Cunard Shore Excursions

[agathasmum]

Anyone have any idea when Cunard shore excursions would typically appear in the Voyage Personaliser?

 

I have just booked a cruise on QM2 round trip Hong Kong for February 2019 and nothing is showing up yet for any of the ports. There are also no specific arrival and departure times from the ports other than "early morning", "afternoon" or "evening", so it is making planning a bit difficult!

 

Is this normal?

 

Thanks!

 

Susan

[bluemarble]

Yes, unfortunately that's all normal.

 

When Cunard shore excursions are made available can vary quite a bit, but since it's still almost six months until your voyage, that's too soon. Somewhere around three months out from the sailing date is more typical. Cunard's standard answer is "Shore Excursions are typically available to reserve on-line via the Voyage Personaliser approximately 12 weeks prior to travel."

 

Edit: One thing you may have going for you is that your voyage is a segment of the full world voyage departing in January. That may help to move up the release date of the shore excursions for your February voyage.

 

Concerning port timings, that's an ongoing frustration with Cunard's web sites, since they do make the port timings available to other cruise booking web sites, including their own partner web sites for Spain, Switzerland, Austria and perhaps others. Here is what I am seeing listed as the port timings for your voyage.

 

Feb 19 Hong Kong - Dep 6:00 pm

Feb 22 Shanghai - Arr 4:00 am

Feb 23 Shanghai - Dep 11:00 pm

Feb 26 Tianjin - Arr 6:00 am

Feb 27 Tianjin - Dep 5:00 pm

Mar 1 Kitakyushu - Arr 8:00 am, Dep 6:00 pm

Mar 2 Seogwipo - Arr 8:00 am, Dep 6:00 pm

Mar 5 Hong Kong - Arr 7:00 am

Edited August 24, 2018 by bluemarble

[hihilo]

Don't the shore excursions ' pop up' when you have made the final / full payment.?

[agathasmum]

Yes, unfortunately that's all normal.

 

When Cunard shore excursions are made available can vary quite a bit, but since it's still almost six months until your voyage, that's too soon. Somewhere around three months out from the sailing date is more typical. Cunard's standard answer is "Shore Excursions are typically available to reserve on-line via the Voyage Personaliser approximately 12 weeks prior to travel."

 

Edit: One thing you may have going for you is that your voyage is a segment of the full world voyage departing in January. That may help to move up the release date of the shore excursions for your February voyage.

 

Concerning port timings, that's an ongoing frustration with Cunard's web sites, since they do make the port timings available to other cruise booking web sites, including their own partner web sites for Spain, Switzerland, Austria and perhaps others. Here is what I am seeing listed as the port timings for your voyage.

 

Feb 19 Hong Kong - Dep 6:00 pm

Feb 22 Shanghai - Arr 4:00 am

Feb 23 Shanghai - Dep 11:00 pm

Feb 26 Tianjin - Arr 6:00 am

Feb 27 Tianjin - Dep 5:00 pm

Mar 1 Kitakyushu - Arr 8:00 am, Dep 6:00 pm

Mar 2 Seogwipo - Arr 8:00 am, Dep 6:00 pm

Mar 5 Hong Kong - Arr 7:00 am

 

Thank you so much Bluemarble. That info is really helpful :)

[bluemarble]

Don't the shore excursions ' pop up' when you have made the final / full payment.?

 

No, I don't think so, unless that's a very recent change. Here are several threads from earlier this year on this topic.

 

When can cruise excursions be booked

When can you book excursions?

Shore excursions

 

As you can see, there is quite a bit of variation in the timings. Host Hattie reported availability of shore excursions about 5-1/2 months prior to her upcoming cruise. mornac reported availability about four months before their cruise. Lanky Lad and I reported availability close to final payment date. Ray66 reported availability two weeks after final payment date for one of his cruises and a month or more before final payment date for another.