Are you booking shore excursions for 2021 yet?

[Jamman54]

5 hours ago, matymil said:

I saw that 🙂 Thanks for letting me know I was commenting on the wrong roll call. 

No problem. See you on board! (Hopefully). 😎

[mdin]

On 9/20/2020 at 6:29 AM, RWolver672 said:

We are booked on what turned out to be the third cruise of the Mardi Gras.  We are both in our early 70's and a little leery of even going on that cruise.  We have until December 7th to make final payment.  At that time, we'll decide if we are going or will cancel. Until then, we haven't booked air, hotel or any excursions.

 

If we have to wear masks, can't go out on our own,  we wouldn't enjoy the cruise so we might as well stay home and save our money.  We enjoy cruising but at this point, we will survive if we don't go on this one.

My wife and I are on the same cruise (February 20) and are treating it the same way. Not purchasing airfare, hotel, or excursions until we know what is going on and whether we cruise or not.  We have Horizon booked for February 2022, so if we cancel hopefully Carnival allows us to transfer our money to that cruise.

[sw33twif3]

I have a lot of OBC, so I'm waiting until we are onboard to book excursions.

 

If we go on any excursions...Sometimes we just stay aboard and enjoy the ship.

[n6uqqq]

On 9/19/2020 at 4:12 AM, Jamman54 said:

We have 5 cruises booked in 2021 beginning in April. Only thing we have booked are cabanas at HMC, Amber Cove,  and Grand Turk because those sell out fast. Anything else will have to wait. 😎

Ditto for me. My cruise isn't until Nov 2021 but I booked one of the villas at HMC because there are only 5 available and they go fast. Used the 12 percent off Allstate cards and got 3 more percent from Bank of America for my online purchase totaling 15 percent off. The $600 dollar villa became $510 dollars 😄

[MeganGC1983]

57 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

Ditto for me. My cruise isn't until Nov 2021 but I booked one of the villas at HMC because there are only 5 available and they go fast. Used the 12 percent off Allstate cards and got 3 more percent from Bank of America for my online purchase totaling 15 percent off. The $600 dollar villa became $510 dollars 😄

Awesome! 

[LadyMac72]

My cruise isn't until September 2021 so I'm waiting and hoping they don't require ship shore excursions at that time.  I have, however, looked at them and am prepared to pull the trigger should it become necessary.

[xDisconnections]

I did for August 2021.

 

It didn't work out well due to a ship redeployment.

 

The refund frustration likely begins all over again just to rebook it...

Edited September 24, 2020 by xDisconnections

[n6uqqq]

20 minutes ago, xDisconnections said:

I did for August 2021.

 

It didn't work out well due to a ship redeployment.

 

The refund frustration likely begins all over again just to rebook it...

 

This is the one area where Carnival seems to get refunds back much quicker. Our oct cruise for our daughter's wedding was cancelled in August and the 4000 plus dollars for the wedding was refunded within a week. I have not had the same luck with cruises booked through Costco. My may cruise took 5 and a half months to get me my gift cards back. Also we had 21 steakhouse reservations cancelled for the Oct cruise and that came back within a week. So for me the funshops refunds came fast.

[vamartha]

In all my cruises, I've only ever taken one Carnival excursion.  The first excursion on my very first cruise. Thats it. But, I am expecting for us to be required to take a Carnival excursion in order to be allowed to leave the ship at least for the foreseeable future.  I am about 400 days out and honestly in normal times, I would have had at least half of my excursions booked by now. I think I'm just going to wait to see how it goes when cruises resume. The thought of having to do somewhere like Cozumel with Carnival almost me want to make port days, ship pool days. We shall see.

 

[xDisconnections]

34 minutes ago, n6uqqq said:

 

This is the one area where Carnival seems to get refunds back much quicker. Our oct cruise for our daughter's wedding was cancelled in August and the 4000 plus dollars for the wedding was refunded within a week. I have not had the same luck with cruises booked through Costco. My may cruise took 5 and a half months to get me my gift cards back. Also we had 21 steakhouse reservations cancelled for the Oct cruise and that came back within a week. So for me the funshops refunds came fast.

We’ll see what happens, I guess. My ship’s redeployment was just advised today via email from Royal and hasn’t been blocked off yet for new purchases in the Cruise Planner. Royal told me 45 days for my drink package last time and I had it within a week. The airfare through Air2Sea was an entirely different story and nothing but frustration. I’m hoping this is automatic and I’ll see it processed sooner than 45 days.

[Tapi]

I’ve pinpointed two excursions that I’m willing to take but I’m holding off on purchasing them until we actually have a restart. 

[xDisconnections]

7 hours ago, Tapi said:

I’ve pinpointed two excursions that I’m willing to take but I’m holding off on purchasing them until we actually have a restart. 

Normally I would too but didn't want to take the chance with St. Petersburg selling out through the cruise line because of the Visa requirement. 

[LaRue1975]

I have already booked two excursions for my May 8, 2021 cruise. I have had two cruises cancelled and have received all my refunds. I have rebooked excursions twice and they were refunded in a timely manor when the cruise was cancelled. I did have to wait awhile for the refunded portion of our April 4th cruise fair. 

I booked a cabana at Mahogany Bay, they only have 8 and now there is only one left, and the shark and ray excursion in Belize. In Cozumel we charted a private boat and have been able to transfer the deposit so will stick with that, hopefully by May you don’t  have to do a Carnival excursion. I also transferred my 20% off Cheers package before the last cancellation was completed. 
 

I am very hopeful this one will finally be a go without severe restrictions, mask required almost everywhere but your cabin would be too severe, I think we could deal with the other requirements. I am not in the least bit worried about bankruptcy and not getting my money back. I even got a full refund for my TravelSafe insurance and will wait to repurchase until I am sure it’s going to sail. Eventually we will be cruising again, can’t wait! 

[TNcruising02]

My cruise isn't until April.  My January cruise was cancelled, so I rolled over all of the money from that cruise to my April cruise.  My April cruise is more expensive, so I still have a balance.  I am not planning on booking any excursions until cruising starts again and I see how it goes.  We've been to the scheduled ports many times, so it's not a big deal to me to wait.  

I have my airline tickets booked, but I can change those without a penalty.  I don't have my hotel booked, but there is plenty of time to wait and see how it goes.  I am optimistic, but know that I need to be flexible with my plans.  My heart will be in it more once cruising resumes without major problems.

[Moviela]

I am lucky. I booked two Carnival Australia cruises and they say excursions, drink packages, and gifts can be purchased on board. I can wait until June 12th to worry about it.

 

I would actually go on a shore excursion in "a bubble" to see what the hubbub is all about. I suspect that the cleanliness protocols will be more like the grocery store that wipes the push bar on the carts with a dirty rag and calls it a day.   

[kwokpot]

Crystal Cruises has published their new cruising protocols. As pertaining to this thread,only ship sponsored tours are allowed. No mention of approved independent touring companies. Self exploration of ports strictly prohibited.

https://www.crystalcruises.com/crystal-clean

[stellarose]

waiting to see if carnival does a Black Friday deal on excursions. like 20% off per say. 

[matymil]

On 9/23/2020 at 11:33 PM, vamartha said:

In all my cruises, I've only ever taken one Carnival excursion.  The first excursion on my very first cruise. Thats it. But, I am expecting for us to be required to take a Carnival excursion in order to be allowed to leave the ship at least for the foreseeable future.  I am about 400 days out and honestly in normal times, I would have had at least half of my excursions booked by now. I think I'm just going to wait to see how it goes when cruises resume. The thought of having to do somewhere like Cozumel with Carnival almost me want to make port days, ship pool days. We shall see.

 

Who knows whats gonna happen 400 days from now. By then it may not be mandatory to take excursions through Carnival anymore. 

[ZoeyVictoria]

I rarely book Carnival excursions, but there is one in early February that we would really like to take.  It would eliminate the tender in Belize (picked up from the ship) and is the highest rated fishing excursion I have seen on a ship excursion.  I don’t think there will be many slots available and don’t want to miss it, so it is already booked.

[skridge]

I wouldn't send them a dime of my money until they are up and cruising successfully without masks and social distancing and no outbreaks for at least 3 months.  Until then it will be land based travel for me.

[ninjacat123]

Don't know if this counts as an excursion, I booked dinner at the Steakhouse and for JiJi's for our January 2021 cruise.  I received all my cancelled excursion monies back  from cancelled cruises in a timely fashion so I hope this would be the same if Carnival cancels.  Crossing my fingers it all happens!👍

[Eli_6]

I booked a couple on one of my European sailings that I really wanted to be sure and get.  There are a few excursions on my sailing already booked up, but that may be because people just re-booked the same excursions they were scheduled to go in 2020 and weren't able to.

 

I am waiting on Black Friday to book the others.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Eli_6

[matymil]

On 9/24/2020 at 9:59 PM, kwokpot said:

Crystal Cruises has published their new cruising protocols. As pertaining to this thread,only ship sponsored tours are allowed. No mention of approved independent touring companies. Self exploration of ports strictly prohibited.

https://www.crystalcruises.com/crystal-clean

Yeah im not 100% sure but I think the islands made the determination that passengers have to take excursions through the cruise company in order to get off the ship. I know its part of the joint proposed plan to the CDC 

[matymil]

17 hours ago, ninjacat123 said:

Don't know if this counts as an excursion, I booked dinner at the Steakhouse and for JiJi's for our January 2021 cruise.  I received all my cancelled excursion monies back  from cancelled cruises in a timely fashion so I hope this would be the same if Carnival cancels.  Crossing my fingers it all happens!👍

If you don't mind me asking, what was a timely fashion? It took us 4 1/2 months and me calling several times. 

 

[ninjacat123]

On 9/27/2020 at 4:17 AM, matymil said:

If you don't mind me asking, what was a timely fashion? It took us 4 1/2 months and me calling several times. 

 

Sorry it took extra callings for you and a longer wait.  I transferred my deposits to another cruise and within 2 months had all excursion monies refunded.  Maybe because I transferred to another cruise, my refund happened in a more timely way...I don't know.  🤷‍♀️