I think I may have messed up re: excursions

[Sugaree5335]

I am surprising my husband with a cruise. I thought that waiting to book excursions in August for a January cruise would be plenty of time. I guess I was wrong. Two of the top three contenders for excursions (Chichen Itza and the Amazing Race) are no longer showing as options. I guess they've already sold out. I'm considering going ahead and booking the terracross/speed boat excursion and cancelling it if he decides he wants to do something different or the race becomes available again. I looked at booking the race privately, but it seems that Carnival only allows their passengers to book through them.

[uncleg]

What an awesome wife, lucky man.

[LewLewBelle]

Contact the Race company and book it independently :) Only thing booking through a cruise line does is raise the cost and guarantees the ship not to leave without you. We book excursions outside of the ships :) Just make sure to have enough time to get back on board.

[bakersdozen12]

Hmm, usually if an excursion is sold out it still shows up, but has a red "sold out" banner across it. Try emailing shoreexcursions@carnival.com. They can give you more information. They might even have a waiting list in case any one cancels, if the excursion really is sold out. Good luck!

 

 

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[Sugaree5335]

What an awesome wife, lucky man.

 

Thanks. He's never been on a cruise and I've done this particular itinerary twice before, so I thought it would be a good introductory trip.

 

 

ETA: This is really a way to convince him to go on Shiprocked in January 2018 if we can get tickets.

Edited July 15, 2016 by Sugaree5335

[Sugaree5335]

Contact the Race company and book it independently :) Only thing booking through a cruise line does is raise the cost and guarantees the ship not to leave without you. We book excursions outside of the ships :) Just make sure to have enough time to get back on board.

 

 

This is one reason that I wouldn't consider booking Chichen Itza outside of Carnival. It's already a long trip and I just can't risk missing the ship. Especially on a one-port itinerary.

 

The race company specifically says that Carnival passengers have to book through the cruise line. I suppose that I could not tell them that I'm a Carnival passenger.....

[Sugaree5335]

Hmm, usually if an excursion is sold out it still shows up, but has a red "sold out" banner across it. Try emailing shoreexcursions@carnival.com. They can give you more information. They might even have a waiting list in case any one cancels, if the excursion really is sold out. Good luck!

 

 

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Thanks! I shot them an email and now just waiting to hear back. I really need to order some more gift cards and hope they come in soon enough to pay for these, huh?

[evandbob]

Contact the Race company and book it independently :) Only thing booking through a cruise line does is raise the cost and guarantees the ship not to leave without you. We book excursions outside of the ships :) Just make sure to have enough time to get back on board.

 

 

Carnival usually binds vendors to accepting only those who book directly through Carnival and prohibits them from taking direct bookings themselves.

 

There is no conflict with Carnival's excursion price guarantee this way.

Edited July 15, 2016 by evandbob

[ABQrobin]

I think you are jumping the gun. Most of the excursions are going to be listed there for a January cruise (that is still many months away) but they also may be reorganizing or changing vendors for some. I doubt they are really sold out. You should be able to check on Carnival website, Under Manage your cruise, Book Shore Excursions... and if the excursion is there, it will say Sold Out. IF it is not there, then maybe as I said, they are changing the excursion and will put it back in when finished updating. I have seen excursions be added for a cruise right up to 1 month before cruise date!

 

Also, if the Chichen Itza is not there, it may be that cruise does not have long enough port time to accomodate the 8 hours needed. The Cozumel Plus cruises this summer have it, but they are in port longer for that reason.

[Sugaree5335]

I think you are jumping the gun. Most of the excursions are going to be listed there for a January cruise (that is still many months away) but they also may be reorganizing or changing vendors for some. I doubt they are really sold out. You should be able to check on Carnival website, Under Manage your cruise, Book Shore Excursions... and if the excursion is there, it will say Sold Out. IF it is not there, then maybe as I said, they are changing the excursion and will put it back in when finished updating. I have seen excursions be added for a cruise right up to 1 month before cruise date!

 

Also, if the Chichen Itza is not there, it may be that cruise does not have long enough port time to accomodate the 8 hours needed. The Cozumel Plus cruises this summer have it, but they are in port longer for that reason.

 

 

That's a good point. I swear I saw these excursions listed two weeks ago when I first started looking around. Hopefully, they will become available again.

[ABQrobin]

That's a good point. I swear I saw these excursions listed two weeks ago when I first started looking around. Hopefully, they will become available again.

 

I am doing a cruise next month and stop in Cozumel. Both tours are still listed for us as available, the Chichen Itza says 300 spots, and the Amazing Race says 60 spots.

[Sugaree5335]

I am doing a cruise next month and stop in Cozumel. Both tours are still listed for us as available, the Chichen Itza says 300 spots, and the Amazing Race says 60 spots.

 

Where are you seeing the spots listed?

[pls5286]

I am doing a cruise next month and stop in Cozumel. Both tours are still listed for us as available, the Chichen Itza says 300 spots, and the Amazing Race says 60 spots.

 

 

How do you find out how many spots are left?

[luv2trvlnow]

Where are you seeing the spots listed?

 

How do you find out how many spots are left?

 

Log in. Then go to the excursions for you cruise. In the long description of the excursion you will see "Departure Times". Click on it and you will see how many tickets are left

Edited July 15, 2016 by luv2trvlnow

[Sugaree5335]

Log in. Then go to the excursions for you cruise. In the long description of the excursion you will see "Departure Times". Click on it and you will see how many tickets are left

 

Thanks!

[pls5286]

Thanks

[SweetCruiser39]

One thing I have noticed, if an excursion is sold out, you can pretty much guarantee that it won't be for long. If a particular excursion is in demand, the cruise line is going to find a way to accommodate everyone. I would just wait a bit and check back ever so often. It will appear again.

[crusinpsychRN]

Carnival usually binds vendors to accepting only those who book directly through Carnival and prohibits them from taking direct bookings themselves.

 

There is no conflict with Carnival's excursion price guarantee this way.

 

Don't tell them you're on a Carnival cruise, give them a hotel name and they can book you.

[CruzerDeb]

Don't tell them you're on a Carnival cruise, give them a hotel name and they can book you.

 

And then they'll want to pick her up from that hotel. Not a great plan.

[originalgeek]

Where are you seeing the spots listed?

 

Click on the excursion you want (i know yours isn't there right now but any excursion will do for demonstration purposes) and on the right in the info box you can click on "Departure Times" and it will show you how many tickets they have for each time.

 

I just looked at Chichen Itza for my sailing next Saturday and there are 44 spots left.

 

And as an aside, if you can't get CI but want ruins, are there any Tulum excursions available? That's what we are doing next week. Tulum, beach, lunch and unlimited beer. The beer sold me. Oh and history and stuff. ;)

[oceanmom62]

You may also want to look at Uxmal for ruins. Chichen Itza is very crowded (with tourists and vendors in the middle) and you can no longer climb the ruins. Uxmal is similar and you can climb the ruins. There were no vendors when we went a few years ago and we loved it. I climbed the ruins but had to` come down on my butt due to my fear of heights. This tour was not listed online but was available once I got onboard. Enjoy!`

[cuyahoga11]

Thanks! I shot them an email and now just waiting to hear back. I really need to order some more gift cards and hope they come in soon enough to pay for these, huh?

 

 

I was under the impression that you cannot book in advance and use gift cards.

[vinsheer]

I was under the impression that you cannot book in advance and use gift cards.

 

I used gift cards to pay for our shore excursions online with no problem at all. By the way the Carnival gift cards are still available right now on the Aarp website...

[luv2trvlnow]

I was under the impression that you cannot book in advance and use gift cards.

 

You can use gift cards to pay for the excursions booked in advance. What you can't do is buy things from the Fun Shops in advance and pay for them with the gift cards.

[mzloolue]

You may also want to look at Uxmal for ruins. Chichen Itza is very crowded (with tourists and vendors in the middle) and you can no longer climb the ruins. Uxmal is similar and you can climb the ruins. There were no vendors when we went a few years ago and we loved it. I climbed the ruins but had to` come down on my butt due to my fear of heights. This tour was not listed online but was available once I got onboard. Enjoy!`

 

I agree about Uxmal.

It is not as famous, but it is more beautiful.

 

Also, if you are going to Progreso, then you can book through AutoProgreso.

They do Carnival's tours, but you can book through them a bit less expensively.

They also have some nice excursions that you can book last minute.