tours) to know how long it takes to get back. The other advantage is if the ship tenders elsewhere or cancels the port, you get your credit back. Some private tour companies have arrangements to do the same thing also.

 

Almost all the Seabourn tours I've seen on the Med Cruise, other companies recommended here also run very similar tours, and possibly at cheaper prices! Some of the tour descriptions are word-for-word taken from other websites.

Hmm, so they give tender priority to their own tours--not surprising, pretty common in my experience. I believe we have perhaps two tender ports, if I'm reading the little superscript acronyms beside the ports in the main page itinerary listing. I.e., "TR" for tender? I presume "CO" stands for a sea day, "TC" stands for docking, "ON" overnight, but have no idea what "SV" means-any clues?

Yes, but there are only 450 passengers on board and each tender has a very large capacity (I’m sure one of my fellow CC posters will chime in with the exact number) so even if you can’t get on the first tender you rarely have to wait long for the second tender. Remember, it is not as if most passengers take ship tours in every port.

Let me chime in about some misconceptions about private tours that the cruise lines in part are responsible for using to scare passengers into booking ship tours. In the first place a reputable tour operator would go out of business if it had a reputation for not getting passengers back on time. Does this mean it will never happen? Of course not but it is quite rare. And some tour operators will even promise to get you to the next port if they cause you to miss the ship.

Second, many of us do not take private tours because they cost less - in fact in my experience a private tour usually cost more ( one guide for two to six people versus 20 plus). To me the advantage is the flexibility to tailor the tour to individual preferences. Oh, and to not be sitting on the bus waiting for the one inconsiderate passenger holding up everyone else because he/she is buying out the gift shop.

As to small ports without much of s tour infrastructure I would either rent a car or use a local taxi if what I wanted to see was not within walking distance of the port.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

no idea what "SV" means-any clues?

I believe it is a “service call” - the ship stops for operational purposes but does not embark/disembark passengers.

Thanks, just found the legend online:

PORT NOTES:

TC Times Subject To Tidal Cond

CO Cruising Only

SV Dedicated Ventures Day

TR Tender Required

ON Overnight

RT Route Subject To Weather/Ice

We actually have three tender ports, Cap-aux-Meulles in Magdelan Islands being the third.

Ah yes... service call is usually SX so that makes sense.

We had one day on our Alaska cruise where we were doing scenic cruising and the only excursions offered were the Ventures ones (leaving directly from the ship... i.e. we weren’t docked) - zodiac and kayak tours only.