Pro or Con for booking excursions on the ship from your cabin

[meaclasact2]

Our first time on RCI in October, the IOS to the Canary Islands. We have one tour booked privately on Lanzarote. The other stops we're just not sure if we just want to go off on our own or perhaps book an excursion (we've been to Vigo and Lisbon previously - plan on taking the HOHO in Lisbon and just walking around in Vigo and enjoying a seafood lunch). When we traveled on NCL, we used to prebook. But this time nothing, other than the Botanical Garden tour in Funchal, has caught our eye as a "must see."

 

Have any of you booked the ship's excursions from your room? I saw from another post that excursions on board can be booked the at the shorex desk or in our cabin - I'm assuming through the TV?

 

Any guidance, opinions etc would be most appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[Clarea]

Yes, you can book shore excursions either at the Explorations desk, or via the interactive TV.

[grandgeezer]

The pro for booking excursions on the ship is, you don't pay until the charge shows up on your credit card statement. The con is that some excursions (especially outside US) are capacity controlled. If it's a popular tour and is sold out prior to boarding the ship, you are out of luck.

[dancinman66]

Often a pro to book on board for unusual tours for one

But multiple tickets makes it better to book individually

I book on ship if the tour takes you at least one and half hour away from ship as if something goes wrong the ship will be there still

 

 

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[onlyonetrevorfrancis]

On our recent Baltic cruise the tour we wanted was showing as sold out before we left.

 

I was able to book from our stateroom television and had a knock at the door within the hour with the tickets.

 

 

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[meaclasact2]

Now I have a better idea. NCL starting precharging a few years ago too and we always prebooked with them. We'll wait until we board - this will be a first for us too - no prebooking.

 

Thanks again.

 

Ciao!

[FLACRUISER99]

I always book via the interactive TV if it's available , highly recommend.

[srlafleur]

If it's something I absolutely feel is not to be missed, and would be in danger of selling out due to being capacity-controlled (which would be the case for most that I wouldn't want to miss), I'll book in advance. Otherwise, I don't see that there'd be an advantage or disadvantage either way.

 

It's always good to have a "plan B" in mind, anyway, since capacity-controlled excursions can also be cancelled by the cruise line due to lack of interest. I've had that happen on more than one occasion.

[BillOh]

The pro for booking excursions on the ship is, you don't pay until the charge shows up on your credit card statement.

 

Adding to the pro part of that, if for some reason you have a lot of Onboard credit you can use it towards your excursion. I have $500 obc on Allure in 2011, but you can't use it for excursions you book before boarding. Don't worry, my wife managed to use it up.