Shore Excursions

[Dochawk]

I'm a veteran cruiser with over 30, mostly on midrange lines.  But I have the resources to go high end so I signed up for the silver cloud explorer cruise from Oman to Athens (its really two cruises 25 days).  Its a really different itinerary.  Signed up in February, among my documents it said that shore excursions are available 180 days before sailing.  I went through them and made a list of those I wanted and went on other travels.  Last week my TA emails me and tells me that the shore excursions were open for booking, but most of them were waitlisted.  I tried to get on and got an error message for 3 straight days, then got on yesterday afternoon and found all but 8 shore excursions (of the 50 or so that were planned) were waitlisted.  None of the ones I want are available.  So is this common with Silversea that they open shore excursions randomly and don't tell you?  And on an excursion ship they really have ports (most) where they don't have enough spaces for all 240 passengers (and since there are still cabins available , the total is less than that).  This is not a cruise you go on to not have guided tours, so if they really are fully booked it would end my dalliance with Silversea for life.  

[Gourmet Gal]

Those who have sailed SS previously can book shorex 210 days in advance and it is not unusual for at least a few to be booked up right away.  Sometimes SS will add more departures and things change once onboard.  Be sure to waitlist for your top choices.  If the shorex on your cruise booked further out than 210 days then I don’t understand what happened.  Your second cruise may have a later window for booking as well.

[gcornell]

Sorry that happened. Starting last week, SS changed their policy whereby you can book excursions immediately once your booking is reserved regardless of cruise date.  I confirmed this because I booked my excursions for 23 and 24 already. 
 

I’m sure other have more experience but on my recent Alaska cruise they did not add any excursions in the months leading up to the cruise. 

[Gourmet Gal]

Wow, not sure that’s a good thing or not.  I wonder if they will hold out some spots for onboard booking.  On my upcoming cruise in Sept. several excursions booked up within minutes of the window opening but more departures were added later.

[david63]

1 hour ago, gcornell said:

Starting last week, SS changed their policy whereby you can book excursions immediately once your booking is reserved regardless of cruise date

Thanks for the heads up on that little publicised fact.

[gcornell]

26 minutes ago, david63 said:

Thanks for the heads up on that little publicised fact.

Very welcome. Now that I think about it the only reason I know is I watched the online presentation last week and that was the only good piece of info I received.  

[alithecat]

If you are on Silver Cloud, that is an expedition ship. You don't sign up for excursions the same way you do on the classic ships. On the first day, they divide the passengers into zodiac groups. You always stay with your group. Every day, late afternoon, the expedition leader holds a lecture describing the expeditions for the next day. Other than limited person ones like kayaking, which you must sign up for, everyone gets to do all expeditions. The groups rotate earliest to latest start times, so it's fair.

[mchell810]

4 hours ago, gcornell said:

Sorry that happened. Starting last week, SS changed their policy whereby you can book excursions immediately once your booking is reserved regardless of cruise date.  I confirmed this because I booked my excursions for 23 and 24 already. 
 

I’m sure other have more experience but on my recent Alaska cruise they did not add any excursions in the months leading up to the cruise. 

 

Thanks for this.  I happened to log into my account over the weekend and noticed tours were available.  It thought is was a system glitch (a good one for once!) since I am 30 days ahead of when I could reserve.

 

4 hours ago, Gourmet Gal said:

Wow, not sure that’s a good thing or not.  I wonder if they will hold out some spots for onboard booking.  On my upcoming cruise in Sept. several excursions booked up within minutes of the window opening but more departures were added later.

 

I, too, thought it might be a problem; however, now I wonder if it is intended to give SS a more information on what is popular, and thus, a longer lead time to add tours.   At least that's my positive spin for today.

 

 

[Mocamps]

We’ve only been on SS expeditions and, as stated above, it works differently. There are occasionally more traditional excursions offered (and I imagine there are more of these on some itineraries) and you can sign up for them in advance on the website but mostly you decide what you want to do the night before you do it! The exception is kayaking where you need to sign up at the beginning of the cruise. You then have to attend the kayak safety briefing. You then have to indicate which kayak excursions you’re interested in and they sort out a rota as spaces are limited. We didn’t actually get to kayak at all in the Antarctic (as the weather closed in) but, in the Arctic we got to go 3 times and could have done more than that but there were other excursions we wanted to do. On that cruise we did a mix of kayaking, hiking and zodiac cruises with an extra couple of more traditional coach-type excursions where there was a choice but I think most people got to do whichever they chose. 
We love the expeditions but they are very different from a traditional cruise experience. Much more casual and relaxed. And fewer people. But with SS you still have the luxury element. It’s a great experience. We’re off to Greenland at the weekend!! Can’t wait!!

[david63]

That's excursions now booked for January 2024!!

[HPfoodie]

2 hours ago, david63 said:

That's excursions now booked for January 2024!!

We’ve done ours a week earlier than planned because of this new policy. But for our Nov/Dec ‘23 cruise they aren’t yet available on My Silversea 🤷‍♀️

[Dochawk]

10 hours ago, Mocamps said:

We’ve only been on SS expeditions and, as stated above, it works differently. There are occasionally more traditional excursions offered (and I imagine there are more of these on some itineraries) and you can sign up for them in advance on the website but mostly you decide what you want to do the night before you do it! The exception is kayaking where you need to sign up at the beginning of the cruise. You then have to attend the kayak safety briefing. You then have to indicate which kayak excursions you’re interested in and they sort out a rota as spaces are limited. We didn’t actually get to kayak at all in the Antarctic (as the weather closed in) but, in the Arctic we got to go 3 times and could have done more than that but there were other excursions we wanted to do. On that cruise we did a mix of kayaking, hiking and zodiac cruises with an extra couple of more traditional coach-type excursions where there was a choice but I think most people got to do whichever they chose. 
We love the expeditions but they are very different from a traditional cruise experience. Much more casual and relaxed. And fewer people. But with SS you still have the luxury element. It’s a great experience. We’re off to Greenland at the weekend!! Can’t wait!!

This expedition cruise is the Middle East, a very different type than arctic or antarctic - it ha traditional shore excursions, but not enough for the number of passengers and the type of cruise it is

[WesW]

Some Silversea Expedition voyages have excursions you have to sign up for.  On our Silver Cloud Azores expedition next month, every port (11) has excursions you have to sign up for, there is one Azores port where you have an included Zodiac cruise led by the Expedition staff. 

 

Our Silver Cloud March 2023, Cape Town to Mahe voyage has 9 ports(Seychelles) where you have to sign up for excursions and 3 ports where the expedition staff will take you on a zodiac cruise, snorkeling, or expedition activity. 

[Senga]

On 8/2/2022 at 2:52 PM, gcornell said:

Starting last week, SS changed their policy whereby you can book excursions immediately once your booking is reserved regardless of cruise date.

Thank you SO MUCH for this important information.  We are cruising Alaska May 2023 on Silver Whisper and I was able to book MOST of our excursions.  However, for Hubbard Glacier it is showing only 1 NOT INCLUDED excursion at a cost of $218 p/p and NO included excursions.  This tour was shown as INCLUDED on our original information.  There is now NO excursions for Seward but originally Seward SeaLife Center & Kenai Fjords National Park was shown as an 8 hour INCLUDED excursion.  Any ideas?

[nowornever]

On a Vancouver-Tokyo crossing 3 years ago, the Port of Seward ran a shuttle bus from the port to the Sea Life Center continuously.  No idea if they are still doing it or will be doing it again.  It's a very cool (literally & figuratively)  little aquarium.   Keep looking though & maybe they'll bring back the  8 hour included excursion.  Good luck.

[cruiseej]

@SengaIf you're in Seward long enough to take one of the Kenai Fjords National Park boat trips, do it on your own! My recollection is that they have a few different ones which require between 6 and 8 hours, but it's a great chance to get up close and personal with one or two glaciers from a small boat. (I'd skip the shorter 4-hour wildlife cruise, which doesn't go to the glaciers, unless that's what you're more interested in.)