Shore excursion availability - Liberty Western Med cruise

[bertrande]

We are set to sail on the Liberty of the Seas this May. I am interested in 2 of the ship's excursions, one of which costs $400pp (and limited to 25 pax) and the other $250pp. That amounts to $1300 for 2 persons for these two excursions. I will have a sizable amount of OBC which I am keen to use to defray costs and so am inclined to book at least one of the excursions on board. My questions are:

 

1) do ALL excursions advertised run? What I don't want to encounter is boarding, heading straight to the excursions desk and being told the excursion I'm interested in is not going ahead as not enough people have booked it pre-cruise; and

 

2) is there a chance that an excursion may sell out even if we are no. 1 in line at the shore excursions desk upon boarding? I have read somewhere that RCCL reserves some space on their excursions for onboard bookings - do they do it for every excursion or just some of their excursions? Wondering if they let some excursions sell out before the cruise.

 

Any one has any ideas on this? Thanks very much in advance!!

[jletsgo]

Not sure what your ports will be, but when we were in rome we did the Exclusive Rome Tour and it was the BEST excursion we have ever done and worth the almost $400 PP we paid. This was also a limited number of people excursion. My advice is, if you really want to do an excursion, book it now and not take the chance it will be sold out.

[bertrande]

Not sure what your ports will be, but when we were in rome we did the Exclusive Rome Tour and it was the BEST excursion we have ever done and worth the almost $400 PP we paid. This was also a limited number of people excursion. My advice is, if you really want to do an excursion, book it now and not take the chance it will be sold out.

 

Thank you for your thoughts. We are looking at the Exclusive Florence tour and another Rome tour that allows access to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel etc. Will have to go back and relook the tours to see if we should book them in advance!!!

[wantocruisemore]

Save money and take a private tour for both Rome and Florence!!! You will get a MUCH better tour at a cheaper price. Please consult the Port of Call board, Italy thread. Lots of recommendations for private tours. I personally can recommend Rome in Limo, extremely pleased with them.

 

I did alot of research and we saved alot of money, got much better tours done at our own pace seeing what we wanted to see. In talking with ones onboard afterward, they did not see half of what we did and spent alot of time either waiting on stragglers, not understanding the guide, at mandated shopping stops and the cost was enormous as you indicated.

[tahqa]

We are set to sail on the Liberty of the Seas this May. I am interested in 2 of the ship's excursions, one of which costs $400pp (and limited to 25 pax) and the other $250pp. That amounts to $1300 for 2 persons for these two excursions. I will have a sizable amount of OBC which I am keen to use to defray costs and so am inclined to book at least one of the excursions on board. My questions are:

 

1) do ALL excursions advertised run? What I don't want to encounter is boarding, heading straight to the excursions desk and being told the excursion I'm interested in is not going ahead as not enough people have booked it pre-cruise; and

 

2) is there a chance that an excursion may sell out even if we are no. 1 in line at the shore excursions desk upon boarding? I have read somewhere that RCCL reserves some space on their excursions for onboard bookings - do they do it for every excursion or just some of their excursions? Wondering if they let some excursions sell out before the cruise.

 

Any one has any ideas on this? Thanks very much in advance!!

 

1) No. Sometimes there will be an issue with the tour provider where the excursion will be discontinued or just not available for your sailing. If this happens before the sail date you'll generally receive some notice of it. If it happens while on the ship or close to boarding there will be notification waiting for you in your cabin. Also, some excursions do have minimum participation required and if those numbers aren't met then it may be cancelled as late as the evening before. Again, in that case you'll get notification in your cabin that the excursion have been cancelled.

 

 

2) I've been told by Royal (and my experience backs it up) that a percentage of slots for each excursion is held back for on board booking. I'm not sure what the exact percentage is but it's in the 25% - 40% range. It probably depends on how many slots are available.

 

 

So, with all that being said.... I would book the 25 person max excursion beforehand. As soon as possible. The other one I'd wait for boarding to book. :)

 

 

Personally I'm the kind of person that likes to book all excursions before I get on the ship. But, there was on cruise on Liberty where I had nearly $1000 in OBC from various things and on that one I waited until I boarded and booked all my excursions right after boarding. In that case I did get all the ones that I wanted. But none of those had such a small limit as 25 people. :confused:

[bertrande]

Save money and take a private tour for both Rome and Florence!!! You will get a MUCH better tour at a cheaper price. Please consult the Port of Call board, Italy thread. Lots of recommendations for private tours. I personally can recommend Rome in Limo, extremely pleased with them.

 

I did alot of research and we saved alot of money, got much better tours done at our own pace seeing what we wanted to see. In talking with ones onboard afterward, they did not see half of what we did and spent alot of time either waiting on stragglers, not understanding the guide, at mandated shopping stops and the cost was enormous as you indicated.

 

 

I would if we were doing the shore excursions on our own but this is for my inlaws and I think they aren't comfortable doing private excursions on their own and would prefer being "herded along" so as to speak. On the ones that we are accompanying them, we have booked private excursions (in Toulon and Villefranche). I usually only do private excursions which is why I'm unfamiliar with RCCL's official system. :)

[bertrande]

2) I've been told by Royal (and my experience backs it up) that a percentage of slots for each excursion is held back for on board booking. I'm not sure what the exact percentage is but it's in the 25% - 40% range. It probably depends on how many slots are available.

 

 

So, with all that being said.... I would book the 25 person max excursion beforehand. As soon as possible. The other one I'd wait for boarding to book. :)

 

Thank you very much! I think I will indeed do that. Re the 25 person max excursion, they call it Exclusive Florence or something, and you get to go to take pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and to BOTH the Accademia Museum and the Uffizi gallery, which would be useful for my inlaws and this is likely their first and only trip to Europe. I think I would book that first and leave the other till after we board!

[mancgyal77]

I am so confused as to wat to do

 

 

 

 

DatePortArrive Depart Activity

 

04-AugSouthampton, England 16:30

 

05-Aug Cruising Cruising

 

06-Aug Cruising Cruising

 

07-AugMálaga, Spain 13:00 20:00 Docked

 

08-Aug Cruising Cruising

 

09-AugVillefranche (Nice), France 10:00 18:00 Tendered

 

10-AugCivitavecchia (Rome), Italy 07:00 19:00 Docked

 

11-AugLa Spezia (Florence/Pisa), Italy 07:00 19:00 Tendered

 

12-AugGenoa, Italy 07:00 16:00 Docked

 

13-Aug Cruising Cruising

 

14-AugGibraltar 12:00 18:00 Docked

 

15-AugLisbon, Portugal 10:30 18:00 Docked

 

16-Aug Cruising Cruising

 

17-Aug Cruising Cruising

 

18-AugSouthampton, England 05:30

That's my ports of calls I wondered if anybody can advise what excursions are available privately or any fun ones a family with a 19 n 13 year olds I'm a first time cruiser and private seems to be the cheapest I hear on cc is this true also cant find my ship adventure of the seas thank you in advance

 

 

 

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Paula uk

[mancgyal77]

Hi anybody with any ideas

 

 

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Paula uk

[hazeleyez3]

Hi anybody with any ideas

 

 

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Paula uk

 

 

Best thing to do is look at the Ports of Call board. You'll find a lot of threads that talk about the private excursions.

[mancgyal77]

Thanks hazeleyes sorry for the late reply

 

 

Paula uk

First timer