Here are some tips & instructions for booking shorex using the $50/port shorex promo

[Turtles06]

7 hours ago, julig22 said:

I wonder if this just applies to the sail-away shore excursion promo, not the free at sea.  I added excursions a couple of days ago and didn't have to pay upfront.

I hope the option to reserve pre-cruise without paying is not eliminated, since the only way to use OBC to pay for an excursion is on board. (Of course, it would be even better if NCL followed other cruise lines, like Celebrity, and allowed you to use OBC pre-cruise.)

[Joanne G.]

On 2/21/2020 at 3:39 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I'm not overly concerned about "having them booked"...just wanted to be able to prove the price I booked them at given the issues that some others have had.  If I look at them now (logged in) they show as $0 because they are booked.  Looking while NOT logged in they don't show at all.  Just seems a strange way to run a railroad!

 

I agree - this is a very annoying feature of booking NCL excursions.   After you book, it's too late to get a printout that shows the original price,  and you lose the ability to see other excursions in the same time frame in case you change your mind about what you want to do.   In the case of my cruise, the time in one port has been extended considerably due to an earlier port being skipped.    If new, longer excursions are being offered,  I won't see them because I have already booked one in that port.   But at least I got the advice from a previous poster to print out the details before calling to book, so I have the record of the prices.  And I can check once on board if other excursions are offered for the port with the changed times.

 

All I can suggest is that maybe someone on your roll call will kindly print up the information on your excursions and email them to you, so that you can prove the price, assuming the prices haven't changed in the meantime.   (And shame on NCL if people have to routinely line up at guest services in order to get the Latitudes discount they are entitled to.) 

 

My cruise documents still show the excursion that I booked in the port that has been canceled, which is now a sea day.    At least I didn't pay in advance, so I am not waiting for a refund.   On the other hand, I won't be surprised if my account is charged for this excursion, and I will have to go to guest services to let them know I can't make it if we sail past that port.  😉

[Rick&Jeannie]

I had a bit of a revelation on this topic last night.  I have an IT background and thought "surely there's an IT solution to trying to see those old pages".  Well, it ALMOST worked.

 

There is a website out there called archive.org.  In a nutshell, it archives past versions of websites across months, even years.  In theory you can tell it the website you want to look up and select a date from a timeline and it will actually show you that website as it existed on that date!

 

My thought was to just go back to a few days before I booked and do a normal search of excursions as if I was just doing pre-cruise research.  Sadly, only portions of the NCL website came up...excursions were not able to be searched.  BUMMER!  I really thought I had a solution.

 

Anyway...you may find a use for this website in future things you are trying to research.  Thought I would at least point out its existence.  Most people outside of the IT field are probably not aware of it.  At the very least, it's interesting to go back several years and look at sites you are familiar with to see how radically (or not) they have changed!

[Turtles06]

14 minutes ago, Joanne G. said:

I agree - this is a very annoying feature of booking NCL excursions.   After you book, it's too late to get a printout that shows the original price,  and you lose the ability to see other excursions in the same time frame in case you change your mind about what you want to do.   In the case of my cruise, the time in one port has been extended considerably due to an earlier port being skipped.    If new, longer excursions are being offered,  I won't see them because I have already booked one in that port.   But at least I got the advice from a previous poster to print out the details before calling to book, so I have the record of the prices.  And I can check once on board if other excursions are offered for the port with the changed times.

 

 

TIP: after you have booked an excursion for a specific port, you can still view the other excursions for that port, but not as easily as you should be able to.   Log out of ncl.com and then go back to the home page.  Click on "Explore" on the left side of the horizontal menu at the top. Scroll down and select "shore excursions," then select the appropriate "Destination" and "Port."    That will bring up other shorex in that port. 

 

I have asked NCL why they don't allow us, when we are logged into our own cruise,  to see other shorex for a port in which we've already booked one.  They said it's so that guests don't book two excursions that conflict in time.  HELLOOOOO, it's 2020.  There are IT solutions for that.   

[Joanne G.]

3 minutes ago, Turtles06 said:

 

TIP: after you have booked an excursion for a specific port, you can still view the other excursions for that port, but not as easily as you should be able to.   Log out of ncl.com and then go back to the home page.  Click on "Explore" on the left side of the horizontal menu at the top. Scroll down and select "shore excursions," then select the appropriate "Destination" and "Port."    That will bring up other shorex in that port. 

 

I have asked NCL why they don't allow us, when we are logged into our own cruise,  to see other shorex for a port in which we've already booked one.  They said it's so that guests don't book two excursions that conflict in time.  HELLOOOOO, it's 2020.  There are IT solutions for that.   

 

That's a possibility, but I don't think we can assume that every excursion in that area of general information  will be offered in that exact way on our particular cruise, given different port times, times of year, issues with your providers, or some other factor.  I interpret that as general information about what is likely, but not guaranteed, to be available.   An excursion that I found while researching my cruise turned out not to be offered at all at the time I could reserve my choice.  But, if I see something there that appeals to me, I can always call the shore excursion number and ask about it.  

 

I absolutely agree the excuse that they are preventing us from booking two that conflict is absurd.  Besides the obvious IT fix, we can all figure out that we can't be in two places at the same time.  

[jaja]

On 2/23/2020 at 12:13 PM, Rick&Jeannie said:

I had a bit of a revelation on this topic last night.  I have an IT background and thought "surely there's an IT solution to trying to see those old pages".  Well, it ALMOST worked.

 

There is a website out there called archive.org.  In a nutshell, it archives past versions of websites across months, even years.  In theory you can tell it the website you want to look up and select a date from a timeline and it will actually show you that website as it existed on that date!

 

My thought was to just go back to a few days before I booked and do a normal search of excursions as if I was just doing pre-cruise research.  Sadly, only portions of the NCL website came up...excursions were not able to be searched.  BUMMER!  I really thought I had a solution.

 

Anyway...you may find a use for this website in future things you are trying to research.  Thought I would at least point out its existence.  Most people outside of the IT field are probably not aware of it.  At the very least, it's interesting to go back several years and look at sites you are familiar with to see how radically (or not) they have changed!

I tried the archive.org site..could not get it to work at all.  Thanks for the info, though. 

So hoping someone has the Terms of the promo that was discussed in detail here on CC..the one that added $50 instead of air promo (Sept 2019).  (I already had $50 in pick all)

[julig22]

16 minutes ago, jaja said:

I tried the archive.org site..could not get it to work at all.  Thanks for the info, though. 

So hoping someone has the Terms of the promo that was discussed in detail here on CC..the one that added $50 instead of air promo (Sept 2019).  (I already had $50 in pick all)

thought I might but didn't print that page - so all I can tell you is that you should have code HEXTRSX2 in your NCL confirmation.  Think I need to start printing out these pages when I book with weird promos.

For what it is worth, promo T&Cs are https://www.ncl.com/termsandconditions/promotions  if that isn't where you are looking.  I looked on the archive.org site mentioned, but it only shows an archive from July, 2019 and all that gave me was a blank page.

 

If you ever want info on a previous cruise (mock booking or real) you can get to it at

ncl.com/shorex/latitudes#/reservation#/vacation-summary

Sometimes the links to your old edocs and other info might work from there - but not always.

Direct link to edocs is ncl.com/oci/ship/latitudes#/reservation#/edocs

 

Now for the excursions - not sure if this will work 100% - I just tried it and it seems to show all of the excursions (at least those I saw before I booked) but some don't have the prices.  Anyway, if you do a mock booking for the cruise you are on and use the direct link to the vacaton-summary, you can then link to the explore and plan page for your cruise.

[jaja]

@julig22

 

Thanks...I actually  found the other thread re: my additional  promo..(air or excursions)  that one is per stateroom. !!! (see below)  So when DH  and I book an excursion for a port...we then can/should  both get $50 off.  !!!????....

 

I am not sure what my original $50 was (person or cabin) ...in the pick all ...booked Aug 3 2019 . 

Amenity confirmation reads   CHSULM   and SHX50..both under my name   AND  Confirmation says HEXTRSX2.

 

I think I will be calling to question the way it listed on my paperwork.  

 

 

[julig22]

2 minutes ago, jaja said:

@julig22

 

Thanks...I actually  found the other thread re: my additional  promo..(air or excursions)  that one is per stateroom. !!! (see below)  So when DH  and I book an excursion for a port...we then can/should  both get $50 off.  !!!????....

 

I am not sure what my original $50 was (person or cabin) ...in the pick all ...booked Aug 3 2019 . 

Amenity confirmation reads   CHSULM   and SHX50..both under my name   AND  Confirmation says HEXTRSX2.

 

I think I will be calling to question the way it listed on my paperwork.  

 

 

Thanks for posting - one of my reservations also has the SHX50 code but it was added later when I made changes to a cruise originally booked with airfare instead.  I'm assuming both do the same thing, but the per stateroom is important, since I've invited someone along on this cruise and was hoping to share the overage anytime I have an excursion that costs less than $100.  My plan is to split the promo if they won't carry over any excess to #2.

[Longsx3]

On 2/22/2020 at 3:35 AM, Turtles06 said:

I hope the option to reserve pre-cruise without paying is not eliminated, since the only way to use OBC to pay for an excursion is on board. (Of course, it would be even better if NCL followed other cruise lines, like Celebrity, and allowed you to use OBC pre-cruise.)

 

I just called and booked our shore excursions for our Baltic Cruise in Sept, my discount showed online, I was told my $50 credit would be applied and when I called to book no payment was required.

[jaja]

1 hour ago, julig22 said:

Thanks for posting - one of my reservations also has the SHX50 code but it was added later when I made changes to a cruise originally booked with airfare instead.  I'm assuming both do the same thing, but the per stateroom is important, since I've invited someone along on this cruise and was hoping to share the overage anytime I have an excursion that costs less than $100.  My plan is to split the promo if they won't carry over any excess to #2.

 

 

I am hoping someone has the T&Cs for the August 3rd ish  2019 time period in their files. code  ALL4FW)  If anyone does..I would surely appreciate having them posted...I think I will need all the ammo I can get when I call for clarification re: one  person vs per cabin.😉

Edited February 26, 2020 by jaja
FORGOT SOME INFO

[DebSam]

Just to let everyone know-  I just got off the phone with Shorex, if you booked your reservation before February 4th you can make a reservation for shore excursions without paying for them. If you booked after February 4th you have to pay for the excursions when you reserve them. This was a big problem for me as I booked with another couple. We booked before the 4th they booked after. So I was able to book without pre- paying so I can use my OBC.  Also I tried calling back and getting another agent and she told me the same thing-no exceptions!

[julig22]

1 hour ago, DebSam said:

Just to let everyone know-  I just got off the phone with Shorex, if you booked your reservation before February 4th you can make a reservation for shore excursions without paying for them. If you booked after February 4th you have to pay for the excursions when you reserve them. This was a big problem for me as I booked with another couple. We booked before the 4th they booked after. So I was able to book without pre- paying so I can use my OBC.  Also I tried calling back and getting another agent and she told me the same thing-no exceptions!

Ouch!  So OBC is suddenly not as useful for those of us who only use it for excursions, unless I want to take my chances that the excursions I want won't be sold out.  Fortunately all of my bookings were before Feb 4, but good to know for the future.

[aubreyc1988]

Curious, do they ever add more excursion options once on board? Really not impressed with the amount of excursion options for my upcoming cruise.