Booking Shore Excursions

[oshawa]

My fellow cruiser and I are trying to book our shore excursions for St. Petersburg Russia with no success. The site comes up with "Error Page" and states to try later. I am wondering if perhaps since we have not yet made final payment (due March 8/2011) if this is the problem?

 

Any cruisers who may have experienced this problem, or can shed some light on why this could be happening, please advise.I did contact HAL who stated that this should not be a problem. Both my friend and I are using different computers so I think the problem rests with the HAL website.

 

Thanks.

[Cygneagile]

Russia mmmm… it may well be HAL. There may be some kind of policy and rule that applies. If you are seeing an error than contact HAL because it is their web site. When we were on a Med cruise last September, we could book the excursions on line but they charged our cabin card and not our visa. So we had to pay after our cruise. This was new to us because most cruise lines charged your credit card right away. We have booked several excursions on Zuiderdam this April and our credit card was charged right away.

[kazu]

My fellow cruiser and I are trying to book our shore excursions for St. Petersburg Russia with no success. The site comes up with "Error Page" and states to try later. I am wondering if perhaps since we have not yet made final payment (due March 8/2011) if this is the problem?

 

Any cruisers who may have experienced this problem, or can shed some light on why this could be happening, please advise.I did contact HAL who stated that this should not be a problem. Both my friend and I are using different computers so I think the problem rests with the HAL website.

 

Thanks.

 

sounds like it is a website problem. I'd wait a bit and try later. as long as you have a booking number, you can order any shore excursion or gift.

 

And you are wise to order the St. Petersburg excursions early :)

[catl331]

If the problem persists I suggest you call 800-541-1576 to book.

[iflyrc5]

If I were you I would reconsider the HAL excursion and look at the port section of CC for a private tour. We were there in June 2010 on NCL and did a private tour with a company called Red October. It was OUTSTANDING. They have a point of contact in the USA - there were 6 of us on a private tour for 2 days in a very nice van with a driver and english speaking guide (spoke better english than many folks in the USA). With the small van we were able to get around quickly and also see many things the larger group would not see. They took care fo the Visa process and everything work great. The hightlight of our tour was having lunch with a Russian Family in their apartment which only cost us $10 extra. On our second day at the first stop at I think Catherins Palace we were the first people in the door that morning because of the fact we were a small group that could move quickly. Don't let the cruise lines scare you about the Visa issue - the Red October Tour folks handled everything and it worked just fine. There are other companies too - just check the port area of CC. As I recall the total cost was about $400 per person for the full 2 days.

[oshawa]

Thanks to all for the responses. Guess I will just call HAL.