Can you book Behind the Fun before you board?

[KatieBug28]

Hi All!

 

I wanted to give the Behind the Fun tour to my husband and my dad as a gift. (We're trying to focus on experiences instead of things this year.) Anyway, I am not seeing a way to book that under the Shore Excursions tab online. Is that something you can't book until you get on board?

 

Anybody have any tips on how I can give this as a present if I can't actually book it in advance? Does it sell out quickly? I would hate to have that be their gift, and then discover once we get on board that it is full!

[Shmoo here]

Hi All!

 

I wanted to give the Behind the Fun tour to my husband and my dad as a gift. (We're trying to focus on experiences instead of things this year.) Anyway, I am not seeing a way to book that under the Shore Excursions tab online. Is that something you can't book until you get on board?

 

Anybody have any tips on how I can give this as a present if I can't actually book it in advance? Does it sell out quickly? I would hate to have that be their gift, and then discover once we get on board that it is full!

 

AFAIK, you can only book the tour once onboard. Maybe you could purchase some Cruise Cash for them to apply to their onboard account in the amount of the tour?

 

http://www.carnival.com/FunShops/cruise-cash

[Carnival_Brides]

You can only book it once you're onboard. If you're trying to give it as a gift, you could produce your own certificate of sorts and book it at the Shore Excursions desk. I would book it as soon as you get on the ship since it sells our pretty quickly. Sometimes they'll open a second tour, but that's not always a definite.

[smac67]

I don't believe you can purchase it before your cruise. We did this tour on the Ecstasy in April and purchased it the day we boarded the ship. I am sure your husband and father will enjoy this tour. It was a lot of fun.

[nwcruiselover]

As others have said, it sells out VERY quickly. When I booked it on the Spirit, they had two groups of either 12 or 16 (I don't remember which). When those spots were sold, there were no more available. We booked at about 2:00 on boarding day and one group was already sold out. If you want to make sure to get on the tour, you should try to board as early as you can and go directly to Guest Services to book it. In my experience if was booked at GS rather than Shore Excursions. Good luck!

[KatieBug28]

Thanks for the reviews all! You've given me a plan!

 

I'm going to give some sort of homemade "gift certificate" to the tour for them to open. Then, when we cruise, we'll be some of the first on board with FTTF (already booked). We can split up our party and have half take the kiddos to drop off the luggage while the others head straight to Guest Services to book the tour. Hopefully they'll be able to get in! If not, we'll have to modify it to some other experience. I hope they can do it though, they would both love it, and since they both have two DDs, they like doing "manly" things together.

[serene56]

Do you book this at shore excursion desk or guest services?

[rugbykat2010]

Shore excursions

 

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[SadieN]

Do you book this at shore excursion desk or guest services?

 

Both

[Joeychgo]

someone refresh my memory, how much does it cost?

[serene56]

Depends on the cruise= short cruise is 55.00. Longer cruise 99

[rugbykat2010]

I have done it for $39 pp on the Ecstasy. I also did it on the Dream for I think $50 or $60 pp back in December 2012.

 

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[laurged]

just did it on the Splendor...booked at the Shore Excursions desk, $90 pp

[JimAOk1945]

We booked ours through the Shore Excursion desk as soon as we boarded the Conquest since I had read here that it books up fast. Expensive but very fascinating.

 

Merry Christmas and happy cruising in the new year everyone!

[CruisinCrow]

Re: Selling out, we had the opposite experience on Sensation. We booked as soon as we got on board. But we were the only ones who signed up so they cancelled the tour. :( Hoping to try again on Paradise next month.

[Kim_KS]

We did this on the Breeze a couple weeks ago and surprisingly, ours did not sell out. We forgot to go book until later in the afternoon on embarkation day and we were #7 and #8 (of 16). Our group only had a total of 12 in the tour. It is worth every dollar they charge for it - great tour!

[leedm]

We have done the tour on on the Dream and Freedom.... Great tour. Everyone should do it a least once. You will see the other side of what the crew and staff do

[rjhollan]

My son and I just took this last week on the Glory. $90/ea for a 3:45 tour with 16 people, a tour guide, and a security guard. This was my 4th Carnival cruise, and my 4th attempt at booking the tour (finally successful!). Our boarding time was 1-3pm. We showed up at the port at 11:00am and it was the fastest we've ever Embarked; we were on the ship in about 30 minutes. Very short lines that early, and nobody seemed to care were where there WAY earlier than we were supposed to be. There were already 200+ people on ahead of us (they number the boarding passes as you go through security - we were in the 260's I believe).

 

I was heading to Guest Services to book, but the Excursions desk had just opened and there was only 1 person in line, so we jumped on there and booked it. They ran 2 tours that sailing, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, both on the last sea day.

 

If you can't get the Behind the Fun tour, sign up for the FREE Galley Tour if it's offered. We did that on the Valor and loved it almost as much. You don't get to see as much as the BtF tour (just the Galley), but you spend a lot more time there learning things; the time in the Galley on that tour is about 1-2 hours, vs. 15-20 minutes on BtF. Lots more time for Q&A, and still very enjoyable. And you can't beat the price (FREE)! :)

[kteachcruiser52]

Do you book this at shore excursion desk or guest services?

 

We went to GS when we boarded because shore excursions was not open. Yhey told us the soonest we could book it was the next day. We went down to shore excursions 10 minutes after it opened just to be sure. There were already 4 other couples booked. if we had waited, we might not have got the tour. I did read they sometimes have a second tour. it is up to the ship.

[tbbtravels]

$85 on the Conquest in Oct. I booked last minute @ 2 days left on the cruise. Had 4 spots left. Booked at Guest Services. Suppose to be able to book on the room tv but I didn't try it.

Nice thing to do and I really loved it. Hope we get to do it on the Dream this month.

 

Edited December 3, 2014 by tbbtravels

[near the beach]

If the shore excursion desk is closed when you board go to the guest services desk.

On many cruises I have seen signs a few days into the cruise saying that the behind the fun tour is still available if anyone wants to do the tour. It is usually held the last sea day of the cruise.