Excursion questions??

[Boatingmom]

Does Carnival let you book excursions before you pay in full? I'm holding off paying in full in case the rates go down as I have an ES rate. I would rather the refund than a credit to my S&S account. That being said, I don't want to miss out on certain excursions. Also, does payment for an excursion go on your sign and sail or do you pay online by credit card at time of booking? Can you book excursions through your PVP?:confused:

[A&Jfamily]

Does Carnival let you book excursions before you pay in full? I'm holding off paying in full in case the rates go down as I have an ES rate. I would rather the refund than a credit to my S&S account. That being said, I don't want to miss out on certain excursions. Also, does payment for an excursion go on your sign and sail or do you pay online by credit card at time of booking? Can you book excursions through your PVP?:confused:

 

I believe you need to be paid in full - you book them on line and you do not need your PVP. You click on manage my cruises, fill out the information for your cruise and then you can view all the shore excursions that are available. You pay with a credit card at the time of booking; the excursions are "charged" to your room on your S&S account, but you will also see a credit for the same amount.

[DaytonCruiser]

Does Carnival let you book excursions before you pay in full? I'm holding off paying in full in case the rates go down as I have an ES rate. I would rather the refund than a credit to my S&S account. That being said, I don't want to miss out on certain excursions. Also, does payment for an excursion go on your sign and sail or do you pay online by credit card at time of booking? Can you book excursions through your PVP?:confused:

You just need to put down the full deposit

 

How do I pre-book shore tours?

• After fully depositing the cruise booking, guest's may place pre-sailing orders online at http://www.carnival.com/ShoreExcursions.aspx
  
• Guest's must be registered on www.carnival.com and have their booking number added to their profile.
  
• Only shore excursions relevant to the specific itinerary booked will be shown.
  
• Desired selections can be booked and placed in "My Shopping Cart" for review.
  
• Full credit card payment is due upon completion of the order process at "Check Out". No checks or any other form of payment can be accepted.
  
• A confirmation page with order number will be available online in a print friendly format.
  

[Boatingmom]

Thanks for the info. Any idea when the most desired ones sell out? Just a guestimate;)

[k2excursion]

Thanks for the info. Any idea when the most desired ones sell out? Just a guestimate;)

 

That can vary quite a bit. The best thing to do is just go ahead and book the excursion as soon as you can. You don't have to be paid in full (just the deposit), but Carnival sometimes waits before they open it up for booking excursions online. You have all the way up to 3 days prior to sailing to cancel the excursion and get a full refund to the credit card used to book the excursion, if you change your mind and want to do something else. At 3 days prior to sailing, you can no longer book or cancel online. You have to wait until getting on board the ship to cancel, and they will charge a 25% cancellation fee. No refunds are given if you cancel within 24 hours of arrival in port.

[mdrobtx]

After fully depositing the cruise booking, guest's may place pre-sailing orders online at http://www.carnival.com/ShoreExcursions.aspx

Isn't this just another way of stating "paid in full"? I'm unable to access all of the excursions available. I figured it was because I haven't paid in full.??

[oysterfiend]

I paid for our excursions on Carnival Spirit Alaskan Cruise 7-14 September,

Months and months ago,

Our cruise was paid for in full.

 

I am glad I did because the price of all of them have gone up :eek: since I booked the shore tours and paid online with VISA.

[mali06]

OK! Is this something new? That you have to prepay your excursions? We have cruised 11 times. I have never prepaid our excursions . . . I have always booked our excursions as soon as they were available for our cruise (we book our cruises way ahead). Then they are charged to our sign and sail account once we sail. We have always been allowed to do this with only the deposit paid. Sometimes it takes a while for the excursions to become available. We sail in January and only one excursion is posted so far. Is this a brand new policy for Carnival or can I continue to do this?

[mdrobtx]

Just to recheck, I logged on to my cruise this morning and under the purchase shore excursion it shows only one port and one excursion. All the rest won't show.??

I need to ask my roll call what they are experiencing.

[webzila]

Just to recheck, I logged on to my cruise this morning and under the purchase shore excursion it shows only one port and one excursion. All the rest won't show.??

I need to ask my roll call what they are experiencing.

 

Our cruise is in Jan 2011 and I am experiencing the same thing.

When I login I only see one port (which is the 2nd stop) and only 1 excursion. It maybe because the sail date is almost 6 months away.

Last time I pre-booked about a month before and everything showed up fine.

 

I strongly recommend pre-booking. A few years ago my wife and I decided to just book onboard - didnt get what we really wanted - got stuck kayaking in the rain :D

[mdrobtx]

webzila, have you paid for your cruise completely?

Like I mentioned, I think it doesn't show all the excursions because we haven't made the final payment. But you might be right. It's so far out they can't confirm the excursions.

 

Not worried about booking with the ship. We usually booking indie excursions. Especially when we dive. Don't really care for the cattle call that usually exists on ship excursions.

[webzila]

Mine is paid in full

 

webzila, have you paid for your cruise completely?

Like I mentioned, I think it doesn't show all the excursions because we haven't made the final payment. But you might be right. It's so far out they can't confirm the excursions.

 

Not worried about booking with the ship. We usually booking indie excursions. Especially when we dive. Don't really care for the cattle call that usually exists on ship excursions.

[k2excursion]

Just to recheck, I logged on to my cruise this morning and under the purchase shore excursion it shows only one port and one excursion. All the rest won't show.??

I need to ask my roll call what they are experiencing.

 

Carnival may not post excursions until 3-4 months prior to sailing. That's the timeline that they give themselves (although sometimes they are available sooner). It's nothing to worry about. And, you don't have to have made final payment to book the excursions or for them to show up as available for you. As long as your deposit is paid, you're fine.

 

 

OK! Is this something new? That you have to prepay your excursions? We have cruised 11 times. I have never prepaid our excursions . . . I have always booked our excursions as soon as they were available for our cruise (we book our cruises way ahead). Then they are charged to our sign and sail account once we sail. We have always been allowed to do this with only the deposit paid. Sometimes it takes a while for the excursions to become available. We sail in January and only one excursion is posted so far. Is this a brand new policy for Carnival or can I continue to do this?

 

I'm not sure how new it is. I know that for our April 2007, it worked this way. We had booked an excursion online, and it was charged to the card right away. Then we later cancelled, and it was refunded to the card several days later. On my last 2 cruises, I've pre-booked one excursion on each, and both times, we were charged for it right away.

[mdrobtx]

Thanks for the info K2.:)