Advance excursion bookings - OBC

[marcruiserswe]

Hi all,

 

We are traveling on the 27th of Feb on Reflection and have started to plan our excursions.

 

If we book an excursion via the (horrible) celebrity website, can we use our OBC as payment? Are the excursions paid in advance, or added to the final bill?

 

Also, is it common that the excursions are fully booked prior to the departure? For a few of them we would probably like to wait until we are onboard before we decide. Since it's our first cruise we don't want to fill the itinerary before we are even onboard :cool:

 

Thanks all!

[prim8keeper]

Any excursions booked in advance must be prepaid using a credit card when you book them. Only excursions that you book on the ship can be paid with OBC.

 

In terms of whether or not certain excursions will be sold out its really hard to know. If it is something we really want to do we usually just bite the bullet and book them ahead of time. If you are flexible then you should be ok booking on board. They also generally run a wait list as well if a tour is full.

[rwb]

OBC is literally for on board use.

 

In over 300 days of cruising Celebrity I've only had one excursion sold out and we successfully wait-listed for it. I would guess that we book about 75% of our excursions two days beforehand on the in-room TV, and rarely even have to compromise on time. (My otherwise perfect spouse doesn't like planning ahead.) I suspect that there are enough people arranging independent excursions these days that the ship's excursions do not sell out as they did in the past. And most locations have enough capacity to be flexible in accommodating demand.

 

If there is an excursion that is really important to you, book ahead of time. For the rest it is almost always safe to book after you board.

[marcruiserswe]

Thank you both!

[ondeckatsea]

After our last cruise a few weeks ago I've decided it's best to book online ahead of time. We also had a lot of credit due and would have liked to use it beforehand. We found that the prices on board were about 10 % or more than booking at home. So, next time we will book ahead of time, cash in the credit at the casino and pay the 5% fee. We will still be a little ahead of the game and won't be put on a wait list.