Newbie has question about booking excursions...

[sabella5804]

We are taking our first cruise on the Empress shortly. I have been trying to book our excursions on the Royal Caribbean website -- but for one of our ports of call, the majority of the excursions begins 1/2 hour before we dock.

The rest seem to begin at the exact time we are supposed to come in to port.

 

Am I right in assuming that we can't book any of these excursions?

 

Thanks for any help/insight you can offer.

[Barefoot_Pirate]

I would not worry, RCCL will follow through on what ever you book. It may be that the difference is ship's time versus port time....some Captin's will not change time zones during the cruise...which can be confusing to say the least. Anyway, RCCL stands behind what they sell.

 

Barefoot

[sabella5804]

...for the quick response!:)

 

Am I correct in assuming that the options displayed after entering my reservation number are all available to my particular sailing?

 

Thanks again.

[negc]

...for the quick response!:)

 

Am I correct in assuming that the options displayed after entering my reservation number are all available to my particular sailing?

 

Thanks again.

Yes, if you are clicking on the "Purchase" button. No, if you are clicking on the "Browse" button. You can click on Purchase and see the excursions and availability of the excursions related to your sailing, without committing yourself to purchasing any of them. :)

[cherub44]

I had this same question and called RCCL. I was told that the excursions listed were for all of the RCCL ships that will be in port on that day. They said some of the other ships might be getting in earlier than ours and that's why there were excursions for the earlier time. FYI when I went into the excursions I clicked on purchase also.

 

I hadn't considered the time zone issue, but before I book an excursion that supposedly starts 30 min before the ship docks I'd like to be sure. The port where these excursions were is Costa Maya and our cruise is in Nov on Explorer. If anyone can tell me for sure if it's a time zone difference I'd really appreciate it. Every single excursion we were interested in that port started at 6:30a.

[sabella5804]

I had this same question and called RCCL. I was told that the excursions listed were for all of the RCCL ships that will be in port on that day. They said some of the other ships might be getting in earlier than ours and that's why there were excursions for the earlier time. FYI when I went into the excursions I clicked on purchase also.

 

So when you called RCI, they were unable to tell you if those excursions were applicable to your sailing?

 

For what it's worth, the port that I'm having these issues with is Cozumel.

[Fritz265]

I had this same question and called RCCL. I was told that the excursions listed were for all of the RCCL ships that will be in port on that day. They said some of the other ships might be getting in earlier than ours and that's why there were excursions for the earlier time. FYI when I went into the excursions I clicked on purchase also.

 

I hadn't considered the time zone issue, but before I book an excursion that supposedly starts 30 min before the ship docks I'd like to be sure. The port where these excursions were is Costa Maya and our cruise is in Nov on Explorer. If anyone can tell me for sure if it's a time zone difference I'd really appreciate it. Every single excursion we were interested in that port started at 6:30a.

 

cherub,

 

The issue is with the time difference between port and ship time. I'm sailing the same cruise next month and I booked excursions online. Don't worry about the times.

[jebl]

Also, when an excursion is scheduled at or before the listed time of docking, those signed up for that excursion get off the ship before anyone else. So even if the ship is scheduled to dock at say 8 am you might actually be there at 7:30am and the excursion folks get off in time for an 8 am excursion.