booking shore excursions several months out

[gailellen12]

I am signed up for the August 10th sailing. If I book shore excursions now, will I receive a full refund if I change my mind on an excursion or need to cancel the sailing for some reason?:rolleyes: Our sailing appears to be almost full, so is it wise to book this far ahead? thanks for any input. Gail

[Hibiscus13]

I'm not sure if it's a good idea or not, but we booked some of our excursions already for November - especially the ones where there are only one or two options. I was afraid that those might sell out first....

[Wendy The Wanderer]

It is wise to book ahead on any excursions that you really don't want to miss.

 

Unless the rules have changed, you can cancel onboard, prior to some fixed time period. I say this, not having been on the PG under the new management, so perhaps someone else can confirm this.

[Molokai-Chuck]

This is the statement and the end of the shore excursions booking page on the PG web-site.

 

 

In order to ensure quality guides and sufficient transportation, we must provide the tour operator with passenger counts at least 36 hours in advance. Therefore no refunds will be given within 36 hours of tour departure for cancellations or no-shows. Please pay special attention to scheduling and tour lengths when booking your shore excursions. In many cases, it is not possible to participate in more than one tour per day in a given port. Tours operate rain or shine. Tours require minimum participation levels to operate so please sign up as early as possible. Tours may be cancelled if minimum participation levels are not met. Prices, Itineraries and General Information shore excursion prices are subject to change to meet unexpected cost increases or currency fluctuations. The information provided here is current as of today. However, changes may occur before your scheduled departure. Please consult the Travel Concierge Desk onboard for information and current pricing. During local or national holidays, access to certain facilities (such as museums or archaeological sites) may be limited or denied. In such instances, adjustments will be made to minimize inconvenience to guests. Some tours have limited availability. Please sign up early to avoid disappointment. Paul Gauguin Cruises reserves the right to require guests to complete a liability waiver for select shore excursions. For more information, please visit the Travel Concierge Desk onboard. To make changes to tours already purchased, please contact Paul Gauguin Cruises Reservations at 1 (800) 848-6172.

 

Hope this helps answer your questions....

 

 

Chuck

[gailellen12]

thanks so much everyone. I am going to book the couple that I have my heart set on (including Mark Eddowes ) and let a couple go until the time is closer. Gail

[trav25]

Book ahead!! Tours were full. The first day the 4th floor reception is jammed. You can cancel up to 24 hours in advance so you have nothing to lose. Even then we knew people who were able to change the tour to a different tour in the 24 hour range.

[MightyQuinn]

Book ahead!! Tours were full.

Was the ship at full capacity for your cruise? And what was the pax count on a typical PG tour when full?

[gerena]

Was the ship at full capacity for your cruise? And what was the pax count on a typical PG tour when full?

 

Good question MightyQuinn. I want to use the OBC, but if I book ahead, I can't do that. I know you have the OBC, too. Have you thought about reserving with the credit card, canceling and then using OBC. I'm wondering if that would work? I sure would hate to spend my whole lst day in line booking excursions!

[trav25]

328 passsengers. 211 crew. It was a fabulous cruise. Just the popular tours filled. Sometimes they were able to add a day if the waiting list got long (Mark Endowes Trail of the Ancients) but I wouldn't count on it. For Patrick's tours, he had 3 boats going for both long days we were in Bora Bora. There was a large Holland America cruise ship on our last day in Bora Bora and it was crowded with people but they were going on excursions too. I would book ahead. We had OBC too. Wasn't hard to use it up. We did massages.

[MightyQuinn]

Good question MightyQuinn. I want to use the OBC, but if I book ahead, I can't do that. I know you have the OBC, too. Have you thought about reserving with the credit card, canceling and then using OBC.

Hi Gerena. Yes we have lots of OBC from PG and our TA. It's somewhat of a risk ... but we've decided not to book any PG shorex in advance. We don't want to hassle with canceling and re-booking with OBC once on-board, which still does not guarantee availability. If all our desired tours are gone, c'est la vie and we'll proceed with Plan B!

[shlks]

I am very new with participating on this website and not that familiar with the crusing jargon. What is OBC? I am going on the Tahiti cruise next week and trying to figure out if I should book tours ahead of time.

[gerena]

Hi Shlks,

 

There is no dumb question--if there are--I'm at the top of the list!!!!

 

Welcome to CC (that is the first alphabet soup!!!) Cruise Critic, but you already knew that. Don't feel bad about asking. This is a wonderful website. OBC stands for On Board Credit. Sometimes travel agents extend this, sometimes the cruise line, etc. This is the first time I have ever received OBC, so how to use it is a challenge, particularly when I am used to booking our own cruises outside the ship. However, that is because the ships are usually much more expensive.

 

I have used this website particularly when we cruised for 3 weeks around South America and Antarctica. Then a couple years ago, we were 40 days from Cape Town to Lisbon--and escaped the pirates!!! For example, in Cairo and Luxor, my husband and I had our own private guide for 1/2 the cost of the ship's tours. We were in the same caravan except when we got to Luxor, for example, the ship's buses went one way and we went the other. That way we got to the Valley of the Kings in the morning "coolness" and no crowds. Yes, there are sometimes you have to take the ships tours, but we try not to because we don't like the masses of people on a bus!

 

There has only been one time that I was a little concerned about making it back. We were in Tunisia. The ship had gotten in an hour late because of a change in itinerary--decided to go to Malta instead of Tripoli (good choice!!!). Our guide felt badly that we were going to miss some sights, but I assured him it was OK. So we took off across the desert instead of main roads. Got back to the ship in plenty of time---but I was a little concerned about that one.

 

This site is wonderful for finding those independent tour guides if you so choose.

 

Enjoy this website--it is truly an awesome and most helpful. Hopefully you will have others also on your same cruise you can blog with, too. For me, it is just AlbertaCouple and MightyQuinn that we have found. We leave April 16.

 

Have a great cruise.